Casualties of the September 11 attacks
2,974 victims were confirmed to have died in the initial attacks; this includes Sneha Anne Philip, a doctor, who in 2008 was ruled to have died on 9/11. In 2007, the New York City medical examiner's office began to add people who died of illnesses caused by exposure to dust from the site to the official death toll. The first such victim was a woman, a civil rights lawyer, who had died from a chronic lung condition in February 2002. In September 2009, the office added a man who died in October 2008, and in 2011, a male accountant who had died in December 2010. This raises the number of victims at the World Trade Center site to 2,753, and the overall 9/11 death toll to 2,996.
History of the United States (1991–2008)
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners and attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the September 11 attacks, killing nearly 3,000 and injuring over 6,000 people. Osama bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks. President Bush ordered all flights grounded and U.S. airspace remained closed for the rest of the week. An emergency bailout package for the airline industry was passed, and stocks fell dramatically when markets re-opened the following week. In response to the attacks, the Bush administration and Congress passed the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, aimed at enhancing security, and established the Department of Homeland Security, a mass consolidation of many federal agencies charged with investigation, intelligence, and emergency management. A new Terrorist Finance Tracking Program monitored the movements of terrorists' financial resources but was discontinued after being revealed by "The New York Times". Telecommunication usage by known and suspected terrorists was studied through the NSA electronic surveillance program. On October 7, 2001, the United States invaded Afghanistan as part of a global War on Terrorism, aimed at rooting out al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and other terrorist organizations.