“Dear fellow citizens, today our way of life, our freedom, has come under attack.” For many Americans, these words from President George W. Bush meant that their lives would never be the same. On September 11, 2001, the United States suffered the deadliest terrorist attack in history: 19 al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four passenger aircraft, turning them into powerful weapons. Two airliners crashed into the twin towers of the World shopping center in New York, one crashed into the Pentagon building, and another crashed in Pennsylvania. As a result, almost three thousand people died. Lenta.ru looked into how America has changed 15 years after the terrible attack and why its consequences are still felt to this day.

“Something is wrong... We are going down sharply. I see water, I see houses. We're flying low, very low, too low. Oh God, we're flying too low. “Oh my God,” American Airlines Flight 11 flight attendant Madeline Amy Sweeney didn’t have time to finish her sentence as the plane rammed the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Audio recordings last words passengers doomed to death, photographs of skyscrapers engulfed in flames and people jumping out of them shocked American society. Citizens demanded immediate punishment for those who dared to attack the United States, and the authorities wanted the same.

Washington goes to war

The intention to deal a crushing blow to terrorism was expressed by George W. Bush in his first speech on September 11, 2001. “America, together with its friends and allies, unites with everyone who wants peace and security throughout the world. Together we will win the war against terrorism,” he assured the Americans. His approval rating soared to 90 percent, and Bush took decisive action.

Just three days later, Congress gave the president the authority to use the U.S. military to retaliate against those who “planned, approved, carried out, or helped carry out” the 9/11 attacks and those who provided safe haven to terrorists.

On September 20, Bush issued an ultimatum to the authorities of Afghanistan, demanding the extradition of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and all those involved in the terrorist attacks who were hiding in the territory of this state. Kabul has asked for evidence of bin Laden's guilt, promising to try him in an Islamic court. No evidence was provided. And the founder of Al-Qaeda himself denied involvement in the terrorist attack (Osama admitted that it was he who planned the attack only in 2004).

On October 7, US Air Force aircraft carried out the first strikes on Afghan targets, kicking off the longest war in US history. In November, Kabul was taken and the Taliban were pushed into the mountains. But this campaign could only be called partially successful: bin Laden was never captured.

The international community had no doubts about the justification of the invasion of Afghanistan. Bush's decision was supported by many leaders, including Vladimir Putin. But even the US NATO allies condemned the American president’s intention to send troops into Iraq. Nevertheless, in 2003, American soldiers entered the territory of this state and, encountering almost no resistance, overthrew the regime of Saddam Hussein. Further events did not develop at all as planned in Washington. Many world leaders, as well as experts, warned that Hussein's removal would plunge Iraq into chaos and turn it into an Islamist stronghold - and that is exactly what happened.

After footage of the abuse of captured Afghans and Iraqis in the Bagram and Abu Ghraib prisons circulated around the world, the attitude towards the Americans, who were not particularly loved in the Middle East before, deteriorated catastrophically. Many Muslims began to perceive them as new crusaders, enemies of Islam. The ranks of jihadists were rapidly growing. One of the consequences of Bush Jr.'s reckless decision to attack Iraq is the emergence of the most famous terrorist group of our time: the Islamic State (IS).

The current American leader, Barack Obama, promised to bring military personnel home during his first election campaign. But he fulfilled his promise only partially: in July 2016, he was forced to leave almost eight and a half thousand soldiers in Afghanistan to help local security forces. Troops were withdrawn from Iraq, but this allowed IS jihadists to capture almost half of the country.

“There are more suicide attacks against Americans and their allies in Afghanistan, Iraq and other Muslim countries every month than in the entire period of world history before 2001. From 1980 to 2003, there were 343 suicide bombings worldwide, and at least 10 percent of these attacks were inspired by anti-Americanism. Since 2004, there are already more than two thousand of them - and nine out of ten are directed against the Americans and their allies,” wrote American political scientist and professor at the University of Chicago Robert Pape in 2010 in Foreign Policy magazine.

The terrible tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001, claimed the lives of a huge number of people. 2973 people died, and this, you see, is a significant number.

Preceded by the hijacking of four planes heading to California and eastern part USA. The planes' tanks were full, so you could say they turned into guided missiles.

At 8:45, one of the planes, a Boeing 767, crashed into the North Tower. 92 on board (11 crew, 5 terrorists and 76 passengers). The plane crashed into the gap between the 93rd and 99th floors. The fuel, which flared up in the tank, rushed down like a column of fire, killing even those people who were in the foyer. At 10:29 the burning building collapsed, burying a huge number of people with it. The number of the plane that crashed into the Twin Towers is AA11.

At 9:03, a plane also crashed into the South Tower; it was the second Boeing 767. The impact occurred between the 77th and 81st floors. There were 65 people on board the plane (5 terrorists, 9 crew members and 54 passengers). At 9:59 local time, the burning building collapsed. Aircraft number - UA175.

There were two more planes. One of them struck the Pentagon, this happened at 9:40. 184 people died. And the last one fell in the forest of Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. We were able to look at the recordings from the so-called “black box”. It became clear that the terrorists dived down when the resisting passengers tried to break into the cockpit. There were 44 people on board.

According to journalists, some passengers were able to call their relatives from the hijacked planes. People reported terrorists: there were 4 people on one board, 5 on the other. There is an opinion that this data was specially fabricated by the FBI, because there was one call that caused great mistrust. The son called his mother and when she answered the phone, he said: “Mom, it’s me, John Smith.” Agree, it is unlikely that he would actually start a conversation by introducing his last name.

Not a single person on board could survive. 274 people died on board planes (terrorists are not counted), 2602 people in New York (both on the ground and in the towers), 125 people in the Pentagon.

It wasn't just the Twin Towers that were damaged. Five more buildings were either destroyed or heavily damaged. A total of 25 buildings were damaged, and 7 had to be demolished.

What are the consequences of this terrible tragedy? Two skyscrapers and an adjacent wing of the Pentagon were destroyed. About 10,000 people died three thousand Human. The New York Stock Exchange suspended its operations for two days. The area adjacent to the site of the tragedy was completely covered with ashes. The President announced the terrorist attack served the United States with Afghanistan, and then with Iraq.

The tragedy received national status, and the news of it flew across the world in a matter of seconds. It was not for nothing that these buildings were chosen by the terrorists, because the Twin Towers were the pride of the United States.

The towers were built in the 60s, at which time America's prestige was shaken. It was decided to build something gigantic, grandiose, stunning, in order to restore people's optimism and faith in themselves and the future. No one imagined that the “project of the century” would turn into the main “tragedy of the century.”

September 11 is a day of mourning in the United States, when four terrorist attacks blamed on al-Qaeda killed 2,977 people and left 24 missing. Most of the dead were civilians.
Al-Qaeda is one of the largest terrorist organizations of the Wahhabi branch of Islam.
On the morning of September 11, 2001, nineteen members of a terrorist group hijacked four passenger planes with people on board, two of which were sent to the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, located in the southern part of Manhattan in New York. The third plane was sent by terrorists to the Pentagon building, located near Washington, where the US Department of Defense is located, and the fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania when the passengers and crew of the plane tried to take over control of the plane.
Cm. .

Construction at the site of the collapse of the World Trade Center in New York, USA, seven years after the terrorist attack.

Workers photograph the flag that is being installed at the site of the memorial and museum seven years after the terrible tragedy that occurred on September 11, 2001.

Construction workers at the site of the destroyed Twin Towers on September 2, 2008 in New York.

The World Trade Center opened on April 4, 1973 in New York (USA) and consisted of seven buildings, two of which stood out for their size - the north and south towers, each with 110 floors. These towers were the site of the Al-Qaeda terrorist attack. The remaining buildings were seriously damaged by the collapse of the twin towers.

Photo taken by the International Space Station on September 11, 2001. A column of smoke rises from Manhattan, New York, to a height of 250 km.

A man stands on the ruins of the recently fallen World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 in New York City.

Top view of the leaning twin towers.

The streets of Manhattan after the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.

Thousands of tons of toxic debris (carcinogens) were released into the air as a result of the collapse of the towers. This led to an increase in illness, especially among those who helped clear the rubble and search for victims - people were directly exposed to harmful fumes. Due to this, in 2007, several people died from cancer, some died from pulmonary failure. Their names are also immortalized on the memorial plaque.

Firefighters make their way through the rubble of the Twin Towers, which were destroyed as a result of the major terrorist attack committed on September 11, 2001, in the United States.

An aerial view (from a height of 3300 feet) of the place where the Trade Center stood 12 days ago.

This is what the crash site looked like 7 years later.

View of the part of Manhattan where the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001.

Construction of the Freedom Tower on the site of the Intercity Trade Center, September 5, 2008.

Workers install reinforcement for further concrete pouring at the site where construction of the Freedom Tower is underway, New York.

A large banner hangs in front of the Freedom Tower under construction. It shows the 1,776-foot-tall tower and landmark, a planned development in Manhattan, USA, being worked on by 500 people.

On the tenth anniversary of the attacks, a national memorial was opened - two swimming pools on the site of the two destroyed Twin Towers. The museum, located below the pools, is scheduled to open in September 2013.

Construction of the Freedom Tower in New York.

After the terrorist attacks, a large-scale operation began to search for survivors, which continued around the clock for a week. It took a lot of time to sort out the rubble, where the smoldering continued for 99 days. Complete clearing of the area from destroyed buildings was completed only by March 2002. Several funds have been created to help victims and families of the victims, where they provided not only psychological but also financial assistance.

The staircase is the only surviving part of the Mall, which helped many people escape from the collapsing building. It will be placed in a national memorial, in a museum.

On August 24, 2008, a cross made of steel from the north tower of the Trade Center was installed. It was installed in memory of the fallen firefighters and volunteers who were directly involved in extinguishing fires and clearing debris.

Memorial erected at General Edward Lawrence Logan International Airport, near Boston, Massachusetts. Installed in memory of the deceased crew and passengers.

Flight attendants at the memorial erected in international airport, in memory of those killed on September 11, 2001. It was a miracle they didn't get on board one of those American airliners...

Every year on September 11, two blue rays of light shoot into the sky from the scene of the tragedy - in memory of those who died on that fateful day.

September 11, 2016 marks 15 years since the terrorist attacks, unprecedented in world history, were committed in the United States. The tragedy claimed the lives of almost three thousand people.

19 terrorists are Egyptian citizens, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Lebanon - captured 4 passenger airliner. Two planes were sent into the skyscrapers of the World Trade Center in New York, the third airliner crashed into the Pentagon building. The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania - its passengers and crew tried to take control of the airliner from terrorists.

The victims of the terrorist attacks were 2,977 people from 92 countries: 246 passengers and crew members of aircraft, 2,606 people in New York, in the World Trade Center buildings and on the ground (of which 341 firefighters and 2 paramedics of the New York Fire Department, 60 police officers and 8 employees "ambulance"), 125 people - in the Pentagon building.

The attacks caused the 110-story twin towers to collapse. Work to clear the World Trade Center site lasted more than eight months. Burning and smoldering in the rubble at the site of the collapsed Twin Towers continued for 99 days before the fire was completely extinguished.

Chronicle of the 9/11 tragedy

The moment the first plane collides with a shopping center skyscraper. Video: Youtube

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Video: Youtube

Passersby on the streets of New York point to the World Trade Center complex. September 11, 2001
People look out of the windows of the North Tower. September 11, 2001
The President of the United States is introduced to schoolchildren, after which George W. Bush begins to read to them the book “The Pet Goat.” At this moment, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card approaches him and reports: “The second plane crashed into the second tower. America is under attack." September 11, 2001
People watch the collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers. September 11, 2001
Rescuers carry a mortally wounded man from the destroyed World Trade Center building. September 11, 2001
Burning World Trade Center towers. September 11, 2001
A helicopter circles the burning Pentagon after one of the hijacked planes crashes into the building. September 11, 2001
A group of firefighters among the rubble of the World Trade Center complex. September 11, 2001
A helicopter circles near one of the World Trade Center towers. September 11, 2001
In the background is the smoldering World Trade Center building. September 11, 2001
Medical staff at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York await victims. September 11, 2001
A firefighter stands among the rubble at the foot of the destroyed World Trade Center complex. September 11, 2001
Damaged wing of the Pentagon. September 11, 2001
A fireman calls for help at the ruins of the World Trade Center. September 11, 2001
Firefighters clear the rubble of the World Trade Center. September 11, 2001
Car wrecks near the World Trade Center complex. September 11, 2001
US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center in Washington, September 11, 2001
US President George W. Bush speaks at the wreckage of the World Trade Center. September 14, 2001

Survivor Stories

Fred Eichler

On September 11, 2001, 54-year-old insurance agent Fred Eichler walked into his office on the 83rd floor of the World Trade Center North Tower at 8:15 a.m. At 8:40 Fred went to the restroom, but on the way he met four colleagues and they stopped to chat. Through the window they saw a plane flying towards their building. At 8.46 the airliner crashed into a skyscraper, destroying everything in its path. The shock wave threw Fred and his colleagues several tens of meters away. After regaining consciousness, the man called 911 and then called home to talk to his wife, daughters and parents. He was sure that he would never see them again.

Fred walked into the meeting room and was joined by three strangers. The floor was gradually filled with smoke, and streams of water from broken pipes rushed through the corridors and staircases. Those gathered stuffed wet rugs and towels into the crack under the door, trying to stop the smoke. After consulting, they decided not to open the windows, fearing that the air would fan the flames.

At 9.02 there was a second blow: the plane crashed into the neighboring South Tower. Fred and the others decided to try the fire escape. But when they got to the door, the lights in the building went out. They returned to the meeting room and hid under the tables.

At 9:30 Fred saw the light of a flashlight. A firefighter reached their floor. He was able to save the people he found, but he himself died. The rescuer led the survivors to the stairs and advised them to go to another staircase on the 78th floor and go down it. On the 20th floor they heard another impact sound. The whole building shook: it was the South Tower that collapsed. The northern one began to tremble - elevators fell into shafts, stairs swayed. When Fred got outside, he asked someone for a phone and dialed his wife's number. She screamed into the phone: “Run, run, run!” The firefighters and police shouted the same thing. In a few minutes North Tower collapsed.

Michael Wright

Michael Wright, 30, was on the 81st floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when the plane crashed into the building.

At that moment, Michael was in the men's room, where they were just installing a sign asking for the cleanliness of the room. The building shook. When Wright looked out of the toilet into the corridor, he saw fire and heard a woman screaming - his colleague Alicia could not get out of the burning women's toilet. The men broke down the door and were able to pull the woman out.

There was a huge crack in the floor of the corridor, the hall near the elevator was completely destroyed, there was smoke everywhere. Michael began to lead his colleagues to the stairs, people descended as if during a fire drill - in two rows.

“What helped me stay calm on the stairs was the thought of the unreality of what was happening; it seemed like the building couldn’t collapse. Once we had climbed a few floors, we relaxed a little. We knew something bad had happened, but once the fire was thirty floors above, it wasn’t as much of a concern,” Wright recalls. According to him, people passed some floors quickly, others within 10 minutes.

On the 40th floor, Michael and his colleagues met firefighters who advised them to continue going down, assuring them that it was safe there. Having descended below the level of the 20th floor, Wright found himself on the site of the South Tower and realized the seriousness of what was happening: there were corpses everywhere, dozens of bodies.

When the building began to collapse, Wright and his colleagues were at the escalator at one of the exits from the building. A cloud of debris and dust rose, and the air seemed to turn black. Michael tore off his shirt and covered her nose and mouth. Seeing no direction, he crawled, trying to find a way out.

Michael was lucky - he came across a fireman who was able to take him out through the surviving bookstore building.

Reaching the phone, Michael called his wife Jenny.

“I said, ‘Jenny, it’s me.’ There was a groan on the other end of the phone. I said: “I’m alive.” I'm alive. I love you. I love you". We cried and cried. Then the connection was lost,” says Michael Wright.

Frank Razzano

On the morning of September 11, the famous American lawyer Frank Razzano was sleeping in his room on the 19th floor of the Marriott Hotel, located at the foot of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He woke up from the sound of the first blow, saw papers flying outside the window and returned to bed. A few minutes later a second blow was heard. The plane crashed into the South Tower, which Frank's windows overlooked. Razzano turned on the TV and heard the news. He still thought that there was nothing to worry about, because all the problems were 60 floors above. The firefighters will arrive and everything will be okay.

Frank took a shower, got dressed, packed his things and suddenly felt as if the hotel was being shelled by heavy artillery: the South Tower began to fall apart. Through the window, the lawyer saw mountains of concrete and steel falling from the sky, as if in slow motion. He ran to the opposite side of the room and pressed himself against the wall.

Suddenly the roar stopped. Razzano looked out into the corridor and shouted: “Is anyone alive?” Someone replied: “Come here.” The firefighter directed Razzano to the stairs. While falling, the tower broke the hotel in the middle, but the far staircase remained intact. Razzano followed it to the third floor, and there, together with a group of people, climbed through an opening in the wall to the second floor. A few minutes later, the North Tower collapsed and buried the remains of the hotel. Several lower floors remained intact.

That's where Razzano was. There was nothing to breathe: the air seemed to consist of nothing but dirt and dust. People still managed to find an opening in the destroyed wall of the building, and with the help of a carpet they went down to the mountain of rubble. There, the police helped Razzano get to the doctors.

Pascal Bazzeli

43-year-old design engineer Pascal Bazzeli was in the elevator of the North Tower when the first blow was heard. The elevator stopped on the 44th floor, and Pascal saw people panicking, but decided to go up to his office on the 64th floor. He called his pregnant wife and asked her to turn on the TV and find out what was going on. When she told him what was happening, Buzzelli and his colleagues surrounded the office television and saw the plane fly into a nearby tower. They rushed to the stairs and managed to go down to the 22nd floor when the building began to fall.

Bazzeli turned out to be an incredibly lucky man - curled up in a ball, he rolled down the rubble 15 floors down, like a surfer on a huge wave and, most amazingly, survived with a broken leg. All his colleagues died.

On the way down, Bazzeli lost consciousness and came to his senses three hours later in the ruins of the seventh floor.

Ron DiFrancesco

On the morning of September 11, 37-year-old broker Ron DiFrancesco was working in his office on the 84th floor of the South Tower. At this time, a plane crashed into the North Tower. Seeing the smoke, DiFrancesco decided to get out of the building and left the office. A few minutes after he left, the plane also crashed into the South Tower, between the 77th and 85th floors.

Going down, DiFrancesco met a group of people who began to persuade him to go to the roof - they said that the fire below was too strong, and there should be fresh air above.

Ron tried to go up several floors, but all the doors were closed or locked. The panic intensified, it became more and more difficult to breathe, and DiFrancesco finally decided to go down. He reached the pad in the impact zone and lay on the floor among other gasping people. Panic began to seize him. But some voice in his head, Ron claims, ordered him to run downstairs. Covering his face with his hands, he ran to the first floor, where the guard sent him to another exit and, already running out of the door, DiFrancesco heard a deafening roar above - the building began to collapse.

Seeing the explosion, the broker lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital with burns and a broken spine.

Officials said he was the last person to leave the building before the collapse and one of four surviving Americans who worked above the 81st floor but were able to escape.

John McLaughlin, last of those rescued

When the plane crashed into the South Tower, Sergeant John McLaughlin was several miles from the mall, patrolling the bus terminal in Manhattan. Like many, he headed to the towers that day to help the victims.

Arriving at the scene of the tragedy and not yet knowing the extent of the damage to the World Trade Center, McLaughlin assembled a team of four people - three police officers Antonio Rodriguez, Chris Amoroso, Dominic Petzullo, as well as rookie Will Gimeno.

They were on the ground floor connecting the buildings of the World Trade Center complex when the South Tower collapsed. The police were covered in debris.

“At first I thought I died. I didn’t feel anything: I didn’t see, I didn’t smell, I didn’t hear. There was a ringing silence all around,” recalls John McLaughlin.

Officers Amoroso and Rodriguez were killed instantly. McLaughlin and the two remaining members of his team were trapped. Dominic Petzullo managed to free himself from the rubble and tried to save his colleagues when the North Tower collapsed: he was mortally wounded by debris.

McLaughlin and Will Gimeno, lying under the rubble, heard the voices of rescuers and firefighters.

“I heard screams and shouted too, but it was useless. I said then: “I don’t think they will look for us. There's too much going on up there. They’re already busy,” McLaughlin recalls.

He reached for the radio and left a last message for his family, as well as for Will's wife, who was seven months pregnant.

“I think the moment when Will asked to tell his wife to name their unborn daughter Olivia was the worst. I think that’s when we kind of accepted that we were going to die here,” says Sgt.

The men spent more than 10 hours under the rubble before help arrived. Rescuers were able to pull Jimeno out around 11 p.m. Firefighters only reached McLaughlin on the morning of September 12 - he had to wait another 8 hours for rescue.

The sergeant was sent to the hospital, where doctors at first did not believe that he would survive - the injuries were very serious. Doctors put John in a coma for 6 weeks and he underwent about 30 operations, including skin grafts on his legs. After several years of therapy, he was able to return to a normal life.

John McLaughlin was the last person to be pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center that collapsed as a result of the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

Causes and culprits of the tragedy

The al-Qaeda group claimed responsibility for the attack. The large-scale terrorist attack was a consequence of the declared jihad against Jews and Americans; the American policy of supporting Israel, aggression against Iraq, and the presence of American troops in Saudi Arabia were also cited as reasons. Al-Qaeda accused America of “plundering” the region, oppressing people by supporting totalitarian regimes, and controlling the policies of the legitimate rulers of Arab countries.

The identities of all the suicide bombers were established - they were citizens of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Lebanon. It turned out that the men were in the United States legally, and some were trained in American flight schools. Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden admitted in a video message that he directly supervised the actions of 19 terrorists.

On May 2, 2011, in north-west Pakistan, US intelligence agencies identified “terrorist number one”. Behind the operation to kill bin Laden in live observed by US President Barack Obama and his team.

US President Barack Obama and his team are monitoring the progress of the operation to kill Osama bin Laden. Photo: White House press service

In May 2012, the trial of the mastermind and main organizer of the terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was detained in 2003 in Pakistan, began at the Guantanamo Bay base. The verdict is still pending.

The terrorist attack that changed the world

In October 2001, the United States and Great Britain launched a military operation in Afghanistan with the aim of destroying the bases of al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden. The operation lasted 13 years - most of American military and NATO forces left this country only at the end of 2014, but about 8 thousand US Army troops still remain in Afghanistan to “maintain peace and order.”

9/11 served as a pretext for yet another military conflict. A year after the terrorist attack on the United States, the American government accused Iraq and Saddam Hussein's regime of resuming the development of weapons of mass destruction and collaborating with al-Qaeda. On February 5, 2003, US Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke at a special meeting of the UN Security Council with his famous report. In his speech, Powell said Iraq was working on biological and chemical weapons programs and had two of the three components necessary to produce nuclear weapons.

In 2004, Powell admitted that the data he released was largely inaccurate and sometimes falsified. But it was too late - on March 20, 2003, the United States and its allies invaded Iraq in violation of the UN Charter, and the war was already in full swing. Saddam Hussein was executed in 2006, but coalition forces left Iraq only in 2011.

These wars became one of the reasons for the radicalization of Islamists in the Middle East. After the destruction of bin Laden, al-Qaeda is limited to the tactics of declarative statements, which, as a rule, are not associated with specific terrorist attacks. But one of the group's branches, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, eventually turned into the terrorist organization Islamic State. It was the Islamic State group that captured parts of Libya, Iraq and Syria and declared a caliphate on the occupied lands. And it is the Islamic State that is responsible for the high-profile terrorist attacks of recent years.

The material was prepared based on open sources

Irrefutable evidence

Alexander Tarasov

Review of the book by Thierry Meyssan “September 11, 2001. Monstrous fraud." M.: Moscow branch of the publishing house "Karno", 2003.

This book created a sensation and instantly became a bestseller in France, and then in other countries. European countries. In the United States, the authorities prevented the publication of this book for more than a year, but it was still published - and immediately became a powerful aid for the anti-war and “anti-globalization” movement. The fact that Meyssan’s book not only did not become a bestseller in our country, but, on the contrary, was actually silenced, is a shameful phenomenon, which speaks of the corrupt, puppet nature of the political system.

Immediately after September 11, 2001, a variety of people in our country - from representatives of leftist and Muslim circles to the respectable TV academician from the pro-government channel V. Pozner - began to publicly explain to the United States that since America has created such a planetary system in which all the benefits and wealth the “third world” flows into the USA, and the people of the “third world” only get poverty, disease, hunger, war and death, it is naive to expect that the “third world” will endure this forever and will not strike back at America sooner or later.

The reality turned out to be much worse. It turned out that the “third world,” with all its hatred of America, is not yet capable of an action on the scale of September 11th. It turned out that September 11 is a monstrous provocation, the “worldwide arson of the Reichstag,” organized by far-right “hawks” from the ruling circles of the United States itself. Thierry Meyssan's book proves this by literally leaving no stone unturned. official version US administration.

To begin with, T. Meyssan analyzes the story of the attack of a Boeing 757-200 aircraft on the Pentagon - moreover, precisely on the sector of the building where the Army Counter-Terrorism Directorate was located. The first thing T. Meyssan establishes is that no Boeing crashed on the Pentagon! And that's why:

1) The size of the hole in the wall of the building (recorded in photographs and film documents - before the facade collapsed) does not correspond to the size of the plane: the hole is much smaller (P. 18-20). If we assume that only the nose of the plane crashed into the Pentagon - and then for some reason the car stopped dead in its tracks, without even touching the building with its wings (which cannot be, given the speed at which the Boeing was flying - from 400 to 700 km / h – and the weight of the machine is 115 t) (p. 16, 18), then

2) The wings, fuselage and tail of the Boeing must remain outside and not be damaged. However, they are not there - not even in the very first photographs taken at the moment when fire trucks had just arrived at the Pentagon, but had not yet begun to extinguish the fire inside the building (p. 20);

3) If the rest of the plane had exploded and burned outside, there would have been debris left behind. There are none - not a single one (P. 19-22)! Moreover, during the explosion and fire outside, the surroundings of the Pentagon in this place should have been severely damaged: lawns, fences, pillars, car and helicopter parking areas. They are intact (p. 17);

4) The most reasonable thing, if you intend to inflict maximum damage on the Pentagon with an air strike, is to bring down the Boeing onto the roof of the building (you won’t miss: the Pentagon occupies an area of ​​117,363 sq.m). But terrorists, on the contrary, choose to strike the facade, risking missing, since the height of the building is 24 m, while the height of the plane itself is 13 m (p. 17);

5) The plane crashes into a building, flying strictly horizontally, between the first and second floors - while the very height of the Boeing is such that it COULD NOT crash lower than between the third and fourth floors(p. 17); besides, during a horizontal flight close to the ground, the plane somehow miraculously did not knock down trees, poles, fences (and did not even damage them with the air stream!), car and helicopter parking lots (p. 16-17);

6) Despite the cruising speed and weight, the plane only hit external wall buildings, which is incredible (p. 18);

7) The size of the fire in the Pentagon did not correspond to the amount of fuel on board the Boeing. Moreover: Arlington County fire crews were not allowed by special services to the scene of the explosion and fire (p. 21), and fire chief Ed Ploger, when asked by reporters about fuel, said something incredible: “We found something that we took for a puddle, just in the place where we think the nose of the plane was” (p. 22). Thus, something completely ridiculous turns out: part of the fuel ignited during a collision and explosion, but part did not. T. Meyssan uses the word “surrealism” in this regard (p. 21);

8) None of the surveillance cameras recorded the Boeing (p. 22);

9) The air defense services of Washington and - separately - the Pentagon “did not notice” the Boeing (p. 13-15);

10) On the Boeing 757-200, at the moment of hijacking, the transcoder (an automatic transmitter that sends an identification signal and flight data to dispatcher consoles) turned off. It is impossible to disable the transcoder (p. 185);

11) After losing contact with Boeing, NORAD (Aerospace Defense Command) began searching and intercepting the plane North America), controlling everything air space, which sent three F-16 fighters from a base in Langley to intercept. Visual contact was established with the Boeing in the air. But the Boeing evaded (!) NORAD tracking, dodged (!) fighters and attacked the Pentagon (p. 14-15, 22), which is simply impossible to believe;

12) As it turned out, the explosion hit exactly the sector of the Pentagon that was under repair. The Anti-Terrorism Directorate has already been evicted from there, the Naval Command Center has not yet been moved in. The premises were occupied mainly by civilian personnel working on their equipment. That is why the victims were mainly civilians and among the dead there was only one general. This also explains the small number of deaths - 125 people (p. 18-19);

13) In order to deliver a strike with such increased precision at such a low altitude in a city with a huge passenger plane (Boeing length - 47 m, wingspan - 38 m), you need to train on the ground many times in order to know all the obstacles (which "Arab terrorists “, of course, they couldn’t do it) and, moreover, be a pilot of the highest class (p. 25).

Based on all this, T. Meyssan came to the conclusion that the official version of the “crash of a plane captured by terrorists on” - linden, which he called a "bloody reenactment".

No plane fell on the Pentagon; the explosion was carried out inside the building by people who had access to the Pentagon and had the ability to freely deliver a large supply of explosives inside the building.

At the same time, the Boeing 757-200 American Airlines Flight 77 really disappeared along with all the passengers. T. Meyssan asks questions: who killed them and where are they? He believes that sooner or later the American administration will have to answer these questions (p. 24).

However, some assumptions can be made now. If the Boeing is nowhere to be found, it was most likely drowned (along with its passengers) in the ocean. And, in addition, the damage to the Pentagon that Meyssan described could be caused not only by a directed explosion from the inside, but also by a cruise missile strike from the outside. It is obvious, however, that only they can attack the Pentagon with a cruise missile - and only on the orders of the highest authorities.

Actually, T. Meyssan could have stopped at exposing the “attack on the Pentagon” - this is quite enough to prove that September 11, 2001 organized by the American administration: only knowing in advance the date, time and nature of the attack on the Twin Towers, it was possible to stage a “bloody reenactment” in the Pentagon.

But Meyssan did not limit himself to the Pentagon. He drew attention to a lot of absurdities with the attack on the World Trade Center. Firstly, NORAD was unable, oddly enough, to find direction and intercept the planes that attacked the Twin Towers. Secondly, on these planes, as on the Boeing 757-200, transcoders were disabled.

By the way, the signal from a civilian transcoder disappears if you equip the transcoder in advance with not only a civilian, but also a military code - and upon command from the ground (or in accordance with the program embedded in the on-board computer), switch the transcoder from a civilian code to a military one: civilian radars are equipped with filters , making them “blind” in relation to Air Force objects (p. 15, 185).

And after a series of consultations with experts, Meyssan came to the conclusion that amateur pilots could not get into the middle of the “twin towers” ​​with such accuracy (and even at low altitude in the city, where flying is devilishly difficult).

The wingspan of the Boeing 767 is 38 m, and the width of the tower is 63 m; it is enough to deviate to the side by 5 m - and the attack on the towers would fail. It should be taken into account that at a speed of 700 km/h and the weight of the Boeing, the pilots had only 0.3 seconds to adjust the course (p. 32-33)!

The professionals told Meyssan that there was a way to accurately hit the target: follow the radio beacon. If you install radio beacons in the towers, then the planes will approach them automatically (to the point that you don’t even need to capture them for this, you just need to put the corresponding program into the on-board computer - and then you can control the plane from the ground, they have such technology, it’s called she is "Global Hauk") (p. 33-34).

Meyssan began to search - and found out that There really were radio beacons at the World Trade Center, which apparently turned on shortly before the attack! Their signals were recorded by radio amateurs, since the beacons interfered with transmissions from television antennas installed on the tower (p. 33).

Meyssan was also interested in the collapse of the towers. He found calculations by experts who claimed that the WTC towers could not have collapsed under the influence of the gravity of the aircraft and the temperature of the fire. Moreover, Meyssan found an official statement from firefighters who claimed to have heard explosions at the base of the towers and demanded an independent investigation into the cause of the collapse (which killed many of their comrades) (p. 34).

Meyssan was even more interested in the collapse of “Building No. 7” of the World Trade Center complex, into which no plane crashed. “Building No. 7,” surprisingly, collapsed inward, as if in a directed explosion.

The New York Times found that Building No. 7 housed Secret base CIA, engaged in economic espionage around the world and was in acute conflict with political departments and the General Staff (p. 35-36). The destruction of this base certainly cannot be associated with an “air attack.”

Then T. Meyssan drew attention to the unexpectedly small number of deaths in the ruins of the WTC: 2843 people, including passengers and crews of two Boeings, as well as police officers, firefighters and rescuers who arrived at the buildings - despite the fact that in the WTC towers at the time of the first aircraft the impact there were up to 40,000 people (and even just the total number of employees on the upper floors cut off by the flames should have been at least 4,800 people) (p. 36-37).

Meyssan found a publication in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, in which Misha Makover, director of Odigo, one of the leaders in the field of electronic communications, said that the company received warning of the upcoming terrorist attack 2 hours before it– with a proposal to evacuate personnel (p. 38). It is interesting that after this publication, the FBI prohibited employees of the Odigo company from communicating with the press (p. 104).

T. Meyssan draws an analogy with the famous explosion of the federal building. Alfred P. Murrah in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. The explosion, according to the official version, was organized by Timothy McVeigh, a member of the far-right paramilitary organization “Militia” (created during the Cold War by himself to launch guerrilla operations in America in the event of its occupation by Soviet troops). In Oklahoma City, only 168 people died because the vast majority of those working in the building were suddenly given half a day off work. Meyssan believes that this was done by the FBI to reduce the number of victims (the FBI controls the “Militia” and, therefore, knew in advance in all details about the impending explosion) (p. 38-39).

Finally, Meyssan unearthed an amazing recognition of President Bush Jr., made by him in Orlando (pcs.).

The President said that on September 11, shortly after the first air attack on the World Trade Center, he was shown on television footage of a plane colliding with the tower - and while he was watching this footage, the President's chief secretary, Andy Card, burst into the room with the words: “A second plane hit the tower. America has been attacked” (p. 40).

However, unlike the collision of the plane with the second tower of the World Trade Center (which the whole world could watch live), the footage depicting the first collision was discovered much later - 13 hours after the events, when the Gamma agency published the footage of the Naudet brothers. Therefore, Meyssan concludes, the president was shown other footage - footage of secret filming taken by the intelligence services. But since the special services conducted such filming, it means that they knew in advance about the place and time of the events (p. 40-41).

T. Meyssan makes the following general conclusion: the planes were directed to the World Trade Center building by radio beacons; the companies and institutions located in the buildings (at least some of them) were warned about the terrorist attack in advance in order to reduce the number of human losses; all three collapsed buildings were blown up by charges from the ground.

After which Meyssan asks (not without sarcasm): “Could such an operation be conceived in the caves of Afghanistan, controlled from them and carried out by a handful of Islamists?” (p. 41). And Meyssan puts forward a version conspiracy within the US administration, the CIA and the military elite.

The first thing he pays attention to is thorough intimidation of President Bush by part of his entourage. The plane Bush is flying on - according to CONPLAN, which comes into effect in emergencies (like 9/11) - suddenly "disappears." In fact, the presidential plane is first driven to the base in Barksdale (Louisiana), and then to the base in Offutt (Nebraska). Between the bases, Bush's plane, escorted by fighter jets, flies at low altitude and zigzags, as if hiding from radar and anti-aircraft fire. At the bases themselves, the president is transported runways in an armored car, citing protection from snipers (p. 44)!

T. Meyssan also draws attention to mysterious fire in the White House, which arose between the two attacks on the World Trade Center towers (40 minutes before the second collision). Footage of the fire was broadcast on ABC (p. 50).

This strange fire, all information about which later completely disappears, cannot be attributed to air attacks. But one can, however, although Meyssan does not do this, remember that high-ranking American officials on September 11 named the White House as one of the targets of terrorists (according to some statements, it was the plane that fell in that should have dived on it; according to others, the White House was the original target of the airliner that eventually allegedly attacked the Pentagon).

But something didn’t work – and the fire turned out to be “unnecessary”. Agency reports about the explosion on Capitol Hill also turned out to be “superfluous.” But, by the way, after the fire, the White House staff, led by Vice President Cheney, as well as congressmen, were forcibly evacuated “to safe places.”

It is interesting that Meyssan found out exactly what plan of action to defend the White House was carried out after the evacuation of others. This was a scheme to protect the White House not from a plane crash or bombing, but from an assault by a landing party(p. 50)!

As Meyssan established, on September 11, the intimidation of the already not very smart president (and at the same time, apparently, other “intractable ones”) reached an unprecedented level: the president’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer, and then official representatives of the intelligence services reported that the White House Secret Service had received telephone messages from the attackers, in which they warned (why, I wonder?) that they were going to attack the White House and the presidential plane - and, most incredible, the callers used secret codes and ciphers of the presidential office, as well as a number of special services: narcotics, National Intelligence Agency (NRA), Air Force Intelligence, Military Intelligence, Naval Intelligence, State Department intelligence agencies, etc. Each of these codes and ciphers is super-secret and known to an extremely limited circle of people, and no one has the right to have several codes at once (p. 46-48).

It is impossible to imagine that al-Qaeda, or the Taliban, or Iraqi intelligence would be able to obtain such a number of super-secret ciphers and codes. If anyone could do this, it was perhaps Soviet intelligence during the heyday of the USSR (and even that is doubtful).

Meyssan drew attention to two things: firstly, having such a set of ciphers and codes, the attackers could usurp the powers of the president, including command and control of troops. The only way to counter this was to ensure the personal presence of the President at the US Strategic Command Center at Offutt Base (which was done) (p. 49). That is, Bush was frightened by the fact that “terrorists” could seize control of the US armed forces at any moment!

The second thing Meyssan drew attention to: if the attackers entered into negotiations, it means they put forward some demands or an ultimatum. Kamikazes do not enter into negotiations. Meyssan suggested that Bush entered into these negotiations and succumbed to blackmail, after which “the threat receded” (p. 49). This means that the blackmailers were anyone, but not Islamic terrorists.

And T. Meyssan makes the following conclusion: the terrorist attacks in Washington (including the arson in the White House) were organized by people who contacted the president using secret codes and ciphers and who presented him with an ultimatum. Overwhelmed by their capabilities, Bush accepted the ultimatum - and continues to govern the country.

This can only happen if The September 11 terrorist attacks were carried out by a group at the very top of the US military and political elite, – and only if these terrorist attacks were intended to force the president to change the nature of US foreign and domestic policy.

The Islamic trail was falsified. Moreover, it was falsified extremely poorly, primitively, and unconvincingly. And only the monstrous hysteria perpetrated by the American authorities and the media gave this trail a semblance of credibility...