The phone was already ringing as I rushed back to my office after a harried, surreal all-hands meeting, quickly cobbled together after a second plane had smashed into the World Trade Center. An agent had interrupted the briefing just long enough to exclaim, “Oh my God, the Pentagon’s been hit.”
Grabbing the receiver, I heard a jittery young voice from the Federal Aviation Administration on the other end. There was still a plane aloft, United Flight 93, which was unresponsive to air traffic controllers, and on a direct path toward downtown Cleveland, where I sat on the 15th floor of the Federal Building. Like so many others throughout the East, we evacuated as quickly and calmly as we could, and upon making our way out onto the sidewalk, learned that United 93 had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, somewhere near a small town called Shanksville. Our Evidence Response Team immediately deployed to the site and the horrors they encountered there will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Dazed, exhausted and arriving home late, my dad called, checking in and letting me know he and mom were planning to head in to New York to see a show that weekend.
“Don’t go,” I said.
“Why? What do you know?” he asked, concerned.
“Nothing. Just don’t go. Promise me.”
We all have similar stories. Much like the attack on Pearl Harbor and assassination of JFK, the day’s events remain etched on our psyche. We vividly recall that day and those events in an historical vacuum, and the 10 years since feel more like a frenzied blur. According to a Heritage Foundation report, there have been 39 foiled terrorist plots in the U.S. over the past 10 years. A conservative estimate certainly, and even a small sampling disturbs:
• 2002: Terrorist Richard Reid hides explosives in his black hiking boots, hoping to blow up an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic. Reid pleads guilty in 2003 and is sentenced to life in prison.
• 2003: Lyman Faris, aka Mohammad Rauf, of Ohio, is sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support and resources to al-Qaeda for providing specifics on potential U.S. targets of interest.
• 2004: Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain are arrested in New York for money laundering and conspiring to support a terrorist group in connection with a plot to kill a Pakistani diplomat. Both received 15-year prison sentences.
• 2005: Hemant Lakhani is convicted in New Jersey on charges of attempting to sell shoulder-fire missiles to what he thought was a terrorist group intent on shooting down U.S. airliners. He is serving 47 years in prison.
• 2006: Adam Gadahn, aka Azzam the American, is indicted for treason (the first person so charged in the U.S. since 1952) in his support of al-Qaeda, and remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list.
• 2007: Hamid Hayat of Lodi, Calif., is sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges after attending a jihad training camp in Pakistan with the intent to “wage violent jihad” in the U.S.
• 2008: Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum, the “Toledo Terror Cell,” are convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts overseas, including against U.S. armed forces in Iraq.
• 2009: Najibullah Zazi is charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction – bombs – in New York City, pleading guilty in February 2010 and receiving a life sentence.
• 2010: Faisal Shahzad pleads guilty in Manhattan federal court for driving a car bomb into Times Square one month earlier. He is serving a life sentence in prison.
• 2011: Michael Finton, aka Talib Islam, is sentenced to 28 years for the attempted murder of federal employees in connection with a plan to detonate a vehicle bomb at the federal building in Springfield, Ill.
The list barely scratches the surface of the threat to the homeland, but it’s interesting to note that most of these criminals were so-called “homegrown terrorists,” born or naturalized Americans. And by all accounts, this refocuses our primary threat for the coming 10 years, and likely beyond.
Unquestionably, the recent retributive trifecta of deadly strikes against Osama bin Laden, Ilyas Kasmiri and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman have dealt a devastating blow to al-Qaeda worldwide operational capabilities. But as David Ignatius accurately portends in a recent Washington Post column, “When top U.S. officials summarize their view of al-Qaeda now, they describe an organization that is down, but certainly not out.”
As a community, as a nation, we still have much work ahead of us, and we’ll attack it as vigorously as ever. But on Sunday, let’s simply take time to remember the victims, the heroes and the survivors from that devastating event 10 years ago, and never cease to honor those who lost their lives through our commitment to preserve the American values we hold so dear.
Slotter is special agent in charge of the San Diego office of the FBI.
Grabbing the receiver, I heard a jittery young voice from the Federal Aviation Administration on the other end. There was still a plane aloft, United Flight 93, which was unresponsive to air traffic controllers, and on a direct path toward downtown Cleveland, where I sat on the 15th floor of the Federal Building. Like so many others throughout the East, we evacuated as quickly and calmly as we could, and upon making our way out onto the sidewalk, learned that United 93 had crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, somewhere near a small town called Shanksville. Our Evidence Response Team immediately deployed to the site and the horrors they encountered there will stay with them for the rest of their lives.
Dazed, exhausted and arriving home late, my dad called, checking in and letting me know he and mom were planning to head in to New York to see a show that weekend.
“Don’t go,” I said.
“Why? What do you know?” he asked, concerned.
“Nothing. Just don’t go. Promise me.”
We all have similar stories. Much like the attack on Pearl Harbor and assassination of JFK, the day’s events remain etched on our psyche. We vividly recall that day and those events in an historical vacuum, and the 10 years since feel more like a frenzied blur. According to a Heritage Foundation report, there have been 39 foiled terrorist plots in the U.S. over the past 10 years. A conservative estimate certainly, and even a small sampling disturbs:
• 2002: Terrorist Richard Reid hides explosives in his black hiking boots, hoping to blow up an American Airlines flight over the Atlantic. Reid pleads guilty in 2003 and is sentenced to life in prison.
• 2003: Lyman Faris, aka Mohammad Rauf, of Ohio, is sentenced to 20 years in prison for providing material support and resources to al-Qaeda for providing specifics on potential U.S. targets of interest.
• 2004: Yassin Aref and Mohammed Hossain are arrested in New York for money laundering and conspiring to support a terrorist group in connection with a plot to kill a Pakistani diplomat. Both received 15-year prison sentences.
• 2005: Hemant Lakhani is convicted in New Jersey on charges of attempting to sell shoulder-fire missiles to what he thought was a terrorist group intent on shooting down U.S. airliners. He is serving 47 years in prison.
• 2006: Adam Gadahn, aka Azzam the American, is indicted for treason (the first person so charged in the U.S. since 1952) in his support of al-Qaeda, and remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list.
• 2007: Hamid Hayat of Lodi, Calif., is sentenced to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges after attending a jihad training camp in Pakistan with the intent to “wage violent jihad” in the U.S.
• 2008: Mohammad Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi and Wassim Mazloum, the “Toledo Terror Cell,” are convicted of conspiracy to commit terrorist acts overseas, including against U.S. armed forces in Iraq.
• 2009: Najibullah Zazi is charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction – bombs – in New York City, pleading guilty in February 2010 and receiving a life sentence.
• 2010: Faisal Shahzad pleads guilty in Manhattan federal court for driving a car bomb into Times Square one month earlier. He is serving a life sentence in prison.
• 2011: Michael Finton, aka Talib Islam, is sentenced to 28 years for the attempted murder of federal employees in connection with a plan to detonate a vehicle bomb at the federal building in Springfield, Ill.
The list barely scratches the surface of the threat to the homeland, but it’s interesting to note that most of these criminals were so-called “homegrown terrorists,” born or naturalized Americans. And by all accounts, this refocuses our primary threat for the coming 10 years, and likely beyond.
Unquestionably, the recent retributive trifecta of deadly strikes against Osama bin Laden, Ilyas Kasmiri and Atiyah Abd al-Rahman have dealt a devastating blow to al-Qaeda worldwide operational capabilities. But as David Ignatius accurately portends in a recent Washington Post column, “When top U.S. officials summarize their view of al-Qaeda now, they describe an organization that is down, but certainly not out.”
As a community, as a nation, we still have much work ahead of us, and we’ll attack it as vigorously as ever. But on Sunday, let’s simply take time to remember the victims, the heroes and the survivors from that devastating event 10 years ago, and never cease to honor those who lost their lives through our commitment to preserve the American values we hold so dear.
Slotter is special agent in charge of the San Diego office of the FBI.
Sign On San Diego
