In January, 2002 four 9/11 family members traveled to Afghanistan in a delegation organized by Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange to witness the consequences of U.S. military action there and to express their profound concern that high numbers of civilian casualties would increase terrorist recruitment rather than making the U.S. or the world safer.
Their arrival of the Americans in Kabul resulted in media coverage of Afghan civilian casualties which had not previously found a voice in newspaper and television reporting. Deeply moved by their experience, the family members returned to the United States to lobby Congress for the creation of an Afghan victims fund to compensate innocent victims of the U.S. bombing campaign.