United States invasion of Afghanistan
On the morning of 11 September 2001, al-Qaeda carried out four coordinated attacks on the United States. Four commercial passenger jet airliners were hijacked. The hijackers – members of al-Qaeda's Hamburg cell – intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Both buildings collapsed within two hours from fire damage related to the crashes, destroying nearby buildings and damaging others. The hijackers crashed a third airliner into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after some of its passengers and flight crew attempted to retake control of the plane, which the hijackers had redirected toward Washington, D.C., to target the White House or the United States Capitol. No flights had survivors. In total, 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers, died and more than 6,000 others injured in the attacks. According to the New York State Health Department, 836 first responders, including firefighters and police personnel, had died as of June 2009.
David N. Kelley
David N. Kelley (born December 1, 1959) is an American attorney and a former United States Attorney and Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY). He was also a co-chair of the United States Justice Department’s nationwide investigation into the September 11 attacks.
Kelley, who served as chief of the organized crime and terrorism unit in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the SDNY, is noted for leading the investigations of the 2000 millennium attack plots and the October 2000 attack on the USS "Cole" in Yemen, and for prosecuting Ramzi Yousef for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was named Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia acting as co-lead prosecutor of John Walker Lindh. Kelley is also noted for obtaining convictions of WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers in his prosecution for accounting fraud and Martha Stewart in the ImClone stock trading case.
Kelley was raised in East Hampton, NY, and has lived in the New York metropolitan area for most of his life. He earned his undergraduate degree from The College of William & Mary and law degree in 1986 from New York Law School. Kelley was a policeman and a fireman while attending law school. After leaving the U.S. Attorney's office in 2005, Kelley joined Wall Street law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel as a partner in its litigation and corporate investigations practice. He is currently a partner and co-leader in the White Collar and Securities Litigation practice group at Dechert.