American History: Life in the U.S. After the 9/11 Attacks

05 April 2012

An Amtrak police officer stands guard at a track entrance at Pennsylvania Station in New York on September 9, 2011

STEVE EMBER: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

This week in our series, we look at America after the events of September eleventh, two thousand one.

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DAN RATHER: "A stunning and cowardly strike on the United States. Terrorists send mighty skyscrapers crumbling to the ground. Many innocent people are dead. The president vows the killers will pay for this attack on America."

The United States changed as a result of the September eleventh terrorist attacks. CBS newsman Dan Rather expressed what many Americans were feeling.

DAN RATHER: "You will remember this day as long as you live. A series of coordinated terror strikes today at this country, its people, our freedom. Strikes that came without warning."

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On the morning of that sunny September day that came to be known as 9/11, the nation came under attack from al-Qaida, an extremist group led by Osama bin Laden. Its targets were world-famous buildings representing America's economic and military power.

Al-Qaida operatives hijacked four American passenger airplanes. The hijackers were from Middle Eastern countries. Each group included a pilot trained to fly two kinds of Boeing airliners, the 757 and the 767.