Thursday September 13, 2001
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 13, 2001
The World Goes on High Alert
The French air force went on highest alert, with pilots at the ready in their jets. Governments across Europe sent troops to guard airports, train stations, border posts and nuclear plants. Commercial flights over London were banned and in Athens, security plans for the 2004 Olympics were being reviewed.
The devastating terror attacks on the United States occurred oceans away, but they sent shudders throughout the world – of sympathy but also fear. “We are all Americans,” wrote the French newspaper Le Monde.
Many wondered how they could ever feel safe, if the mighty United States could be harmed so swiftly and drastically. “Why couldn’t it happen here?” asked Daniel Cohen, who works at a dry cleaner in a posh sector of Paris. “Here, Japan or anywhere that crazy people want to attack.”
As far off as Asia, special security forces and soldiers with bomb-sniffing dogs patrolled government buildings and airports, and international schools canceled classes Wednesday. Thousands were evacuated from the world’s tallest buildings, the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in a bomb scare.
In Germany, the Foreign Ministry was evacuated in a similar scare and threats targeted the tallest building in Frankfurt, the Messeturm. In London, journalists were ordered out of the prime minister’s office during a brief security alert.
While all those threats appeared baseless, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta warned that terrorists might be planning a strike against American interests in Indonesia. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)
This cartoon was updated and colourized for December 1, 2016.