Airport security for the two flights out of Newark and Washington Dulles had been provided by Argenbright Holdings Ltd, a company which had plead guilty to federal fraud charges in May 2000 because they had hired 1,300 untrained security guards, including several dozens with criminal records, at Philadelphia International Airport. The company is still on probation.
Many security experts and libertarians have criticised new airport security policies. Bruce Schneier believes that the attackers were successful not because of any particular security screening failure, but because hijacking a plane with box cutters and turning them into cruise missiles had simply never been seriously considered before as an attack vector. A similar attack attempted today would surely meet with more resistance, as passengers are now fully aware of the potential.
Evidence of this can be seen in the events of September 11th, 2001 itself, as the passengers on the fourth plane resisted the hijackers once their friends and family called in to report what had happened with the previous three planes. The only difference between this plane and the others was public awareness.
John Gilmore has sued the FAA, Department of Justice, and others arguing that requiring passengers to show identification before boarding flights is paramount to an internal passport, and is unconstitutional. It may be noted that all 19 of the September 11th hijackers had valid identification.
See also airport security
Profiling on people who look Arabic was greatly stepped up after the attack.
September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack - Full Timeline
In Memoriam - Casualties - Missing Persons - Survivors - Personal experiences
Donations - Assistance - Closings and Cancellations - Memorials and Services
US Governmental Response - Responsibility - Hijackers - Political effects - Economic effects
See also: "War on Terrorism" -- U.S. invasion of Afghanistan -- 2001 anthrax attack -- World Trade Center -- The Pentagon -- New York City -- Washington, D.C -- AA Flight 11 -- UA Flight 75 -- AA Flight 77 -- UA Flight 93 -- U.S. Department of Defense -- Operation Bojinka -- terrorism -- domestic terrorism -- Osama bin Laden -- Taliban -- Islamism -- Afghanistan -- collective trauma -- September 11
External links and references
THE INVESTIGATION: U.S. Identified Some Elements of Hijack Plot in Advance, New York Times, 9/21/2001 Minetta Congressional testimony