Political Science

The September 11th terrorist attacks which were carried out by the Al Qaeda organization refers to a series of suicide attacks that were well coordinated upon US on 11th September, 2001. On that fateful morning, nineteen terrorists linked to the Al-Qaeda organization hijacked four jet airliners. The hijackers then deliberately crashed two of these airliners into the World Trade Center hitting the Twin Towers in the city of New York. As a result, everyone on board was killed and several others who were working in the crashed buildings. The two buildings collapsed in a span of two hours, causing a lot of destruction to the neighboring buildings. The terrorist chose to use jetliners in this particular attack as it was least thought by the US security services that they could use such a means to attack. In this particular attack, they did not carry weapons that were prohibited by the security authorities at the airports such as explosives. They carried knives with them, which they used to stab the flight attendants. Since their aim was to kill as many Americans as possible, they then decided to use the hijacked planes as weapons and therefore crashed them into various buildings in order to cause loss of lives to the American people. Due to the crash, 2995 people lost their lives together with all the nineteen hijackers died, while the number of those injured stood at 2,976. The vast majority of the causalities were civilians who included nationals from more than 90 countries. Furthermore, death of at least one person was reported, the individual died from a lung illness which was reported to have been as a result of excessive exposure to the dust emanating from the collapse of the World Trade Center (Dolfman and Wasser, Para, 2).

Motives and ideologies of the Al- Qaeda during the September 11th attack
The fatwa that was signed or written by the Osama who is the Al-Qaeda leader in the years 1996 and 1998 demands that the US troops in Saudi Arabia be withdrawn. In the 1998 fatwa, Osama together with other Al-Qaeda leaders expressed their disappointments with the continued stay of the American troops on the lands they claimed that are the most holy as far as Muslims are concerned. The Al-Qaeda thus used the attack as a means of compelling the American government to withdraw its troops from these holy lands. The Al-Qaeda argues that the US invasion has not benefited the Muslims in any way.  They have in fact lost immensely as a result of the invasion through their riches being plundered, their leaders being dictated by the Americans, people being humiliated in their own land, terrorizing the neighboring regions, and also making its peninsula bases a spearhead for fighting the surrounding Muslim people. In order to make the American government from all these, the Al Qaeda constantly looks for ways in which to make their powerful enemy to stop oppressing them (Seib, Para 4).

The genesis of the Al-Qaeda organization started in the late 1970s following the invasion of the Afghanistan by the Soviet Union. It emerged as an Islamist radical movement, with the ideology of restoring Islamic and make the religion not just a relationship between mankind and the creator, but as a way of life. This terrorist organization seeks to establish states that are fully Islamic, implement the sharia law and also do away with the non Muslim world together with its influences. The Al-Qaeda organization is mainly based in Afghanistan where for a long time have had its save havens. However, following the September 11th attack which triggered the war on terrorism, the organization now operates in a decentralized manner in several countries around the world. The Al-Qaeda organization draws its new members from the young men of the Muslim world. They are then trained the ideologies of the organization and are made to pay their allegiance to the organizations leader. They are trained in the harsh environment of deserts where they are made to endure the harsh conditions (Steadman, Para 5).

Contrary to a very popular belief that the organization is mainly funded by its leader, it is actually funded through a very complex network of fundraising that is mainly fueled by several financial facilitators before being diverted into the organization. Before the September 11th attack in US, the financial facilitators to the organization used to raise money from donors based in the gulf region, especially Saudi Arabia. After the collection of the money, through the financial facilitators and donations, the collected money is then moved to hawala, which is a traditional method of keeping money that is trust based. Although there is no evidence that Osama or any other Al-Qaeda leader uses banks, there is a possibility that the hawalas uses banks to either transfer the money or hold it (Dolfman, and Wasser, Para, 6).  

The Al-Qaeda used the media in the September 11th attack to propagate its propaganda and ideologies so that the public could sympathize with the organization. The media had a very tough task of assisting people to comprehend the events of the attack, and the continuing war on terrorism. The Al-Qaeda took advantage of the significant role of the media of offering broad understandings and perspectives of this terrorist attack (Anderson, Para 7).  

History, failure and successes of the organization
There are five phases that are distinct concerning Al Qaedas development the first is the late 1980s followed by the period of wilderness between the years 1990 and 1996, then the heyday period running between 1996 and 2001. The period between 2001 and 2005 is the network period and finally there is the current fragmentation period, which started in 2005. The Al-Qaeda organization has for several years used modus operandi, which basically means methods of operation to carryout their attacks. The organization uses modus operandi in a criminal sense of profiling the methods to apply in crime execution. They also use it for offender profiling, and in which case they apply it to search for some clues concerning the psychology of the perpetrator. The threat of terrorism is very much real since the terrorist are not known in relenting on their mission. It is even worse since the terrorist are ready to die for what they believe in and not even the massive invasion by the American government has made them to give up on their war. In terms of striking, the terrorists are very much unpredictable but they will always aim at striking areas where they can kill as many Americans as possible. The group has had a series of very successful suicide attacks killing Americans and other nationalities. However, it has not succeeded in accomplishing its overall objective, that of making the Muslim faith a way of life for everyone (Seib, Para 8).

The governments are supposed to respond to these wars by weakening all the networks of the organization especially its funding networks so that it can become weak both financially and in terms of military force. It would also be very important for the American government to look for opportunities of holding diplomatic talks with the Muslim world so that the real underlying issues can be fully addressed as it is only through such talks that terrorism and not terrorists can be fought and won. For new laws, the governments should put in place stiffer anti terrorism laws aimed at protecting their citizens from threats of terrorism (Anderson, Para 10).