How 9/11 made autocrats stronger, terrorists smarter, and ordinary people less free

“There is an illusion that pre-September 11 everything was hunky dory, and that’s simply not the case,” says HA Hellyer, a Middle East security specialist at the Royal United Services Institute. “But once 9/11 takes place, terrorism becomes a much more prominent trump card. Terrorism means that we can suspend normal, usual ways of doing things.”