by Moign Khawaja
Foreign Policy Journal, September 16, 2009
Eight years have passed since the fateful bombings took place on 11th of September, 2001 in New York and nearby states. Every year thousands of people gather in downtown Manhattan to commemorate the terrorist atrocities. Every year the President of the United States of America addresses the nation and renews his pledge to track down the terrorists and defeat them. The newspapers publish special supplements that weigh tons and media outlets fill hours of airtime to recall the incidents that took place eight years ago.
Since then, two wars have been waged, unknown number of terrorists have been nabbed, several inquiries have been launched and several regimes have been uprooted across the world. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives on 9/11 of 2001. Hundreds of thousands of more innocent civilians since then have lost their lives in events related to the 9/11 attacks. The worst thing – the end of bloodshed is no where in sight.
A lot has been debated about the events that took place as a result of 9/11 attacks. But, how much do we actually know about the incidents that took place on 11th of September, 2001 itself? Have we ever tried to understand the pattern of the events and debated them? Most of you would say a big NO. So, in order to get a clearer picture, let’s strip to 5 W’s, the ‘basics of journalism’, which is the key formula for getting the full story of any incident.
