al-Qaeda

Curtain falls on tenth 9/11 anniversary

Two white beams reach impossibly high into the sky, just as two black hollows mark the places where the twin towers of the World Trade Center stood; testaments to both an absence and a resolve.

On Sunday, the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a room full of relatives and families of the victims of the attacks that she felt “a particular satisfaction” to be part of “the team … that made sure [Osama] Bin Laden was brought to justice”. By which, of course, she meant to be part of the effort to have the former al-Qaeda leader killed.

She went on to say that the Obama administration would not rest until those deemed to be responsible for the attacks are “similarly brought to justice”.

Did 9/11 really change the world?

How much difference did 9/11 really make to our world? At the time, it seemed like everything had changed. For the many thousands of people in the United States personally affected by those heinous acts, life would never be the same again. 

For millions of people in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, the consequences have been traumatic and profound. In many other countries, from Britain to Nigeria, from Indonesia to Spain, from Uganda to Russia, innocent people have become victims of acts of terror. 

Governments have responded in various ways, and sometimes those responses have been clumsy, cruel and counter-productive. These are all very important events. But have they really changed the world for decades to come?   

Here’s a list, off the top of my head, of global events and trends in the past decade that many people would argue are more important than 9/11, "the War on Terror" and the activities of al-Qaeda.

Drone debate heats up in cool mountain setting

 All tension with Pakistan aside, the US shows no sign of stopping its use of unmanned drones to kill al-Qaeda members in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

 Top national security officials fled the steamy debt debate in DC to take part in the Aspen Security Forum in cool Colorado last week, but they couldn’t escape the growing controversy.

Cradled amid Aspen’s pine-covered peaks and the Washington elite, with the soothing sounds of the Roaring Fork River as a backdrop, their talk was unusually frank.

Douglas Lute, President Barack Obama’s top advisoe on Pakistan, said his plan was to increase covert action in the tribal areas to take advantage of al-Qaeda’s disarray following the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Neighbours talk about men they knew at Osama's mansion

For hours, the local Abbottabad police kept us a fair distance away from the house that Osama bin Laden was killed in.

Every time we tried to set up our camera to film the imposing three-storey white house from a distance, angry officers rushed over to stop us.

Then, in the early afternoon - on whose orders we'll never know - the police allowed the media to get close to the sprawling compound.

Correspondents and camera operators rushed to the tall green gates to start filming – jostling each other for the best position.

Behind them, a stream of neighbours that turned into a flood of curious onlookers; most more interested in the crowd of journalists than in the house the world's most wanted fugitive is believed to have lived for around five years.

During the height of the frenzy, a moment of macabre humour, when a bin Laden look-alike came to the area.