World Trade Center site
On the morning of September 11, 2001, Islamic terrorists affiliated with Al-Qaeda hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175, both which were en route to Los Angeles, and intentionally crashed them into the two main towers of the World Trade Center. The towers collapsed within two hours of the collisions. 2,606 people, including 2,192 civilians, 71 law enforcement officers, and 343 firefighters, who were in the towers and in the surrounding area died in the attacks, as well as 147 civilians and the 10 hijackers aboard the two airliners. After the collapse of the World Trade Center, hospital workers and law enforcement officers began referring to the World Trade Center site as "Ground Zero".
Fawaz al-Nashimi
On June 21, 2006, a US intelligence contractor in Virginia, IntelCenter, released a 54-minute Al-Qaeda video in which Nashimi justifies attacking the Western World. Several days before on June 13, an audio webpost supposedly from Al-Qaeda claimed that Nashimi was to have been the 20th hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93, but was unable to participate at the planned time.