9/11 and After

How a single day continues to shape us, 20 years later.

Highlights

What Does It Mean to ‘Never Forget’?
Twenty years after Sept. 11, a look at what we hold on to and what we choose to let go.
By Dan Barry
CreditTodd Heisler/The New York Times
1. How Students in 12 Countries Are Taught About 9/11
  Twelve teenagers born after 9/11 told us what they have learned about the event and its aftermath — and what has been left out.
  By Damien Cave and Yousur Al-Hlou
  CreditThe New York Times
2. 9/11 Survivors Are Still Getting Sick Decades Later: ‘Am I Next?’
  Hundreds of thousands of people, from firefighters to students, were exposed to toxic material, leading to health issues, some fatal, years later.
  By Hilary Swift and Corey Kilgannon
  CreditHilary Swift for The New York Times
3. Critic’s Notebook
  Rebuilding Ground Zero Was a Mess. Lower Manhattan Bloomed Anyway.
  A fraught reconstruction was a missed opportunity, but it helped foster a new urbanism and a broader vision of what a neighborhood can be.
  By Michael Kimmelman
  CreditGeorge Etheredge for The New York Times

Muslim Americans’ ‘Seismic Change’
The legacy of the 2001 attacks for Muslim Americans remains fraught, a story of struggle and of determination.
By Elizabeth Dias
CreditHeather Ainsworth for The New York Times
Serving in a Twenty-Year War
Nine veterans reflect on two decades in Afghanistan and the dramatically changing U.S. missions.
By John Ismay
CreditGreg Kahn for The New York Times
In Shanksville, Preserving the Memory of 9/11 and the Wars That Followed
After Flight 93 went down, once unthinkable duties were thrust upon the community, including young people who found themselves coming of age in a time of war.
By Campbell Robertson and Kristian Thacker
Credit
Twenty years after 9/11, “Loose Change,” a landmark film for conspiracy theorists, still casts a shadow over our information landscape.
By Kevin Roose
Credit
The Shift
After the 9/11 Attacks, Boston Found a Focus for Its Anger
Terrorists boarded two planes in Boston and flew them into the World Trade Center. Massachusetts zeroed in on its top airport official, who has never quite recovered.
By Ellen Barry
CreditCody O'Loughlin for The New York Times

How Growing Up in New York After 9/11 Shaped These Muslim Leaders
“I watched the generation that was silenced and then I watch a new generation coming up now that is fearless,” one activist said.
By Sasha von Oldershausen
CreditHolly Pickett for The New York Times
How 9/11 Changed a 13-Year-Old Girl in Harlem
As a middle school student on Sept. 11, 2001, I didn’t realize how much the terror attacks would affect me and my family.
By Sandra E. Garcia
CreditAnna Watts for The New York Times
The Photographs of 9/11
Photographers reflect on shooting the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and their aftermath.
By The New York Times
CreditKrista Niles/The New York Times
Times Insider
How the N.Y.P.D. Is Using Post-9/11 Tools on Everyday New Yorkers
Two decades after the attack on New York City, the Police Department is using counterterrorism tools and tactics to combat routine street crime.
By Ali Watkins
CreditHiroko Masuike/The New York Times
Air Travel After 9/11: Just Get Through It
Before the terrorist attacks, airplane passengers weren’t seen as security risks, and flying was an enjoyable extension of the vacation experience — not something merely to anxiously endure.
By Peter Kujawinski
CreditTony Cenicola/The New York Times

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Prosecutor Says Sept. 11 Suspects Can Be Held Past War Crimes Sentence
The argument, in a pretrial hearing, dealt with the unresolved question of whether a prisoner who completes such a sentence is entitled to release from military detention.
By Carol Rosenberg
Guantánamo Bay Opens an Extra Courtroom
Planners added the national security courtroom for pretrial hearings and to prepare for the possibility of a Sept. 11 trial.
By Carol Rosenberg
A C.I.A. Black Site Remains a Touchy Subject for Lithuania
Despite rulings in European courts saying the Baltic country was home to a secret prison, the issue has been shrouded in official secrecy in a nation closely allied with the United States.
By Andrew Higgins
The Guantánamo Spy Who Wasn’t
Ahmad Al-Halabi was an immigrant who did the most American thing possible: join the military. Then the U.S. government accused him of espionage.
By Tamara Audi
In First Court Appearance, U.S.S. Cole Case Judge Sets Goal of 2025 Trial
If Col. Matthew S. Fitzgerald meets his goal, the trial would start a quarter century after the terrorist attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors off Yemen.
By Carol Rosenberg
Life at Guantánamo Bay
Inside a new season of “Serial.”
By Desiree Ibekwe
Critic’s Notebook
When Richard Serra’s Steel Curves Became a Memorial
The sculptor had a breakthrough in the late 1990s with his torqued metal rings. Then the attack on the World Trade Center, which Serra witnessed, gave them a sudden new significance.
By Jason Farago
Jean Maria Arrigo, Who Exposed Psychologists’ Ties to Torture, Dies at 79
Risking ostracism by her colleagues, she fought against the use of psychologists in coercive interrogations by the military and the C.I.A.
By Trip Gabriel
Sept. 11 Judge Delays Retirement, Positioning Him to Decide Case-Turning Issues
The judge, Col. Matthew N. McCall, was initially expected to retire in April, a timetable that would have left it to a fifth judge in the case to make key decisions.
By Carol Rosenberg
C.I.A. Violently Cut Off 9/11 Suspect When He Tried to Talk About Attacks
In the aftermath of the attacks, interrogators were determined to get Khalid Shaikh Mohammed to discuss Al Qaeda’s future plans, a psychologist testified.
By Carol Rosenberg