The fear is that the tragic date will continue to inspire terrorist groups of various origins or lone wolves, also in light of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Sui social The farewell of the Americans in Kabul was celebrated by many by shaking the 007 and counter-terrorism, already in tension for next week’s demonstration in Washington in support of those arrested for the attack on Capitol Hill. Hundreds of people are in fact expected in the American capital on 17 and 18 September and the fear is that the scenes of 6 January may repeat themselves. Hence the police call to fence off Congress again, thus strengthening its defenses and facilitating the work of the agents on the ground.
And while Washington waits with bated breath, in a New York that is looking for normality after Covid, stringent controls have already started, especially in the celebrations area, where in addition to Biden The former president is also expected Barack Obama, the one who announced to the world in 2011 the death of Osama bin Laden, mastermind and architect of the 9/11 attacks. For Obama it was a success which, however, was not accompanied by the respect of one of his major electoral promises: the closure of Guantanamo.
20 years after the day that changed the world forever, however, the wars opened by George W. Bush in response to the attacks are now all closed: as a legacy only the superprison on the island of Cuba remains. Bush will not be in New York for the celebrations: with his wife Laura he is in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 to Washington crashed.
The area of Ground Zero, slowly reborn after the attack on America, now looks like a bunker, surrounded by the police and the Secret Service for the function in memory of the nearly 3,000 victims of the Towers. You also guard the subways, where the police presence has been strengthened. What is worrying are the possible actions of lone wolves or extremists, especially internal rather than Muslims. In fact, while the fight against jihadist terrorism has been ongoing for years and billions of dollars have been allocated to it, the phenomenon of internal terrorists has long been underestimated to return to the fore only recently.
It mainly concerns members of the far right, responsible for a long trail of blood in the United States between 2009 and 2018. The disparity of attention on alleged Islamic terrorists compared to white supremacists has in fact accentuated with the shock of 11 September and the data leave no room for doubt: between 2005 and 2009 alone, fewer than 330 FBI agents were assigned to investigations on domestic terrorism out of a total of 2,000 dedicated to counter-terrorism in general. In recent years, the trend has improved somewhat but the internal threat – according to many analysts – remains largely underestimated. What is certain is that Donald Trump’s four years seem to have reinforced the supremacist subversion of the far right which is now – especially after January 6 – scary.
Although a New Yorker by birth, the same Trump it will not be in New York but in Florida to comment on a boxing match. A sidelined role also for Rudolph Giuliani, the beloved and respected mayor of the Big Apple during the attacks but then fell out of favor in public opinion for his controversial role in the era of the White House tycoon.
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