 Book cover, first edition | |
| Author | Noam Chomsky |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Seven Stories Press |
Publication date | 1 November 2001 |
9-11 is a collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky first published in November 2001 in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. [1] The revised edition of 2011, 9-11: Was There an Alternative?, includes the entire text of the original book and a new essay by Chomsky, "Was There an Alternative?".
In the original edition of 9-11 of November 2001, Chomsky places the September 11 attacks in the context of past American intervention in the Middle East, Latin America, Indonesia, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. Chomsky warned against America increasing its reliance on military rhetoric and violence in response to the 9-11 attacks, and that escalation of violence as a response to violence would inevitably lead to more, and more devastating attacks on American civilians at home and around the world. [2]
9-11 is written in a question and answer format. It consists of seven sections, each with one or more interviews of Chomsky. Interviewers include Italian periodical Il Manifesto, Kevin Canfield of the Hartford Courant , David Barsamian, Radio B92 of Belgrade, Elise Fried, Peter Kreysler, Paola Leoni of Giornale del Popolo (Switzerland), Marili Margomenou of AlphaTV (Greece), Miguel Mora of El Pais (Spain), Natalie Levisalles of Liberation (France), and Michael Albert. [3]
The first edition of 9-11 was published in more than two dozen countries and appeared on several bestseller lists, including those of The Washington Post , the Los Angeles Times , The Boston Globe , and The New York Times . [4] An article about it in The New Yorker stated, "9-11 was practically the only counter-narrative out there at a time when questions tended to be drowned out by a chorus, led by the entire United States Congress, of 'God Bless America.' It was one of the few places where the other side of the case could be found." [5]
The extended edition of the book, published in September 2011, includes a new essay by Chomsky which examines the impact and consequences of US foreign policy up to the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and reflects on what may have resulted if the crimes against humanity committed on 9/11 had been "approached as a crime, with an international operation to apprehend the likely suspects." [2]
Al-Qaeda is a pan-Islamist militant organization led by Sunni Jihadists who self-identify as a vanguard spearheading a global Islamist revolution to unite the Muslim world under a supra-national Islamic state known as the Caliphate. Its members are mostly composed of Arabs, but also include people from other ethnic groups. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian, economic and military targets of the US and its allies; such as the 1998 US embassy bombings, the USS Cole bombing and the September 11 attacks. The organization is designated as a terrorist group by NATO, UN Security Council, the European Union, and various countries around the world.
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was a Saudi-born Islamic dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda from 1988 until his death in 2011. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, his organization is designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union, and various other countries. He is most widely known as the mastermind of the September 11 attacks in the United States.
The bin Laden family, also spelled bin Ladin, is a wealthy family intimately connected with the innermost circles of the Saudi royal family. It is the namesake and controlling shareholder of Saudi Binladin Group, a multinational construction firm. Following the September 11 attacks, the family became the subject of media attention and scrutiny through the activities of Osama bin Laden, the former head of al-Qaeda.
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The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. That morning, 19 terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners scheduled to travel from the New England and Mid-Atlantic regions of the East Coast to California. The hijackers crashed the first two planes into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, two of the world's five tallest buildings at the time, and aimed the next two flights toward targets in or near Washington, D.C., in an attack on the nation's capital. The third team succeeded in striking the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense in Arlington County, Virginia, while the fourth plane went down in rural Pennsylvania during a passenger revolt. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and instigated the multi-decade global war on terror.
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The Battle of Tora Bora was a military engagement that took place in the cave complex of Tora Bora, eastern Afghanistan, from November 30 – December 17, 2001, during the final stages of the United States invasion of Afghanistan. It was launched by the United States and its allies with the objective to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the founder and leader of the militant organization al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda and bin Laden were suspected of being responsible for the September 11 attacks three months prior. Tora Bora is located in the Spīn Ghar mountain range near the Khyber Pass. The U.S. stated that al-Qaeda had its headquarters there and that it was bin Laden's location at the time.
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Hamza bin Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden, better known as Hamza bin Laden, was a Saudi Arabian-born member of Al-Qaeda. He was a son of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and, following his father's death in 2011 and the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, he was described as an emerging leader of the Al-Qaeda organization.
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On May 2, 2011, United States President Barack Obama confirmed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in his compound in Abbottabad, northeastern Pakistan. Bin Laden's death was welcomed by many as a positive and significant turning point in the fight against al-Qaeda and related groups. Those who welcomed it included the United Nations, European Union, NATO, and some nations in Asia, Africa, Oceania, South America, and the Middle East, including Yemen, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, India, Israel, Indonesia, Somalia, the Philippines, Turkey, Iraq, Australia, Argentina, and the rebel Libyan Republic.
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