A roughly 9-hour attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 has cast a two-decade-long shadow over the nation, creating a pivotal stopwatch of life before the War on Terror and after.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed Sept. 11 when hijacked planes crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., a Pennsylvania field and the World Trade Center in New York City, causing the latter’s twin towers to collapse.
Afterward, the nation formed a new way of life that included more restrictions and safety protocols and a new terrorist enemy. In Cowlitz County, the Port of Longview banned public access and the Islamic community received backlash.
Port of Longview
Federal regulations banned public access at the Port of Longview and implemented safety measures like fences, gates and security cards after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Public access to the Port of Longview was closed in 2003, blocking a once-popular fishing destination for the community, including off-duty longshoremen, said Port of Longview Communications Manager Ashley Helenberg.
The Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 was signed almost a year after the attacks and added safety measures to ports based on size and type of handled cargo. The Port of Longview added security cards for employees, 2 miles of fencing, 13 security gates and up to 30 security guards and supporting office staff.
Before, Sept. 11, Manager of Marine Terminals and Maritime Project Manager Larry Landgraver said two night watchmen guarded the facility to prevent break ins. The first set of federal regulations took effect in 2004, according to the port.
The Port of Longview is a deep-water port along the Columbia River where hundreds of vessels import and export up to millions of metric tons of bulk items like grains, lumber and paper a year. Helenberg said the port provides “direct access to the U.S.” and the security measures “protect the nation’s gateway.”
Neither American nor foreign ship crews can walk the port unsupervised, Landgraver said. Crews sign out and back into the facility if they leave the property. Signs along the facility gauge the regional terrorist threat from one to three as part of U.S. Coast Guard’s Maritime Security system. Landgraver said the threat has not been raised since the system’s implementation.
In a nod to pre-9/11 regulations, Helenberg said the port offers summer bus tours of the facility, and took over Willow Grove from the county in 2016 to provide a way for the public to use port land.
“It’s important for the community to still have access,” she said.
Muslims
Kelso Longview Islamic Community President Brian Shaheed had only been a converted Muslim for about five years before the Islamic extremist Al Qaeda initiated the Sept. 11 attacks. About a month afterwards, Shaheed, who was living in Port Angeles at the time, said “everything changed.”
“Islam was pushed in the spotlight,” he said, “and not in a good way. There was a lot of misinformation.”
Shaheed said strangers approached him when wearing traditional Islamic clothes on Port Angeles streets and told the U.S. citizen to go back to his own country. He said he “developed a paranoia,” and started gauging people’s body language when entering rooms and eyeing exits.
The verbal attacks, Shaheed said, inspired him to speak at local schools and civic organizations to educate people on the peaceful religion. At a 2011 lecture at Washington State University Vancouver, he said the facility received bomb threats related to his presence. Before the pandemic, he said a man walked by the Islamic community’s Kelso-based mosque and called him a terrorist, but returned to apologize about a week later.
While Shaheed said he lives with the label of being “othered” in society, overall, the tightknit community of Kelso and Longview has been supportive.
“For every one person who’s been mean or negative in the past, there have been 10 that have showed support,” he said. “This is my home.”
