(The Center Square) – The Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people ushered in a multitude of federal-level changes to prevent such an event from happening again.
1) Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
Before 9/11, transportation security, including aviation screening, was privatized. Airlines would contract with private security companies like Globe Security, which screened passengers for hijacked American Flight 11; Huntleigh USA, which screened passengers for hijacked United Flight 175; and Argenbright Security, which screened passengers for hijacked American Flight 77 and United Flight 93.
The Federal Aviation Administration set and enforced aviation security rules, which up until 9/11 did not prohibit knives with blades under four inches long.
In fact, the 9/11 Commission Report of 2004 reported that on a regular basis, “checkpoints performed poorly, often failing to detect even obvious FAA test items. Many deadly and dangerous items did not set off metal detectors, or were hard to distinguish in an X-ray machine from innocent everyday items.”
Though multiple al-Qaeda hijackers set off metal detectors on Sept. 11, 2001, they ultimately were allowed to board their flights after being hand-wanded or asked standard security questions.
“The rules were supposed to produce a ‘layered’ system of defense. This meant that the failure of any one layer of security would not be fatal, because additional layers would provide backup security,” the commission wrote.
“But each layer relevant to hijackings – intelligence, passenger prescreening, checkpoint screening, and onboard security – was seriously flawed prior to 9/11. Taken together, they did not stop any of the 9/11 hijackers from getting on board four different aircraft at three different airports,” they noted.
The creation of the TSA in December 2001 federalized transportation security, as well as tightened security protocol and restricted certain types or sizes of passenger items, such as sharp objects or, later, liquids.
TSA operates within the Department of Homeland Security, another government creation birthed from the 9/11 attacks.
2) Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
The government’s failure to prevent the catastrophe was due in large part to the decentralized and largely uncoordinated nature of its homeland security-related efforts, the commission found.
Throughout the summer of 2001, homeland security and intelligence agencies received an increase in reports about the possibility of an al-Qaeda attack, potentially within the U.S.
The threats were so vague, however, and information sharing among government agencies so restricted, that federal agencies never mobilized in response to the warnings, according to the commission report.
“The September 11 attacks fell into the void between the foreign and domestic threats,” the commission noted. “The foreign intelligence agencies were watching overseas, alert to foreign threats to U.S. interests there. The domestic agencies were waiting for evidence of a domestic threat from sleeper cells within the United States. No one was looking for a foreign threat to domestic targets.”
No security briefings held by the FAA ever discussed the possibility of suicide hijackings or the use of aircraft as weapons, the commission revealed, and no new security measures were implemented. Border security operations and electronic surveillance were also not primed for a terrorist attack.
Eleven days after 9/11, the White House created the Department of Homeland Security, “whose primary mission is to protect our homeland against terrorist threats,” as defined in the 2002 National Strategy for Homeland Security memo.
Congress authorized the department in that year, and it officially opened in 2003. DHS was created to serve “as the unifying core of the vast national network of organizations and institutions involved in homeland security.”
“To meet the terrorist threat, we must increase collaboration and coordination – in law enforcement and prevention, emergency response and recovery, policy development and implementation – so that public and private resources are better aligned to secure the homeland,” the memo stated.
DHS is currently comprised of 15 different agencies and offices, including TSA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the Secret Service, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Coast Guard.
3) National Joint Terrorism Task Force (NJTTF)
As part of that effort to improve communication and response, the Federal Bureau of Investigation established the National Joint Terrorism Task Force to support and coordinate the explosion of local JTTFs after 9/11.
The NJTTF, located at FBI Headquarters, complements JTTFs in local FBI field offices to improve collaboration and information sharing among state and local law enforcement and federal agencies when domestic terror incidents arise.
The first JTTF formed in the New York City FBI field office in 1980, but only 34 JTTFs existed – and operated mostly alone – when 9/11 happened.
“While useful, the JTTFs had limitations. They set priorities in accordance with regional and field office concerns, and most were not fully staffed,” the 9/11 commission noted.
“Before 9/11, with the exception of one portion of the FBI, very little of the sprawling U.S. law enforcement community was engaged in countering terrorism. Moreover, law enforcement could be effective only after specific individuals were identified, a plot had formed, or an attack had already occurred.”
Today, there are over 200 JTTFs, including one at each of the FBI’s 56 field offices.
