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ChinaBiden tells Xi US and China must not ‘veer into conflict’ in first call for monthsWhite House says leaders agree to engage ‘openly and straightforwardly’ amid US frustration at lack of progress in advancing countries’ relations Helen Davidson and agencies@ More
Key events
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5.14pm EDT
17:14
Key points: Biden’s pandemic plan
5.05pm EDT
17:05
Biden explains Covid-19 strategy
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17:00
Today so far
4.44pm EDT
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DeSantis suffers legal defeat over anti-riot law
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Biden administration sues Texas over six-week abortion ban
3.03pm EDT
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Charter flight from Kabul safely lands in Qatar, White House says
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Federal workers will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated under Biden’s new policy
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“We have the tools. Now we just have to finish the job,” Biden said in his concluding remarks.
More details of his pandemic plan will be revealed in the coming weeks, he said. He ended his speech with a whisper: “Get vaccinated”.
He did not take questions from the press.
5.27pm EDT
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The president said he will also enact measures to disincentivize those seeking to undermine vaccine and masking mandates.
Implicitly referring to leaders like Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who threatened to withhold salaries from school board members and superintendents in districts with mask mandates, Biden said: “Talk about bullying in schools.”
“Right now, local school officials are trying to keep children safe in a pandemic while their governor picks a fight with them and even threatens their salaries or their jobs,” he said.
If teachers’ pay is withheld by states, the federal government will step in to pay it, he said. “I promise you, I will have your back.”
The president also said that the TSA will double fines for passengers who refuse to wear masks. “And by the way, show some respect,” he said.
5.18pm EDT
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“My message to unvaccinated Americans is this: what more is there to wait for? What more do you need to see?” Biden said. “We’ve made vaccinations free, safe and convenient.”
“We’ve been patient but our patience is wearing thin and your refusal has cost all of us,” he said.
Here’s an overview of vaccination stats across the US:
5.14pm EDT
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Key points: Biden’s pandemic plan
David Smith
The Labor Department will require all employers with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers are vaccinated or tested weekly. Employers must also provide paid time off to allow workers to get vaccinated. This will affect more than 80 million workers in private sector businesses. Companies that do not comply could face fines of up to nearly $14,000 per violation.
Workers in healthcare settings that receive Medicaid or Medicare reimbursement must be vaccinated, a move that applies to 50,000 providers and covers more than 17 million healthcare workers.
All federal government workers, as well as employees of contractors that do business with the federal government, must get vaccinated, or regularly tested.
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5.09pm EDT
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“We are in a tough stretch and it could last for awhile,” Biden said, stressing that the Delta variant had complicated the US recovery.
Stressing that vaccines protect people from hospitalizations and deaths from the Delta variant, he called the surge in cases a pandemic of the unvaccinated.
A quarter of adults still haven’t gotten any vaccine shot, he said. “That 25% can cause a lot of damage, and they are,” he said. He implicitly called out the Republicans who are hindering a vaccination push – calling the behavior “unacceptable”.
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5.05pm EDT
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Biden explains Covid-19 strategy
“We can and will turn the tide of Covid-19,” the president said.
Speaking from the White House, Biden started by recapping progress made so far in getting Americans vaccinated.
“We have the tools to combat the virus if we come together and use those tools,” he said, acknowledging frustrations with the 80m who are unvaccinated.
5.00pm EDT
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Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden will soon lay out his new strategy to combat the spread of coronavirus. The White House has said the president will outline six steps to boost vaccinations and limit the spread of the Delta variant. Biden is expected to announce he is requiring coronavirus vaccinations for all federal workers, without the option to undergo regular testing instead of getting vaccinated.
The justice department filed a lawsuit against Texas over its six-week abortion ban, a week after the supreme court declined to block the law’s implementation. “The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding supreme court precedent,” attorney general Merrick Garland said at a press conference this afternoon.
Biden confirmed he will withdraw the nomination of David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Chipman had attracted intense criticism from Republicans and a handful of Democrats for his advocacy work with the gun control group Giffords. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House is in “active discussions” with Chipman to find another role for him in the administration.
Liz Cheney signaled she is ready for a fight following Donald Trump’s endorsement of one of her primary opponents, Harriet Hageman. After Trump mocked Cheney as the “number one provider of sound bites” for Democrats, the Republican congresswoman replied, “Here’s a sound bite for you: Bring it.” Cheney has repeatedly criticized Trump over his lies about fraud in the 2020 election, and she supported his impeachment for inciting the Capitol insurrection.
A charter flight carrying US citizens out of Kabul has safely landed in Qatar, the White House said. The flight’s departure was facilitated by the US government, as the Biden administration continues its efforts to evacuate American citizens out of Afghanistan, even after the military formally ended its Kabul mission last week.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
4.44pm EDT
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DeSantis suffers legal defeat over anti-riot law
Richard Luscombe
It’s been another busy day in court for Florida’s litigious Republican governor Ron DeSantis, who followed up yesterday’s rebuff by a federal judge over his ban on mask mandates in schools with another defeat on Thursday – this time over his flagship anti-riot law.
US district court judge Mark Walker, in a 90-page ruling, determined that the state’s HB 1, which DeSantis signed into law in April, is unconstitutional. Touted by the governor as a means of enhancing public safety and clamping down on mob violence in the wake of protests nationwide in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, the law created, among other provisions, a new crime of “mob intimidation” and protected motorists who hit protestors during a riot.
Walker, however, was not impressed with the language contained in the law. “[Its] new definition of ‘riot’ both fails to put Floridians of ordinary intelligence on notice of what acts it criminalizes, and encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement, making this provision vague to the point of unconstitutionality,” he wrote.
His temporary injunction effectively prohibits enforcement of the law while legal challenges to it make their way through the courts.
If DeSantis’s recent actions are anything to go by, it won’t be long before the issue is back in the courtroom. On Thursday, DeSantis filed an emergency appeal to reverse Wednesday’s mask mandate ruling, asserting a “high likelihood” of winning the case on appeal, and claiming that the court of district judge John Cooper “abused its discretion” by lifting a stay the governor had previously won that halted Cooper’s earlier order freeing school districts to require masks.
A decision is likely within the next few days.
4.27pm EDT
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Kamala Harris sharply criticized the Texas abortion law this afternoon, as the vice-president met with reproductive health providers and patients to discuss abortion rights.
Harris noted many US states beyond Texas have enacted restrictive laws that have made it extremely difficult to access abortion services, underscoring the need for a robust response to such policies.
Tim Perry
(@tperry518)
NEW: @VP Kamala Harris makes first on camera comments about the DOJ lawsuit filed against the state of Texas following TX Senate Bill 8. Harris says the DOJ understands that the TX law is “patently unconstitutional” pic.twitter.com/LUJrAxibQp
September 9, 2021
“The United States department of justice has spoken loudly in saying that this law is patently unconstitutional,” Harris said of the new federal lawsuit against Texas.
Asked what other steps the Biden administration can take to protect abortion rights, the vice-president said, “We need to codify Roe v Wade.”
4.10pm EDT
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The abortion rights group NARAL praised the Biden administration for filing a lawsuit against Texas over its six-week abortion ban.
“We are pleased to see the Biden administration taking action to fight for Texans’ reproductive freedom by filing a lawsuit to block SB 8—the harshest and most extreme ban on abortion in the country,” NARAL acting president Adrienne Kimmell said in a statement.
“Let’s be clear: Texas is the tip of the iceberg. This lawsuit sends a strong message to anti-choice lawmakers across the country who are racing to enact copycat versions of SB 8 in their own states. The threat to the future of safe, legal abortion is looming larger than ever, and safeguarding reproductive freedom requires bold and immediate action.”
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Merrick Garland noted the justice department is seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the Texas abortion law, out of concern for private citizens acting as “bounty hunters” to ensure the statute is respected.
“The department of justice has a duty to defend the Constitution of the United States and to uphold the rule of law,” the attorney general said at his press conference.
“Today, we fulfill that duty by filing the lawsuit I have just described.”
3.41pm EDT
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A reporter asked Merrick Garland whether he expected the justice department to file additional lawsuits against states threatening to pass laws similar to Texas’ six-week abortion ban.
“The additional and further risk here is that other states will follow similar models with respect not only to this constitutional right but theoretically against any constitutional right,” the attorney general said.
“So if another state uses the same kind of provisions to deprive its citizens of their constitutional rights, and in particular to deprive their citizens of the ability to seek immediate review, we will bring the same kind of lawsuit.”
3.23pm EDT
15:23
Biden administration sues Texas over six-week abortion ban
The Biden administration is suing Texas over its six-week abortion ban, which went into effect last week after the supreme court declined to block the law’s implementation.
CBS News
(@CBSNews)
Garland says Texas’ abortion ban is “clearly unconstitutional” and the state doesn’t dispute that. He says the ban creates “bounty hunters” who can file lawsuits “to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible” pic.twitter.com/jPwMJHFf02
September 9, 2021
Attorney general Merrick Garland confirmed the news at a press conference this afternoon.
“The act is clearly unconstitutional under longstanding supreme court precedent,” Garland said.
The attorney general warned that the law “deputizes all private citizens, without any showing of personal connection or injury, to serve as bounty hunters” to ensure the law is respected.
“The obvious and expressly acknowledged intention of this statutory scheme is to prevent women from exercising their constitutional rights by thwarting judicial review for as long as possible,” Garland said.
Joe Biden had previously promised that he would pursue a “whole-of-government effort” to respond to the supreme court’s decision, specifically looking at what tools the justice department may have to push back against the Texas law.
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3.03pm EDT
15:03
Charter flight from Kabul safely lands in Qatar, White House says
A charter flight carrying American citizens out of Kabul has now safely landed in Qatar, the White House said in a new statement.
The flight’s departure was facilitated by the US government, as the Biden administration continues its efforts to evacuate American citizens out of Afghanistan, even after the military formally ended its Kabul mission last week.
“The Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA,” Emily Horne, a spokesperson for the National Security Council, said in the statement.
“We will continue these efforts to facilitate the safe and orderly travel of American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and Afghans who worked for us and wish to leave Afghanistan.”
It’s unclear how many US citizens were on the charter flight and how many Americans remain in Afghanistan. Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, said on Sunday that there were roughly 100 Americans still in Afghanistan.
2.45pm EDT
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Jen Psaki hinted that Joe Biden will be pursuing actions to put pressure on major employers to set coronavirus vaccine requirements for their workers.
A reporter asked the White House press secretary at her briefing, “Can the Department of Labor or anybody else compel major employers, large employers, to force the vaccine mandates on their employees?”
Psaki replied, “Yes. Stay tuned. More to come this afternoon.”
CBS News
(@CBSNews)
Reporter: “Can the Department of Labor or anybody else compel major employers, large employers, to force the vaccine mandates on their employees?”Jen Psaki: “Yes. Stay tuned. More to come this afternoon.” https://t.co/yRbPtR0ZVi pic.twitter.com/HsNZGEDUWb
September 9, 2021
The president is scheduled to deliver a speech on his new strategy to boost coronavirus vaccinations and limit the spread of the Delta variant in about two hours.
Biden is expected to sign an executive order requiring coronavirus vaccinations for all federal workers, without a testing alternative to opt out of the mandate.
Some major private-sector employers, including McDonald’s, Google and United Airlines, have already established vaccine mandates for their workers.
2.27pm EDT
14:27
Federal workers will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated under Biden’s new policy
Jen Psaki offered some details on Joe Biden’s speech this afternoon, in which he will outline his new strategy to boost coronavirus vaccinations and limit the spread of the Delta variant.
The White House press secretary said federal workers will have 75 days to get fully vaccinated under an executive order that Biden will sign later today.
Bloomberg Quicktake
(@Quicktake)
Federal employees will have about 75 days to get fully vaccinated under the executive order Biden will sign Thursday, Psaki says https://t.co/jYfQW3U8gY pic.twitter.com/jNVpgN4qng
September 9, 2021
Psaki noted the vaccine order will include “limited exceptions for legally recognized reasons,” such as religious objections and disabilities that prevent vaccinations.
Biden announced in July that federal workers would be required to get vaccinated or undergo regular coronavirus testing, but the newest order will not include a testing option.
Psaki confirmed that federal workers who do not comply with the vaccination mandate will go through the “standard HR process,” which could include facing “progressive disciplinary action”. She later added that employees could potentially be terminated if they do not get vaccinated.
2.08pm EDT
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One reporter asked Jen Psaki whether Joe Biden intends to name another nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, now that David Chipman’s nomination has been withdrawn.
“We certainly would at an appropriate time,” the White House press secretary said. “I don’t have a timeline on that at this point in time.”
As Psaki previously noted, there has only ever been one Senate-confirmed ATF director in the history of the bureau, so it will likely be extremely difficult to get any nominee confirmed. More
The White House has confirmed that Trump appointees to military service academy advisory boards, among them former press secretary Sean Spicer and adviser Kellyanne Conway, have been asked to step down or be fired. During a White House press briefing Jen Psaki responded to questions about whether this risked politicising these appointments: ‘I will let others evaluate whether they think Kellyanne Conway and Sean Spicer and others were qualified, or not political, to serve on these boards, but the president’s qualification requirements are not your party registration, they are whether you’re qualified to serve and whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration.’
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On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes and launched suicide attacks on iconic symbols of America, first striking the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and then the Pentagon. It would be the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil, claiming nearly 3,000 lives.
Scroll down to read more in this 360° series
The attacks not only shocked the world, but the images of planes crashing into the World Trade Center came to define a generation. In a speech on October 11, 2001, then-President George W. Bush spoke of “an attack on the heart and soul of the civilized world” and declared “war against all those who seek to export terror, and a war against those governments that support or shelter them.” This was the start of the global war on terror.
The Story of the 9/11 Attacks and Retaliation
Osama bin Laden, the Saudi leader of al-Qaeda, inspired the 9/11 attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani Islamist terrorist and the nephew of the truck driver convicted for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, masterminded the operation. The 9/11 Commission Report described al-Qaeda as “sophisticated, patient, disciplined and lethal.” It held that the enemy rallied “broad support in the Arab and Muslim world.” The report concluded that al-Qaeda’s hostility to the US and its values was limitless.
The report went on to say that the enemy aimed “to rid the world of religious and political pluralism, the plebiscite, and equal rights for women,” and observed that it made no distinction between military and civilian targets. The goal going forward was “to attack terrorists and prevent their ranks from swelling while at the same time protecting [the US] against future attacks.”
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To prosecute the war on terror, the US built a worldwide coalition: 136 countries offered military assistance, and 46 multilateral organizations declared support. Washington began by launching a financial war on terror, freezing assets and disrupting fundraising pipelines. In the first 100 days, the Bush administration set aside $20 billion for homeland security.
On October 7, 2001, the US inaugurated the war on terror with Operation Enduring Freedom. An international coalition that included Australia, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Japan, the UK and other countries, with the help of the Northern Alliance comprising various mujahedeen militias, overthrew the Taliban, which was sheltering al-Qaeda fighters, and took over Afghanistan.
The war on terror that began in Afghanistan soon took on a global focus. In 2003, the Bush administration invaded Iraq despite the lack of a UN mandate. Washington made the argument that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction, represented a threat to world peace, and harbored and succored al-Qaeda and other Islamic jihadists. None of this proved to be true. Hussein’s regime fell as speedily as Mullah Omar’s Taliban.
Victory, however, was short-lived. Soon, insurgency returned. In Afghanistan, suicide attacks quintupled from 27 in 2005 to 139 in 2006. Globally, the war on terror saw a “stunning” rise in jihadist activity, with just over 32,000 fighters split among 13 Islamist groups in 2001 burgeoning to 100,000 across 44 outfits in 2015. Terrorist attacks went up from an estimated 1,880 in 2001 to 14,806 in 2015, claiming 38,422 lives that year alone — a 397% increase on 2001.
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Boosted by the US invasion of Iraq, al-Qaeda spawned affiliates across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, a decentralized structure that remained intact even after the US assassination of Osama bin Laden in 2011 dealt al-Qaeda a severe blow. One of its Iraqi offshoots morphed into what became the Islamic State (IS) group following the withdrawal of most US from Iraq under President Barack Obama in 2011.
After declaring a caliphate in 2014, IS launched a global terrorist campaign that, within a year, conducted and inspired over 140 attacks in 29 countries beyond Syria and Iraq, according to one estimate. Islamic State acolytes went on to claim nearly 30,000 lives across the Middle East, Europe, the United States, Asia and Africa, controlling vast amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria, before suffering defeat by internationally-backed local forces in 2019.
In Afghanistan, despite the war’s estimated trillion-dollar price tag, on August 15 the Taliban have taken control of the capital Kabul amid a chaotic US withdrawal, raising fears of al-Qaeda’s comeback. Last year, the Global Terrorism Index concluded that deaths from terrorism were still double the number recorded in 2001, with Afghanistan claiming a disproportionately large share of over 40% in 2019.
Why Do 9/11 and the War on Terror Matter?
While the failures and successes of the war on terror will remain subject to heated debate for years to come, what remains uncontested is the fact that the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war on terror have forged the world we live in today.
First, they have caused tremendous loss of blood and treasure. Brown University’s Costs of War project places an $8-trillion price tag on the US war on terror. It estimates that about 900,000 people “were killed as a direct result of war, whether by bombs, bullets or fire,” a number that does not include indirect deaths “caused by way of disease, displacement and loss of access to food or clean drinking water.”
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Second, numerous countries, including liberal democracies such as the US and the UK, have eroded their own civil liberties and democratic institutions with the avowed goal of improving security. Boarding airplanes or entering public buildings now invariably involves elaborate security checks. Mass surveillance has become par for the course. The US continues to keep alleged terror suspects in indefinite detention without trial in Guantanamo Bay.
Third, many analysts argue that the attacks and the response have coarsened the US. After World War II, Americans drew a line in the sand against torture. They put Germans and Japanese on trial for war crimes that included waterboarding. In the post-9/11 world, torture became part of the American toolkit. Airstrikes and drone strikes have caused high collateral casualties, killing a disputed number of innocents and losing the battle for the hearts and minds of local populations.
These strikes raise significant issues of legality and the changing nature of warfare. There is a question as to the standing of “counterterrorism” operations in international and national law. However, such issues have garnered relatively little public attention.
Fourth, the 9/11 attacks and the ensuing war on terror have coincided with the spectacular rise of China. On December 11, 2001, the Middle Kingdom joined the World Trade Organization, which enabled the Chinese economy to grow at a speed and scale unprecedented in history. Analysts believe that distraction with the war on terror hindered the US response to the revolution occurring in global international relations and power dynamics.
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Under Barack Obama, the US initiated an explicit pivot to Asia policy that sought to shift focus from the war on terror and manage the rise of China. Under Donald Trump, Washington unleashed a trade war on Beijing and concluded a peace deal with the Taliban. Joe Biden has believed that, since the early days of the war on terror, US priorities have been too skewed toward terrorism and that Afghanistan is a secondary strategic issue, leading to a decision to withdraw troops to mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11.
Biden has argued that the US has degraded al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and eliminated bin Laden. Despite worrying echoes of George W. Bush declaring the “mission accomplished” in Iraq in 2003, from now on, Biden wants the US to remain “narrowly focused on counterterrorism — not counterinsurgency or nation building.”
While the terrorist threat still consumes US resources, Washington is now shifting its strategic attention and resources to China, Russia and Iran. The Biden administration has deemed these three authoritarian powers to be the biggest challenge for the postwar liberal and democratic order. The 20-year war on terror seems to be over — at least for now.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More
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