America Remembers Sept. 11
Relatives of World Trade Center victims bowed their heads in silence at a small park Tuesday to mark the moment exactly six years earlier when the first hijacked plane struck the towers.
The moments of the attacks were remembered by bells and silence, reportsCBS News correspondent Jim Taylor (audio).
The dreary, gray skies created a grim backdrop, and a sharp contrast to the clear blue of that morning in 2001.
"That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as the ceremony began. "Six years have passed, and our place is still by your side."
Construction equipment now fills the vast city block where the World Trade Center once stood. The work is under way for four new towers forced the ceremony to be moved away from the twin towers' footprints for the first time.
"That vision of the clouds over Washington and New York are still haunting our psyche, and we are living in the era of homeland security in the United States right now," presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told CBS News.
As people clutched framed photos of their lost loved ones, Kathleen Mullen, whose niece Kathleen Casey died in the attacks, said the park across the street was close enough.
"Just so long as we continue to do something special every year, so you don't wake up and say, 'Oh, it's 9/11,'" she said.
Presidential politics and the health of ground zero workers loomed over the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks this year, perhaps more than any other Sept. 11.
"We need to put our arms around the people that have actually both suffered injury and the families that were involved. I don't think this is a short-run affair," New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine told WCBS-TV.
The firefighters and first responders who helped rescue thousands that day in 2001 and later recovered the dead were to read the victims' names for the first time. Many of those rescuers are now ill with respiratory problems and cancers themselves, and they blame the illnesses on exposure to the fallen towers' toxic dust.
Also for the first time, the name of a victim who survived that towers' collapse but died five months later of lung disease blamed on the dust she inhaled was added to the official roll.
Felicia Dunn-Jones, an attorney, was working a block from the World Trade Center. She became the 2,974th victim linked to the four attack sites where hijacked airliners hit the two towers, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa., where federal investigators say the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 fought the hijackers on the rallying cry "Let's roll!"
"As American citizens we're all looking at our heroes," said Kay Roy, whose sister Colleen Fraser, died in the crash over Pennsylvania. "These are our heroes and I'm glad that one of my family members happens to be one of these heroes."
In the Boston Public Garden, Mayor Tom Menino placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers at a granite memorial to the 9/11 victims. In attendance were about two dozen relatives of Bay State residents killed in the attacks. Two of the airliners used in the attacks took off from Logan Airport.
Bells from the nearby Arlington Street Church rang out "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful" during the otherwise silent ceremony.
At the Pentagon, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the wall where one plane crashed and told the victims' families that their loved ones will be remembered, reportsCBS News correspondent Cami McCormick (audio).
"I do not know the proper words to tell you what's in my heart, what is in our hearts, what your fellow citizens are thinking today. We certainly hope that somehow these observances will help lessen your pain," he said.
At the main U.S. base at Afghanistan, service members bowed their heads in memory of the victims.
At the state capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher led a solemn ceremony to remember the victims of the terror attacks.
In New York, drums and bagpipes played as an American flag saved from the collapse was carried toward a stage.
At night, two massive beams of light will project into the sky above ground zero, reports CBS News Early Show national correspondent Jeff Glor.
Firefighters were to share the stage with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who many victims' families and firefighters said should not speak because he is running for president. Giuliani has made his performance in the months after the 2001 terrorist attacks the cornerstone of his campaign, but he has said his appearance wasn't intended to be political.
"I was there when it happened and I've been there every year since then. If I didn't, it would be extremely unusual. As a personal matter, I wouldn't be able to live with myself," Giuliani said late last week.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination, also planned to attend the ceremonies at ground zero.
President Bush, with the first lady at his side, held a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House, after attending a private church service in Washington, reports CBS News correspondent Peter Maer (audio). At the main U.S. base at Afghanistan, a memorial ceremony was also planned.
As in past years, moments of silence were planned to mark each crash and the collapse of each tower in New York.
"Six years after the event, it's still dominating our lives, because it changed the whole tone and tenor of behavior," said Brinkley. "Anybody that's going to an airport or trying to get on a subway or just simply having to walk into a business building and flashes their ID are in a way victims of what happened during 9/11."
Mail still arrives addressed to the World Trade Center, about 200 pieces a day, reportsCBSNews.com's Lloyd de Vries (audio). There's less each year, and chances are it's coming from companies that still haven't updating their mailing lists. Most of it is returned to the mailers, although some former tenants pay a fee to have the incoming mail held and then pick it up.
Even though the World Trade Center ceremony gathering was in the park, thousands of family members were still allowed to descend briefly below street level to lay flowers at a spot near the twin towers' footprints. Family members upset that they might not be allowed in at all pressured the city to at least allow the short visits to the dusty bedrock.
In all, 2,974 victims were killed by the Sept. 11 attacks: 2,750 at the World Trade Center, 40 in Pennsylvania and 184 at the Pentagon. Those numbers do not include the 19 hijackers.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The moments of the attacks were remembered by bells and silence, reports
The dreary, gray skies created a grim backdrop, and a sharp contrast to the clear blue of that morning in 2001.
"That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said as the ceremony began. "Six years have passed, and our place is still by your side."
Construction equipment now fills the vast city block where the World Trade Center once stood. The work is under way for four new towers forced the ceremony to be moved away from the twin towers' footprints for the first time.
"That vision of the clouds over Washington and New York are still haunting our psyche, and we are living in the era of homeland security in the United States right now," presidential historian Douglas Brinkley told CBS News.
As people clutched framed photos of their lost loved ones, Kathleen Mullen, whose niece Kathleen Casey died in the attacks, said the park across the street was close enough.
"Just so long as we continue to do something special every year, so you don't wake up and say, 'Oh, it's 9/11,'" she said.
Presidential politics and the health of ground zero workers loomed over the sixth anniversary of the terrorist attacks this year, perhaps more than any other Sept. 11.
"We need to put our arms around the people that have actually both suffered injury and the families that were involved. I don't think this is a short-run affair," New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine told WCBS-TV.
The firefighters and first responders who helped rescue thousands that day in 2001 and later recovered the dead were to read the victims' names for the first time. Many of those rescuers are now ill with respiratory problems and cancers themselves, and they blame the illnesses on exposure to the fallen towers' toxic dust.
Also for the first time, the name of a victim who survived that towers' collapse but died five months later of lung disease blamed on the dust she inhaled was added to the official roll.
Felicia Dunn-Jones, an attorney, was working a block from the World Trade Center. She became the 2,974th victim linked to the four attack sites where hijacked airliners hit the two towers, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pa., where federal investigators say the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 fought the hijackers on the rallying cry "Let's roll!"
"As American citizens we're all looking at our heroes," said Kay Roy, whose sister Colleen Fraser, died in the crash over Pennsylvania. "These are our heroes and I'm glad that one of my family members happens to be one of these heroes."
In the Boston Public Garden, Mayor Tom Menino placed a wreath of red, white and blue flowers at a granite memorial to the 9/11 victims. In attendance were about two dozen relatives of Bay State residents killed in the attacks. Two of the airliners used in the attacks took off from Logan Airport.
Bells from the nearby Arlington Street Church rang out "Amazing Grace" and "America the Beautiful" during the otherwise silent ceremony.
At the Pentagon, Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at the wall where one plane crashed and told the victims' families that their loved ones will be remembered, reports
"I do not know the proper words to tell you what's in my heart, what is in our hearts, what your fellow citizens are thinking today. We certainly hope that somehow these observances will help lessen your pain," he said.
At the main U.S. base at Afghanistan, service members bowed their heads in memory of the victims.
At the state capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher led a solemn ceremony to remember the victims of the terror attacks.
In New York, drums and bagpipes played as an American flag saved from the collapse was carried toward a stage.
At night, two massive beams of light will project into the sky above ground zero, reports CBS News Early Show national correspondent Jeff Glor.
Firefighters were to share the stage with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who many victims' families and firefighters said should not speak because he is running for president. Giuliani has made his performance in the months after the 2001 terrorist attacks the cornerstone of his campaign, but he has said his appearance wasn't intended to be political.
"I was there when it happened and I've been there every year since then. If I didn't, it would be extremely unusual. As a personal matter, I wouldn't be able to live with myself," Giuliani said late last week.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeking the Democratic Party presidential nomination, also planned to attend the ceremonies at ground zero.
(AP)
As in past years, moments of silence were planned to mark each crash and the collapse of each tower in New York.
"Six years after the event, it's still dominating our lives, because it changed the whole tone and tenor of behavior," said Brinkley. "Anybody that's going to an airport or trying to get on a subway or just simply having to walk into a business building and flashes their ID are in a way victims of what happened during 9/11."
Mail still arrives addressed to the World Trade Center, about 200 pieces a day, reports
Even though the World Trade Center ceremony gathering was in the park, thousands of family members were still allowed to descend briefly below street level to lay flowers at a spot near the twin towers' footprints. Family members upset that they might not be allowed in at all pressured the city to at least allow the short visits to the dusty bedrock.
In all, 2,974 victims were killed by the Sept. 11 attacks: 2,750 at the World Trade Center, 40 in Pennsylvania and 184 at the Pentagon. Those numbers do not include the 19 hijackers.
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Young Muslims begin dangerous fight for the right to abandon faith
A group of young Muslim apostates launches a campaign today, the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America, to make it easier to renounce Islam.
The provocative move reflects a growing rift between traditionalists and a younger generation raised on a diet of Dutch tolerance.
The Committee for Ex-Muslims promises to campaign for freedom of religion but has already upset the Islamic and political Establishments for stirring tensions among the million-strong Muslim community in the Netherlands.
Ehsan Jami, the committee%u2019s founder, who rejected Islam after the attack on the twin towers in 2001, has become the most talked-about public figure in the Netherlands. He has been forced into hiding after a series of death threats and a recent attack.
The threats are taken seriously after the murder in 2002 of Pim Fortuyn, an antiimmigration politician, and in 2004 of Theo Van Gogh, an antiIslam film-maker.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2426314.ece
Sibel Edmunds is the single most dangerous erson to this regime. I can''t believe they haven''t bumped her off yet-I guess that would call too much media attention to her claims,so, as long as they have judges who will gag her we won''t know who the well known traitors are. Their day will come!
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. Robert E. Lee
A self-respecting nation is ready for anything, including war, except for a renunciation of its option to make war. Simone Weil
If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace. Thomas Paine
Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Winston Churchill
One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Ben Franklin
We make war that we may live in peace. Aristotle
It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war. John F. Kennedy
There''s a graveyard in northern France where all the dead boys from D-Day are buried. The white crosses reach from one horizon to the other. I remember looking it over and thinking it was a forest of graves. But the rows were like this, dizzying, diagonal, perfectly straight, so after all it wasn''t a forest but an orchard of graves. Nothing to do with nature, unless you count human nature. Barbara Kingsolver
They have not wanted Peace at all; they have wanted to be spared war -- as though the absence of war was the same as peace. Dorothy Thompson
There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the enemy. George Washington
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain. John Adams
It is like a bloody prisom. I have never been there. Fear or is it. It is HELL. YOU MADE IT SO.
Who trained the bloody fools yer so scared of or the money and aid..Go look in the looking glass and you will see yer face.Yep..America is so bloody dumb. Her people mean nothing..It is not the same nation I rememer. That 2 faced lier said one/did an other thing.I could do my business before. Now madam i must look in your purse...Lovely...I am pissed. I dutifully do. Had that bloody wand they use shoved hard where a woman gives birth by some fool of a man while my male friend id there. He saw it. This is the America you all want plus them guns ye can''t take places. I feel for the dead of this day. Had I died that day I would never have wanted the changes now it place. I still feel this was.
I didn''t call anything facts, I referred to unanswered questions. Is there ever any need to be afraid of questions and seeking the truth?
Many conspiracy theorists and their debunkers begin with a particular presumption and only want to look at info that back it up while refusing to consider anything that might change that presumption.I''m not the one doing that, I started out my post by saying that I don''t think I have enough information to accept or reject. I''m saying let''s not be afraid to ask questions and seek answers.
I don''t know if the coincidences are real or fabricated, that''s why I would like to know more than what the 911 Commission came up with. The same goes for the Warren Commission on the Kennedy asassination. When legitimate questions are left unaddressed it''s rational to ask why and irrational to be satisfied.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry
USA''s PLEDGE 2 THE WORLD GIVEN BY JFK!!
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty." - John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1961
One ought never to turn one''s back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Winston Churchill
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein
December 8, 1941/September 12, 2001
The facts of yesterday speak for themselves. The people of the United States have already formed their opinions and well understand the implications to the very life and safety of our nation.
As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense.
Always will we remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.
I believe I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.
Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory and our interests are in grave danger.
With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God.
I am sorry people lost their lives, and still are. Until the fanatics in the world who are hiding behind their assumed religion stop their stupidity, we will all lose a family member or ourselves. Terrorism has to stop. The misuse of so called religion and how the violence is justified by it has to also stop. Religion is very violent, read the bible or the koran and see how much killing is done. What God would condone this? It is men who wrote these works and men who promote the violence.
It is time for a change!!
)O(