Government response to the September 11 attacks

¶ … terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001 as well as several previous acts of domestic and international terrorism sparked responses from nearly every civic agency in the United States. Each and every agency across the nation was called to action both immediately with temporary changes and in the long-term with fundamental legal and policy actions that are believed to aid in the future response to disasters of both the man-made kind and natural (Glendening, 2002, p. 21). Maryland is poised in a position where challenges are inherent due in part to its close proximity to Washington DC, with Maryland surrounding two thirds of Washington DC, and because of some of the fundamentally high risk target sites within it, such as a nuclear facility and its own World Trade Center in Baltimore, long and sparsely controlled coastlines, just to name a few (21). "Maryland is home to many important federal installations, including Camp David, the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Aberdeen Proving Grounds, the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, the United States Naval Academy, and several federal laboratory research institutions, such as the National Institutes of Health" (22). Maryland also experienced a tragic series of events in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 tragedies that called the state to action, such as the actions of the DC sniper attacks (2002) as well as the Anthrax mail attack (2001) both of which touched and shaped Maryland giving the state cause to put into effect newly gained skills and policies that are intended to respond to such situations.

According to the then governor Parris Glendening the challenges have been many and may be more acute for Maryland than other states as it could potentially be a staging ground or a target in itself. The former governor calls the post September 11th governance an attempt to balance and achieve a new state of normalcy. Some of the things he noted in 2002 include security reviews of several possible targets, the implementation of change in policy and planning in those locations as well as others that are seen from a local and national perspective as possible targets or places of possible staging. The challenges of creating a new state of normal that involves challenging a culture that has and likely will always be relatively open and free with regard to travel, association, speech and action are huge as we have seen over the years as more and more of the immediate and even long-term policy and security measures have been challenged or even abandoned as both apathy as well as functionality of such measures began to redirect the actions of individuals and groups.

Immediately following the attacks of September 11th Maryland was directly affected as the state government went into almost complete shutdown, excluding those personnel and agencies directly responding to the attacks. There are as the former governor states many Marylanders that work at the Pentagon, the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania crashed very near the Maryland border and the governess office was also alerted to a potential target in Maryland itself. Additionally, Maryland's proximity to the attacks created a situation where Maryland National Guard troops as well as civil first responders were some of the first to arrive at the Pentagon and some were even deployed to New York and Pennsylvania to aid the strained service providers in the affected states (21-22). There is a clear sense that the state of emergency declared by the governor was not only well founded but necessary as was continual communication and coordination on the part of the helping agencies in the state. "To ensure safety, we have increased security at our airports public buildings major events, bridges, and tunnels-anywhere that terrorists might look to further spread fear, violence, and death. At the request of the president, I activated the state's National Guard to provide security at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. Guard members remained on duty until the new federal airport security force, created by Congress in response to the terrorist attacks, was deployed" (22).

Some of these changes in security and even the common sense of collective awareness among Maryland citizens and really citizens across the nation have remained in place and simply become a new part of the landscape of the nation, while some have abated. The immediate and long-term response to the attacks will likely be felt for decades as changes become cemented into the psyche of the nation. For instance it is not uncommon now to hear of calls for the police to investigate suspicious abandoned packages and though less common the occasional news story about foiled new terrorist plots on U.S. soil. There was a time when an abandoned duffle bag on a bus bench made no impact on the minds of individuals and parking as close as possible to a public building for convenience was expected while today these things are different and most people accept these minor changes. The governor of Maryland to some degree spearheaded the demand for people to return to "normal" lives, support the affected area, through normal activities like tourism, himself heading a group of governors on a tourism tour of New York and a visit to the Pentagon within weeks of the attacks to challenge the fact that the terrorists had not succeeded in bringing the economy and the nation's spirit to its knees (23).