.....I say that to say this tho. The FEAR that permeated throughout the US for the next few months hell maybe a year or two after was REAL.
Remember the Terror Alert level.
speaking of which
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/...errorist-attack-warning-by-feds-on-us-border/
But folks was legit scared when that shyt would get to high and severe after the attacks.
shyt look at how 9/11 changed the law.
This article will focus on ten U.S. government changes since 9/11. The current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will not be featured. On October 7, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan in response to the September 11 attacks. One and a half years later, on March 20, 2003, the Iraq War began. Many people feel that the changes put forth by the U.S. government have benefited the livelihood of Americans. This may prove true as the United States has not experienced a major terrorist attack since September 11, 2001. Other people feel that the spending has hurt the United States economy, pushing America into a widespread series of economic downfalls.
10. Television and Music Censorship
The September 11 attacks had an impact on the audiovisual entertainment business. Television coverage of the terrorist attacks and their aftermath was the longest uninterrupted news event in the history of U.S. television. It lasted for 93 hours, day and night. After 9/11, a collection of movies were cancelled that were in production, and many movies were edited. The most common way of editing was to delete or obscure shots of the World Trade Center. In all, roughly 45 films were edited or postponed because of the terrorist attacks. Some of these include Spider-Man, Zoolander, Men in Black II, The Bourne Identity, and The Incredibles.
A Jackie Chan movie called
Nosebleed, about a window washer on the WTC who foils a terrorist plot, was cancelled due to the attacks. A collection of previously aired television episodes were also altered. Before 9/11, the syndicated version of the Married… with Children episode Get Outta Dodge featured a scene of two Arabs with a ticking bomb at the front door of Al Bundy’s house offering to buy his Dodge for $40 and asking for directions to the Sears Tower. The scene was cut from the syndicated re-airings of the episode. The same happened with an episode of The Simpsons entitled The City of New York vs.
Homer Simpson. The opening credits for the hit shows Sex in the City and The Sopranos were altered. The Walt Disney World attraction The Timekeeper, a 360-degree film presentation that features a panoramic view of New York City, including the Twin Towers, closed on September 11, 2001.
The 2001 Clear Channel memorandum is a controversial document distributed by Clear Channel Communications shortly after the September 11 attacks. The memo contained a long list of what was termed “lyrically questionable” songs. The list contains 165 songs, including all records by Rage Against the Machine. In some cases, only certain versions of songs were included on the list. For example, the cover of Smooth Criminal by Alien Ant Farm is on the list while the original Michael Jackson recording is not. Similarly, J. Frank Wilson’s version of Last Kiss is included, but Pearl Jam’s cover is not. Other songs included on the Clear Channel memorandum are seven of AC/DCs hits, The Animals: We Gotta Get Out of This Place, Louis Armstrong: What a Wonderful World, The Bangles: Walk Like an Egyptian, four Beatles songs, including Ticket to Ride, Buddy Holly: That’ll Be the Day, The Clash: Rock the Casbah, Neil Diamond: America, Shelley Fabares: Johnny Angel, and many more hits. After the list was released, Clear Channel denied the existence in a press release to a radio industry trade publication.
9. Stellar Wind
Stellar Wind is the open secret code name for a collection of activities performed by the United States National Security Agency in the wake of 9/11 and revealed by Thomas M. Tamm. The operation was approved by President George W. Bush. The program’s activities involve data mining a large database of the communications of American citizens, including e-mail conversations, phone calls, financial transactions, and
Internet activity. Since the implementation of the program, there have been internal disputes within the U.S. Justice Department about the legality.
In March 2004, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft ruled that the program was illegal. The day after the ruling, Ashcroft became critically ill with acute pancreatitis. President Bush sent White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Chief of Staff Andrew Card Jr. to Ashcroft’s hospital bed, where Ashcroft lay semiconscious, to request that he sign a document reversing the Justice Department’s ruling. However, Ashcroft was incapable and did not sign the document.
On May 10, 2006,
USA Today reported that the National Security Agency (NSA) had a previously undisclosed program in place since 9/11 to build a database of information about calls placed within the United States. According to the article, phone companies AT&T, SBC, BellSouth (all three now called AT&T), and Verizon disclosed the records to the NSA, while Qwest did not. It is estimated that the database contains over 1.9 trillion call-detail records. The records include detailed call information, including the caller, receiver, date/time of call, and length of call. The data is used in traffic analysis and social network analysis.
It is the largest database ever assembled in the world. The existence of the call database has prompted fierce objections by many circles. It is often viewed as an illegal warrantless search and a violation of the pen register provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The Obama administration has neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the domestic call record database.
8. Changes in University Programs
The 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States ushered in a major shift on American college campuses. A recent article published by Scott Gold of the
Los Angeles Timesexamined the current trend in U.S. schools. Today, domestic security has become, by some measures, the fastest-growing area of study, fueled by an increase in federal money. A large collection of domestic security programs have popped up in community colleges and graduate schools. Students across the country are enrolled in courses that didn’t exist a few years ago. Many of these classes examine the psychology of terrorists and rogue regimes, or, as at Purdue University, study emergency response by simulating mass-casualty disasters at the site of the Indianapolis 500.
The new focus at Purdue is largely the result of its Homeland Security Institute, established after the 2001 attacks to use campus resources to confront national-security threats. Before September 11, many microbiology programs in the United States were discontinued. After the anthrax attacks of 2001, the study of germs such as anthrax and Ebola became vital. The funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has soared by a factor of 30. At Texas A&M University, federally funded researchers have affixed radiation sensors to cockroaches on tiny backpacks that could be deployed to search for a “dirty” bomb.
Interest in national security “is beginning to influence the way we look at research in general,” said Alan Rebar, executive director of Discovery Park, a Purdue think tank that leads interdisciplinary research initiatives. “It invades every area of our research today.” At Kansas State University taxpayers will spend nearly $1 billion to build the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility to guard the nation’s agricultural economy and food supply. Penn State University offers several certificate and degree programs, along with a homeland-security summer camp for middle-school and high-school students. Skeptics claim the money is not being spent properly. William Chace, a recent president of Emory University said the educational shift risks turning colleges and universities into “servile mechanisms for state or federal interests.”
7. Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008
The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 became law on June 30, 2008. The act amended United States Code to expand the educational benefits for military veterans who have served since September 11, 2001. The law is an effort to fund the college expenses of veterans in a way similar to the original G.I. Bill after World War II. The main provisions of the act include funding 100% of a public four-year undergraduate education to a U.S. veteran who has served three years of active duty since September 11, 2001. The bill provides the option for the veteran to transfer benefits to a spouse or child after serving (or agreeing to serve) ten years.
As the veteran attends school, the act provides a monthly living stipend based on housing costs. This rate varies across the United States. The current rate for New York City is $2,744, while the same rate for El Paso, TX is $917. Veterans are also provided with an annual stipend to cover other education costs (books, supplies, fees) of up to $1,000. In December 2010, U.S. Congress passed the Post-9/11 Veterans Education Assistance Improvements Act of 2010, which expands eligibility for members of the growing National Guard. The new bill includes a $17,500 a year cap on tuition and fees coverage for veterans attending private universities.
The 2010 Act prorates the housing stipend based on the student’s rate of pursuit and removes the “interval pay” which allowed veterans to continue to receive payments during scheduled school breaks (i.e. winter and spring breaks). The revisions include a new (reduced) housing stipend for online (distance) learners. The bulk of these changes go into effect August and October 2011. The bill is widely considered an important piece of legislation. However, some flaws in the new GI Bill have been noted. Specifically, the fact that service-members who participated in the $600 Buy-up option will no longer be compensated.
6. President’s Surveillance Program
The President’s Surveillance Program (PSP) is a collection of secret intelligence activities authorized by George W. Bush after the September 11, 2001 attacks. It is part of the War on Terrorism. The only section of the President’s program that has been publicly disclosed is warrantless wiretapping of international communications where one party is believed to be affiliated with Al-Qaeda. The other intelligence activities covered under the same Presidential authorizations remain classified information.
On July 10, 2009, the Inspectors General of all intelligence agencies published a court ordered report indicating that the program involved “unprecedented collection activities,” that went far beyond the scope of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). It raised questions over the legal authorization of the program, including a lack of oversight and excessive secrecy. The warrantless wiretapping by the National Security Agency (NSA) was revealed publicly in late 2005 by
The New York Times. They disclosed that technical glitches in the system resulted in some of the intercepts including communications that were “purely domestic” in nature, igniting the NSA warrantless surveillance controversy.
Later works, such as James Bamford’s
The Shadow Factory, described how the nature of the domestic surveillance was much more widespread than initially disclosed. In a 2011 New Yorker article, former NSA worker Bill Binney said that his people told him “They’re getting billing records on U.S. citizens. They’re putting pen registers on everyone in the country.” On August 17, 2006, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor initially ruled the wiretapping was unconstitutional and illegal. On appeal, the decision was overturned on procedural grounds and the lawsuit was dismissed without addressing the merits of the claims. In 2007, the Protect America Act was enacted to address the government’s ability to conduct domestic electronic surveillance. After the Protect America Act was expired, the U.S. government passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.