World Trade Center Attack Research Paper

Within the previous 25 years, the United States has experienced violent attacks targeting civilians. On February 26, 1993, a bomb detonated in the parking lot of the Vista Hotel in 2 World Trade Center. Six people were killed and nearly 1,000 more injured. The suspects responsible claimed to belong to a radical Islamic sect. On April 19, 1995, anti-government anarchist Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The attack killed 168 people and injured 700. McVeigh cited the government’s handling of the Ruby Ridge standoff and Waco siege as his motive. In 1996, Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was arrested after nearly 20 years of mail bombings, which killed three and wounded 23. Also, at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, far-right radical Eric Rudolph, bombed Centennial Olympic Park killing one person and injuring 111. Rudolph also bombed two abortion clinics and a lesbian bar between 1997-1998.
Perhaps the most infamous terrorist attack on American soil occurred on September 11, 2001. Nineteen al Qaeda operatives’ hijacked four aircrafts flew two in the World Trade Center complex in New York, one into the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the final plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. At the World Trade Center site, 2,753 people were killed; 184 perished at the Pentagon; and 40 died in the Pennsylvania
The radical sect of Nigerian Muslims has caused havoc in Nigeria for over a decade. Boko Haram’s ideology is one that forbids Muslims to partake in any activities associated with Western culture. Boko Haram launched its violent campaigns in 2009, attacking schools, churches, and homes. In 2014, Boko Haram made news after it kidnapped 276 girls from a school in northeast Nigeria. Although some of the girls escaped, over 200 hostages remain. Boko Haram claims responsibility for attacks not only in Nigeria, but also in Cameroon, Chad, and