TERRE HAUTE —
A lot has changed in the decade since passenger planes were used as missiles to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and to damage the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
The Department of Homeland Security was formed. The Patriot Act was passed, and passed again.
The Patriot Act reduced restrictions on law enforcement’s ability to search telephone records, email messages and financial and medical records, and expanded the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism.
In May, President Obama signed a four-year extension that allows using wiretaps, searching library records and conducting surveillance of individual suspects, called “lone wolves,” who are believed to be involved in terrorist-related activities.
Technology and how fast people communicate is much different. Social networks Facebook and Twitter were not around when 9/11 happened, unlike in August, when an earthquake hit the East Coast. Twitter was used to send reports of the earthquake from up and down the U.S. eastern seaboard.
Cell bag phones were around a decade ago, but circuits jammed at the time of the 9/11 attack. Cellular telephones quickly spread news of the East Coast quake. In addition, in July, a teenager who survived a shooting spree in Norway texted her mother every 5 minutes to keep her updated during the one-man attack.
After 9/11, the Transportation Safety Administration was created. Federal employees, not private companies, check all passengers boarding airlines as well as their bags.
Getting on an airplane now requires passengers to remove shoes — the result of a post-9/11 bombing attempt — plus undergo body screens or stand in a device that detects explosive residue.
There is also a 3-ounce limit on any liquids brought aboard an airliner, once again after a post-9/11 attempt to mix chemicals onboard a plane for use as a bomb. Small items such as pocket knives are prohibited.
Prior to 9/11, you could meet or say goodbye to your loved one at the flight gate. No more.
Yet another security measure now requires passports for travel to and from Canada and Mexico.
Tighter security is evident, too, at the Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field. A security fence has been installed around approximately 900 acres of the airport’s nearly 1,500 acres of land.
“[The purpose of the fencing] was two-fold. We had an issue of animals on the airport, such as deer. That was 50 percent of the reason, but the other half was increased security,” said Airport Director Dennis Wiss. “The previous fence was easily breached, and now our entire perimeter is fenced and gated, so access is very limited.”
While the Terre Haute airport this year eliminated its flight school with Indiana State University, students immediately after 9/11 had to produce documents proving U.S. citizenship, while foreign students had additional required documentation. Screening is now required for charter planes bringing in football or basketball teams for games at ISU, Wiss added.
“There is much more emphasis on highways and marine ports, as well as airports, so it is not just an airport issue. There is also an emphasis to get to 100 percent cargo inspection, which has not yet happened. We are better than we were 10 years ago; it is just very unfortunate the system did not work 100 percent 10 years ago,” Wiss said.
Other security changes are also evident. People entering the Vigo County Courthouse are now required to place handbags and items from their pockets onto a conveyor belt that passes through an imaging machine, which X-rays the items. People must also walk through a metal detector, and security cameras capture the images of everyone entering the government building.
Indiana driver’s licenses were changed to “secure licenses” with holograms and hard-to-replicate colors.
The terrorist attacks also changed the way fans go to the ball park. For example, outside Lucas Oil Stadium, home to the Indianapolis Colts, fans are separated by gender, then patted down and screened with hand-held magnetometers. Purses and bags also are checked. Nothing larger than a small personal handbag is permitted inside the stadium.
Other changes have come in views on religion and politics, said Matthew Bergbower, assistant professor of political science at Indiana State University
“Americans now have a cautiousness toward religion,” Bergbower said. “We saw that recently with the burning of the Koran in [March at a small church in Gainsville,] Florida, and the opposition to a proposed mosque in New York City that was to be built near [ground zero] of the trade towers” in 2010.
That also led to other protests, including against a mosque center in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a mosque in Sheboygan, Wis., in a former health food store earlier this year.
In relation to the U.S. involvement in wars since 9/11, reaction has been mixed, with a vocal group voicing its objections through protests at military funerals. In Illinois, an existing state law was expanded to move protesters even farther back from military funerals, without totally violating the Constitution’s First Amendment rights, Bergbower said.
“They are good evidence of current events that we are still dealing with in the aftermath of 9/11 from a political side,” Bergbower said.
In addition, Bergbower said political discussions are starting to change a decade after the attacks.
Campaigns for Congress and even for the U.S. presidency are no longer dominated by national security, like campaigns in 2004 and 2006, he said.
“Now, the dialogue and campaigns have changed. Now, the number one issue is the economy, so national security has gone a peg or two down when it comes to the concerns of voters and the concern of those who campaign for office,” Bergbower said. “The economy has taken over as the dominant issue. We see it more on the news and more in campaign ads and other type of dialogue,” he said.
Also, Bergbower said research after 9/11 shows that while there is opposition to reduced civil liberties, Americans by and large are OK with bigger government and a watchful eye over the public as a tradeoff for security.
For Mark S. Hamm, professor of criminology at Indiana State University, one event changed how terrorism is conducted today, versus a decade ago.
“To me, the leaf changed when Osama bin Laden was killed,” Hamm said. “That was a major event for the West in its fight against al-Qaida, which was responsible for 9/11.”
Still, bin Laden’s death does not mean the threat of terrorism is over, Hamm said.
“We still face a significant threat from people inspired by al-Qaida. Even though bin Laden is gone and the number of al-Qaida central leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan may have been severely diminished, and may no longer have camps where Westerners can learn bomb building and other tactics, these self-starter groups in other countries may pose a danger,” Hamm said.
“Perhaps not the danger on the par of 9/11. We may never see anything like 9/11 again, but bombing against transportation systems is highly likely,” he said. “Bombing against other infrastructure and soft targets, such as malls, hotels and large public gatherings, those are still on the table.”
Another threat is extremists influenced by al-Qaida in Yemen in the Arabian Peninsula, Hamm said. “The most serious threats against the United States since 9/11” have come from that region, he said.
As examples, Hamm cited terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the underwear bomber, who was charged in December 2009 for an attempt to blow up a plane, plus a plot to use bombs inside computer printers’ packages headed for Chicago in October 2010. “All came from al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula,” he said.
Anwar al-Awlaki is an American-born Muslim cleric who inspired the underwear bomber, as well as Nidal Malik Hasan, charged with killing 12 people at Fort Hood in Texas in 2009, and a car bomb attempt in May 2010 in Times Square, Hamm said.
“These are the most serious threats we have faced. They have been inspired and often coached, via email and the Internet, by Anwar al-Awlaki,” who has dual U.S. and Yemen citizenship. He was born in New Mexico in 1971. He is in Yemen with al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, Hamm said. His father was the minister of agriculture and a university president in Yemen.
“He is the only American on the [CIA] kill-list,” Hamm said. The Obama administration in April 2010 authorized the targeted killing of Anwar al-Awlaki, believed to have shifted from encouraging attacks on the United States to directly participating in them.
Another inspired attack, Hamm said, came in June 2009 from Muslin convert Carlos Bledsoe, who opened fire with a rifle, killing one soldier in front of a U.S. military recruiting office in Little Rock, Ark. Bledsoe had returned after staying 16 months in Yemen.
“Anwar al-Awlaki issues his statements through the online magazine called Inspire, published by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula,” Hamm said. “In that, they are coaching readers, many in the U.S., … you can do everything by staying home and learn how to commit mass murder.
“My point is there has been a tactical shift to lone-wolf terrorism,” Hamm said, versus a tactic involving several people.
“These lone-wolf terrorists are influenced by the ideology of what remains of al-Qaida in its newest form,” he said.
Hamm said the use of a dirty bomb, a type of nuclear device that would spread contamination throughout a large city, is “a nightmare scenario. A more likely scenario is Fort Hood or the underwear bomber, who never went to a Jihad training camp,” he said.
In addition, terrorists are more innovative in attacks, such as a bomber in Marrakesh, Morocco, in May who dressed like a “hippie” carrying a guitar and two bags, which had explosives.
“The hippie symbol throughout the West is a symbol of freedom and acceptance of all cultures. That is stark contrast from stern-looking businessmen who hopped on planes for 9/11,” Hamm said.
Another example is a suicide bomber who hid explosives in a turban, killing the mayor of Kandahar in Afghanistan in July. “This is another innovation, not strapping a bomb on your chest or in your underwear, but on your head. That is a tactical shift,” Hamm said.
In addition to threats from abroad, domestic terrorism remains a threat, Hamm said, such as Anders Breivik, charged with killing more than 70 people in a shooting and bombing spree in Norway in July. He was reported as saying he was attempting to save Europe from cultural Marxism and “Muslimization” from the Labor Party in Norway.
“The point is the threat also comes from anti-government people, such as Jared Loughner, who shot [U.S. Rep.] Gabrielle Giffords [and killed six people in January] in Tucson, Ariz. That has nothing to do with Islamic extremism, but with immigration, with radical right-wing politics, discontent over immigration and unemployment and other domestic factors,” Hamm said.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@
tribstar.com.
9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage
A CHANGED NATION: After 9/11, air travel, privacy, security all took on new rules
- 9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage
-
-
Delores Ann Day
Delores Ann Day, 77, of Terre Haute, passed away at 2:10 a.m. on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, in Union Hospital.
-
Wabash Valley lights the night in memory of those lost to terrorism
As the sun set and skies turned pink Sunday, about 30 people worked to light 9,200 tea candles at the Fairbanks Park Chauncey Rose Memorial.
-
‘September Souls’ a 9/11 story told one piece at a time
Amid the mourning, artwork was born.
The resulting quilt, “September Souls,” will be on display in Indiana State University’s Cunningham Memorial Library through October, along with a short video about its creator, the late Rosemary England. -
Terre Haute South site of 9/11 ceremony to ‘remember the fallen’
The morning was clear, warm and comfortable, not unlike 10 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001, when hijackers on suicide missions murdered nearly 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.
-
Donors remember times of need as they let the ‘red’ flow
The music floating about Fairbanks Park was serene, but inside the air-conditioned RV nearby, the blood was pumping.
-
Service honors those who boldly leap into the face of danger
Religious services around the Wabash Valley marked the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, including a special service honoring America’s emergency responders Sunday at Good Shepherd Baptist Church on the south side of Terre Haute.
-
ISU ensembles honor memory of 9/11
Vocal and instrumental music blended with visual images as Indiana State University student performers joined Sunday in songs of reflection and hope in memory of 9/11.
-
EDITORIAL: Inspired by resilience in our post-9/11 world
The places directly linked to 9/11 can seem so distant from our own surroundings here in the Wabash Valley.
-
True heroism: Flight 93 rewrote conclusion to plot by 9/11 terrorists (see VIDEO)
Walking in the Shadows of 9/11
Last of a three-part series
The place — chosen by fate — holds a powerful silence. -
MARK BENNETT: Value of every minute deeply realized on 9/11 (related VIDEO)
Editor’s Note
This summer, the Tribune-Star’s Mark Bennett visited New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., sites where the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are now memorialized. He observed the cityscapes and landscapes forever changed by the events of that day and talked with people he encountered there, many of whom witnessed the attacks and their aftermath from close range and had personal ties to its victims. -
Three sites ... a shared goal: Travelers will experience 3 distinct environments at 9/11 memorials
A national sense of tragedy provides a common, connecting thread to these three places.
A broad plot by al-Qaida terrorists sent hijacked commercial airlines crashing into the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a remote field near Shanksville, Pa., on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A decade later, most Americans old enough to vote know the basic story and remember where they were on 9/11. -
Pilot recalls escorting Air Force One on 9/11
Piloting his F-16 fighter jet on the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, then-Lt. Col. Chris Colbert of the Terre Haute-based 181st Fighter Wing, could see that the shimmering object in the distance was a very, very large aircraft.
-
Volunteers turn out for 9/11 Day of Service
Building handicapped ramps, pulling weeds along a city park trail and assembling packages for U.S. military personnel were all part of a 9/11 Day of Service on Saturday organized by Terre Haute Ministries.
-
Pentagon Memorial pays tribute to 184 lives lost in 9/11 attack on Washington (related VIDEO)
Walking in the Shadows of 9/11
Second of a three-part series
The latch clicked loudly, and Lt. Col. Robert L. Ditchey pushed open a door inside Corridor 4 of the Pentagon.
He entered an area that resembles an urban alley, but with a roof.
“This is where the final pieces of the aircraft had crashed through,” explained Ditchey, Pentagon press officer for the Department of Defense. -
Sept. 11, 2001 — A date seared into the minds of Americans
There are events so important in our lives that we remember every detail. Sometimes, these are personal celebrations such as weddings, births and graduations. But other events, sudden and tragic on a national scale, such as the brutal terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11, become defining moments for a generation.
-
B.J. RILEY: Quieting the roar of the presses …
There are memories branded forever in our minds. They are as clear as if they occurred just yesterday. I will never forget that Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001, or the days that followed …
-
A CHANGED NATION: After 9/11, air travel, privacy, security all took on new rules
A lot has changed in the decade since passenger planes were used as missiles to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and to damage the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
-
9/11 Day of Service in Valley: Consolidated 5th-graders swept away with helping others
After the 9/11 tragedy, many saw a spirit of unity emerging across the country as Americans pulled together and helped each other during a dark time in U.S. history.
-
WHY I SERVE: The soldier
On the wall of his office inside the Myers Technology Building, Chris Pfaff pointed to a map of Afghanistan, a place about as different from the Indiana State University campus as one can imagine.
-
'ALMOST SURREAL': A decade later, two men who witnessed the attacks look back
The underground Metro train shook noticeably.
Something had happened. William Hanna, a retired U.S. Army colonel living in Virginia, was on board the Metro and could feel the shock. -
WHY I SERVE: The firefighter
Big red trucks and blaring sirens always held a special appeal for Jason Kame.
“I always wanted to be a fireman. I was one of those kids that always knew what I wanted to do,” he said inside the Terre Haute Fire Department’s Headquarters Station at First and Spruce streets. -
TEACHING TRAGEDY: Attacks created new chapters for the history books
The 9/11 terrorist attacks permanently changed the daily routine for students in the Vigo County School Corp.
-
WHY I SERVE: The police officer
Joe Watts heard the calling to wear a police uniform early in life.
“I tell everyone that as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a state trooper,” Watts says. -
TEACHING TRAGEDY: 9/11 attacks were a ‘historical turning point’
Incoming college freshmen this fall would have been about 8 years old when 9/11 occurred, and college faculty find that with each passing year, students know less and less about the terrorist attacks.
-
Ralston took part in congressional terrorism study before 9/11
Years before the terrorist attacks in 2001, Terre Haute resident Patrick R. Ralston was part of a national panel that would assess how the U.S. government could assist state and local responders in combating terrorism.
-
IN GOD WE TRUST: Many sought comfort in prayer, religion after attacks
In times of tragedy, many people turn to prayer to help them begin to cope with myriad emotions.
-
LIFE & LIBERTY: Americans won’t let lives be ruled by fear, prof says
In the post-9/11 world, Americans have been willing to make some concessions in the name of national security, but not many, says a St. Mary-of-the-Woods College faculty member.
-
Ten years removed, 9/11 attack on NYC remains on minds of many (see VIDEO)
First of a three-part series
A decade later, images from Sept. 11, 2001, remain vivid in the minds of most Americans. Plane crashes. Collapsing skyscrapers. Staggering people covered in dust. Horror. Shock. Confusion. Fear. Heroism. -
9/11 Memorial Event to honor those killed in attacks
Late last year, Terri (T.J.) Coonce had a vision for a 9/11 memorial event.
Inspired by an uncle and cousin who had served in Afghanistan, she wanted to honor not only those killed in the terrorist attacks, but also all American service members who have since lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
-
‘Remember those who were heroes that day’
Half-time shows at college football games are normally reserved for some relatively light entertainment and a chance to buy some snacks.
- More 9/11: 10th Anniversary Coverage Headlines
-
Raw: Trucker Bumps I-5 Bridge Before Collapse
Major Detours Following Wash. Bridge Collapse
Raw: Texas Deputy Shot by Colo. Suspect Honored
Suspect in Killing of Officer Found Dead in Cell
Officials: Tsarnaev Friend Linked to Slaying
Raw: Jersey Shore Reopens for Summer
American Held in Grisly Czech Murders
Obama:Sexual Assault Threatens Trust in Military
UK-bound Pakistan Plane Diverted, 2 Men Arrested
Bridge Collapse Survivor: 'Rough Day'
Raw: Memorial Day Flags Placed at Arlington
First Person: Mom Discusses Famous Tornado Photo
Raw Video: Washington State Bridge Collapse
Officials: Truck Hit Bridge Before Collapse
Boy Scouts Approve Plan to Accept Gay Boys
New Wheelchair Lift Promises More Access
Sheriff: No Sign Killing of 2 Kids Was Planned
Today in History May 24
Raw: Tornado on the Ground in Oklahoma
Raw: Aftermath of Deadly Attack in London
AK-47-wielding thug may be the most bumbling crook ever
Oklahoma Survivors, Heroes Survey Damage
Trout's cycle a boost for Angels
Raw: New Video of Deadly Oklahoma Tornado
Kim Kardashian Flaunts Pregnant Bikini Body in Greece
NBA star pledges $1M to help tornado recovery
Shakira's Shocking Talent
Morgan Freeman falls asleep on air
GRAPHIC: Blood-Soaked Machete Killer Caught on Tape
Elin Nordegren Furious With Lindsey Vonn For Parading Kids in Public
Camera Captures Climber As He Loses Grip And Falls
Helen Mirren Meets with Dying Boy in Queen Elizabeth's Place
Crowd Chants '¡Si, Se Puede!' After Passage of Immigration Bill
DWTS Crowns a Winner
Police Ram House to End Hostage Standoff
Demi Moore a Rocks Bikini at Harry Morton's Family House
Anthony Weiner: I'm running for New York City mayor
Kate Middleton's Dress Flies Up
VIRAL: Baby makes epic soccer goal
The Hangover Baby All Grown Up
