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From After: How America Confronted The September 12 Era

Now everyone saw what they saw -- that America had no good way to protect itself against an enemy whose method, it was now clear, was to blend in and then commit suicidal acts of terror, be it with nuclear suitcases, airplanes, trucks, or biological weapons, all aimed at scaring the country out of its way of life. Was there any way Ashcroft could root out that kind of enemy within, let alone do it without hacking away at everyone else's rights? How "relevant" could Romero and his ACLU be in this new world?

Could McCabe really protect his port? Would Lindemann and the Border Patrol ever be able to secure America's 7,500 miles of land and water borders? Indeed, could the Immigration and Naturalization Service, for whom Lindemann worked, ever get its act together? The America of September 10 was so open that 1,660,000 people -- 760,000 citizens and 900,000 foreigners -- had entered or exited the country's borders on that one day. How could anyone possibly know, let alone control, who they were and what their intentions were? How could the government do any of that without creating a nation of informants, personal databases, security bottlenecks, and identity checks, which would achieve the terrorists' goals for them, by freezing commerce and snuffing out the country's freedoms?

This is the story of how these Americans -- some well known, others not known at all -- struggled over the next year to stand themselves and their country up to these challenges, the challenges of the September 12 era. On September 11, they were strangers to one another. A year later, many would have crossed paths in a series of surprising alliances and confrontations.

Theirs is a story of patriotism and amazing displays of American grit. But it is also a story of a constant clash of interests -- "special interests" -- competing in the boisterous, open arena that is America. Indeed, the first year of the September 12 era became a modern, vivid test of a country that has flourished not only on patriotism and strength of spirit, but also because it allows, even encourages, its people and institutions to seek to advance their own interests.

Copyright © 2003 by Steven Brill