The 9/11 attacks became the stimulus for the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for it made the people become aware of the massive destruction that can be caused by terrorist attacks. After the September 11 attack in America which destroyed the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, America decided to create an agency that is solely dedicated to secure all borders of the country, respond to disasters and to strengthen the cyber security and infrastructure, and to deter any act of terrorism.
Although there are some events of terrorism occurred in the past such as the Oklahoma City bombings and the 1993 World Trade Bombings, the effect of the overpowering sentiment of the people became the impetus for the creation of the DHS. The US government decided to explore the measures to be taken in order minimize the exposure of American society to these violent acts of terrorism (Miller, 2003). It will appear that the Oklahoma City and 1993 World Trade Center bombings did not cause the same dramatic impact as that of 9/11 since it is only after the latter incident which pushed the US government to finally create a dedicated agency that will counter terrorism. Over the years, it has become a common knowledge that terrorism is closely associated with Islam, more particularly the 9/11 attack.
After the 9/11 terrorist act that was successfully carried out by the Al-Qaeda network and risked several innocent lives, the clamor of the people for the government to secure public safety became the top priority of the government. The 9/11 would have been prevented if the US government had taken a different stance to address terrorism during the Oklahoma City and 1993 World Trade Center bombings. It is apparent that most of the attacks conformed to the Muslim ideology after the Al Qaeda’s Bin Laden claimed responsibility over these violent acts. Most of these members have expressed their patriotism towards their faith and culture to which they value the jihad ideology (Sinha, 2013). Several acts of terrorism can be attributed to the Muslims out of pure love for their religion. With the recent development in communication through the internet, terrorism can easily be carried out. Thus, it became easy for the Al Qaeda network to crash the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and killed 2,996 victims and injured at least 6,000 victims. This event caused severe damage to infrastructure and brought significant impact on the country’s economic growth. At the same time, the right to privacy of the people was also placed at risk after the National Security Agency (NSA) gathered personal data from US citizens and permanent residents as part of the compliance to the new security policies to prevent terrorist attacks in the future (Sinha, 2013, p. 861).
The number of casualties and injured victims during the 9/11 attack was greater compared to Oklahoma City bombing, wherein only 168 people were killed and 680 were wounded. In the same manner, the 1993 World Trade Center bombings has lesser number of victims wherein only 6 people were killed and the number of injured victims was only 1,000. However, the government should not have taken these terrorist attacks lightly as part of its counter-terrorism measures. Otherwise, 9/11 could have been prevented if the DHS was already in place and strived to fulfill its mission to quell any act of terrorism and protect the country and its people. Both of the two (2) historical attacks could have been avoided or reduced the impact of 9/11 terrorist attack if there was already an agency such as the modern-day DHS, to ensure that the protections are in place. It is apparent that the 9/11 attack was authored by members of the Al Qaeda, who were suicide terrorists who were willing to their lives for their love for their jihad ideology by waging a holy war against their enemy, which is the U.S. Comparing all the three incidents, it is apparent that the perpetrators of the Oklahoma bombing, 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the 9/11 attack all have one criminal design and they committed such acts as part of self-sacrifice. In effect, these historical events show that the perpetrators committed altruistic suicide by incorporating themselves to the higher order of jihad, which is part of the Muslim religion and culture.
At present, the primary goal of the DHS is to monitor and prevent all suspected terrorists, illegal immigrants and smugglers from entering the US territory by guarding both the entry and exit points (Haulley, 2006). The agency is tasked to reduce the risk of future losses and for the creation of recovery plans in the event of terrorist attacks that may occur.
In effect, the DHS has the responsibility to come-up with the latest anti-terrorism technologies within the country be enhancing its security measures through intelligence testing and review of such anti-terrorism devices prior to being used in order to protect the information systems of the country (Haulley, 2006). The role of the DHS has continuously been expanding to ensure that it will implement a framework for the enhancement of the security controls that will secure the federal information systems of the country.
References:
Haulley, F. (2006). The Department of Homeland Security. New York : Rosen Publishing.
Miller, S. E. (2003). After the 9/11 Disaster: Washington's Struggle to Improve Homeland Security. Axess Stockholm, Sweden 2 (2003), p. 8-11.
Sinha, G. A. (2013). NSA Surveillance Since 9/11 And The Human Right To Privacy. Loyola Law Review 59 (4), p. 861-946.
