On 9/11's 25th Anniversary, Intelligence Failures and the Wars That Followed Are Reassessed

Marking 25 years since the September 11 attacks killed 2,977 people, intelligence officials and analysts have revisited the failures that preceded the strikes and the wars that followed.

• Nine days after the attacks, President George W. Bush declared the US "war on terror."
• The 9/11 Commission blamed US government "failures in imagination, policy, capabilities, and management," finding that the CIA and FBI failed to properly assess and share intelligence.
• Former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger said the West spent the century's first two decades focused on counter-terrorism and neglected China's rise as a military and strategic threat.
• In Foreign Policy, writer Michael Hirsch argued that the United States overestimated the al-Qaeda threat and that its response turned a limited operation into a long, costly global war.

Latest developments

• Sep 12 — Guardian analyst David Smith argues 9/11's darkest legacy includes domestic surveillance, the Patriot Act, and counterterrorism tactics fueling Trump's rise, while the wars undermined international order and boosted Iran.
• Sep 12 — Democratic Party member Nu'man Abu Issa recalled post-9/11 suspicion and profiling, while younger Arab and Muslim Americans now see themselves as integral to U.S. society with Muslim members of Congress.