Main Security Developments in the US since 11 September

Introduction

The events of September 11, 2001, commonly referred to as 9/11, have had some of the most profound and lasting effects on the security and defence apparatus of the United States government. Before 9/11, there had not been major terrorist attacks on US soil. Even today, the 9/11 attacks are the worst terror attacks to have occurred on US soil. The terror attacks led to the creation and integration of multiple agencies, enactment of legislations aimed at protecting the United States, and enhanced domestic and foreign US intelligence efforts to prevent and respond to future terror attacks against the United States. The 9/11 attacks set in motion a chain of events whose effects are still felt today in the United States and globally. Prominent among these chains of events was the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Several agencies including the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Transportation Security Administration were merged into the newly formed DHS. Other developments include the enactment by Congress of the US Patriot Act, and the US invasion of Afghanistan and later Iraq and its role in the Middle East and all over the world. The US government and public never anticipated that such deadly attacks could be carried out on US soil. The aftermath of the attacks shook the nation and later led to substantial changes in the US security apparatus aimed at preventing such attacks from ever occurring again. For students exploring security policy and governmental responses, seeking politics dissertation help can provide valuable insights into the legislative impacts and international ramifications of these pivotal events.

Summary of the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

The events of 9/11 are some of the most feared and loathed events in US history. They were also the worst terror attacks to ever take place in the United States. The attacks were conducted on the morning of September 11, 2001 by terrorists allied to the Al Qaeda group, then led by Osama Bin Laden (Paust, 2003). The 9/11 attacks for which Al-Qaida claimed responsibility were conducted by nineteen terrorists who hijacked four planes headed for west coast destinations and crashed them into the Pentagon, the World Trade Centre twin towers in New York, and in Pennsylvania (Hoffman, 2002).

The attacks started at around 8:46 AM Eastern Time when American Airlines Flight 11, travelling from Boston to Los Angeles, struck the north tower of the World Trade Centre (CNN, 2019). At 9:03 am, a second plane, United Airlines Flight 175, also travelling from Boston to Los Angeles, struck the south tower of the World Trade Centre (Emergency Management, 2019). At around 9:37 am, another plane, American Airlines Flight 77, headed to Los Angeles from Virginia was crashed into the Pentagon (CNN, 2019). At 10:03 am, a fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93 headed to San Francisco from New Jersey, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania (Emergency Management, 2019). The World Trade Centre’s south tower collapsed at 9:59 am while the northern one collapsed at 10:28 am (CNN, 2019). Analysts suggest that the towers collapsed due to the explosions that were as a result of explosions from the planes’ fuel. Almost three thousand people died that day from the attacks (Hoffman, 2002). The attacks inspired major security developments aimed at protecting the US homeland from terror attacks.

The War on Terror

Prior to 9/11, the US had not witnessed attacks as large as those of 9/11. As a result, they elicited a strong response from the public, which called for more security assurances, and the government. What resulted from the events of 9/11 are security and policy changes whose effects were to be felt all over the world. Notably, the Bush Administration, led by then president George Bush later declared a war on terrorism that has had global consequences (Paust, 2003). The Al-Qaida group led by Osama Bin Laden and with a presence in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for the attacks. The war on terror aimed to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks and to root out terrorist elements from their hideouts mostly in Afghanistan, where the Taliban led by Osama Bin Laden operated from. The United States Congress passed the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists Act on September 14 (Grimmett, 2006). The act gave the president the power to use all resources, including the United States Armed Forces, against the perpetrators of the attacks and any other parties that aided in the execution of the attacks (Grimmett, 2006).

After reports that the Al-Qaida group, then led by Osama Bin Laden and based in Afghanistan orchestrated the attacks, the United States Armed Forces invaded Afghanistan on October 7 under Operation Enduring Freedom (Paust, 2003). The invasion of Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban was led by the United States and its NATO partners. The war against the Taliban in Afghanistan is still being fought today and has, over the years, left hundreds of thousands dead. Later, the US invaded Iraq, then led by president Saddam Hussein, under the pretext that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). The two invasions of Afghanistan and later Iraq and the entanglement of US forces and presence in the Middle East were all culminations of the 9/11 attacks. Up to date, the United States still continues its war on terror in the middle east and all over the world where terrorist elements have been identified.

The Formation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)

The 9/11 attacks highlighted the gaps in the preparedness of the United States to address terror activities on US soil. As a result of the attacks, and certainly one of their most profound responses from the US government then led by president George Bush was the creation of a cabinet level department named the Department of Homeland Security (Uhl, 2003). The DHS was formally established through the 2002 Homeland Security Act. The DHS was tasked with implementation and coordination of a national strategy to protect the United States against terror attacks (Rittgers, 2011). The first director of DHS, Tom Ridge took office on October 8, 2001 (Stanhouse, 2003). The formation of DHS was one of the most significant reorganizations of the federal government for decades going back to the end of the cold war. The Department of Homeland Security merged together twenty-two agencies under one roof. Some of the agencies merged into the Department of Homeland Security include the US Coast Guard, US Customs Service, the Federal Protective Service, Transportation Security Administration, the Nuclear Incident Response Team, the US Secret Service, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service among others (Uhl, 2003). Today, the Department of Homeland Security has a total of over 240,000 employees and had a 2019 fiscal year budget request of over 47.5 billion dollars.

Security Developments Within the Department of Homeland Security

The formation of the Department of Homeland Security was aimed at putting in place a somewhat centralized response to terror attacks from different agencies all under one single body that would be headed by a director. The director would be responsible for informing the president on all matters that may affect national security. Over 22 formally scattered federal agencies were merged into the new DHS to provide unity and coordination of responses to terror (Rittgers, 2011). One of the most important agencies that was merged is the Transportation Security Administration, formally under the department of transport. The Transport Security Administration under DHS was tasked with ensuring the security of American critical infrastructure, particularly airports, which served as points of entry for the 9/11 terrorists. The Transport Security Administration increased surveillance in airports and planes, armed and trained pilots on how to respond to terror threats, and increased searches at airports (Kerwin, 2005). Today, the delays in airports due to airport security checks were uncommon before the events of 9/11.

Another agency that was merged into the DHS was the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the US Customs Service. The US Customs Service was broken down to US Customs and Border Protection and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Nafziger, 2009). The US Coast Guard was also merged into the DHS to protect American coasts from immigrant inflows. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement is tasked with identifying undocumented immigrants, their employment status, and the announced check-ins on visa holders to ensure they did not overstay their time in the US (Kerwin, 2005). All of these bodies have an almost similar mandate of ensuring that immigrants, documented or not, do not pose a terror threat to the United States.

After the 9/11 attacks, the US position on immigration changed indefinitely with changing public attitudes towards immigrants. The rates of visa denial and deportation increased (Nafziger, 2009). The once immigrant-friendly US tightened its visa and green card programs and even conducted outright unexplained visa denials to persons from countries viewed by Washington as possible incubation centres for terrorists. Travel advisories and bans also became a common policy often issued in the name of national security. Persons from countries viewed as possible sources of terror elements were subjected to enhanced security checks in airports, biometric analysis, full body scans, and arrests in case of suspicions (Kerwin, 2005; Rittgers, 2011). Databases were created against which the identities of suspicious persons were ran to confirm whether or not they posed a terror threat.

The US Patriot Act of 2001

Another significant security development since 9/11 was the enactment of the US Patriot Act (Huddy and Feldman, 2011). The US Patriot Act of 2001 gave the federal government the power to conduct surveillance through the use of human intelligence and technological surveillance systems such as CCTVs to identify and thwart any possible terror activities (Bloss, 2007). However, the surveillance powers of the federal government have become a controversial topic amongst US citizens who believe in privacy and the separation of powers of the state and civil liberties. Intelligence gathering agencies like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), tasked with foreign intelligence, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), and other intelligence bodies within the US Department of Defence such as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the National Security Agency (NSA), the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) increased their surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities (European Parliament, 2018). All the intelligence agencies form what is commonly known as the US Intelligence Community. The Bush Administration established the highly classified Terrorist Surveillance Program that gave the NSA powers to intercept and listen in on telephone communications and to scrutinize email communications into and out of the United States (Huddy and Feldman, 2011; Risen and Lichtblau, 2005; Jaeger et al., 2003). However, due to controversies, Congress later enacted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that would not target American citizens.

Creation of the US Office of Director of National Intelligence

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 also created a new position of the Director of National Intelligence (Best Jr and Cumming, 2010). The director would coordinate intelligence sharing between the various intelligence agencies to ensure faster and well-coordinated sharing of intelligence on possible threats to US national security (McConnell, 2007). The Director advises the president on issues of national intelligence and heads the National Intelligence Program. According to the European Parliament (2018), within the newly formed Office of Director of National Intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Centre was formed to monitor and control US counterterrorism efforts and to provide a central bank of information on suspected and known terrorists to enhance intelligence sharing and coordination between the Intelligence Community.

Conclusion

The 9/11 terrorist attacks indeed resulted in major US policy changes, security apparatus, and the public and government’s approach to terrorism. The loss of lives, economic losses, and traumatic experiences of 9/11 have long remained in the American public’s consciousness and are some of the worst events the country has ever experienced. As a result, even today, the United States government, from the judiciary to the federal and local authorities, still conducts major policy and legislation developments to address the threats of terrorism, both domestic and global. The creation of the US Department of Homeland Security, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the war on terror, the coordination of intelligence gathering and sharing, enactment of border control and security policies, reviews of visa programs and immigration policies, and increased human and technological surveillance are some of the major security developments that were inspired by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. All of these security developments have had major impacts on the overall security of the US homeland and have helped prevent the occurrence of similar large scale terrorist attacks.

References

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