The net was flexing its new found muscles well before then ( C-punks, Indymedia, Dead-lucky, etc ) but this historic event highlighted this. For example,  a guesstimate of 50K casualties was made on Melb IMC soon after. Then that rough guess - based on number of workers in buildings - was floated by high-ups in the Cheney administration. " I say in here and it comes out there " - ( Aaron in Broadcast News ) And none of the covert fascism rolled out since 9-11 has slowed the net down. By 2005 Americans were outnumbered and by 2010 regular demands for USG surrender were being webcast.  This is very clearly the internet century - the last 'American century' didn't last five years. Personally I want to thank the 9-11 conspirators for taking a lot of the heat off me. My attack had been launched earlier in the year ( Cincy cop WIRED etc )