US marks 9/11 with sombre reflection
Five years after terrorists wrought death from clear skies, the US began its observation of a solemn anniversary today, with plans for silent reflection and fresh mourning for the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001.
On the 16-acre New York City expanse where the World Trade Centre once stood, four moments of silence were planned to coincide with the times when jetliners struck each of the twin towers, and when each tower fell.
Family members began arriving before 7am (midday Irish time) at the trade centre site, some clutching bouquets of roses. Near the site, firefighter Tommy King and others stood beside a fire truck whose windshield was emblazoned with the names of two comrades who died on September 11.
“It’s just weird being back here,” King said. “This building here was a morgue.”
Spouses and partners of the 2,749 people who died at the trade centre were to read the names of the victims as families of the victims descend to roam the site and lay flowers.
President George Bush visited ground zero yesterday and today was to visit the two other attack sites: Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 40 people were killed when a jet crashed into the ground, and the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where 184 died.
Bush also planned a prime-time address from the Oval Office.
Yesterday, Bush marked the eve of the anniversary with sombre gestures and few words: He and his wife, Laura, set wreaths in small, square reflecting pools in the pit of the trade centre site, one each for where the north and south towers stood.
The Bushes had descended the long ramp from street level into ground zero accompanied by New York Governor George Pataki, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Rudolph Giuliani, hailed for his work as mayor in the months after the attack.
Giuliani made the rounds on the morning talk shows today, expressing surprise that terrorists have not struck since September 11 in the US. Giuliani added that, for the memory of the victims, “we have to remain vigilant".
“It took about 30 years for this terrorism to develop,” Giuliani said on ABC’s Good Morning America. “It’s going to take more than five years to deconstruct them.”
Yesterday afternoon, the Bushes attended a memorial service at St. Paul’s Chapel just off ground zero, where the first US President George Washington once prayed and where exhausted rescuers sought refuge in 2001 while they dug through the trade centre rubble.
At the service, a youth choir sang America the Beautiful and My Country ’Tis of Thee, and religious leaders of several faiths offered words of comfort.
At a ceremony yesterday at 7 World Trade Centre, the gleaming first office tower to rise at ground zero, Pataki honoured first responders and said American freedom represents “the ultimate threat” to terrorists.
Peter Gorman, president of the New York Uniformed Fire Officers Association, took note of the day's vivid blue sky and said it reminded many of the late-summer morning of September 11, 2001.
“Today is still a glorious day in the glorious city of New York, the powerful state of New York, in the United States of America,” Gorman said. “New Yorkers and Americans will never bow to terrorism, thanks to the US military, thanks to every first responder in this country.”
The anniversary dawned on a nation unrecognisable a half-decade ago – at war in Afghanistan and Iraq, governed by a colour-coded terror alert system, newly unable to carry even hair gel onto planes.
Yesterday, Bush administration officials mounted a vigorous defence of the measures they had taken to protect the country, even as the nation remains divided on the Iraq war, treatment of terror detainees and surveillance measures.
“There has not been another attack on the United States,” Vice President Dick Cheney said on Meet the Press on NBC. “And that’s not an accident.”
There was also a fresh reminder of the terrorist threat: An hour-long videotape posted online yesterday showed previously unseen footage of Osama bin Laden, smiling, and other commanders apparently planning the New York and Washington attacks.
An unidentified narrator said the plot was devised not with computers and radar screens and military command centres but with “divine protection” for a brotherly atmosphere and “love for sacrificing life”.
Across the US, the day was to be marked with quiet observances, from the three attack sites – New York, Washington, Pennsylvania – to cities and small towns.
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