Responsibility for the September 11 attacks

There were reports that the Palestinian group DFLP (Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine) took responsibility for the crashes, but this was denied by a senior officer of the group soon after. While there are filmed reports of celebrations on the West Bank, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has denounced the attacks.

Next in line to claim responsibility were the Taliban of Afghanistan. The Taliban government has since denounced the attack and claimed that it was not connected to Osama Bin Laden, the terrorist who lives in Afghanistan and who the U.S. government has declared the prime suspect.

Although there is no explicit evidence linking Bin Ladin's Al-Qaida organization (or, indeed, any other group) to the crime, but intelligence experts speak of a "short list" of prime suspects--groups that possess both the means and the motive to carry out the crime. It appears certain that all hijackers have Arabic origins, and none are Afghani; moreover, both in their immense scale, careful planning and refraining from claiming responsibility, the attacks are reminescent of Al-Qaida's previous attacks.

Virtually all world leaders, including traditional enemies of the United States such as Libyan president Qadhafi, Palestinian leader Arafat, Iranian president Khatami and the Afghanistan Taliban government, have denounced the attacks and expressed sympathy for the American people. An exception is Saddam Hussein, the ruler of Iraq who called the attacks the fruits of U.S. crimes against humanity.

Various Arab- and Muslim-world news sources carried opinion pieces and articles that pointed to some form of Zionist conspiracy to frame the Arab world to the benefit of Israel.

A significant minority see the attack as a likely outcome of past United States involvement in the Middle East and surrounding area, and fear that a violent response will only continue the cycle.

A related viewpoint is that such acts of terrorism as this are inevitable due to the economic and social imperialism of the United States and multinational corporations, which creates pockets of hatred in poor countries with minimal control of their political destiny, due to overwhelming economic pressures from outside.

However, the majority of people all over the world believe that terrorism is an absolute evil, that may have a cause but always lacks justification. In their opinion, the fact that the assailants resorted to the use of force in genocidal proportions, prevents them from being legitimate entities and voids their right to have their opinion respected by the world community.

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors -- Give Blood -- Personal experiences -- Donations
Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
Responsibility - World political effects - World economic effects - Airport security

External Links & References

Official document containing information from intelligence and criminal investigation as released by the British PM Tony Blair on his official webside, Oct. 4, 2001: Responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States, 11 September 2001. See:
http://www.pm.gov.uk/
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=97692
http://news.bbc.co.uk/

THE INVESTIGATION: Fugitive on F.B.I. List Arrested Outside Chicago, New York Times, 9/20/2001
[http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001320007-2001323297,00.htm

Millions of shares sold before disaster, London Times, 9/18/2001]

For a non-islamic perspective unreservedly justifying the attacks, see Indian communist revolutionary Vaskar Nandy's article in the Oct 27, 2001 issue of Economic and Political Weekly, Bombay, India.