Five Years On

Category: Terrorism, Security, and Defense Reform

Monday, September 11, 2006

Today is the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

So how close are we to getting a measure of justice for the people who died that day?

• Defense Tech: "Five years ago tomorrow, three thousand people were killed in my home town. And the bastards who masterminded this mass murder have gotten away with it, thanks in part to the actions of our government and its allies."
• Washington Post: "The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years."
• New York Times: "The Pakistani government signed a 'truce' with militants who have resisted Pakistani military efforts to gain control of [Waziristan]... Al Qaeda’s surviving leadership is suspected of using [Waziristan] as a base of operation to support international terrorist attacks, including possibly the July 2005 London subway bombings."
• Associated Press: "A CIA unit that had hunted for Osama bin Laden and his top deputies for a decade has been disbanded."
• Andrew Sullivan: "[The fifth anniversary of 9/11] will see the full unveiling of Karl Rove's fall [2006] election strategy. He's intending to line up 9/11 families to accuse [Senators] McCain, Warner and Graham of delaying justice for the perpetrators of that atrocity because they want to uphold the ancient judicial traditions of the U.S. military and abide by the Constitution."
• Anil Dash: "I feel as if we've failed in so many ways. All of us."