Friday marks the eight-year anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy, when 2800 lives were lost at the World Trade Center (343 firefighters, 23 members of the NYPD, 37 Port Authority police officers, and 2,200 civilians), while 184 more died at the Pentagon building, all coming at the hands of terrorists.
In remembrance, The Morning Delivery has compiled a statistical update on how one day affected the nation in so many different ways.
• In an effort to combat terrorism after 9/11, President George W. Bush signed into the law the Patriot Act on October 26, 2001, a bill consisting of 342 pages, 156 sections, and giving the FBI and CIA expanded powers to tap phones, monitor Internet traffic, and allow federal agents to obtain business and personal records. The Senate approved the bill (98-1), followed by the House of Representatives in a 357-66 vote.
• The USA Patriot Act is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.
• On March 4, 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives passed revisions to the Patriot Act (280 to 138), which placed curbs on the act’s powers, including protecting libraries from government intrusion and creating judicial oversight.
• According to the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, as of September 9, 2008, 414 local, county, and state resolutions have been passed condemning the Patriot Act as a violation of civil liberties.
• Prior to September 11, 2001, The Federal Aviation Administration appropriated $244 million for airport security, including $102 million for Explosives Detection Systems, Trace Detectors, X-Ray Threat Image Projection; and $142 million for Operations (funding for employees salaries, operational travel and routine operating expenses).
As a result of 9/11, The Transportation Security Administration was created and put in charge of all forms of transportation, including airport security.
Between 2002 and 2005, $18.109 billion was budgeted for security by TSA.
In 2009, the total budget for the department was $6.99 billion
• When the Homeland Security Department was created in 2002, $3.5 billion had been budgeted for ant- terrorism measures. In 2004, the budget increased to $36.2 billion, a 64 percent increase from FY 2002 levels, and 7.4 percent more than 2003.
In FY 2006, President Bush requested $41.1 billion for the department, a seven percent increase from the previous year; and on February 5, 2007, the president’s fiscal year 2008 budget request for (DHS) represents $46.4 billion in funding, an increase of 8 percent over the FY 2007 level.
In FY 2009, Homeland Security bill was $39.98 billion
• In FY 2003, New York received $232 million from the Department of Homeland Security; in 2004, $167 million; and in 2005, 298 million.
In FY 2009, New York received $497 million from Homeland Security, an eight percent increase from the previous year.
• The Social Security Administration estimates, as of 2008, over $200 million in benefits have been paid out to people affected by the September 11 tragedy.
• According to “Bowker's Books in Print'' database, in the U.S. publishing market alone, there have been 1,465 books written about 9/11, which includes fiction, pictorial books, and juvenile literature
• According to The Foundation Center, $2.6 billion has been donated for 9/11 victims.
• On Sept. 10, 2001, there were 11,327 firefighters and officers in the New York City Fire Department. The most recent figures available by the department reports there are now 11,500 firefighters and officers.
• According to the New York Chief Medical Examiners Office, as of September, 2009, out of 2752 reported missing from the World Trade Center, 1125 victims have not been identified; leaving 1624 which have been identified.
• On the eve of 9/11, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) budgeted $7.6 million for general security purposes, including its police force.
According to a MTA spokesperson, the agency has requested $650 million over the next five years for safety and security measures. The budget proposal will have to be approved by the state legislature by October 1st.
• Sept 11th also had an impact on the professional sport’s world:
Immediately after the horrific tragedy, Major League Baseball introduced a number of security changes, including prohibiting coolers, backpacks or large bags in any ballpark, increased presence of uniformed law enforcement at all games, and the identification and inspection of all ballpark deliveries.
• This year On September 11, Major League Baseball has requested that “God Bless America’’ be played at all games.
Who Coined 9/11?
The New York Times first used the term “9/11’’ in a headline for a Bill Keller op-ed article on September 12, 2001: “Correspondent: America’s Emergency Line: 9/11’’
When asked about the origin of “9/11’’ Jack Rosenthal, President of The New York Times Company Foundation, responded by email on his recollection of the day.
“Like just about everyone else in America, I kept asking myself all day, what can we do. That evening, the answer dawned on me: do just what we do every day at The Times Company Foundation, philanthropy. Why don't we start a relief fund? We already had in place the machinery for our annual Neediest Cases Fund — 501c3 tax exempt status, phone numbers, online contribution site, credit card phone lines. Let's create a special solicitation of Times readers around the country.
That night, sitting at my laptop in my Manhattan apartment overlooking the Hudson River, I sent e-mails to Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., our chairman and publisher; Rhonda Brauer, our Foundation lawyer; and other executives describing the idea and calling it The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund. By morning, everyone had signed on so I did the next natural thing for a former reporter and editor; I wrote it up as a story, as a convenient way to get the information across to the hugely harried Times news department.’’
The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund’s first article appeared on September 13; and according to Rosenthal, the fund raised $62 million with the money distributed within the first 6 months and benefiting 30,000 of the neediest families.
-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com
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Websites to keep in mind:
A Memorial List of the Victims of the World Trade Center (WTC)
World Trade Center: Statistics and History from the Skyscraper Museum
Complete International Archives of September 11, 2001
A Television Archive from September 11th, 2001 (from the Internet Archive)
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