Exercises on the September 11, 2001 attacks

(PUC-Rio) Regarding the meaning and consequences of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the following statements are correct, EXCEPT:

a) The terrorist attacks caused changes in the daily life of the American population, such as the growth of surveillance and restrictions on the freedom and privacy of citizens.

b) After the attack, the Bush administration introduced the principle of "preventive war" into American foreign policy, according to which the United States has the right to attack countries that may pose a future political threat. .

c) The US government's reaction to the attacks increased the tension in international relations between important US allies, such as Germany and France, which showed some discontent with the unilateral policy adopted by the government Bush.

d) Due to technological advances, there has been a significant decrease in military expenditures and in the number of casualties since then, compared to the times of the Cold War.

e) The terrorist attacks revived the idea that conflicts in the 21st century would be explained by the existence of a conflict between two models of civilization.

(FEI) Wikileaks, founded by Australian Julian Paul Assange, became known in 2010 for revealing thousands of confidential US State Department diplomatic documents. A message from the US Secretary of State to the US Embassy in Asunción reported the US government's concern at the time with the alleged presence of organizations such as Al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas on the triple border (between Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay), which has never been confirmed. These three organizations are, respectively:

a) a paramilitary organization then headed by Osama bin Laden , a fundamentalist Shia Islamic militia based in Lebanon and a Palestinian organization , of Sunni orientation , which governs the Gaza Strip.

b) a paramilitary organization based in Afghanistan , a fundamentalist Chechen militia and a Palestinian Shia organization which controls the Gaza Strip.

c) an Iraqi Shiite paramilitary group , a Saudi fundamentalist militia and an Iranian paramilitary group .

d) an Iranian fundamentalist militia , a Palestinian organization which controls the Gaza strip and a Libyan terrorist organization which was controlled by Muammar al-Gaddafi.

e) a Syrian terrorist organization , an Afghan paramilitary group and a Palestinian organization of Sunni orientation , which commands the Gaza Strip.

Read the following text:“I even launched the following thesis, which may shock:Islamic terrorism is the monstrous reflection of the Christian West that it abhors. This is clear in their victimization rhetoric. Just read Bin Laden's writings:it is in the name of the Japanese victims of American atomic bombs that the Islamic kamikaze attacked the United States. A few months before the 9/11 attacks, the Al Qaeda chief sent a communication to his troops to announce that he was preparing a “Hiroshima against America”. Everywhere it is in the name of the victims that others have done that people are persecuted, killed, massacred or mutilated.” (Dupuy, Jean-Pierre. To believe is not to believe. Religious beliefs, violence and the sacred . In:Revista do Instituto Hamanitas Unisinos Online. Available at:http://www.ihuonline.unisinos.br/index.phpoption=com_content&view=article
&id=4448&secao=393)

In this text, the French mathematician and philosopher Jean-Pierre Dupuy wants to highlight:

a) that the Islamic terrorists, the perpetrators of the September 11, 2001 attacks, had the help of the Japanese government, which wanted revenge for the atomic attack that the US carried out in 1945.

b) that the terrorists, led by Bin Laden, carried out the 9/11 attacks, to some extent, motivated by the abomination they had of the Christian West (in the form of the United States) and that such abomination was justified by terrorists with the example of the victims of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb.

c) that bin Laden's objective, expressed in the phrase “Hiroshima against America”, was to drop a nuclear bomb on American soil. This plan didn't work out.

d) that the Islamic terrorists were not like the Japanese kamikazes, since those (the Islamists) did not commit suicide like these (the Japanese), having jumped from the planes before they collided with the targets of the day September 11th.

e) that Islamic terrorism is the “monstrous reflection” of the Christian West because the Christian West is terrorist with Islamic radicalism.

Read the following text:“President Bush was reading a text to sophomores at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida when Rove broke the news to him that a plane had hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. At first it looked like it had been an accident, pilot error, or maybe, Bush thought, the pilot had had a heart attack.” (Woodward, Bob. Bush at War . São Paulo:Arx, 2003, p. 37.)

This excerpt from the book Bush at War , by award-winning journalist Bob Woodward, refers to which 21st century event?

a) to the kamikaze attack Japanese based at Pearl Harbor.

b) to the heart attack of a great US pilot that caused the crash of a commercial plane in New York.

c) to the Islamic terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, in which one of the main targets was the twin towers building, World Trade Center.

d) to the Islamic terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, organized by Bin Laden and carried out by members of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

e) to the Islamic terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, masterminded by Vladimir Putin and organized and executed by Al Qaeda.

Letter D

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were unprecedented in terms of the complexity of their planning and their precise execution when hitting such emblematic US targets as the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building. The United States' reaction to the attacks was multiple, starting with the restriction of flights in its airspace and an ostensible process of investigating suspects in its territory and ending with the wars waged in Afghanistan and Iraq - 2002 and 2003, respectively. Of the consequences of these measures, presented in the alternatives of the question, only the one proposed by alternative D doesn't fit the context.

Letter A

Al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan and was led by Bin Laden, but Hezbollah is not a fundamentalist Chechen militia, nor is Hamas Shiite or controlled by Gaddafi, much less a paramilitary group. Iranian. Hezbollah's headquarters are in Lebanon and Hamas is a radical Sunni Islamic group from Palestine. Therefore, alternative A is correct, to the detriment of the others.

Letter B

Dupuy wants to highlight an aspect little explored in the attempts to understand the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This highlight takes into account the aspect of the “clash of civilizations” and the hatred and abomination that terrorists developed in relation to Western culture. Therefore, alternative B is correct.

Letter C

The excerpt from Woodward's book refers to the Islamic terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, which hit, among other targets, the World Trade Center. This attack was conceived and organized by bin Laden, head of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, and carried out by members of that same organization, led by Mohamed Atta. Therefore, the C alternative is correct.