9/ 11 and the end of US hegemony

In 2001, USA was doing pretty good. A dastardly attack and ten years later, things have surely changed and the flux has not yet died.

On the dawn of 9/ 11 in 2001, the United States of America was riding high. It had a surplus budget, oil prices were low, the economy was doing fairly well and the country's armed forces were in their barracks.

But by the time the sun had set, it was clear that the country would never be the same again. Ten years later we know just how much it has changed. It has spent more than two trillion dollars in wars that show no signs of ending. Its economy is adrift and its people tired and confused.

The road that America set off on in the wake of the attack on the Twin Towers was not unexpected; very quickly, its armed forces overwhelmed the Taliban, and the Al Qaeda lost its sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

But then, inexplicably it veered off and attacked Saddam Hussein and overthrew his regime. This is when the US lost the moral high ground and many felt that it was American power that had now gone rogue.

The tragedy of 9/ 11 was not responsible for the global financial crisis of 2008. But the meltdown has powerfully reinforced the trend that the world is witnessing the end of American hegemony.

The markers are the milestones of the past decade - China overtaking Germany to become the biggest exporter, leading the world in the consumption of virtually everything, and overtaking the US to become the biggest market for cars.

On the other hand, the US appears to be stagnating. Its politics is gridlocked and somewhat unreal. One party insists that the gaping deficit be fought with even more tax cuts, while the other proposes schemes that expand healthcare and the deficit, without noticing that the big challenge for most Americans is to hold down jobs and get a roof back over their heads.

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Post-9/11 battle not over: Tony Blair

Tony Blair, the international statesman most closely tied to the response to the Sept. 11 attacks, believes the decade-long struggle to contain the threat from Islamic extremism is far from over, despite the killing of al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.

The former British prime minister, who famously vowed to stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the United States and took a leading role in the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in the face of domestic unease, told The Associated Press that potent threats still persist -- including in nations swept by the revolutions of the Arab Spring.

"It's completely wrong," to think the struggle to defeat extremist ideology is won, Blair said in an interview. "We shouldn't be under any doubt about this at all. Unfortunately, as I say, this ideology is far broader than the methods of al-Qaida."

"You look at Lebanon, for example and how Hezbollah have taken control there, you look at the activities of Hamas. Yemen I'm afraid, it's a long way off being resolved," Blair said. "Even in a country like Pakistan, with some strong institutions by the way, that it's still an issue, so the struggle is by no means over, but it's the right struggle to be engaged in."

Blair also expressed concern over the uprisings which have shaken the Middle East and North Africa, insisting that the West must act as "players and not spectators" to help democracy flourish from the Arab Spring.

"We've got a long way to go because some of the people getting rid of these regimes don't necessarily want the same thing as others getting rid of them," Blair said, questioning the possible role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt's future.

"These people will need our help and support in transitioning to proper democracy," Blair said. "That isn't just about the freedom to vote in and out your government, it's about freedom of the media, freedom of expression, freedom of religion, about open markets -- and there's a long way to go on that I fear."
With the hunt on for Moammar Gadhafi, Blair acknowledged his horror over the Libyan's repression of his people, even as he defended his own instrumental role in returning Gadhafi to the international fold -- a deal sealed with a handshake in a 2004 meeting inside a tent.

Blair said "it was shocking and it's a profound shame" to see Gadhafi use violence against his own people in an attempt to cling to power.

But he said his Libya policy made the world a safer place.

"People saying 'don't you feel you shouldn't have dealt with Gadhafi now', of course we should deal with him, because we got him to change his policy on nuclear and chemical weapons, which was vitally important for the world security, and instead of sponsoring terrorism, they were cooperating in the fight against it," he said.

"The trouble is that the external policy change wasn't matched by the internal one," Blair said. "Then when he brutalizes his own people, then the action against him is completely justified."

Blair insisted that he had been right to join the U.S. in confronting the terrorism threat after 9/11, despite warnings from his own spy chief that combat overseas risked radicalizing a generation of Muslims at home.

"The fact that when we were prepared to stand up with America against this terrorism these people then want to target us more, that's not a reason for leaving the front-line and letting others do the fighting. That's not my view of life, I'm afraid," Blair told the AP in an interview.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, director of domestic intelligence agency MI5 between 2002 and 2007, has repeatedly claimed that Blair paid too little attention to warnings that the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq would fuel homegrown terrorism.

Four suicide bombers who killed 52 commuters in the July 2005 terrorist attacks on London's transit network -- the worst al-Qaida directed attacks on the U.K. -- cited the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan in their martyrdom videos.

"I'm afraid I don't take the view that if somebody is doing something wrong and you stand up to them, and they then decide to come after you, that that means you don't try to stop them doing it," Blair said in an interview last week.

The 58-year-old, now envoy to the Quartet of Middle East peacemakers, saw his decade-long leadership of Britain defined by his decision to side with U.S. President George W. Bush in the pursuit of Islamist extremists and rogue regimes.

He saw the wave of popularity that swept him to office in 1997 erode as Britain entered two divisive wars, curtailed civil liberties and battled with the courts -- and public opinion -- over how to handle terrorism suspects both in Britain, and overseas. Blair suffered ridicule from his critics, cast derisively as Bush's "poodle."

Though hundreds of thousands of British people marched against the decision to join the 2003 Iraq invasion, Blair later led his Labour Party to victory in a 2005 national election, winning with a reduced majority.

Allegations that Britain colluded in the mistreatment of terrorist suspects overseas in the frantic years after 9/11 are now being investigated by an independent inquiry. Foreign Secretary William Hague claims the study is necessary to "clear the stain from our reputation as a country."

Blair told the AP that mistakes were made in the years after the 2001 attacks, particularly in preparations for post-conflict security and reconstruction in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It would be an odd situation if you, with the benefit of hindsight, wouldn't have done things differently and better than they were done, and obviously there's a whole set of issues around planning and decisions that were taken in the immediate aftermath of both Afghanistan and Iraq," Blair said.

A two-year British inquiry into the Iraq war is scheduled to report within months on whether Blair's government overstated the case for invasion and failed to prepare for the task of nation building.

Blair acknowledged that immediately after 9/11, Britain and the U.S. had only a limited understanding of the threat posed by Islamic fundamentalism, and said he had never anticipated that troops would remain in Afghanistan a decade after they first deployed on a mission to oust the Taliban -- who had harbored al-Qaida leaders.

"I didn't think for a moment that we would still be engaged in an ongoing struggle 10 years later in Afghanistan," Blair said. "But I think that underscores the limitations of our knowledge at the time -- that this is actually, I'm afraid, a far deeper and broader movement than we understood."

Foreign troops will end their combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014, as leaders bet that local police and military forces can contain security threats and that political leaders can deliver a negotiated settlement with insurgents.

"Am I confident that it will be better after 2014? I think we're going have to carry on working at it," said Blair, who resigned as prime minister in June 2007.

As the 9/11 attacks took place, Blair was working alone in a hotel suite in Brighton, a southern England coastal resort, readying a speech to a rally of labor union leaders.

He never made those intended remarks, instead addressing the convention with a brief message of sympathy and a vow that there would be a robust response. The world's democracies would "eradicate this evil completely from our world," he told the hushed audience.

Blair described to the AP how he felt calm and determined in the hours after the attacks, quickly concluding that strikes were a blow aimed at Western values, not just the U.S. Already, he understood the impact the events would have on his own political career.

"We have just got to sometimes try and recapture the emotion and the feeling of that moment," Blair said, recalling how he recognized there would be a need to rally other nations to show support for the U.S.

"At the time, the feeling I had was one of almost a strange sort of calm, in a sense of I know what is behind this and the world has changed from this moment," Blair said. "I didn't anticipate this coming in my premiership -- I had a huge and busy domestic agenda -- but nonetheless, we have to understand that the world is a different place from now on."

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New Jersey Muslim: From 9/11 detainee lawyer to judge

As the rubble of ground zero smoldered in the months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the investigation was just as hot across the Hudson River in New Jersey.

In this photo of July 26, 2011, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Sohail Mohammed raises his right hand as he is administered the oath of office by his mentor, retired Passaic County Assignment Judge Robert J. Passero, left, at Mohammed's ceremonial swearing in in Paterson, N.J. Mohammed represented many people rounded up in New Jersey in the post-9/11 dragnet. Along the way, he gained the respect and friendship of many top law enforcement officials for his efforts to build bridges between the Muslim community and law enforcement and to help defuse tensions in those incredibly tense days.

More than 1,100 Arabs and Muslims -- most of them from New York and northern New Jersey -- were rounded up and detained as the FBI feverishly searched for additional terrorists.

In few places was the spotlight as white-hot as in Paterson, where as many as six of the 9/11 hijackers lived or spent time in the weeks before the attacks. As agents went knocking on doors, asking questions about religious practices, finances and acquaintances, many Muslims were cowering on the other side, terrified of being thrown in jail for crimes they knew nothing about.

A young, soft-spoken Muslim immigration attorney named Sohail Mohammed represented many people rounded up in New Jersey in the post-9/11 dragnet. Along the way, he gained the respect and friendship of many top law enforcement officials for his efforts to build bridges between the Muslim community and law enforcement and to help defuse tensions in those incredibly tense days. He won over one official whose favor would prove crucial nearly a decade later: the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie.

Christie, now the state's governor and a darling of the Republican party, nominated Mohammed to a Superior Court judgeship. Mohammed was sworn into office last week, becoming New Jersey's second Muslim judge.
Mohammed, 47, says his religion has nothing to do with how he'll perform his new job.

"My faith, my ethnicity: that means nothing here," he said. "It's not an issue."

Not everyone agreed.

After Christie nominated Mohammed in January for the judgeship, the tough-talking, crime-busting former federal prosecutor found himself accused of cozying up to Islamic radicals. "Governor Christie's Dirty Islamist Ties," one of the kinder Internet headlines read.

Christie, whom GOP loyalists are now begging to run for president, stuck with Mohammed despite a vicious campaign by conservative bloggers who denounced Christie and raised fears that Mohammed would introduce Islamic Sharia law into the courts.

"Sohail Mohammed is an extraordinary American who is an outstanding lawyer who played an integral role post-9/11 in building bridges between the Muslim community and law enforcement," Christie said. "I was there; I saw it.

"Sharia law has nothing to do with this. It's crazy," Christie said. "This Sharia law business is crap; it's crazy and I'm tired of dealing with crazies. I'm happy he's willing to serve after all this baloney."

The fallout from the terror attacks was quick and extreme in Paterson, home to the nation's second-largest Arab-American community after Dearborn, Mich. Carloads of people descended on the city's Arab quarter, screaming obscenities and throwing things at veiled women on the sidewalk. Some radio hosts broadcast -- falsely -- that Arabs were dancing in the streets and on rooftops when the World Trade Center's towers fell.
Robert Passero, Passaic County's Superior Court assignment judge at the time, was feeling the pressure as well.

"They were recommending I close the courthouse because tempers were high," he said. "There were people from out of town riding through south Paterson making threats. It was very tense."

Passero had known Mohammed for years, taking an interest in him after the young man sat through one of his cases as a juror, then implausibly called the judge's office the following week to say he loved jury duty so much he wanted to do it again. Seeing the makings of a future lawyer, the judge encouraged Mohammed to go to law school, then mentored him along the way, even as Mohammed started a solo practice concentrating on immigration law.

Mohammed would get numerous calls each week from worried Muslims saying FBI agents had knocked on their doors and asked for personal information, including where they worshipped, the names of others who attended the mosque and whether they had ever declared bankruptcy.

"After 9/11 we wanted to forge a better relationship with the Muslim community, we wanted to understand them better, we wanted them to understand us better, explain our job, and that we are there to protect them, too," said Charles McKenna, an assistant U.S. attorney at the time and now head of New Jersey's Office of Homeland Security. "But we didn't have many entrees into that community. Through Sohail, we were able to go in and meet with a lot of the elders of the community. I think that community was a little afraid of the government at that time. A person with his gravitas gave us a foot in the door."

Mohammed undertook several initiatives that eased the mistrust and increased understanding between both sides.

He and other leaders of New Jersey's Muslim community met with FBI and other law enforcement agencies to educate them on Islam and Muslim culture. He helped arrange a job fair at a mosque in which the agencies recruited Muslims for law enforcement jobs. At the time, none of the more than 300 FBI agents assigned to New Jersey spoke Arabic.

Not long afterward, Mohammed and others offered to speak to law enforcement to explain Islam and Muslim culture. By all accounts, the sessions went well. They eventually were expanded beyond the FBI to other agencies, including the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

"It was a tough crowd, but you have to have understanding," Mohammed recalled. "When you are ignorant about something or someone, that brings fear. If you get to know someone and more about them, you remove that fear and we can see people for who they are."

Mohammed began noticing a trend in federal immigration court after Sept. 11: The FBI was clearing suspects -- or at least admitting it had lost interest in them as terror suspects -- long before the courts dealt with their cases. As a result, many were languishing in county jails for months because the court system was overwhelmed.

One was a 19-year-old gas station attendant in Ocean County who shared the same name as Taliban leader Mohamed Omar. He came to the FBI's attention when customers recalled a co-worker at the station who bore a resemblance to 9/11 hijacker Marwan al-Shehhi and told the agency they remembered someone pumping gas who might have been one of the terrorists.

He wasn't, but the resulting attention led to Omar's detention on charges he had violated his tourist visa by working in the U.S. In less than a week, an immigration judge ordered him deported to his native Egypt. But he remained in custody for nearly four months, with Sohail Mohammed appearing in court repeatedly and inquiring about the delay.


Mohammed became ingratiated to many in law enforcement over time, which he attributes to his willingness to consider an opposing viewpoint.

"Even when I was an attorney, I would tell my clients you have to look at this from the other side, too," he said. "There was a balancing test between civil liberties and national security. We need both. I think that's why I earned the respect of law enforcement because I always emphasized both. You are defending this country every time you are serving justice."

Christie said Mohammed was a willing partner in peace.

"When we reached out our hands, the person who most vigorously and most frequently grabbed it back was Sohail Mohammed," the governor said.

Mohammed's confirmation hearing before the state Senate included two hours of grilling, including inquires about Sharia, the Islamic legal code, jihad and Hamas -- questions few if any other state court judges have had to answer.

The current U.S. attorney for New Jersey, Paul Fishman, said those critics equated a Muslim-American's desire to serve his country to "an act of treachery."

"What is disturbing and revolting to me is the number of people who seem to believe that a Muslim has no place on the bench," he said. But proof to the contrary was all around during Mohammed's swearing-in ceremony.

"Sohail, take a good look around you," Fishman told him. "Look at who we are and why we are here -- lawyers, judges, doctors, accountants, engineers, homemakers, police, prosecutors, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, probably even a few atheists, Palestinians and Israelis, Yankee fans and Met fans. That we all came is a testament to you. Years from now it will not be so notable that a Muslim serves on the Superior Court, and no one will ask if a nominee will follow Sharia law instead of American law."

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9/11 remembered in worldwide ceremonies

Ten years on from the day the 9/11 terrorist attacks changed so much for so many people, the world's leaders and millions of citizens are pausing to reflect.

A member of the U.S. Marines carries their national flag past a man wearing a stars and stripes shirt during a special service to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, at a church in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011. The US team will play Ireland in their opening Rugby World Cup game later today.

From Sydney to Atlanta, formal ceremonies are planned or already under way to remember the nearly 3,000 who perished from more than 90 countries. And, in a reminder that threats remain, authorities in Washington and New York are beefing up security in response to intelligence about possible plans for a car bomb attack.

For some people, the pain never stops. In Malaysia, Pathmawathy Navaratnam woke up Sunday in her suburban Kuala Lumpur home and did what she's done every day for the past 10 years: wish her son "Good morning." But Vijayashanker Paramsothy, a 23-year-old financial analyst, was killed in the attacks on New York.

"He is my sunshine. He has lived life to the fullest, but I can't accept that he is not here anymore," said Navaratnam. "I am still living, but I am dead inside."

In Manila, dozens of former shanty dwellers offered roses, balloons and prayers for another 9/11 victim, American citizen Marie Rose Abad. The neighborhood used to be a shantytown that reeked of garbage. But in 2004, Abad's Filipino-American husband built 50 brightly colored homes, fulfilling his late wife's wish to help impoverished Filipinos.

The village has since been named after her.

"It's like a new life sprang from the death of Marie Rose and so many others," said villager Nancy Waminal.

U.S. Marines stand to attention during a special service to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, at a church in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011.

In New Zealand, players from the American Eagles rugby team were among the first to mark the anniversary at a Sunday memorial service in the town of New Plymouth. The players, who are participating in the Rugby World Cup tournament, listened to a speech by U.S. ambassador David Huebner, whose brother Rick survived the attacks on the World Trade Center.

"We watched live on television the brutal murder of 3,000 individuals," Huebner said. "We reacted with near unanimous horror and sadness."

"As we mark the 10th anniversary of that day, we commemorate the triumph of human kindness, and the humanity and self-abrogation which sets us apart from every other species on this planet Earth."

In Australia, Sydney resident Rae Tompsett said she's never felt angry over the murder of her son Stephen Tompsett, 39, a computer engineer who was on the 106th floor of the World Trade Center's north tower when it was hit by a hijacked plane.

"No, not anger," she said. "Sorrow. Sorrow that the people who did this believed they were doing something good."

The retired school teacher and her husband Jack, 92, were planning to attend Sunday morning mass as usual at their local church before going to a commemorative service in the afternoon.

"It's incredible that it is 10 years -- it feels a bit like yesterday," Tompsett said.

A uniform from the NYPD is displayed during a special service to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, at a church in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011.

South Korea's President Lee Myung-bak sent a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama, conveying his "deepest condolences" to the victims of the 9/11 tragedy, their bereaved families and the American public. Lee, whose country is one of the strongest allies of the United States, called the attacks "unpardonable" and praised decade-long U.S. efforts to fight terrorism.

And leaders in Pakistan, which has been a victim of al-Qaida terrorism but is also accused of not doing enough to crack down on militants, said they joined the people of the U.S. in honoring the memory of those killed 10 years ago.

"As a country that has been severely affected by terrorism, we reaffirm our national resolve to strengthening international cooperation for the elimination of terrorism," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Meanwhile, authorities in New York and Washington are increasing security for their 9/11 memorial services after intelligence agents got a tip that three al-Qaida members could be planning to set off a car bomb in one of the cities. Officials have found no evidence any terrorists have sneaked into the country.

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Pak heaps praise on itself in US paper ad on 9/11 anniversary

 
Pakistan has made an attempt to reach out to the American public, telling them that it has been a victim, not the perpetrator of terrorism.


Pak heaps praise on itself in US paper

As the United States observes the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Pakistan has availed this opportunity to tell the Americans that it was with them in the fight against terrorists.

"Which country can do more for your peace? Since 2001, a nation of 180 million has been fighting for the future of the world's 7 billion," said an advertisement published in The Wall Street Journal.

Pakistan had first offered this ad to The New York Times, but they refused to publish it, forcing Pakistani officials to go to a business newspaper with a specialised but influential readership, the Dawn reports.

The ad informs the American public that since 9/11, 21,672 Pakistani civilians have lost their lives or have been seriously injured in an ongoing fight against terror.



The Pakistan Army also has lost 2,795 soldiers, while 8,671 soldiers have been wounded. There have been 3,486 bomb blasts and 283 major suicide attacks.

More than 3.5 million have been displaced, while the country has lost 68 billion dollars due to terrorism.

The Pakistani nation is "making sacrifices that statistics cannot reflect", says a caption above a picture of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was also assassinated by terrorists in December 2007. "The promise of our martyrs lives on," it adds.

Despite these sacrifices, the Pakistan stays engaged in "the war for world peace", with 200,000 troops deployed at the frontline and 90,000 soldiers fighting on the Afghan border, the ad says.

"Can any other country do so? Only Pakistan," says the advertisement published as an official notice from the Government of Pakistan.

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