Talk:September 11 attacks

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Frequently asked questions

Many of these questions arise frequently on the talk page concerning the September 11 attacks.

To view an explanation to the answer, click the [show] link to the right of the question.

Q1: Is the article biased against conspiracy theories?

A1: Wikipedia is a mainstream encyclopedia so this article presents the accepted version of the events according to reliable sources. Although reliable sources have repeatedly reported on conspiracy theories, reporting on conspiracy theories is not the same thing as advocating conspiracy theories or accepting them as fact. The most recent discussion that resulted in the current consensus took place on this talk page in December 2011. If you disagree with the current status, you are welcome to bring your concerns to the article talk page. Please read the previous discussions on this talk page and try to explain how your viewpoint provides new arguments or information that may lead to a change in consensus. Please be sure to be polite and support your views with citations from reliable sources.

Q2: Should the article use the word "terrorist" (and related words)?

A2: Wikipedia:Words to watch states that "there are no forbidden words or expressions on Wikipedia". That being said, "terrorism" is a word that requires extra attention when used in Wikipedia. The consensus, after several lengthy discussions, is that it is appropriate to use the term in a limited fashion to describe the attacks and the executors of these attacks. The contributors have arrived at this conclusion after looking at the overwhelming majority of reliable sources that use this term as well as the United Nations' own condemnation of the attacks.[1]

This article is written in American English, which has its own spelling conventions (color, defense, traveled) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

September 11 attacks is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.

September 11 attacks has been listed as one of the History good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
January 19, 2004	Refreshing brilliant prose	Kept
February 26, 2004	Featured article review	Demoted
January 10, 2005	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
December 29, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
January 27, 2007	Good article nominee	Not listed
February 14, 2007	Good article nominee	Not listed
October 16, 2007	Good article nominee	Not listed
May 19, 2008	Good article nominee	Listed
May 29, 2008	Peer review	Reviewed
July 10, 2008	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
August 20, 2008	Good article reassessment	Kept
June 19, 2010	Good article reassessment	Delisted
July 5, 2011	Good article nominee	Not listed
July 25, 2011	Good article nominee	Listed
August 23, 2011	Peer review	Reviewed
August 30, 2011	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
September 25, 2011	Good article reassessment	Delisted
May 24, 2013	Good article nominee	Not listed
July 13, 2015	Good article nominee	Listed
October 27, 2018	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
News items involving this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "In the news" column on September 11, 2001, and September 11, 2002.
Facts from this article were featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "On this day..." column on September 11, 2003, September 11, 2004, September 11, 2005, September 11, 2006, September 11, 2009, September 11, 2012, September 11, 2013, September 11, 2017, September 11, 2018, September 11, 2020, and September 11, 2023.
Current status: Former featured article, current good article

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This article has been mentioned by multiple media organizations:

Noam Cohen (11 September 2011). "On Wikipedia, Echoes of 9/11 'Edit Wars'". The New York Times.
Brian Keegan (November 17, 2020). "How 9/11 Shaped Wikipedia". Slate (magazine). Retrieved September 9, 2021.
Stephen Harrison (September 8, 2021). "How Wikipedia Grew Up With the War on Terror". Slate (magazine). Retrieved September 9, 2021.
Alex Pasternack (September 11, 2021). "How 9/11 turned a new site called Wikipedia into history's crowdsourced front page". Fast Company. Retrieved September 13, 2021.

The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to post-1992 politics of the United States and closely related people, which has been designated as a contentious topic.

Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

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This article has been viewed enough times to make it onto the all-time Top 100 list. It has had 89 million views since December 2007.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single year to make it into the Top 50 Report annual list. This happened in 2011.

This article has been viewed enough times in a single week to appear in the Top 25 Report 13 times. The weeks in which this happened:

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This article has previously been nominated to be moved.

Discussions:

RM, September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks → September 11, 2001 attacks, Moved, 17 January 2004, Discussion
RM, September 11, 2001 attacks → September 11, 2001, attacks, Not moved, 21 October 2004, Discussion
RM, September 11, 2001 attacks → September 11 attacks, Moved, 20 August 2008, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → September 11, 2001 attacks, Not moved, 13 October 2010, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → 9/11, Not moved, 31 March 2014, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → September 11 terrorist attacks, Not moved, 13 February 2021, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → September 11th attacks, Not moved, 14 February 2021, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → September 11, 2001 attacks, Procedural close, 23 February 2021, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → 9/11, Not moved, 26 January 2024, Discussion
RM, September 11 attacks → September 11 terrorist attacks, Not moved, 9 February 2024, discussion.

Section sizes

Section size for September 11 attacks (46 sections)
Section name	Byte count	Section total
(Top)	18,618	18,618
Background	92	61,241
Al-Qaeda	7,427	21,098
Osama bin Laden	9,050	9,050
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other Al-Qaeda members	4,621	4,621
Motives	23,770	23,770
Planning	8,711	8,711
Prior intelligence	7,570	7,570
Attacks	3,937	76,829
The four crashes	28,083	28,083
Casualties	31,576	31,576
Damage	10,447	10,447
Rescue efforts	2,786	2,786
Reactions	3,838	66,818
Immediate response	10,250	10,250
Domestic reactions	8,020	18,399
Hate crimes	5,692	5,692
Discrimination and racial profiling	1,996	1,996
Muslim American response	1,697	1,697
Interfaith efforts	994	994
International reactions	19,176	19,176
Military operations	15,155	15,155
Aftermath	88	45,109
Health issues	10,243	10,243
Economic	7,399	7,399
Effects in Afghanistan	8,865	8,865
Cultural influence	4,252	4,252
Government policies towards terrorism	8,837	8,837
Legal proceedings	5,425	5,425
Investigations	21	32,048
FBI	9,415	9,415
CIA	2,194	2,194
Congressional inquiry	6,157	6,157
9/11 Commission	4,148	4,148
National Institute of Standards and Technology	6,081	6,081
Alleged Saudi government role	4,032	4,032
Rebuilding and memorials	32	21,489
Reconstruction	9,509	9,509
Memorials	11,948	11,948
See also	1,197	1,197
References	17	76
Notes	28	28
Citations	31	31
Bibliography	10,529	10,529
Further reading	3,044	3,044
External links	4,894	4,894
Total	341,892	341,892

"At morning"[edit]

In the intro section, the sentence that begins "At morning," doesn't quite read clearly to American English readers. Just a suggestion that it be changed to "That morning" or "In the morning" or a similarly appropriate substitute. 2601:CD:4000:610:F435:89A0:E7C4:EA0B (talk) 03:50, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done — Goszei (talk) 03:55, 11 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 3 April 2024[edit]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

change in a "passenger revolt" to "what was most likely a passenger revolt" As it cannot be 100% confirmed if it was a passenger revolt or a malfunction of the plane. Pinkgarfunkel (talk) 20:11, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Reliable sources call it a passenger revolt, so that's what we go by. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 21:03, 3 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

New WTC complex[edit]

Second to last sentence in last paragraph of introduction implies that only Tower #1 was rebuilt and does not mention Towers 3, 4 and the incomplete Tower 2. Link to the page for the whole complex and mention there are multiple towers on the site now - a lot of people don't seem to realize that... Ee100duna (talk) 22:06, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Building 3, 4, and the Performing Arts Center are mentioned in section 6.1; additionally, there is a link to the new complex at the heading section of that section. I don't feel like it's really necessary to mention these buildings in the opening paragraph. However, I do feel like that perhaps something along the line of "reconstruction of the World Trade Center complex commenced..." or something to that effect. Butterscotch5 (talk) 23:46, 5 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Photos changed without consensus[edit]

I don't know who changed the photos in the Infobox, but the new photos look horrendous. I can't find any consensus in archive for this massive change, may we please revert back to original photos? Cena332 (talk) 00:45, 21 April 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think it’s okay to change photos over time, but they should certainly be discussed here first, especially for this article. PascalHD (talk) 16:44, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

PascalHD These new photos were not discussed and just changed without any discussion, previously editors discussed photos changes to the Infobox on this article talk page first. Is it ok to add the old ones back until editors can have a agreement if we want to change. --Cena332 (talk) 19:50, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I would say it is normal procedure to revert a change that was not discussed when necessary.PascalHD (talk) 21:42, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

just done. Cena332 (talk) 22:00, 3 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 15 May 2024[edit]

NOT MOVED

WP:SNOW. elijahpepe@wikipedia (he/him) 03:39, 16 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

September 11 attacks → 9/11 – More people call it 9/11. I rarely hear people say, "September 11 attacks". Merv Mat (talk) 15:56, 15 May 2024 (UTC) This is a contested technical request (permalink). Merv Mat (talk) 15:57, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We've been here before - please see Talk:September_11_attacks/Archive_64 for the most recent discussion. Antandrus (talk) 16:19, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see nothing new from then last time. Slatersteven (talk) 16:21, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Seriously, no. This perennial request is going nowhere. — The Hand That Feeds You:^Bite 16:41, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose per Britannica. Crouch, Swale (talk) 17:47, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose Already previously discussed. Absolutely no need to discuss again. David J Johnson (talk) 21:19, 15 May 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

"At morning"[edit]

Semi-protected edit request on 3 April 2024[edit]

New WTC *complex*[edit]

Photos changed without consensus[edit]

Requested move 15 May 2024[edit]

New WTC complex[edit]