World News

America Under Attack: More to Come?

Written by Joshua Smith - 14th September, 2001

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In what has been an unbelievable series of events, today saw the arrests of eight people at the John F Kennedy airport on the east coast of the United States. The men were arrested on charges relating to holding false documentation, but it is believed that they may have had connections to the hijackers who tore at America's core earlier this week in a series of suicide bombings the likes of which the world has never seen.

Some of the men, including three that actually managed to board a plane before being drawn from the vessel by a last-minute SWAT raid, were reportedly identities present on a terrorist watchlist held by the country's investigative agencies, and all held false documents, makeshift weapons and knives. One was even found to be carrying a false pilot's license, and another trained to fly at one the same flight schools as two of the terrorists who smashed into the World Trade Center on Tuesday (Ausralian time).

Eyewitnesses raised alarm in response to the knowledge that four of the men had appeared at the airport prior to the fateful bombings, before fleeing the building when suspicions were raised about their identities.

Though it's near incomprehensible to consider the gall of any group that would willingly stage another massive offensive after causing such mayhem and triggering what is sure to be a violent and resolute sustained retaliatory effort, a major Indian online news publication yesterday reported that a communications interception between alleged supporter of the terrorist effort Osama bin Laden had boasted that there would be more strikes to come, including a second attempt at destroying the White House.

Yesterday, both a spokesperson from the FBI and the US Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed that the White House was indeed one target of the downed United Airlines Flight 93, and a contingency target of the craft that eventually collided with the Pentagon. The President has maintained his residence within the White House in the aftermath to the incident in a showing of strength and resilience against the enemy.

It was claimed also that security forces had received a credible claim from an individual citing confidential details of Air Force One's operations stating that the President's jet convoy would be the next target, though it is believed that the President's evasive tactics and the downing of Flight 93 put an end to that tangible threat.

Flight 93 was the only one of the four hijacked jets that failed to collide with a high-profile target - instead coming down in at a dramatic force within a Pennsylvanian cornfield. Drawing from evidence presented by family members of passenger Jeremy Glick, who phoned home during the early stages of the hijacking only to discover that the World Trade Center had been hit by a hijacked aircraft in a suicide attack, Mr Glick held a poll within the male ranks of the passengers on the flight and stated that the passengers have decided to make an attempt at regaining control of the aircraft from the terrorists. It is believed that their selfless acts of heroism were the cause of the craft's downfall, and the likely saving of several civilian lives.