In a Caracas television store on September 11, Venezuelans watched images of the terrorist attacks on America. Corbis / Reuters New Media

Naturally, the American public was particularly aware of what had happened and particularly prone to watch the media. However, that heightened awareness was also true to a large extent for the rest of the world. We know from surveys that a remarkable number of people from many different countries knew about the terrorist attacks very quickly after the first target in New York was hit. They often learned about the events from television or they were alerted by friends. Many then went to the Internet for more information. In fact, access to the Internet broke down in many nations as too many people tried to log on. The number of people who immediately knew about the events was not quite as high as the 100 percent reported in the United States. Still, around 90 percent of the people polled in Hungary, Russia, France, and England knew of the incident within a few hours. That remarkable rate speaks to the global nature of our contemporary communications net.

Even though they had not been targeted, people in foreign nations—including Hungarians, Russians, French, British, and Germans—told pollsters that they too were afraid of future terrorist incidents that might directly affect them. The terrorists who struck on September 11 were able not only to spread fear and anxiety among the American public but also to achieve that same effect to a large, if lesser, extent in many countries around the world. In addition, we know that the events were heavily covered in the Middle East, the region from which the terrorists came. While I haven't seen opinion polls from that region, we can be certain that the degree of awareness was at least as high in the Middle East as in other parts of the world.