9/11 attacks are one of the deadliest attacks on the American soil. United States changed its strategies towards its fight against global terrorism after 9/11. This ghastly attack claimed more than 3000 humans including hundreds of law enforcement officials, as well as, fire officers. There are various theories on 9/11, and some of them suggest that there were communication related lacunas in working of law enforcement agencies and fire department. This paper proposes a discussion on 9/11 and further analyses how various agencies faced communication related problems, along with discussing steps taken by US law enforcement in order to address such distressing incidents.
The attack of 9/11 was a series of suicidal attacks by Al Qaeda Islamic extremists wherein 19 terrorists hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicidal attacks at different places of strategical importance. One Boeing 767 plane of American airlines was flown into 80th floor of north tower of New York’s world trade Centre at about 8:45AM on 11th September, 2001. Hundreds of people were killed at the spot and several others were trapped into the building. People thought it was an accident, but just 18 minutes later, another Boeing 767 collided with south tower of world trade Centre and caused enormous damage to human lives and property. One of hijacked planes was collided into pentagon, while fourth plane was crashed in Pennsylvania (Naiman and Roberts, 2011).
Attacks of 9/11 revealed that United States was not ready for such attack. 9/11 caused huge loss of human lives and it also destroyed property of trillions. US suggested its citizens to return into US and also suggested them to not go into certain specific countries. The whole nation was into a state of awe and shock by the incident. Law enforcement agencies were shocked by 9/11 and they were compelled to analyze their security arrangements. US declared Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) and vowed to eliminate terrorist organizations, especially Al Qaeda (Riley et al., 2005).
United States of America was under attack and it posed a huge change for law enforcement agencies and Fire Department of New York City (FDNY). Police department, as well as fire department, faced some serious communication related problems during their rescue operations after the incident. Some of these problems were triggered because of limited coverage after collapse of buildings, while some of them occurred because of poor efficiency of communication equipment that were used by fire department personnel.
It is believed that some suspicious radio tapes were captured and flashed on police radio sets that hinted out something dangerous. Some police officials even managed to escape after hearing this video tape but it was not available to fire department personnel. Their radio system was frequently down that morning and they could not hear that message. Firefighters were unable to communicate as their radio system was failed properly and they were stumbled by technical difficulties during communicating with one another (Riley et al., 2005).
It was ironic that two most important bodies, firefighters and police department officials that were supposed to play the most important role in during rescue operation could not talk to each other. These departments could not coordinate and failed badly in sharing their strategies and crucial information to one another. Fire personnel faced difficulties in sharing information and they could not decide appropriate strategies for others or even themselves. They entered into towers but were unable to decide what to do or when to evacuate due to lack of communication with their colleagues. Albert J. Turi, Deputy Assistant Chief of fire department who participated in the operation, accepted “I wasn't getting communications and I couldn't communicate into the building” (Burton, 2006, p.73).
FDNY Press Secretary Steve Ritea addressed press on the issue of communication related problems and said “The impact of two planes crashing into the towers compromised some of the communications infrastructure within the towers, with the complexity and size of the incident making point-to-point communications difficult” (Careless and Bischoff, 2011). Steve Ritea accepted communication related difficulties and added that “The destruction caused by the planes and the associated fires contributed to our inability to communicate reliably” (Careless and Bischoff, 2011).
Attacks of 9/11 revealed that public safety communications were not adequate and our agencies were not well prepared for any such incident. However a number of steps have been taken in order to strengthen communication system after the ghastly incidents of 9/11. FDYN started a dedicated operation center that coordinates with other agencies in case of any catastrophic event. All the existing instruments are replaced with latest instruments and the center is equipped with latest technology. The department is equipped with amenities that were not available prior to 9/11.
After going through attacks of 9/11 and communication related difficulties, faced by law enforcement agencies and fire department, it can be concluded that attack of 9/11 was one of the ghastliest attacks on the American soil. Fire department and police department was not ready for such attacks and they failed in coordinating with one another. These departments also faced communication related problems while dealing with the issue. However a number of steps have been taken to improve the situation and to avoid any unfortunate situation of this kind.
References
Burton, S. L. (2006). Crisis Management and National Emergency Response. USA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Careless, J., and Bischoff, G. (2011, April 01). What a difference a decade makes. Retrieved from Urgent Communications: http://urgentcomm.com/networks-amp-systems-mag/what-difference-decade-makes
Naiman, A., and Roberts, G. (2011). 9/11: The Simple Facts: Why the Official Story Can't Possibly Be True. USA: Soft Skull Press.
Riley, K.J., Treverton, G.F., Wilson, J.M., and Davis, L.M. (2005). State and Local Intelligence in the War on Terrorism. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corporation.
