United in vigilance, law enforcement officers have been on ‘a no-fail mission’ for 25 years

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Twenty-five years later, John Ryan can still name all 37 Port Authority Police officers who died on September 11 .

Christopher Amoroso. Antonio Rodrigues. J.D. Levi. Stephen Huczko. He ticks off their names and their special attributes.

Sgt. Robert Kaulfers stands out because he was one of Ryan’s closest friends on the job, the proverbial life of the party who would make up song lyrics on the spot and used his talents to make fun of colleagues. Ryan will always remember the laughs, but he remains haunted by the last time he heard his friend’s voice.

“You hear him calling on the radio, ‘West Street’s coming down, West Street’s coming down,’ and then nothing,” said Ryan, a former Chief of Department with the Port Authority Police Department. “You know by his description that he was in the lobby, in the South Tower, looking out, and could see the steel and other things dropping, and then ultimately, was killed in the collapse.”

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Port Authority police lost more officers in the line of duty that one day than any other law enforcement agency has in a single day in US history.

Like so many in law enforcement, Ryan made the soon-to-be war on terror a personal mission to make sure days like this never happen again. He ultimately went on to become one of the commanders of the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) , a multi-agency team led by the FBI that emerged as the linchpin in the fight against terrorism post-9/11.

“Being part of the JTTF for me was the most significant way in which I could provide my experience and knowledge to help to prevent another event from occurring,” Ryan said. “When your community gets destroyed, and you lose so many members of your community, in my view you have to take it personal.”

On the 25th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on US soil, law enforcement officials – especially in New York – manage a massive counterterrorism infrastructure made up of almost every local, state, and federal law enforcement agency. They all work together, keeping one of the core lessons learned from 9/11 as a main directive: sharing intelligence and resources so they can stop a threat as soon as possible.

Intelligence sharing has been one of the keys to a robust counterterrorism playbook, born out of the ashes of Ground Zero, that has so far prevented a similar large-scale attack. While no other terror attack in the US has mirrored 9/11 in terms of sheer devastation, brutality and loss of life, there have been other high-profile attacks and attempts in the years since, with many plots snuffed out before they even came to fruition.

Questions remain about security in America, with law enforcement officials often referring to a dynamic and fast-moving threat picture, meaning there is no one singular threat barreling down. Resources and partnerships have been dedicated to stopping threats that have materialized in part from the war with Iran , increased antisemitism since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, lone wolves, radicalization of international and homegrown violent extremists and more.

Meanwhile, the response to the 9/11 attacks has caused profound changes in security protocols at airports, new federal laws aimed at harsher penalties for terrorists and the constant recalibration of procedures that reflect modern-day attacks, like vehicle rammings and drone use.

Even with all these measures, the threat level will never be zero.

“We are on a no-fail mission,” said Andrew Pachtman, special agent in charge of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York. “The bar of success is to prevent and to disrupt. We understand that it’s impossible to get ahead of every plot before steps can be taken that can prevent threats and risks to the American people, but our job is to do that. Every day our job is to make sure nothing goes boom in New York City.”

As the US intelligence apparatus failed to prevent the towers from falling on September 11, 2001, the FBI began taking “a hard look at itself,” former FBI Director Christopher Wray once remarked in a 2019 commencement speech.

After the attack, the agency, helmed then by Robert Mueller, would begin to shift significant resources, agents and large amounts of focus to counterterrorism intelligence, investigations and cases.

The JTTF, starting out as just a partnership between the FBI and the NYPD years before 9/11, soon expanded to major cities after September 11. By 2002, a national JTTF was established – along with the Department of Homeland Security – both of which were major changes to law enforcement in response to the attacks.

Now, the JTTF is in every FBI field office around the country, a far cry from the pre-9/11 days when FBI agents and local police would be on the brink of a fistfight over who was in charge, Ryan said.

“It wasn’t as refined as it is today, where you had representation from all different agencies,” Ryan said about the evolution of the JTTF in New York. “Back then, there was just a few agencies. Now today, you have over 60 different agencies there that participate.”

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The shield of every law enforcement agency is on the wall of the JTTF headquarters in Lower Manhattan. Among those shields is a whole tire from the landing gear from one of the planes that struck one of the towers and a portion of a steel beam, fashioned into a cross – both serving as a stark reminder of the attacks.

“Information was proprietary within the intelligence community to the agencies that collected it,” Pachtman said of the days before the terror attacks. “They were not as open or willing or able to share it based on the rules that existed at the time.”

Representatives of each agency work under the same roof now – investigators, analysts and terror experts, all trained to identify potential terrorists and any plots they may have in the planning stages. They hunt for co-conspirators and follow money trails with the intention of sharing leads and building potential cases together. As of October 2024, there were around 4,000 members, including FBI task force officers from more than 500 state and local agencies and 50 federal agencies.

While members of the JTTF were providing boots on the ground – even having a presence in many countries overseas – the 9/11 attacks revealed a big vulnerability which ultimately led to major changes for air travelers.

Airport security got considerably stricter, which had a massive ripple effect for millions who fly each year, with changes happening just minutes before the first tower collapsed.

At 9:42 a.m. on September 11, five minutes after the attack on the Pentagon, the Federal Aviation Administration took the unprecedented step of ordering all aircraft nationwide to land immediately.

Two days after the attacks, US airports reopened and commercial flights began to resume but there were stricter security policies and checks, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Among the new rules, only passengers with tickets to fly that day would be allowed past the security checkpoints. Knives and other sharp items also were banned from carry-on bags. Before 9/11, the FAA permitted knives with up to 4-inch long blades on board commercial aircraft.

On November 19, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act into law, creating the Transportation Security Administration. Before September 11, airport security had been managed by the individual airlines.

Passenger and baggage screening at airports would now be conducted by the federal government, and all carry on and checked bags would be examined. The government also expanded the Federal Air Marshal Service and required airlines to reinforce cockpit doors.

The TSA first started screening passengers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in April 2002. At the end of the year, the agency would meet a key mandate, deploying explosives detection systems nationwide.

The first attempt at a large-scale terror attack came just over three months after September 11.

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On December 22, 2001, just a month after the TSA was organized, British al-Qaeda operative Richard Reid, known as “the shoe bomber,” tried to use matches to ignite explosives in his shoes on a flight from Paris to Miami. According to the FBI, crew members and passengers noticed Reid struggling to light the fuse and restrained him. He pleaded guilty to eight terrorism-related charges, and a judge sentenced him to life in federal prison.

A requirement for passengers to take their shoes off at TSA security checkpoints so they could be screened for explosives came nearly five years later due to “intelligence pointing to a continuing threat,” according to TSA.

The rule was eliminated in 2025.

A plot to simultaneously bomb as many as 10 airliners over the Atlantic using liquid or gel explosives was foiled by intelligence and law enforcement in 2006. The al Qaeda members planned to bring the explosives onboard in common items like toothpaste tubes or shampoo bottles and detonators hidden in MP3 players or phones. Ten men were eventually convicted in British courts.

As a result of the failed plot, TSA implemented restrictions on liquids in carry-on luggage. Each passenger was limited to bottles of 3.4 ounces or less contained in a single, clear, resealable 1-quart sized plastic bag.

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In December 2008, as Northwest Airlines Flight 253 was descending into Detroit Metropolitan Airport, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, also known as “the underwear bomber,” detonated a bomb hidden in his underwear. The explosives started a fire, but did not fully explode, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Passengers and flight attendants tackled him and extinguished the fire as the plane made an emergency landing. Abdulmutallab pleaded guilty to all eight counts of a federal indictment and was sentenced to life in prison.

In 2010, TSA would begin using full body scanners. The machines were designed to detect non-metallic weapons, explosives and other threats concealed under layers of clothing that might evade traditional metal detectors.

TSA Precheck would officially launch in December 2013, identifying “low risk” passengers for quicker streamlined screenings. Today, over 20 million people are active pre-check members, according to TSA .

Investigators had their share of terror threats to tackle both underground and on the ground after the underwear bomber episode.

On the 9/11 anniversary in 2009, investigators uncovered an al Qaeda plot to attack the New York City subway system with homemade bombs at two of its busiest stations. Najibullah Zazi was one of several men arrested in connection with the plot. Zazi was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, with prosecutors making note of his extraordinary cooperation, saying the intelligence he gave helped in a number of investigations.

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In 2010, authorities arrested Faisal Shahzad after he tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square. Shahzad said he was trained by the Pakistani Taliban on how to make bombs. Despite the training, the bomb failed to go off. He was ultimately sentenced to life in prison.

Sayfullo Saipov was sentenced to life in prison after he rammed his rented U-Haul truck into pedestrians and cyclists along the West Side Highway in 2017. Saipov, inspired by ISIS, ditched his truck after he crashed into a school bus and brandished a pellet gun before he was shot by an NYPD officer and taken into custody. Eight people were killed and a dozen were injured in what was the deadliest terror attack in New York City since 9/11.

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Law enforcement spends much of its focus on plots that happened and attacks that became near misses through hapless bad actors.

Just last month, a 35-year-old woman who pledged allegiance to ISIS and wanted to blow up the New York State Capitol building in Albany and also attack senators was arrested, authorities announced at a news conference in August.

Such alleged plots tell the story of the evolution of terrorism affecting American cities, from major conspiracies with deep planning and coordination whose nexus begins with terrorist organizations abroad to solo actors radicalized online whose target is any kind of mayhem, not just large-scale devastation. And all this comes in addition to cybersecurity threats, foreign interference, ransomwear attacks and more.

“The threat is evolving. There are actors who are inspired by different elements of domestic terrorism ideology, international terrorism ideology, a confluence of both,” Pachtman said. “They have an advantage of not having to follow any laws and rules that we have to follow and they have the advantage of the available technology and the ability to hide themselves online to anonymize themselves, for us to not immediately know who they are or where they are and to inflict harm.”

NYPD Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said the threat picture is much different than it was 25 years ago, meaning that law enforcement must be just as nimble to combat threats in many different spaces all at once.

“ Now we’re not primarily dealing with al Qaeda or even al Qaeda/ISIS but a proliferation of threats coming from conspiracy theories, grievances, nihilistic violence, far left, far right, anti-government, all of those things,” Weiner said at a news conference on Wednesday. “It’s a much more individualized and idiosyncratic threat, which means that we have to be on our toes.”

Weeks after the towers collapsed, Congress passed the Patriot Act, a sweeping set of laws that gave law enforcement and intelligence agencies the go ahead to conduct more surveillance with stronger investigative powers, all in the name of fighting terrorism. It also removed some legal restrictions and increased penalties for those charged in connection with a terror plot. Critics argued the Patriot Act cleared the path for spying and violations of civil liberties, prompting reforms to the controversial law years later.

Still, Pachtman said, partnering with federal prosecutors has made all the difference in bringing alleged terrorists to justice, with the partnership evolving just as the threat has evolved.

“With many of our terrorism investigations, when we can charge a subject with a crime of terrorism, we will,” Pachtman said. “Oftentimes our terrorism subjects often commit other federal criminal violations and so we’ve been very agile and very adaptable and nimble to say, ‘Hey, we have a terrorism investigation with a subject who’s also committing other federal offenses. Let’s charge him with those federal offenses to disrupt his activity or her activity or the plot,’ and we’ve been very successful.”

While many have been brought to justice since 9/11, the mastermind of the alleged plot, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed , along with his three alleged accomplices, finally have a trial date of June 2028, according to a ruling from a US military judge . So far, only one terrorist has been convicted in connection with the 9/11 attacks, Zacarias Moussaoui , who’s currently serving a life sentence.

Pachtman, who was with the DEA in New Jersey working narcotics cases when the terror attacks happened, said he helped dig up evidence that was used to convict Moussaoui. Pachtman remembers driving on the New Jersey Turnpike and seeing one of the towers struck while the other had not yet been hit.

Despite all the resources dedicated to combat terror, the question regarding the likelihood of another 9/11 style attack, just like Pachtman vividly remembers 25 years ago, remains.

“It’s hard to answer that question,” Pachtman said. “There may be people who seek to commit such an attack, but it’s our job to stop it. We have every resource and element in place across the board, interagency cooperation to stop that, and it’s our job not to let that happen and we will not let that happen under our watch.”

CNN’s Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.

Timothy A. Clary/法新社/盖蒂图片社

25 年过去了，约翰·瑞安仍然能说出 9·11 事件中殉职的 37 名港务局警察的名字。

克里斯托弗·阿莫罗索、安东尼奥·罗德里格斯、JD·列维、斯蒂芬·胡茨科。他一一列举了他们的名字和各自的特长。

罗伯特·考尔弗斯警官之所以令人印象深刻，是因为他是瑞恩在工作中最好的朋友之一，是出了名的活跃气氛，总能即兴创作歌词，并用他的才华取笑同事。瑞恩会永远记得那些欢声笑语，但他始终无法忘记最后一次听到朋友声音的情景。

“你听到他在无线电里喊‘西街要塌了，西街要塌了’，然后就没了消息，”瑞安说道，他曾是港务局警察局的部门主管。“根据他的描述，你知道他当时在南塔的大厅里，向外望去，看到钢筋和其他东西掉下来，最终在坍塌中丧生。”

我们对纽约市新近公布的9/11事件记录的了解：这些记录揭露了官员们在航空安全问题上误导公众。

港务局警察在执勤中殉职的警员人数，比美国历史上任何其他执法机构单日殉职的警员人数都多。

和许多执法人员一样，瑞恩将即将爆发的反恐战争视为自己的使命，决心确保此类事件不再重演。最终，他成为联合反恐特遣部队（JTTF）的指挥官之一。该部队是由联邦调查局领导的多机构联合小组，在9·11事件后成为反恐斗争的关键力量。

“对我来说，加入联合反恐工作组是我能贡献自身经验和知识，帮助防止类似事件再次发生的最有意义的方式，”瑞恩说。“当你的社区被摧毁，失去那么多社区成员时，在我看来，你必须把它当成自己的事来处理。”

在美国本土遭受最严重恐怖袭击25周年之际，执法官员——尤其是在纽约——管理着一个庞大的反恐体系，该体系几乎囊括了所有地方、州和联邦执法机构。他们通力合作，并将从“9·11”事件中汲取的核心教训之一作为主要指导原则：共享情报和资源，以便尽快阻止威胁。

情报共享是建立健全的反恐战略的关键要素之一，这一战略诞生于“9·11”事件的废墟之上，迄今为止已成功阻止了类似的大规模袭击。虽然美国历史上没有其他恐怖袭击在破坏程度、残暴程度和人员伤亡方面与“9·11”事件相提并论，但此后几年也发生过其他一些备受瞩目的袭击和未遂事件，其中许多阴谋在付诸实施前就被挫败。

美国的安全形势依然令人担忧，执法官员经常提到威胁形势瞬息万变，这意味着不存在单一的、迫在眉睫的威胁。为了应对这些威胁，美国投入了大量资源并建立了合作伙伴关系，这些威胁部分源于与伊朗的战争、自2023年10月7日哈马斯袭击以色列以来日益高涨的反犹主义、独狼式袭击、国际和本土暴力极端分子的激进化等等。

与此同时，对 9/11 袭击的回应导致机场安全规程发生了深刻变化，新的联邦法律旨在对恐怖分子处以更严厉的惩罚，并且不断调整程序以反映现代袭击，如车辆冲撞和无人机使用。

即使采取了所有这些措施，威胁等级也永远不会为零。

“我们肩负着一项不容有失的任务，”纽约联合反恐特遣队负责人安德鲁·帕克特曼说道。“成功的关键在于预防和阻止。我们明白，不可能在采取措施预防对美国人民的威胁和风险之前，就预先发现并阻止每一起阴谋，但我们的职责就是做到这一点。我们每天的工作就是确保纽约市不会发生任何爆炸事件。”

正如美国情报机构未能阻止世贸双塔在 2001 年 9 月 11 日倒塌一样，联邦调查局开始“认真审视自身”，前联邦调查局局长克里斯托弗·雷在 2019 年的一次毕业典礼演讲中曾这样说道。

袭击发生后，当时由罗伯特·穆勒领导的该机构开始将大量资源、特工和大量精力转移到反恐情报、调查和案件上。

联合反恐工作组（JTTF）最初只是联邦调查局和纽约警察局在 9/11 事件发生前几年建立的合作关系，在 9/11 事件后迅速扩展到各大城市。到 2002 年，国家联合反恐工作组成立，同时成立的还有国土安全部——这两项举措都是为应对袭击事件而对执法部门进行的重大改革。

瑞安说，现在，联邦调查局在全国各地的每个外勤办事处都设立了联合反恐工作组，这与9/11事件之前的情况截然不同，当时联邦调查局特工和地方警察经常因为争夺领导权而大打出手。

“它不像现在这样完善，没有现在这样汇集了各种不同的代理机构，”瑞恩在谈到纽约联合电视工作组（JTTF）的发展历程时说道。“那时候只有几家代理机构。而现在，有超过60家不同的代理机构参与其中。”

马克·拉尔斯顿/法新社/盖蒂图片社

所有执法机构的盾徽都悬挂在曼哈顿下城联合反恐特遣部队总部的墙上。在这些盾徽中，有一块完整的轮胎，来自撞击世贸双塔的飞机起落架；还有一段钢梁，被制成十字架的形状——这两样东西都鲜明地提醒着人们那场恐怖袭击。

帕克特曼在谈到恐怖袭击发生前的日子时说：“情报机构掌握的信息是专有的，只有收集这些信息的机构才能掌握。根据当时的规定，他们既不开放，也不愿意或无法分享这些信息。”

现在，各机构的代表都在同一屋檐下工作——调查员、分析师和反恐专家，他们都接受过专门训练，能够识别潜在的恐怖分子及其任何正在策划的阴谋。他们追查同谋，追踪资金流向，旨在共享线索，共同构建潜在的案件。截至2024年10月，该机构约有4000名成员，其中包括来自500多个州和地方机构以及50个联邦机构的联邦调查局特遣队成员。

尽管联合反恐特遣部队的成员已在海外许多国家部署了地面部队，但 9/11 袭击暴露了一个巨大的漏洞，最终导致航空旅客面临重大变化。

机场安检力度大幅加强，这对每年数百万乘坐飞机的旅客产生了巨大的连锁反应，而就在第一座世贸中心大楼倒塌前几分钟，安检措施才刚刚开始调整。

9 月 11 日上午 9 点 42 分，五角大楼遭到袭击五分钟后，美国联邦航空管理局采取了前所未有的措施，命令全国所有飞机立即降落。

据美国联邦航空管理局称，袭击发生两天后，美国机场重新开放，商业航班开始恢复，但安全政策和检查更加严格。

新规中，只有持有当日航班机票的乘客才能通过安检。刀具和其他尖锐物品也被禁止携带登机。9·11事件前，美国联邦航空管理局（FAA）允许乘客携带刀刃长度不超过4英寸的刀具登机。

2001年11月19日，乔治·W·布什总统签署了《航空和运输安全法》，正式成立了运输安全管理局。在9·11事件之前，机场安保工作一直由各航空公司自行管理。

机场的旅客和行李安检工作将由联邦政府负责，所有随身行李和托运行李都将接受检查。政府还扩大了联邦空中执法人员服务范围，并要求航空公司加固驾驶舱门。

美国运输安全管理局 (TSA) 于 2002 年 4 月首次在巴尔的摩/华盛顿瑟古德·马歇尔国际机场开始对乘客进行安检。到年底，该机构将完成一项关键任务，即在全国范围内部署爆炸物探测系统。

第一次大规模恐怖袭击企图发生在9·11事件三个多月后。

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2001年12月22日，就在美国运输安全管理局（TSA）成立一个月后，绰号“鞋子炸弹客”的英国基地组织成员理查德·里德试图在从巴黎飞往迈阿密的航班上用火柴引爆藏在鞋子里的炸药。据联邦调查局（FBI）称，机组人员和乘客发现里德正在费力地点燃引信，并将其制服。他承认了八项与恐怖主义相关的指控，法官判处他终身监禁。

据美国运输安全管理局 (TSA) 称，近五年后，由于“情报显示威胁持续存在”，TSA 要求乘客在安检点脱鞋以便接受爆炸物检查。

该规则于 2025 年被废除。

2006年，情报部门和执法部门挫败了一起企图使用液体或凝胶炸药同时炸毁多达10架跨大西洋客机的阴谋。基地组织成员计划将炸药藏在牙膏管或洗发水瓶等常见物品中带上飞机，并将雷管藏在MP3播放器或手机中。最终，十名男子在英国法院被定罪。

由于这次阴谋失败，美国运输安全管理局（TSA）对随身行李中的液体实施了限制。每位乘客只能携带容量不超过3.4盎司的液体，并且必须装在一个透明的、可重复密封的1夸脱大小的塑料袋中。

马克·威尔逊/盖蒂图片社

2008年12月，西北航空公司253号航班在底特律都会机场降落时，绰号“内裤炸弹客”的乌马尔·法鲁克·阿卜杜勒穆塔拉布引爆了藏在内裤里的炸弹。据美国移民和海关执法局称，爆炸引发了火灾，但并未完全爆炸。乘客和乘务员制服了他，并在飞机紧急迫降前扑灭了大火。阿卜杜勒穆塔拉布对联邦起诉书中的全部八项指控认罪，被判处终身监禁。

2010年，美国运输安全管理局（TSA）开始使用全身扫描仪。这些机器旨在探测隐藏在多层衣物下、可能躲过传统金属探测器的非金属武器、爆炸物和其他威胁物品。

TSA预检计划于2013年12月正式启动，旨在识别“低风险”旅客，以便他们能够更快、更便捷地接受安检。据美国运输安全管理局（TSA）统计，目前已有超过2000万人成为TSA预检计划的活跃会员。

在“内裤炸弹客”事件之后，调查人员面临着来自地下和地面的各种恐怖威胁。

2009年9月11日，在9·11事件周年纪念日当天，调查人员破获了一起基地组织密谋在纽约地铁两个最繁忙的车站使用自制炸弹袭击地铁系统的阴谋。纳吉布拉·扎齐是因涉嫌参与该阴谋而被捕的几名男子之一。扎齐被判有罪，并被判处10年联邦监禁。检察官特别指出他给予了非凡的合作，称他提供的情报对多项调查起到了关键作用。

他在世贸中心107层工作。一次换班救了他的命。

2010年，费萨尔·沙赫扎德试图在时代广场引爆汽车炸弹后被当局逮捕。沙赫扎德声称他曾接受巴基斯坦塔利班的炸弹制造训练。尽管接受过训练，炸弹却未能引爆。他最终被判处终身监禁。

2017年，赛福洛·赛波夫驾驶租来的U-Haul卡车在西区高速公路冲撞行人和骑自行车的人，被判处终身监禁。赛波夫受ISIS启发，撞上一辆校车后弃车逃逸，并挥舞着一把气枪，最终被一名纽约警察开枪击中并逮捕。这起事件造成8人死亡，12人受伤，是自9·11事件以来纽约市最严重的恐怖袭击。

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执法部门将大部分精力放在已发生的阴谋和因倒霉的坏人而险些发生的袭击事件上。

就在上个月，一名35岁的女子因宣誓效忠ISIS，企图炸毁纽约州议会大厦并袭击参议员而被捕。当局在8月份的新闻发布会上宣布了这一消息。

这些所谓的阴谋揭示了恐怖主义在美国城市演变的历程：从与境外恐怖组织有着千丝万缕联系、精心策划和协调的大型阴谋，到目标不仅限于大规模破坏、而是任何形式混乱的、在网络上被极端化的独狼式袭击者。此外，网络安全威胁、外国干预、勒索软件攻击等问题也日益凸显。

帕克特曼说：“威胁正在演变。一些行动者受到国内恐怖主义意识形态、国际恐怖主义意识形态以及两者融合的影响。他们的优势在于无需遵守我们必须遵守的任何法律和规则，而且他们可以利用现有技术隐藏自己，匿名上网，使我们无法立即知道他们的身份和位置，从而造成伤害。”

纽约市警察局负责情报和反恐的副局长丽贝卡·韦纳表示，目前的威胁形势与 25 年前大不相同，这意味着执法部门必须同样灵活地应对许多不同领域的威胁。

“现在我们主要面对的不再是基地组织，甚至也不是基地组织/伊斯兰国，而是来自阴谋论、不满情绪、虚无主义暴力、极左、极右、反政府等等各种威胁的激增，”韦纳周三在新闻发布会上说。“这是一种更加个性化和独特的威胁，这意味着我们必须时刻保持警惕。”

在世贸双塔倒塌数周后，国会通过了《爱国者法案》。该法案是一系列影响深远的法律，赋予执法和情报机构更大的调查权力，并允许其开展更多监视活动，这一切都以打击恐怖主义为名。该法案还取消了一些法律限制，并加重了对参与恐怖阴谋者的处罚。批评人士认为，《爱国者法案》为间谍活动和侵犯公民自由铺平了道路，促使人们对这项备受争议的法律在多年后进行了改革。

不过，帕克特曼表示，与联邦检察官合作对于将涉嫌恐怖分子绳之以法至关重要，而且这种合作关系也随着威胁的演变而不断发展。

帕克特曼说：“在我们许多反恐调查中，只要能以恐怖主义罪名起诉嫌疑人，我们就会这样做。很多时候，我们的恐怖主义嫌疑人还会犯下其他联邦罪行，所以我们一直非常灵活、适应性强，能够迅速做出反应，比如，‘我们正在调查一起恐怖主义案件，嫌疑人同时也在犯下其他联邦罪行。那就以这些联邦罪行起诉他，以阻止他的活动或阴谋。’而且我们一直非常成功。”

虽然自9/11事件以来，许多人已被绳之以法，但根据美国军事法官的裁决，该事件的幕后主使哈立德·谢赫·穆罕默德及其三名同伙的审判日期终于定在了2028年6月。迄今为止，只有一名恐怖分子因与9/11袭击事件相关的罪行而被定罪，即扎卡里亚斯·穆萨维，他目前正在服无期徒刑。

恐怖袭击发生时，帕克特曼正在新泽西州的美国缉毒局负责毒品案件。他说，他曾参与挖掘证据，最终将穆萨维定罪。帕克特曼回忆说，当时他正驾车行驶在新泽西州收费公路上，看到其中一座世贸中心大楼已被摧毁，而另一座大楼尚未受损。

尽管投入了大量资源打击恐怖主义，但关于再次发生类似 9/11 袭击的可能性，就像帕克特曼 25 年前仍然记忆犹新的那样，仍然是一个问题。

帕克特曼说：“这个问题很难回答。或许有人企图发动此类袭击，但阻止它是我们的职责。我们已经调动了所有资源和力量，各部门之间也开展了合作，以阻止此类事件发生。我们有责任不让这种事情发生，我们绝不会让它在我们眼皮底下发生。”

CNN的霍姆斯·莱布兰德对本报道亦有贡献。