From the Archives: 9/11 from the perspective of Shepherd

Original publication date: September 24, 2001. 

These pieces, by former reporters of our organization, are a look back at how The Picket covered the events of September 11, 2001 in honor of the 25th anniversary. No changes have been made to the original three articles. 

Shepherd Mourns After Attacks: Terrorists Hit WTC, Pentagon

by Danny McCaslin, Picket Staff Writer

Three hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon Sept. 11 in a closely timed act of terrorism that rivals the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Two of the attacking commercial airliners brought both 110-story Trade Center Towers crashing into the ground. One plane, which officials now speculate was headed for the White House, cut a large hole in the Pentagon. A fourth plane was downed in Pennsylvania after what appears to be an attempt from the passengers to wrestle control of the plane from the terrorists. 

The first plane, American Airlines flight 11 with 92 people aboard, slammed into the North Tower at 8:48 a.m. in the morning. The second plane, United Airlines flight 175 with 65 on board, hit the South Tower at 9:04 a.m. Both planes originated in Boston en route to Los Angeles. 

Soon after, American Airlines flight 77 carrying 58 people crashed into the Pentagon, collapsing one side of the building. The South Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed less than 20 minutes later, wed shortly thereafter by the North Tower. Smoke and debris marred the New York skyline as firefighters attempted to fight blazes and get into the wreckage known as ground zero, soon to be called The Pit. 

A fourth plane carrying 38 passengers, United Airlines Flight 93 en route from Newark, NJ to San Francisco crashed just 80 miles south of Pittsburgh in Somerset County, PA. Speculation has it that the plane was headed for another target in Washington DC. 

In all, the four planes were carrying 266 people. 

The attacks sent shockwaves across the nation. Feeling of grief and solidarity spread across a nation glued to televisions and computers trying to get the news as it was happening. In a speech from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, President George W. Bush said, “Make no mistake, the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts.”

At Shepherd, the Student Affairs Office offered support services in the Rumsey Room of the College Center and in Shaw Hall throughout the day. At night students attended a candlelight vigil before attending a meeting sponsored by Student Affairs in the Storer Ballroom in which College President David Dunlap said that if closing the college would help the healing process he would do so immediately. However, he said that these actions would play into the hands of the terrorists. 

Around 5,000 people are still reported missing in the World Trade Center attack with 185 confirmed dead. Search and rescue parties are working around the clock in an attempt to rescue survivors but to no avail. No survivors have been found in the rubble surrounding The Pit. 

United States intelligence points to Osama Bin Laden, leader of the Al Qaeda movement and current suspect in a number of U.S. embassy bombings, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole, as the mastermind behind the attacks. The only thing known of Bin Laden’s current location is that he’s living in Afghanistan, where the radical Muslim Taliban are sheltering him. Both Bin Laden and the Taliban assert that he is innocent. 

After U.S. pressure, Pakistan has closed off borders with Afghanistan, stating that if Bin Laden does not give up the United States will bomb the Afghans. Taliban soldiers are setting up along the border in preparation for attack. 

Meanwhile, in America Red Cross offices across the country have been flooded with blood and supplies for the victims of the attacks. Although the nation is booming with a newfound sense of patriotism, hope is running short for those who may be trapped in the rubble, as rescue crews work around the clock to try to free them. 

Talking Heads: What is your response to the WTC/Pentagon attacks?

by Danny McCaslin and Mike Theis, Picket Staff Writers

“These people got into airplanes and killed thousands of innocent people. They felt that that was the only way that they could get their point across. I would personally like to see us recover, stop all the killing. We need to figure out what we’re doing as a country and how we can make it better.”

“My father was in the military and I was worried about where he was. I think this will change America in a lot of ways, just the idea that something like this could happen here. It’s dimmed the American Spirit in a way, but in a way it has brought it out even more.”

“At first it was shocking and then the shock turned to confusion and the confusion turned to anger. We have to retaliate. if we don’t the American people are going to feel more uncertain in the nation won’t live up to its name.”

“I think we need to retaliate but we need to retaliate to try to solve something not just to start a war because then it’ll be an endless war.”

“I think ideally the United States needs to work in a coalition with Muslim countries and create a world opinion that perceives these actions as not only terrible but non-muslim. They need to have these actions condemned in the Muslim world. I would love to see Bin Laden if he is behind this, tried in an Islamic court and executed under Islamic law.”

Opinion: War–What is it Good For? 

by Alex Cowles, Picket Staff Writer

Note: Such topics should well be confined to many large texts. The subject matter of such a broad, complex topic cannot be covered in the span of such a short article. Still, a simplistic communication of the con’s towards the implementation of military force in the Middle East and around the world brings some key issues to the table in regards to the understanding of such matters.

In a realistic sense, there is no doubt that dramatic action will be executed in light of Tuesday morning’s tragedy that has engulfed the world into further instability. Further, the United States has little choice but to implement devastating force in response to the tragedy and international terrorist offensive. 

Yet, through these deeply complex, volatile, modern times, it is far reaching thought and focused action that will hinder the pandemic abundance of conflict around the world and not reactionary policies of further destruction. 

By the time this article has been published, military actions may have already been carried out on the Middle East, targeting specifically Afghanistan. 

If we target terrorist organizations with direct military action, we are aiming our sights at organizations that find homes in the entire globe, including on our own soil. There is no way we can invade just one country and surgically remove all of the terrorist activity in the world.  Regardless of what we do, terrorists will continue. Are such broad multi-front line military campaigns realistically controllable?

With such an abstract, subjective or non-quantified enemy, are there any means to victorious ends through such maneuvers? The characteristics of military strategy and the global world have dramatically changed from the 20th century.

A military strategy that attacks and then leaves a territory will only perpetuate the terrorist impediment by inflaming anti-American sentiment in that area of the world.

Any method of persecution of proposed organizer Osama Bin Laden other than one by law will only give the organizations a martyr and which to further terrorize the nation and the world.

Leaders of the Taliban are instructing their people to prepare for a holy war, in response to preparations of the western military towards taking action against Afghanistan.

As in Vietnam, the geographical terrain of Afghanistan will drastically impede the effectiveness of a ground military campaign.

Realistically, the United States still has to use force to maintain its perceived strength and integrity, which might prove to hinder further terrorist attacks. Yet, in this area of war the primary course of action should center on broad economic and diplomatic responses that target drying up support for terrorists around the world, such as the attempt to gain Muslim support against Bin Laden’s brand of terror.

Although the way in which the terrorist manifested its concerns concerning the agenda and actions of developed western nations is horrific and devastatingly powerful, we not only as a nation, but also as a world have no  mature opinion but to bridge the understanding between our separate conflicting cultures.

In an ideological sense, the perpetuation of violence, horror and inhumanity in the form of wartime activity seems in no way an effective course of action to take in reaction to such similar stimuli. In this world of the growing global interrelations of all cultures, a certain unifying rule pertaining to the survival of a group of people is arising.

The world is linked in a vast array of methods ranging from economic, environmental, diplomatic and physical health. The ties go further and further. In those countries, cultures and organizations, whose people cannot begin to show compassion, empathy and understanding towards any other group in the world will find itself quickly in danger of survival. This is the state in which conflicting nations, cultures and organizations find themselves and now across the earth.

As the world has so dramatically awoken to change, thus the view of the interrelations of the sections of the world must also be re-examined. Other constructs, and which one views the world such as economics and environmental areas, it is understood that the cultures and nations of the world are inter linked in welfare and codependency in this new world.

This conception of the modern world must be carried over into the sphere of diplomacy not only for nations, but also of every culture and unique group residing on this planet.