Marking Osama bin Laden’s death where the terrorist inflicted his greatest damage, US President Barack Obama soberly laid a wreath at New York’s Ground Zero today and declared to the city and the world: “When we say we will never forget, we mean what we say.”
Mr Obama closed his eyes and clasped his hands at the outdoor memorial where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre once dominated the Manhattan skyline.
He shook hands with relatives of victims and others dressed in black at the site where the skyscrapers were brought down by planes commandeered by bin Laden’s followers on September 11 2001. Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
The US president met privately at the memorial site with about 60 family members from various 9/11 organisations.
He also visited the firefighters and police officers whose response to the terror attacks turned them into heroes and symbols of national resolve, but also cost them heavy casualties.
“This is a symbolic site of the extraordinary sacrifice that was made on that terrible day,” Mr Obama said at Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9. The fire station in New York’s theatre district lost 15 firefighters on 9/11, more than any other.
In the attacks, al-Qaida terrorists hijacked jets and flew two of them into the World Trade Centre’s towers. Both buildings collapsed, trapping thousands inside and also claiming the lives of firefighters and others who had rushed to help.
A third plane slammed into the Pentagon.
Officials have speculated that a fourth plane had been heading for the US Capitol or perhaps even the White House when it crashed after passengers fought back in Pennsylvania.
Months before the 10th anniversary of September 11, and days after bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by US commandos, Mr Obama’s visit gave New York its own moment of justice. The day was one of sober remembrance, thanks given to firefighters, police and US troops, and reminders of the challenges ahead and the President’s call for addressing them with unity.
It was not a moment for celebrating the military operation that killed bin Laden – that may come tomorrow, when the President visits Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to thank members of the Army unit involved in transporting Navy Seals in and out of bin Laden’s compound.
Today, at the First Precinct police station in lower Manhattan, the first on the scene on September 11, Mr Obama alluded to bin Laden’s killing and said of those who died in the September 11 attacks: “We keep them in our hearts. We haven’t forgotten.”
He said he hoped the results of the raid on bin Laden’s compound showed that “we did what we said we were going to do, and that Americans, even in the midst of tragedy, will come together, across the years, across politics, across party, across administrations, to make sure that justice is done”.
Enthusiastic, emotional New Yorkers waited on streets to see the President, but there were few displays like the more raucous exuberance of a few days earlier.
There were happy faces, shouts of “USA! USA!” and flags waved in the crowd, but there also was heavy security and most people were cordoned off blocks from where Mr Obama could be seen.
At Ground Zero, the mood was sombre, even sad, as the President stood where the towers had been, seeing the faces of the children who lost parents and adults who lost spouses. As Mr Obama bowed his head, a jetliner screamed far overhead on a blue-sky day.
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who led the city in dark days after the attacks, joined Mr Obama during the day.
At the Pentagon, meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden led a similar wreath-laying ceremony at the site where another hijacked plane crashed into the nation’s military headquarters. Among those present was Donald Rumsfeld, who was George W Bush’s defence secretary at the time of the attacks.
Mr Obama invited Mr Bush to join him in New York today, but the former president declined.
Mr Obama’s visit came as new details emerged of the daring raid on bin Laden’s Pakistan compound.
A senior defence official said Thursday that only one of the five people killed in the raid was armed and fired a shot – an account which differs from original administration portrayals of an intense firefight.
The White House also now says bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot, after officials initially said the terrorist was holding a gun or even firing.
Obama spokesman Jay Carney told reporters travelling with the President on Air Force One that the trip was intended in part “to perhaps help New Yorkers and Americans everywhere to achieve a sense of closure with the death of Osama bin Laden”.
The bustling construction site that Mr Obama visited bears little resemblance to the pit which remained after the rubble of the towers was removed. The emerging skyscraper informally known as Freedom Tower is more than 60 storeys high now. Mammoth fountains and reflecting pools mark the footprints of the fallen twin towers.
Jim Riches, whose firefighter son was among the nearly 3,000 people killed at the World Trade Centre, planned to meet the President today.
“I just want to thank him, hug him and thank him and shake his hand,” he said. “Father to father. Thank you for doing this for me.”
Mr Obama arrived in New York City today after rejecting calls to release photos of a bin Laden’s body so the world could see some proof of death. The president said he would not risk giving propaganda to extremists or gloat by publicising grotesque photos of a terrorist leader shot in the head.
To those who keep on doubting, he said: “You will not see bin Laden walking on this earth again.”
The president sought to handle the moment without being seen as overly celebrating bin Laden’s death or aiming to boost his own standing.