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The crisis of September 11 highlighted
the importance of not only the information contained in the Library's
vast resources but also the knowledge embodied in its expert staff.
Foreign area specialists from the Library's Area Studies divisions,
with extensive knowledge of the world's languages and cultures,
immediately began collecting and interpreting press reactions
and forewarnings from around the world. The Library's Federal
Research Division had issued a prophetic report, Sociology
and Psychology of Terrorism, in 1999, based on then-current
literature written by experts on terrorism. The report mentioned
the possibility of a terrorist attack on important U.S. monuments
and buildings. In the aftermath of the attacks, the report garnered
nation-wide media attention.
Area specialists, working with
colleagues in the Library's overseas offices, moved quickly to
capture and preserve a broad picture of foreign reactions to the
disaster, both sympathetic and not. As materials poured in, expert
staff provided translations of new and existing collections for
congressional committees and the executive branch. One such translation
was of a 1991 pamphlet by Osama Bin Laden in which he described
how he and the mujahidin fighters planned and executed major attacks
against the occupying Soviet army in Afghanistan. Bin Laden also
described the nationalities of his allies, which proved useful
for those attempting to trace the roots of the movement he leads.
The Library of Congress maintains
overseas acquisitions offices in Rio
de Janeiro, Cairo,
Nairobi,
Islamabad,
New Delhi,
and Jakarta.
These offices turned to their usual sources to acquire newspapers,
news magazines, pamphlets, books, cassettes, and posters to document
the local coverage of September 11 and the U.S. response. They
also sought out material that might otherwise have been considered
beyond the general scope of collecting. In India, for instance,
books on the attacks were collected that were printed barely two
weeks after the event. The Indonesian office acquired Muslim clerics'
sermons recorded on cassettes. Through the Islamabad office, thirty-six
posters featuring Bin Laden were obtained in October and November
2001, most featuring Koranic injunctions on jihad. Perhaps, the
most remarkable of these, obtained in October, depicted Osama
Bin Laden against the backdrop of the World Trade Center under
attack. Significantly, this poster appears to represent an early
claim of responsibility for the assault on the World Trade Center
by Osama Bin Laden or his followers and sympathizers. The primary
caption, in Urdu, translates: "Hundreds of Osamas will emerge
from every drop of my blood".
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