9/11 Ten Year Anniversary

Iranian President accuses US of 9/11 Cover Up

2011-09-22T19:10:00.000-07:00

Delegations walk out during Ahmadinejad UN speech
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has used an address to the UN General Assembly to criticise the US killing of Osama Bin Laden as a 9/11 cover-up.

His remarks prompted a walkout by diplomats from more than 30 countries, including the US and EU nations.

Mr Ahmadinejad was widely condemned after his speech, during which he also attacked the West, denounced Israel and questioned the Holocaust.

The address came a day ahead of a Palestinian bid for UN membership.

Mr Ahmadinejad's controversial rhetoric - and the resulting mass walkout - has become almost a staple of the General Assembly's meetings.

'Message of hostility'
During Thursday's address he accused Western nations of "weakening countries through military intervention and destroying their infrastructures, in order to plunder their resources by making them all the more dependent".

The Iranian leader also railed against Bin Laden's death, saying the US had "killed the main perpetrator [of 9/11] and threw his body into the sea".

Hundreds of people protested against President Ahmadinejad's appearance outside the UN He added: "Would it not have been reasonable to bring to justice and openly bring to trial the main perpetrator of the incident in order to identify the elements behind the safe space provided for the invading aircraft to attack the twin World Trade Center towers".

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One that he "found it rich" that Mr Ahmadinejad would criticise US policy, and accused Tehran of "vile mistreatment" of its own citizens.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron used his speech to the UN to hit back at Iran.

"They do everything they can to avoid the accountability of a free media," he said. "They violently prevent demonstrations and, yes, they detain and torture those who argue for a better future."

Hundreds of people protested against the Iranian leader's appearance at the UN meeting in New York.

Across from the UN headquarters, there were huge banners, one of which read, "Down With the Islamic Republic of Iran", while children stamped on a poster of Mr Ahmadinejad.

The foreign ministry of Israel, which boycotted the speech, said in a statement: "Once again the Iranian president delivered a message of hostility to the family of nations, threatening world peace and security."

On Friday the UN Security Council is expected to examine a bid to admit the Palestinians as a partial or full member of the UN.

The US has vowed to veto the request, which is also firmly opposed by Israel.

US President Barack Obama has said there can be "no short-cut" to a negotiated peace deal in the Middle East.

bbc news

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15028776

9/11 first responders honored at Sherwood Island ceremony

2011-09-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

By Bonnie Adler

With the sound of bagpipes heralding the call to order, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other officials from Connecticut and New York City gathered at Sherwood Island State Park Wednesday to remember those who perished in the 9/11 attacks and to pay tribute to those Connecticut first responders who risked their lives to help in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

Firefighters, policemen and emergency personnel from around the state came to participate in an hour-long tribute, in which the efforts made by first responders around the state were highlighted and commemorated.

Malloy recalled the 156 Connecticut residents who perished in the attacks, and the 343 NYC firefighters (37 Port Authority Police officers, 23 NYPD officers and three court officers) who died in the towers that day, and highlighted the commitment of the first responders and volunteers who went to New York City to do what they could to help their fellow first responders with no regard for their own safety. He recalled the spirit which drove so many Connecticut first responders to help and said, “These are individuals who were not paid to go, not required to do so, but in every case volunteered to respond from our state to help others.”

He added, “We mark that response, that desire to go and be part of that recovery which is so great and so uniquely American.”

David Fein, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut, extended his deepest gratitude to Connecticut’s first responders on the day of the event and the days, weeks and months that followed.

“You did not hesitate to act in the face of horrific devestation, you did what comes naturally to you. You leapt into action, not deterred by danger. You overcame obstacles and moved toward, not away from, the devastation with only one purpose in mind- to help others,” he said.

Noting the beautiful new metal sculpture on a nearby wall commemorating those who died in the attacks, Fein added, “We are here at Connecticut’s 9/11 Living Memorial to say thank you for what you did 10 years ago and what you continue to do today.”

Perhaps most poignant was Bonnie McEneaney, the wife of Eamon McEneaney, who worked at Cantor Fitzgerald on the 105th Floor of the North Tower, and perished that day. Bonnie McEneaney represents Voices of 911, which collects and shares information about all of those who died that day. She has since written a book called “Messages,” a compilation of true stories of the spiritual experiences and premonitions of loved ones lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

She asked, “Who is a first responder? You are ‘first preventers’ as well as first responders. You are the heartbeat of this great nation.”

She said many first responders had been exposed to toxic dust, and many had developed debilitating diseases as a result. “Indeed, she said, “One thousand of you have died. You put the needs of others before your own. Thank you for altruism unsurpassed.” Continued

http://www.minutemannewscenter.com/articles/2011/09/14/westport/news/doc4e714e4feb205884374292.txt

Brotherhood Ride Honors 9/11 First Responders

2011-09-15T19:15:00.001-07:00

By Cristin Wilson

September 15, 2011 - 12:00am

Brotherhood Ride honors 9/11 first responders, visits Southside
Firefighter Nick Ford chose to leave his family in Naples for three weeks to hit the road on a bicycle as part of a 1,600-mile journey to honor fallen heroes of Sept. 11, 2001.

When the fourth annual Brotherhood Ride stopped in Jacksonville last month, Ford caught his breath and easily explained why he and other firefighters, law enforcement officers and emergency medical technicians signed on.

"What we're going through over these 22 days is really small compared to the families of those 411 killed that day. They gave everything. We just gave a little," said Ford.

The ride is dedicated to the 411 first responders who lost their lives 10 years ago during the terrorist attack on New York City. Brotherhood Ride founder Jeff Morse, who dedicated the first three rides to other firefighters and police who died in the line of duty across the country, wanted to make sure the legacy of those who lost their lives wouldn't be forgotten. It was important to do something more than just write a check, he said.

"I wanted some way to show the families we'd never forget," said Morse.

The 2011 ride began in North Naples on Aug. 20 and ended at ground zero in New York City on Saturday, with riders meeting with local firefighters and police along the way. Proceeds from fundraisers in the Naples-Fort Myers area will go to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Concerns of Police Survivors.

When the 39 riders got to Jacksonville Aug. 24, they and their support staff stopped at the Southside Elks Lodge for a welcome ceremony, dinner, overnight lodging and breakfast the next morning.

Firefighter Scott Wilson, also of Naples, didn't even have a bike when he decided to be a part of the ride. But he said he did not view his participation as much of a stretch, considering he is used to braving high temperatures - and with a lot more clothes on than the typical cycling gear.

Being part of the ride, he said, "is a big honor."

Wilson said the public response along the route was touching, with communities rallying around them. At one of their stops, a woman did all of their laundry, even folding their clothes, he said.

Firefighter Todd Neal, who works for the Broward County Sheriff's Office Fire Rescue, agreed.

"The response we've got, it's just been amazing," he said.

Dick Maloney, public relations chairman for the Southside Elks, said the visit was the second the club has hosted for the Brotherhood Ride. The club provided pasta dinners - with homemade "red gravy" - sleeping accommodations and sendoff breakfast, while Jacksonville firefighters provided onsite shower facilities, he said.

The Elks were just as touched by the experience as the riders.

"The emotions were unbelievable. As the bicycle riders approached our lodge, after a complete day's ride, with motorcycle police escort, not to mention our firefighters' participation, the crowd's applause was heartbreaking. Their support staff was genuinely surprised with the reception," Maloney said.

The ride coordinator told Maloney that the club's preparation "greatly exemplifies the importance of 9/11, and displays in full, the great generosity of the Elks organization," he said.

For more information, go to brotherhoodride.com.

Read more at Jacksonville.com: http://jacksonville.com/community/southside/2011-09-15/story/brotherhood-ride-honors-911-first-responders-visits-southside#ixzz1Y4t8P4hQ

First responders of 9/11 attacks may get annual ticker tape parade

2011-09-15T11:44:00.001-07:00

A Queens woman is one step closer to realizing her dream of seeing a ticker tape parade in lower Manhattan to honor 9/11 first responders.

The WTC Redevelopment Committee of Manhattan Community Board 1 last night approved Jill Singer's idea in a 6-0 vote, with one member abstaining. Singer still needs an NYPD permit and approval from Mayor Bloomberg's office, she said.

"I'm elated," Singer said. "The mayor's office has been talking about doing some remembrance for responders for a while now. Now we're going to go tell them, 'Let's get it done.'"

Singer, 44, of Forest Hills, has been a first responders' activist for a decade and said she became incensed upon learning responders weren't invited to be part of the opening of the 9/11 memorial.

"It's just such a slap in the face," Singer said. "If it wasn't for those responders there would be no memorial site. It wouldn't be cleaned up."

Singer wants the parade to take place the week of May 25 next year, marking a decade since the last piece of steel was removed from the attack site.
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/09/13/2011-09-13_1st_responders_may_bathe_in_ticker_tape.html?r=ny_local&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fny_local+%28NY+Local%29

Facebook Group Promotes Ticker Tape Parade for 9/11 First Responders.

2011-09-15T11:39:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/groups/228685730516543/

LOWER MANHATTAN — The first responders who risked their lives on 9/11 deserve a ticker-tape parade through lower Manhattan's Canyon of Heroes, advocates said this week.

A parade would boost the spirits of responders who were left out of the city's official 9/11 commemoration, and it would give those who are sick something to looking forward to, said TJ Gilmartin, a construction worker who spent nearly 300 hours at Ground Zero.

"All we want is a 'Thank you' — that's it," said Gilmartin, 50, a New Jersey resident who is suffering from respiratory ailments and acid reflux following his exposure to World Trade Center toxins.

"No one seems to care about the responders."

A Facebook group in favor of the parade has gathered nearly 1,100 members, and on Monday night, Community Board 1's World Trade Center Redevelopment Committee added its vote of support as well. Now the parade has to clear the mayor's office before it can become a reality.

A spokesman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg did not immediately return a call for comment.

Gilmartin has been planning the parade with the help of Jill Singer, an advocate for first responders, and said Monday that they hope to hold it during the week of May 25, 2012, the 10 year anniversary of when the last steel beam was removed from Ground Zero.

Singer said the parade would not just be for the NYPD and FDNY, whose members are often recognized, but also for the thousands of ironworkers, heavy machine operators and other construction workers who volunteered for the recovery effort, and many of which are now sick.

"It's the people who went down there and just put their heart on the line," Singer said. "They've been ignored."

Catherine McVay Hughes, chairwoman of the committee, said that while ticker-tape parades are often reserved for triumphant sports teams, it's important to remember why the Broadway parade route is referred to as the "Canyon of Heroes."

"There should be a 'thank you' for the real heroes, who were down on the front lines and came to our war zone," she said.

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Queens Woman Pitches Ticker Tape Parade For 9/11 First Responders

2011-09-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

By ERICA PITZI

PIX11.com

12:07 p.m. EDT, September 14, 2011
QUEENS, N.Y. (WPIX)— If one woman gets her way, there will be a ticker tape parade right along Broadway at the Canyon of Heros, for the first responders of 9/11.

The day would be May 25, 2012 -- marking 10 years after the last piece of steel was removed from Ground Zero.

"They didn't think about if they were going to live or die, they are the reason that area exists in the beautiful way it exists today," said Jill Singer.

This confident Queens woman committed to bringing the community together to show gratitude for the first responders.

Singer says the idea came to her while watching a Yankee game last month. She remembers attending the ticker tape parade when the Yanks won the World Series two years ago.

"They are called heros, 9/11 responders are called heros, why can't the city say thank you through a ticker tape parade?" asked Singer.

So she pitched her idea to Community Board 1 this week and it passed. World Trade Center Committee Chair Catherine McVay Hughes voted in favor.

"I've lived here for two decades, over looking other ticker tapes for sport championships," said Hughes. "But it's about time, we actually have a ticker tape parade for our real heros."

Real heros like TJ Gilmartin, Singer's boyfriend, whom she met last year, while fighting for first responders rights in Washington.

Gilmartin spent two straight weeks working on the rubble of the World Trace Center and welcomes the idea of a parade.

"It would lift the spirits. Nobody is asking for any money, just a thank you," said Gilmartin. "The greatest city in the world can't say thank you to the guys who ran in, meanwhile everybody else ran out?"

Mayor Michael Bloomberg still has to give his nod of approval, and NYPD has to approve a parade permit.
http://www.wpix.com/news/local/wpix-911-ticker-tape-parade,0,5197099.story

9/11 responders honored at Westport ceremony

2011-09-15T11:23:00.001-07:00

Bonnie McEneaney reached the depths of despair on Sept. 11, 2001. Her husband, Eamon, was a vice president of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond trading firm that lost hundreds of employees in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.

Updated 11:03 a.m., Thursday, September 15, 2011

The swift response from thousands of emergency workers renewed her sense of hope, she said.

"When I think of the role you played, I think of love," McEneaney told dozens of police officers, firefighters and paramedics from departments across Connecticut on Wednesday evening at Sherwood Island State Park in Westport. "Instead of despair, I think of hope."

Three days after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks, dozens of first responders and volunteers gathered under the pavilion at the waterfront park, which overlooks Long Island Sound and the state's memorial for victims of the attacks.

The Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office, the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and the victim outreach group Voices of September 11th hosted the ceremony as a show of gratitude for emergency workers who rushed to the rubble of ground zero a decade ago.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy told the crowd, mainly first responders in full dress uniforms, that the nation's sense of volunteerism and community sets it apart from other nations. He said the first responders and volunteers who traveled to the remains of the World Trade Center embody that spirit.

Malloy, who was mayor of Stamford when the planes hit the World Trade Center, recalled how city firefighters and police officers approached him shortly after Sept. 11 and asked for permission to work at ground zero. He said while the terrorist attacks changed emergency communications, response tactics and equipment over the past several years, they did not alter the American will to rebuild or recover.

"No terrorist, no war, no set of circumstances can deny that," he said.

David Fein, the U.S. attorney for Connecticut, opened the ceremony by offering effusive thanks to the state's emergency responders.

"In the hours and days after the attacks, most Americans sought solace within the safety of their homes," Fein said. "You, our first responders and volunteers, did not hesitate to act."

The ceremonies began with State Police Trooper Pat Whalen playing a somber song on the bagpipes, and it ended just as solemnly, with a slow rendition of taps. John Hughes, chief of the civil division of the Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office, was one of the event's organizers.

"On the 10th anniversary, we wanted to do something special," Hughes said before the ceremony. "We wanted something unique and special for first responders as a way of saying thank you."

Other speakers included Reuben Bradford, the state commissioner of the Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection; Andrew Savino, a deputy chief in the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism unit, and Paul McConnell, an assistant U.S. attorney and lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Paul Aaronson, a member of the New Canaan Volunteer Ambulance Corps, spoke about the call his paramedic department got in the days after Sept. 11 to help relieve the exhausted New York City emergency workers at ground zero. He also spoke about the anger and frustration felt by many first responders on Sept. 11 when survivors could not be found amid the destruction.

"We wished we could have done more," he said
http://www.westport-news.com/news/article/Hope-not-despair-9-11-responders-honored-at-2171771.php

Flight 93 Heroes Honored on 9/11 at Shanksville

2011-09-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

SHANKSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — The families of the 40 passengers and crew killed when Flight 93 knifed into a rural Pennsylvania field a decade ago Sunday were praised for helping to inspire a new generation of Americans while keeping the memories of their loved ones' dedication and courage burning brightly.

At a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, nearly 5,000 people listened as the names of the passengers and crew who were killed were read aloud while bells tolled. Afterward, a choir sang as those in the crowd — including family members, first responders, politicians and nearly 1,000 people who came to participate — listened intently.

"Over the past 10 years we have heard this place compared to many other places" including the Alamo and Gettysburg, Gov. Tom Corbett said at the newly dedicated national park that marks the site where Flight 93 crashed. "But the truth is that this place is like no other because the deeds aboard Flight 93 were like no other."

Corbett said the victims "charted a new course, set a new standard for American bravery."

Sunday's memorial service at the Flight 93 Memorial, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, was being held in concert with ceremonies in New York City and Washington, D.C., where other hijacked jets crashed into both towers of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Former Gov. Tom Ridge, the nation's first head of homeland security, thanked the approximately 2,000 people who came to the memorial for Sunday's service.

"I think your presence today means almost as much to the families, perhaps as much as the memorial itself," Ridge said. "Your very presence is a powerful message of comfort and understanding and love."

The families then turned and gave the visitors a standing ovation.

Ridge went on to pay tribute to the victims, saying their actions prove "Americans don't live in fear, we live in freedom"

Gordon Felt, brother of passenger Edward and president of the Families of Flight 93, directed some of his comments to the relatives of the other victims.

"I only wish I could have gotten to know each and every one of you under different circumstances," he said. "We lost too much."

Visitors to the Flight 93 service observed moments of silence at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m. — the times when two other airliners were crashed into New York's twin towers. They did the same at 9:37 a.m., when a third airliner hit the Pentagon.

There was no moment of silence at 10:03 a.m. at the memorial, but the emotion there was evident.

Susan Stine, 52, of Tamaqua, Pa., said she has come to the Flight 93 crash site to mark the anniversary each year.

"Everybody was going to New York for the first anniversary and we came here. I can't imagine not being here on 9/11," Stine said.

"The first time, I wanted to come here to see how it was, and it was amazing. I feel differently when I leave here every year," she said. "I feel better in my heart."

U.S. Rep. Mark Critz, D-Pa, choked up as he spoke about the Wall of Names, a series of 40 marble slabs inscribed with the names of the victims.

Told that the pattern of the wall delineates the flight path of the jet before it crashed, Critz said, "Ten years of emotion came rushing in."

The passengers aboard Flight 93 were hijacked after taking off from New Jersey.

Flight 93 crashed after passengers and crew, some alerted by cell phone calls from loved ones about the New York attacks, decided to try to wrest control of their plane from four hijackers.

The plane crashed during the struggle, and investigators later determined the hijackers intended to crash it into the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where the House and Senate were in session that morning.

On the Net:
■Flight 93 National Memorial: http://www.nps.gov/flni/index.htm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j4wMJGEzTVFgAo1qf6P_RityAwag?docId=94b045f27284409c8954834a5c97241a

Fallen Firefighter Heroes Honored at St. Patrick Cathedral

2011-09-11T08:38:00.000-07:00

Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.

A tear-soaked crowd thronged St. Patrick's Cathedral yesterday to pay tribute to the 343 members of the FDNY who died at the World Trade Center - heroes who never flinched as they ran toward unthinkable danger.

The decade that has passed since the Fire Department's darkest day has done nothing to dull the memories of those lost, according to the speakers at the emotional afternoon service.

"This is an awfully tough week for the FDNY," said Mayor Bloomberg. "It's an awfully tough week for all of us."

"The emotions keep rushing back along with so many memories and so many stories," Bloomberg said. "We'll remember the brave 343. We'll honor them. We salute them."

An image of each firefighter killed that fateful morning was flashed on a video screen on the altar as their loved ones dabbed at tears.

"I really wish I could have met you," said 9-year-old Patrick Lyons, born just weeks after the death of his firefighter father, who shared his name.

"As I get older, everyone says I walk like you," said Patrick, who read a letter to his dad. "I play flag football like you did, and I play the same position you did, quarterback."

An honor guard of firefighters carrying American flags solemnly filed down the aisle at St. Patrick's to begin the memorial service, presided over by Archbishop Timothy Dolan.

Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano, who was nearly killed during the attacks, spoke movingly about how the FDNY has honored those lost a decade ago.

"Out of the depths of this tragedy, we rebuilt the greatest fire department in the world," said Cassano.

The challenges for the FDNY did not end in the moments after the towers fell, killing the 343 Bravest and many of the department's top leaders.

Hundreds of firefighters worked for weeks at the smoldering World Trade Center site, and the exposure to the toxins has killed 55 FDNY members - and made scores more ill. "The world may have called them 'Brave,'" said Cassano, "but we called it doing our job."

Hundreds of firefighters packed the midtown house of worship, and dozens more - many from departments around the globe - stood outside to pay their respects.

"We're here to show our support for our brothers in New York," said Steve Joudrey, 52, of London, Ontario.

Amid prayers that no one be harmed during the 10th anniversary of the attacks, a hushed silence fell over the crowd as Ashley Fodor remembered her slain father, Michael.

"To us, Dad was untouchable, a constant in our lives," she said, "but he was taken away, lost in a city he loved, buried under buildings he had admired, doing his job with honor and vigor."

The children of firefighters who were killed then each lit a candle to conclude the Mass, moments before the bagpipes blared and the flags marched out of the cathedral again.

"That roll call, my friends, is nothing less than a litany of saints," said Dolan.

"Those firefighters were and you firefighters are what the Bible calls prophets. You go against everything that degrades human life.

Later yesterday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly attended a memorial service honoring slain officers at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. "We know that the city, the world, owes you a debt that we can never repay," Kelly said.

With Clare Trapasso

jlemire@nydailynews.com
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/09/10/2011-09-10_343_stars_still_shining_fallen_bravest_honored_during_st_pats_mass.html

Next Terrorist Attack Could Be Nuclear or Biological

2011-09-09T19:07:00.000-07:00

Police Search Trucks in New York City on Terror Threat

2011-09-09T11:54:00.000-07:00

New York police increased security, including vehicle checkpoints in midtown Manhattan and armed guards in front of the Office of Emergency Management, after receiving credible information that terrorists may be plotting an attack in the city around the Sept. 11 anniversary.

Police cruisers took up positions on a midtown block of Lexington Avenue this morning as officers stopped trucks and other vehicles for inspection. Drivers were made to open the storage spaces of delivery trucks for police. In Brooklyn, U.S. marshals armed with machine guns guarded the federal courthouse and increased security was observed in front of the nearby city emergency management office.

“We have already had a full complement of people working shifts because of the Sept. 11 anniversary prior to this,” said Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office. “We are taking the logical investigative measures to assess this threat.”

The threat concerns a possible al-Qaeda-sponsored attack targeting New York or Washington on or near the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, said a U.S. official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The official said the intelligence concerns a possible vehicle-borne attack, perhaps on a transportation hub or bottleneck, and cautioned that the options may be broader than a car or truck bombing.

Interest in Anniversaries
“As we know from the intelligence gathered from the Osama bin Laden raid, al-Qaeda has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11,” Janice Fedarcyk, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the New York office, said at a press conference yesterday. “In this instance, it’s accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed information. We take all threats reported seriously and have taken and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate all threats as they arise.”

New Jersey’s Director of Homeland Security Charles McKenna said the threat involves two foreigners traveling into the U.S., where they may join a third party who is already here to carry out the attack. McKenna said New Jersey officials are concerned that as New York and Washington are “hardened targets,” the would-be attackers may turn to New Jersey as a back-up option.

McKenna said the state has increased security, though he declined to specify what steps have been taken.

No Surprise
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, speaking at a meeting of administration officials in Princeton, said people should not alter their plans and lives.

“This is nothing that should come to folks as any surprise nor is it something that should cause any panic,” Christie said. “The fact is that we live in a different world.”

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners. Two were flown into the twin World Trade Center towers in New York, destroying them; a third hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and one crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers attacked the hijackers. More than 3,000 people were killed.

New York police have stopped at least 13 terrorist attacks since 2001, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. While the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has helped reduce the threat, the mayor said, “The one thing we know is the terrorists have not gone away.”

Foiled Plot
In February 2010, Colorado resident Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to a plot to detonate bombs on New York subways around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Brooklyn federal courthouse has supplemented its usual security, said James Elcik, supervisor deputy U.S. marshal.

“We’re here to protect the building, and more importantly the people in it around the anniversary of 9/11 given the non- specific threat,” Elcik said, standing next to an armed guard on Adams Street, where tourists and bicyclists entered the pedestrian path over Brooklyn Bridge.

Elcik said it hadn’t been decided whether the extra security would also be in place Monday and throughout next week.

“The safety of our federal judiciary and security in the U.S. courthouses continue to be a top priority of the U.S. Marshals Service,” said Roland Ubaldo, a spokesman for Joseph Guccione, the U.S. Marshal of the Southern District of New York. “We take all threats reported seriously and we have taken and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise.”

Police Stand Guard
At the subway station in the Port Authority bus terminal at 42nd Street, two police officers stood guard at the turnstiles while two others patrolled the platform. Police officers in a group of four stood on the platform at Broadway and Murray streets in Lower Manhattan giving directions to tourists making their way to and from Ground Zero four blocks south.

“We have threats all the time,” Bloomberg said today during his weekly appearance on WOR radio, after having taken the subway to City Hall from his Upper East Side home. “Each time we increase our security, which obviously we had done for this. Are we increasing a little more? Yes, we’re increasing a little more but there’s a limit to how much you can have, just because you can’t have a cop on every corner. But remember, a lot of the precautions we take, you don’t see.”

Specific Threat
New York Republican Congressman Peter King, who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was briefed on the threat, which he said was specific and credible.

“All appropriate agencies, the federal government, and state officials and local officials as well, are tracking it down to see if it is real, and if so, how do we stop it,” King said.

Another intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the information hasn’t been fully vetted.

Terrorists view the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks as an opportunity to strike again, the FBI’s Fedarcyk said.

The information of a new plot was specific and credible, though not corroborated, she said at a press conference yesterday with Bloomberg.

In the Washington metropolitan area today, Montgomery County, Maryland, police patrolled the Silver Spring and Forest Glen Metro platforms, north of the city.

Extend Shifts
New York police officers will extend their shifts by four hours at least through Sept. 12, said Commissioner Ray Kelly. Police will increase vehicle checks and monitoring of bridges and tunnels, Kelly said. Police will also increase baggage screenings in subways, patrol outside places of worship and government buildings and conduct bomb sweeps of public garages.

“We will deploy quick-reaction teams consisting of heavily armored officers,” Kelly said.

“Sky Watch” towers will be manned, license plate readers monitored and all manhole covers inspected and sealed. City landmarks, including Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station, will have heightened security as well as other major events Sunday, including the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens.

A heavily guarded “frozen zone” is being created from West Street to Broadway and Murray to Albany streets in Lower Manhattan. Several streets in the area will be closed during the weekend, including northbound West Street from Battery Place to Murray Street and southbound West Street from Battery Place to Chambers Street. Church Street between Rector and Barclay streets will be closed 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Bomb Technicians
To assist the police, the FBI will mobilize specialized teams, including special agents, bomb technicians and SWAT and hazardous materials crews.

Richard Adamonis, a NYSE Euronext spokesman, declined to comment on security measure for the stock exchange on Wall Street.

President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to attend ceremonies at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 with former President George W. Bush, was briefed on the threat today by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, and Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough before leaving for a speech in Richmond, Virginia, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

Obama directed counter-terrorism officials to redouble their efforts, which had already been increased in advance of the Sept. 11 anniversary, Carney said.

The first intelligence official said the report is credible largely because of al-Qaeda’s longstanding interest in important anniversaries and symbolic targets.

Intense Focus
“Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus,” Matt Chandler, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman, said in a statement. “Other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots under way.”

“Regardless, we take all threat reporting seriously, and we have taken, and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise,” Chandler said.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in May that intelligence retrieved from the compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was killed suggested that he wanted to harm people around the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

To contact the reporters on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net; Tiffany Kary in Brooklyn at tkary@bloomberg.net; Patricia Hurtado in New York pathurado@bloomberg.net.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/-credible-terrorist-threats-received-new-york-mayor-bloomberg-says.html
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Mark Tannenbaum at mtannen@bloomberg.net; Michael Hytha mhytha@bloomberg.net

Missing trucks possible lead in terror plot

2011-09-08T18:20:00.000-07:00

U.S. security officials warn of 'specific and credible' threat of 9/11 anniversary terrorist attack by al QaedaBy Daily Mail Reporter

Federal officials say the individuals - one believed to be a U.S. citizen - entered the country last month by air with 'intent' to carry out a terrorist plot against Washington, D.C. or New York.
Reports suggest the potential plot is connected to al Qaeda.
According to ABC News, The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed that they have evidence of a 'specific and credible threat' of terror attacks planned for September 11.
Investigators said the trio were suspected of planning to launch a 'vehicle-borne' attack against New York and Washington, D.C. - the two American cities targeted by the hijacked airliners that crashed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon ten years ago
An unnamed official said: 'It seems like the information has been worked for a while.'
Law enforcement sources told reporters the individuals are belived to have come to the U.S. via Afghanistan with at lease one stop in another country, possibly Iran.

An official said at least two rental trucks were being sought nationwide.

Two GMC trucks - one from Budget and one from Penske - both were missing from locations in Kansas City, Missouri at press time. However, reports do not indicate if the search for the missing vehicles is connected to the possible terror threat. A White House official told ABC: 'The President was briefed on this specific threat information this morning and has been updated on it throughout the day.

'The United States government has already significantly enhanced its security posture in advance of the 9/11 anniversary to protect the country against possible terrorist threats.

'Nevertheless, the President directed the counterterrorism community to redouble its efforts in response to this credible but unconfirmed information.'

Law enforcement officials are expected to release a declassified bulletin on the information connected to the possible threat this evening.

Authorities had not raised the national threat level at press time.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was planning a press conference to give further details of the alleged plot
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035207/U-S-security-officials-warn-specific-credible-threat-9-11-anniversary-terrorist-attack-al-Qaeda.html

Alert -Breaking News- 'Credible' Terrorist Threat

2011-09-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Federal authorities are investigating a possible terrorist threat to the United States, just days before the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, according to Fox News.

ABC News has more details. Intelligence officials told ABC that three individuals entered the country with the intent of launching a 'vehicle-borne attack' against New York or Washington D.C., around the anniversary of 9/11.

The suspected terrorists may have originated from Afghanistan, according to a senior official.

The threat -- described as “specific" and "credible" -- has not yet been confirmed, reports NBC.

A senior administration official also told Fox that President Obama has been briefed on the threat. Some members of Congress have also been briefed on the unconfirmed threat, reports CNN.

According to NBC, who spoke with two U.S. officials, discussions are under way about whether the threat warning status should be raised.

More from HuffPost reporter Andrea Stone:

Matthew Chandler, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, confirmed to The Huffington Post that there is a "specific, credible but unconfirmed threat" of an attack on 9/11.
Based on intelligence gathered from the Osama bin Laden) raid in May, al Qaeda "has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11," he said. "As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days. Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots underway.

"Regardless, we take all threat reporting seriously, and we have taken, and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise. We continue to ask the American people to remain vigilant as we head into the weekend.”

www.huffingtonpost.com

Schedule of anniversary events New York City

2011-09-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

New York City is beginning preparations for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. The events of 9/11 forever changed New York City, and thousands are expected to come to lower Manhattan and elsewhere on Sept. 11 to pay their respects.

It is recommended that the public visiting this weekend use public transportation due to the high volumes of people expected to be in lower Manhattan. Give additional time for any commute in NYC as their will be high security and street closures. For a full list of street closures visit the NYC Department of Transportation website.

New York City will honor those lost in both September 11 and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing with events around the city including art exhibits, church services, and walking tours.

9/11 Remembrance Events
The New -York Historical Society will feature a special exhibition of photographs by both professional and amateur photographers. The exhibit begins on September 8 and is free and open to the public until Nov. 10, 2011.

Tribute WTC Tour:

This Tribute WTC Visitor Center will only be open to family members of victims on September 11. Before and after that date, the public will get an opportunity to connect and hear stories of those affected by 9/11 on a walking tour. The center is located on 120 Liberty St.

FDNY 10th Anniversary Memorial Service:

The New York City Fire Department will hold a memorial service on September 10, 2011 beginning at 2:00 PM at St. Patrick's Cathedral. At 1:00 p.m., active and retired fire fighters will line Fifth Avenue as families enter. 50th and 51st streets will be blocked to vehicles between Madison and Fifth Avenue.

Rethinking Memorial: Ten Interactive Sites for Remembering 9/11:

The Brooklyn Arts Council is creating an interactive arts project to remember the 10th anniversary on September 10, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Ten stations will be located walking distance apart beginning at the Pearl St. Triangle.

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum:

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum will be open to the nearly 3,000 family members of victims of the 9/11 attacks and the 1993 bombing on September 11, 2011. It will then be open to the public the following day. Advanced timed passes are required for entry and can be reserved up to six months in advance online. The site will include two reflecting pools at the base of where the Twin Towers stood. The entrances to the site will be located on Albany and Greenwich St.

Tribute in Light:

A public arts show presented by the Municipal Art Society will display two blue light beams from dusk on September 11 until dawn the following day. The light show can be seen up to 60 miles away on a clear night. Check out the Municipal Art Society Website to find a good viewing spot.

Trinity Church:

Trinity Church, Wall Street is holding services all week long in remembrance. These "remember to love" events are based on reconciliation and peace on the decade anniversary of Sept 11. For a list of events at Trinity church visit their website http://www.trinitywallstreet.org

For more Sept. 11 remembrance events go to New York City's event calendar
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/210043/20110907/september-11-2011-new-york-city-schedule-of-events-911-memorial-road-closures.htm

US Military Bases on Alert for 9/11 Anniversary

2011-09-07T13:42:00.000-07:00

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it was raising force-protection levels for military installations in the United States ahead of the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

“This is not in response to any specific or credible threat surrounding the 10th anniversary of 9/11,” Pentagon Press Secretary George Little told reporters, according to a Pentagon press release, “but we believe it is prudent and precautionary to take such a step.”

It’s no secret that al-Qaida has focused on holidays and milestone events in the past, Little added, noting that the 10th anniversary of 9/11 was mentioned in documents seized at the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan where Osama bin Laden was killed in May.

The Defense Department does not discuss specific force-protection levels, but the level will be raised at facilities throughout the United States, including the Pentagon itself.

"[The raised force protection level] is a reflection of al Qaida’s continued interest in milestone and anniversary events, and is prudent," Little said.

At a Politico event on Tuesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano spoke about security preparations for the anniversary.

“Many, many things have already been put in place not because there’s a specific, credible threat but we want Sunday to be a day of commemoration and remembrances and we want it to be safe,” she said. “Not just DHS — a lot of other agencies in the federal government state and local governments are really leaning forward to make sure we’re as safe and secure and we can be.”

The New York Police Department announced on Wednesday that it will be deploying thousands of extra police officers on Sunday, despite having no specific terrorist threat. From the Associated Press:

The NYPD plans to form a zone around the World Trade Center for a Sunday observance that President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush plan to attend. Along with extra officers – the department won't reveal an exact number – the security also will include hundreds of surveillance cameras trained on the site, Kelly said
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/110907/911-anniversary-pentagon

Thousandsof NYPD officers to secure Ground Zero for Anniversary

2011-09-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

Associated Press
NEW YORK — There are no specific terror threats against New York City but the NYPD still plans a major show of force for 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that police will form a frozen zone around the World Trade Center site. They'll flood it with thousands of extra officers for the Sunday observance there with President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush in attendance.

The beefed up security also will include hundreds of surveillance cameras trained on the site.

The commissioner said the department will deploy "quick strike reaction forces" to respond to potential threats outside lower Manhattan. The teams include officers in heavy armor, bomb squad technicians and hostage negotiators.

New Yorkers also will see extra subway patrols.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP3798ef60be654ec188ae3aead0df894d.html

FBI ALERT: Small plane threats 9/11 Anniversary

2011-09-05T11:44:00.000-07:00

The FBI and Homeland Security have issued a nationwide warning about Al Qaeda threats to small airplanes, just days before the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Authorities say there is no specific or credible terrorist threat for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But they have stepped up security across America as a precaution.

According to a five-page law enforcement bulletin issued on Friday, as recently as early this year, Al Qaeda was considering ways to attack airplanes.
The alert, issued ahead of the summer's last busy travel weekend, said terrorists have considered renting private planes and loading them with explosives.

'Al Qaeda and its affiliates have maintained an interest in obtaining aviation training, particularly on small aircraft, and in recruiting Western individuals for training in Europe or the United States, although we do not have current, credible information or intelligence of an imminent attack being planned,' according to the bulletin
The bulletin also says Al Qaeda would like to use sympathetic Westerners to get flight training, then get them to become flight instructors.

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, described the bulletin as routine.
'We shared this information with our partners to highlight the need for continued awareness and vigilance,' he said
Aviation security is much tighter than it was a decade ago, but Al Qaeda remains keenly interested in launching attacks on airplanes, believing large attacks with high body counts are more likely to grab headlines.

Threats to small airplanes are nothing new. After the 2001 attacks, the government grounded thousands of crop dusters amid fears the planes could be used in an attack.

In 2002, U.S. officials said they uncovered an Al Qaeda plot to fly a small plane into a U.S. warship in the Gulf. And in 2003, U.S. officials uncovered an Al Qaeda plot to crash an explosives-laden small aircraft into the American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033535/FBI-DHS-warn-small-plane-terror-threats-ahead-9-11-anniversary.html

Rescue dogs of 9/11 Unsung Heroes

2011-09-04T13:57:00.003-07:00

By GINGER ADAMS OTIS

Last Updated: 11:34 AM, September 4, 2011

Posted: 1:15 AM, September 4, 2011

She was a 3-year-old golden-haired beauty when she got the call to respond to her first disaster.

Now, stiffer, slower and a bit gray, 13-year-old Bretagne is one of just a handful of World Trade Center rescue dogs still alive.

"We arrived on 9/12 and started working right away," said Bretagne's handler, Denise Corliss, a search-and-rescue volunteer with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Bretagne had spent more than a year learning how to find survivors in concrete rubble, but her Cypress, Texas, training site was nothing like Ground Zero.

She clambered up ladders to get on top of the huge debris piles, padded across broken glass and twisted steel beams, wiggled into small spaces and crawled into dark holes, all the while sniffing through mounds of pulverized concrete searching for clues that would lead her to survivors. Like all the rescue dogs, she worked without a leash or a collar.

The dogs also didn't wear protective booties, despite the crushed glass everywhere -- they needed their claws for traction.

Every night, she was given a decontamination bath. Her eyes, ears and mouth were rinsed out, and her abraded paw pads gently cleaned.

"It was her first mission, but she worked it like a pro. She didn't get cut up or fall or get hurt," said Corliss.

But Bretagne had a couple of near misses. One day, sniffing along an elevated steel beam, she lost her footing.

"It was real wet because the fires were still smoldering and the water spray was everywhere," Corliss recalled.

"She just kind of slipped, but she used her paws to pull herself back up and kept on going. That was the only time I was a little unsettled."

Bretagne was also a magnet for distraught firefighters searching the site for fallen comrades.

"A lot of times, firefighters would come by and pet her, talk to her and tell her stories," said Corliss. One firefighter bonded so closely with Bretagne that he recognized her years later at a 9/11 memorial.

The gregarious golden retriever has seen several national disasters since 9/11 -- she responded to hurricanes Katrina and Rita, going into flooded areas to find those unable to evacuate. She's retired now, but has a hard time accepting it, said Corliss.

When Corliss heads out with her new search dog, Aid'n, Bretagne always wants to go along.

"I bring her to the training site sometimes and let her run a few drills -- she's still got it," said the proud handler.

Like Bretagne, the majority of 100 or so FEMA dogs sent to Ground Zero stayed only about 10 days.

Thirty-three NYPD K-9 dogs took over recovery operations -- sniffing the rubble for remains -- for eight months. All of those dogs have since died. The last one, Charlie, a longtime K-9 unit member, passed in January, just a few months shy of his 13th birthday.

All told, about 300 dogs contributed to the rescue and long-term recovery effort at Ground Zero, said Roy Gross, a Suffolk County SPCA agent who ran the mobile hospital that cared for the animals.

"Besides the FEMA and NYPD dogs, you had therapy dogs, brought in to help the rescue searchers, and dozens of volunteers who showed up at the site with their dogs, too," said Gross

A decade later, the vast majority of all the 9/11 dogs are gone, according to the book "Dog Heroes of 9/11," which tracks the canines who worked at Ground Zero and the Pentagon.

Only about 14 of the original FEMA dogs are still alive -- including Kaiser, 12, a German shepherd from Indianapolis, and Tuff, 12, from Ashland, Mo.

Kaiser was bused to Ground Zero with his handler, Tony Zintsmaster, and arrived late at night on 9/11. He was immediately assigned to the 12-hour night shift.

As he climbed down from the pile on the morning of his second day, he badly sliced his right front carpal pad, probably on a sharp piece of steel, said Zintsmaster.

"There was no vet there yet, this was early on the 13th, so we found a medical-team doctor who stitched him up. Later, some vets arrived, and we got him bandaged and wrapped, and he was back to work that night."

The smoky, smoldering pile was especially difficult to navigate after dark, but Kaiser relished the challenge. In the daytime, the dog would de-stress with a visit to the free massage and acupuncture table set up for first responders by the School of Oriental Medicine. Kaiser particularly liked getting acupuncture, said Zintsmaster.

Off the pile, his ebullient personality was a soothing balm to grieving responders. Early one morning, a firefighter walked up to Kaiser, knelt down and hugged him for a long time, in silence. Then he stood up and walked away, said Zintsmaster.

Another time, a group of four firefighters decided the hot and thirsty German shepherd needed a drink.

"So one firefighter cups his hands together and two others are trying to pour water into his hands so Kaiser can lap it up, and meanwhile, the other one's saying that Kaiser's dirty, so that firefighter starts cleaning and rubbing his back and his muzzle. Kaiser's real social, so he loved the attention and it was OK -- it was what [the firefighters] needed," said Zintsmaster.

Kaiser, a "live-find" dog, never gave the alert to indicate he had located a survivor during his 10 days at Ground Zero. But several times, he expressed interest in a scent he'd picked up.

"His training was good. He didn't alert, which meant whatever he smelled wasn't alive, but he reacted enough so that I'd know to bring over a cadaver dog," his trainer said. "It's always hard when you don't find survivors."

The hardworking German shepherd, who will be 13 in October, just retired last year. He's in good shape, but no longer has the endurance for fieldwork, Zintsmaster said.

Some of the 9/11 rescue dogs have been incredibly long-lived. Tara, from Ipswich, Mass., got to Ground Zero the night of the disaster and stayed eight days.

She was one of the oldest survivors, until she died last year at age 16.

gotis@nypost.com

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/rescue_the_unsung_dogs_of_drama_9PI2jS3hnB7Bhi3HzDMa7N#ixzz1X1FrQV3w

First Reponders at Ground Zero not Covered For Cancer Treatment

2011-09-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Ralph and Barbara Geidel have spent close to $100,000 on his medical treatment since 2003, when the former fireman and 9/11 first responder was first diagnosed with tongue and neck cancer.

"We've already used up all of our savings," said his wife, Barbara. "We're now living paycheck to paycheck."

The Geidels were hoping to finally get some health insurance help with their mounting medical bills, when President Obama earlier this year signed into law the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

The Zadroga Act, also known as the First Responders Bill, sets aside $1.5 billion in federal and New York City funds to cover all costs for treating certain 9/11-related illnesses, and $2.7 billion in compensation for victims who suffered economic hardship as a result of the attacks.

But the law hasn't done a thing for the Geidels when it comes to filling the health insurance gap, because cancer is not one of the medical conditions currently approved to be covered by the fund.

Illnesses that are eligible for full coverage include asthma, lung disease, chronic cough syndrome, laryngitis, sleep apnea, sinusitis, digestive disorders, depression, post traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, which is administering the fund, there isn't enough scientific evidence linking cancer in first responders to their exposure to toxic substances from the 9/11 attacks.

The fund took effect on July 1, and since then it has received 86 applications, enrolled 25 people and paid out just over $1 million dollars in claims.

"This bill was rushed. It should have included coverage for cancer," said Barbara Geidel, expressing a view widely held by cancer stricken first responders and their families.

New research
A new study released Thursday by The Lancet medical journal examines the link between the incidence of cancer and exposure to 9/11 related substances, and seems to support her point.

It tracked 9,853 firefighters and found that those who were exposed to substances at Ground Zero are 19% more likely to develop cancer than firefighters who were not exposed.

Firefighters responding to 9/11 at increased cancer risk
Ralph Geidel, 54, retired from the FDNY in 1985 and moved to California to mine for gold. It was there that he met his wife Barbara. He returned to New York on Sept. 14, 2001, to rejoin his former unit Rescue Co. 1 and search for his brother Gary, also a firefighter who was in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.

He's currently on a cross-country trip from California to Ground Zero on his Harley-Davidson, which is his way to honor his brother and find closure.

Ralph worked 36 straight hours when he first got to New York three days after 9/11, and then for months after that at Ground Zero.

Hounded by bill collectors
He has health insurance through the FDNY. But after his cancer diagnosis, he returned to California and was treated by specialists who were out of network and therefore not covered by his insurance.

That meant the Geidels had to pay much more out of pocket for Ralph's cancer treatments, including radiation and surgeries.

Although his doctors haven't clearly established the link between exposure to 9/11 toxins and his cancer, Barbara said one specialist did tell the couple that the toxins were probably what caused his type of cancer to show up at a much younger age than it typically does.

"His oncologist said this type of cancer is seen in a 60 -70 year old who's a heavy smoker and drinker," she said, adding that her husband was diagnosed at 44 and is neither a heavy drinker or smoker

Look, we're tired of begging for help. We're hounded by bill collectors. We're not asking for a handout. We're asking for a hand," said Barbara.

It's a different story for Chris Doran, 42, a first responder and former New York City police officer who called the Zadroga Act a huge relief.

In the 10 years since the terror attacks, Doran has suffered many sleepless nights thanks to his injuries and his medical bills.

But now, he says, "the government is paying for all of my therapy and medications."

Prior to the Zadroga Act, Doran was struggling to pay the steep out-of-pocket costs for treating post-traumatic stress disorder and a sinus condition so severe that it has required five sinus operations.

Companies in the Twin Towers: Before and after
"I went there on Sept. 14 but I didn't last very long," said Doran. After 14 hours at Ground Zero, his blood pressure shot up and he couldn't breathe.

He didn't return to Ground Zero after that. Three years later, Doran retired from the New York Police Department, moved to Texas and hasn't worked since.

Fortunately, Doran continued to get health insurance through the NYPD. But because his income dropped substantially after retiring, he too struggled to pay his out-of-pocket medical costs.

"I was paying $7,000 a year for medications. I had to file for bankruptcy," he said. Doran has also attempted suicide twice.

Under the Zadroga Act, all of Doran's medical costs will be paid for by the government because his illnesses are approved for coverage by the fund.

The bill isn't perfect, said John Feal, a first responder who founded the first responder advocacy group Feal Good Foundation in 2005, but at least it's a start.

"When this bill passed, my first words were 'This is good,'" he said. "But I give it a six out of 10."

Feal hopes that an amendment is made to the Act soon to cover cancer, and the agency has said it will continue to review its policy on cancer coverage as new research and findings are released. Such a review is expected early to mid-2012.

"These first responders are heroic people who are financially devastated because of their illnesses," he said.

First Published: September 2, 2011: 5:55 AM ET
http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/02/news/economy/911_health_insurance/index.htm

Travel Alert 9/11 Anniversary US State Dept.

2011-09-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

9-11 Anniversary
September 02, 2011
As we mark the 10th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Department of State informs U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad of the continued threat posed by al-Qa’ida and its affiliates. While we have not identified any specific threats from al-Qa’ida affiliates and allies to attack the United States or our interests on the 9/11 anniversary, U.S. citizens should be aware that al-Qa’ida affiliates and allies have demonstrated the intent and capability to carry out attacks against the United States and our interests around the world. In the past, terrorist organizations have on occasion planned their attacks to coincide with significant dates on the calendar. This Worldwide Travel Alert supplements the July 26, 2011, Worldwide Caution, and expires on January 2, 2012.

U.S. citizens traveling and residing abroad should enroll in the Smart Travelers Enrollment Program (STEP) at the following website: https://travelregistration.state.gov. U.S. citizens without internet access may enroll directly at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate at their destination. By enrolling, U.S. citizens make it easier for the Embassy to contact them in case of emergency.

Updated information on travel and security may be obtained from the Department of State by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or, for callers outside the United States and Canada, a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. For further information, please consult the Worldwide Caution and other consular information, including Country Specific Information, for specific countries. These products and the latest international travel information for U.S. citizens are available on the Bureau of Consular Affairs Internet website at http://travel.state.gov.

The French Will Never Forget 9/11 Towers Replica

2011-08-31T11:50:00.000-07:00

Twin Towers replica in Paris for 9/11 anniversary
A replica of the Twin Towers destroyed in the September 11 attacks will be built on a square opposite the Eiffel Tower in Paris to mark the tenth anniversary of the atrocity, organisers said on Tuesday.

The Eiffel Tower itself will be illuminated by a special light show later the same day, "The French will never forget" group that is hosting a series of events next month said in a statement.

US ambassador to Paris Charles Rivkin will inaugurate the replica that will be constructed on Trocadero square, it said, adding that the 25-metre (82-foot) towers will bear the names of the people killed in the attacks.

"The French will never forget" was set up in 2003 by a group of French entrepreneurs living in the United States to try and ease the anti-French sentiment sparked by Paris's criticism of the US invasion of Iraq.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks, 2,753 at the World Trade Center and the others in attacks on the Pentagon and in a hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/8731532/Twin-Towers-replica-in-Paris-for-911-anniversary.html

High Alert for Security on 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The federal government is escalating security around the country in preparation for the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and conducting confidential briefings with state and local law enforcement organizations. But officials say there is no specific indication that a terror plot against the U.S. is under way.

Americans can expect more security at airports, mass transit stations, U.S. borders, government buildings and major athletic events over the next month, said an intelligence official who spoke anonymously to discuss sensitive security matters.

The FBI and Homeland Security Department have been briefing state and local law enforcement agencies on potential terror threats to the U.S. and ways to increase security in their communities. The briefings are routine, and security has been enhanced for other major events in the past decade. But the significance of the 10-year anniversary of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil is not lost on security officials, who fear that someone with terrorist sympathies might see 9/11 as an opportunity to make a statement.

It's been a long buildup as we approach the anniversary of 9/11," said Sean Duggan, assistant chief at the Scottsdale, Ariz., Police Department. Duggan said his department gets daily updates from the FBI and Homeland Security Department. But over the past two months, the focus has been on the 10th anniversary of the terror hijackings.

"We know this is a significant date," Duggan said. "Other than taking physical precautions, we have not been briefed on any specific threat other than the obvious — knowing what this date means in our history."

Events are planned around the country to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 attacks.

"While there is currently no specific or credible threat, appropriate and prudent security measures are ready to detect and prevent plots against the United States should they emerge," Homeland Security Department spokesman Matt Chandler said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/31/national/main20099778.shtml

Obama to Speak at 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

CNN) -- President Barack Obama plans to speak at the Washington National Cathedral on the evening of September 11 to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, event organizers said Tuesday.

The three-day event, entitled "A Call to Compassion," is designed to "honor the memories of those lost, heal the wounds caused by terrorism and war, and gain new hope to move forward as a nation," a news release said.

It will begin on Friday, September 9, with Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta speaking at "A Concert to Honor," a memorial concert dedicated to the victims of 9/11 as well as the more than 6,000 troops who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Saturday, September 10, families are invited to attend a free public concert, organizers said. This event will be called "A Concert to Heal."

Sunday, September 11, will mark the reopening of the National Cathedral following last week's 5.8-magnitude earthquake.

The day will begin with an interfaith vigil where religious leaders will gather in prayer as the cathedral tolls its 12-ton funeral bell to mark the moments when airplanes struck the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, hit the Pentagon, and crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, said organizers.

Obama also plans to visit all three memorial sites on the morning of September 11, the cathedral said. Later in the evening, he and first lady Michelle Obama will attend "A Concert for Hope," where the president will deliver his speech.

"It is our hope that the Cathedral's commemoration, especially with President Obama's participation in it, will move us further down the path toward healing," said Cathedral Dean Samuel T. Lloyd III.

The Washington National Cathedral joined with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum, the Pentagon Memorial Fund, and the Flight 93 National Memorial to present the event.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/08/30/obama.september.11/index.html

Hurricane Irene didn't phase 9/11 anniversary plans

2011-08-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Irene failed to cause any major damage at the site of the 9/11 Memorial, which is still on course to be dedicated on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

The memorial will then open to the public on September 12, 2011.

In a series of Tweets during the weekend storm, Memorial director Joe Daniels re-assured the public that, despite the heavy rain and high winds, Irene did not flood the site or damage the property. The 225 trees on the memorial plaza also came through without damage.

“The Memorial has weathered tropical storm Irene, and it remains as strong as the hundreds of men and women dedicated to building it,” said Daniels in an official statement released Monday. “And true to its name, the Survivor Tree is standing tall at the Memorial.

“I would like to recognize the efforts of the Port Authority and Memorial staff who worked together to help ensure this national site of honor and remembrance will open in September on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and for generations to come.”

The location of the site in designated flood Zone A — the most flood-prone areas of the city — had nerves frayed as the hurricane stormed towards the city on Saturday.

The city’s department of buildings had shut down every construction site in New York, however, it was feared 65 mph winds could topple tower cranes, 13 of which are located at the WTC.

Tishman Construction, the construction manager for One World Trade Center, continued inspections there on Monday as work resumed on reaching 1,000 ft. by next weekend’s anniversary.

John Gallagher, director of public affairs and vice president, said, “Extensive preparation by all personnel on each project ensured that the entire site came through very well.

“Any water entering was handled by pumps brought in for the event. Equipment is being checked and put back in service with any necessary repairs. There were no problems of any significance.”

The 3.5-million-square-foot tower will ultimately stand 1,776 feet and incorporate the latest innovations in life safety systems, structural engineering and environmental responsibility.

The project is aiming for LEED Gold certification through the use of renewable energy sources, low energy HVAC solutions, high performance façades, non-ozone-depleting chemicals, sustainable materials and rainwater collection and recycling systems.

The rebuilding effort has been chronicled by Hollywood producer Steven Spielberg in a two-week 9/11 anniversary tribute on the Discovery & Science Channel.

‘Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero,’ is a series of six 1-hour programs filmed over the past two years that captures footage of construction crews at work.

The 9/11 Museum is expected to open next year. One World Trade Center should be complete by January of 2013.

In preparation of the 10th Anniversary the annual construction embargo has also been released.

It is scheduled to begin Sunday, September 4 at 12:01 a.m., and ends at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, September
http://www.rew-online.com/2011/08/29/all-systems-go-at-wtc-site-as-irene-scurries-out-of-town/

San Diego on Alert for 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-24T22:25:00.000-07:00

Reporting from San Diego -- With the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaching, San Diego political and law enforcement officials launched a campaign Wednesday to warn residents to look for signs of terrorist planning.

"Al Qaeda and others have always had a fascination with significant dates in history," Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the San Diego office of the FBI, told a news conference.

Public service announcements are scheduled for local television stations warning residents to be on the alert and to contact police if they see anything suspicious.

A locally produced six-minute video titled "The Eight Signs of Terrorism" is posted on a county government website: http://www.ReadySanDiego.org.

San Diego's proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border and the presence of numerous military bases require an extra level of vigilance, said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a former police chief.

The eight warning signs were compiled by the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force and the federal Department of Homeland Security. The department has begun a national campaign, "If You See Something, Say Something."

Among the signs of possible terrorism: People appearing to watch potential targets to gain information and people impersonating law enforcement officers or letter carriers.

Other signs include people using cash for large purchases; people buying large quantities of products such as fertilizer, weapons or uniforms; and people appearing to rehearse an attack or moving equipment or supplies into position.

"When in doubt, call law enforcement," San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said. "We'll handle it.... We're not targeting any particular group, we're looking at suspicious activity regardless of who is doing it."

San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne recalled the police and firefighters who dashed into the second building of the Twin Towers when it was struck by a plane.

"Remember what happened on 9/11 and show that level of courage," he said.

Three of the hijackers who flew a plane into the Pentagon had lived in San Diego. Two of the three had taken flying lessons in San Diego.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, there was criticism about lack of coordination and sharing of information between federal and local law enforcement and U.S. intelligence agencies.

Without directly mentioning that criticism, officials at Wednesday's news conference said that coordination has improved.

"We've never been more prepared," Lansdowne said.

tony.perry@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0825-terrorism-20110825,0,4826580.story

50 TV Programs dedicated to 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-24T13:28:00.000-07:00

The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? Here's our channel-by-channel guide.

MNN.COM›Lifestyle›Arts & Culture
Remembering 9/11: A guide to the 10th anniversary on TV
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? Here's our channel-by-channel guide.
By Gerri MillerWed, Aug 24 2011 at 10:51 AM EST

Every year since 2001, networks and news organizations have commemorated the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks with specials and documentaries, dramas and retrospectives. This year, the 10th anniversary of the Al Qaeda-perpetrated tragedy that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? We help you sort them out with this channel-by-channel guide.

ABC
Beginning at 8 AM ET on Sept. 11, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchor three hours of live coverage, “9/11: America Remembers Ten Years Later.” That night, “Primetime” presents the special edition “Remembrance and Renewal—10 Years After the 9/11 Attacks” (Sept. 11, 10 p.m.).

CBS
Six hours of coverage on the anniversary includes the special "9/11: America Remembers," anchored by Scott Pelley from Ground Zero (8 a.m. EST), followed by "Face the Nation" from the same location. An all-9/11 edition of "60 Minutes" airs that night (7 p.m.) followed by "9/11: Ten Years Later." "The Early Show" and "CBS Evening News" will emanate from Ground Zero all weekend.

NBC
Eleven of the 3,000 kids who lost a parent in the attacks speak out in "Children of 9/11," which follows a year in their lives (Sept. 5, 10 p.m.). Tom Brokaw hosts a two-hour 9/11 "Dateline" (Sept. 8, 9 p.m.). Incorporating the three official memorial ceremonies, "America Remembers" will air the morning of Sept. 11 (8 a.m. EDT/5 a.m. PDT), and that evening Brian Williams anchors "NBC Nightly News" from Ground Zero (6:30 p.m.).
MNN.COM›Lifestyle›Arts & Culture
Remembering 9/11: A guide to the 10th anniversary on TV
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? Here's our channel-by-channel guide.
By Gerri MillerWed, Aug 24 2011 at 10:51 AM EST

NEVER FORGET: Firefighters display a flag at the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001. (Photo: Flickr)
Every year since 2001, networks and news organizations have commemorated the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks with specials and documentaries, dramas and retrospectives. This year, the 10th anniversary of the Al Qaeda-perpetrated tragedy that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? We help you sort them out with this channel-by-channel guide.

ABC
Beginning at 8 AM ET on Sept. 11, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchor three hours of live coverage, “9/11: America Remembers Ten Years Later.” That night, “Primetime” presents the special edition “Remembrance and Renewal—10 Years After the 9/11 Attacks” (Sept. 11, 10 p.m.).

CBS
Six hours of coverage on the anniversary includes the special "9/11: America Remembers," anchored by Scott Pelley from Ground Zero (8 a.m. EST), followed by "Face the Nation" from the same location. An all-9/11 edition of "60 Minutes" airs that night (7 p.m.) followed by "9/11: Ten Years Later." "The Early Show" and "CBS Evening News" will emanate from Ground Zero all weekend.

NBC
Eleven of the 3,000 kids who lost a parent in the attacks speak out in "Children of 9/11," which follows a year in their lives (Sept. 5, 10 p.m.). Tom Brokaw hosts a two-hour 9/11 "Dateline" (Sept. 8, 9 p.m.). Incorporating the three official memorial ceremonies, "America Remembers" will air the morning of Sept. 11 (8 a.m. EDT/5 a.m. PDT), and that evening Brian Williams anchors "NBC Nightly News" from Ground Zero (6:30 p.m.).

PBS
Public broadcasting's extensive slate of 9/11 programming includes a "Frontline" portrait of FBI counterterrorism agent turned World Trade Center security chief — and victim — John O'Neill, called "The Man Who Knew" (Aug. 30, 9 p.m.), an examination of anti-terrorism operations, "Top Secret America" (Sept. 6, 9 p.m.), and "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero," which addresses spiritual questions (Sept. 7, 10 p.m.). On "Nova," "Engineering Ground Zero" (above) follows the construction of One World Trade Center and the September 11 Memorial and Museum (Sept. 7, 9 p.m.), and on the anniversary date, "PBS Newshour" presents "America Remembers 9/11," examining the significance of the day throughout the nation (8 p.m.), followed by "Great Performances: The New York Philharmonic 10th Anniversary Concert for 9/11," a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection," taped at Lincoln Center.

HBO
Rebroadcasts of the documentaries "Nine Innings From Ground Zero," focusing on the how the Yankees rallied New Yorkers during the post-9/11 World Series, and "In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01," released on the one-year anniversary, will air several times over the weekend of Sept. 11.

FX
"Rescue Me," the drama series about New York firemen in the aftermath of 9/11 comes full circle in a series finale that bids farewell to a fallen comrade and pays tribute to the heroic FDNY. (Sept. 7, 10 p.m.)

HISTORY CHANNEL
Frantic phone messages and final goodbyes made moments before the towers fell are the basis of "Voices From Inside the Towers" (Sept. 10, 9 p.m.). Focusing on the tragedy's aftermath via archival footage, "9/11: The Days After", will air commercial-free (Sept. 10, 9 p.m.). It's from the filmmakers of the Emmy-winning "102 Minutes that Changed America," which will be simulcast on History, A&E and in 150 countries starting at 8:46 a.m. EST on Sept. 11 — the moment of the first impact at One World Trade Center. "Making the 9/11 Memorial" documents the creation of the "Reflecting Absence" memorial leading up to its unveiling (Sept. 11, 8 p.m.).

MNN.COM›Lifestyle›Arts & Culture
Remembering 9/11: A guide to the 10th anniversary on TV
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? Here's our channel-by-channel guide.
By Gerri MillerWed, Aug 24 2011 at 10:51 AM EST

NEVER FORGET: Firefighters display a flag at the Pentagon on Sept. 12, 2001. (Photo: Flickr)
Every year since 2001, networks and news organizations have commemorated the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks with specials and documentaries, dramas and retrospectives. This year, the 10th anniversary of the Al Qaeda-perpetrated tragedy that claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa., is the focus of stepped-up media coverage, with more than 50 programs dedicated to the event. What to watch? We help you sort them out with this channel-by-channel guide.

ABC
Beginning at 8 AM ET on Sept. 11, Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos anchor three hours of live coverage, “9/11: America Remembers Ten Years Later.” That night, “Primetime” presents the special edition “Remembrance and Renewal—10 Years After the 9/11 Attacks” (Sept. 11, 10 p.m.).

CBS
Six hours of coverage on the anniversary includes the special "9/11: America Remembers," anchored by Scott Pelley from Ground Zero (8 a.m. EST), followed by "Face the Nation" from the same location. An all-9/11 edition of "60 Minutes" airs that night (7 p.m.) followed by "9/11: Ten Years Later." "The Early Show" and "CBS Evening News" will emanate from Ground Zero all weekend.

NBC
Eleven of the 3,000 kids who lost a parent in the attacks speak out in "Children of 9/11," which follows a year in their lives (Sept. 5, 10 p.m.). Tom Brokaw hosts a two-hour 9/11 "Dateline" (Sept. 8, 9 p.m.). Incorporating the three official memorial ceremonies, "America Remembers" will air the morning of Sept. 11 (8 a.m. EDT/5 a.m. PDT), and that evening Brian Williams anchors "NBC Nightly News" from Ground Zero (6:30 p.m.).

PBS
Public broadcasting's extensive slate of 9/11 programming includes a "Frontline" portrait of FBI counterterrorism agent turned World Trade Center security chief — and victim — John O'Neill, called "The Man Who Knew" (Aug. 30, 9 p.m.), an examination of anti-terrorism operations, "Top Secret America" (Sept. 6, 9 p.m.), and "Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero," which addresses spiritual questions (Sept. 7, 10 p.m.). On "Nova," "Engineering Ground Zero" (above) follows the construction of One World Trade Center and the September 11 Memorial and Museum (Sept. 7, 9 p.m.), and on the anniversary date, "PBS Newshour" presents "America Remembers 9/11," examining the significance of the day throughout the nation (8 p.m.), followed by "Great Performances: The New York Philharmonic 10th Anniversary Concert for 9/11," a performance of Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2 "Resurrection," taped at Lincoln Center.

HBO
Rebroadcasts of the documentaries "Nine Innings From Ground Zero," focusing on the how the Yankees rallied New Yorkers during the post-9/11 World Series, and "In Memoriam: New York City 9/11/01," released on the one-year anniversary, will air several times over the weekend of Sept. 11.

FX
"Rescue Me," the drama series about New York firemen in the aftermath of 9/11 comes full circle in a series finale that bids farewell to a fallen comrade and pays tribute to the heroic FDNY. (Sept. 7, 10 p.m.)

HISTORY CHANNEL
Frantic phone messages and final goodbyes made moments before the towers fell are the basis of "Voices From Inside the Towers" (Sept. 10, 9 p.m.). Focusing on the tragedy's aftermath via archival footage, "9/11: The Days After", will air commercial-free (Sept. 10, 9 p.m.). It's from the filmmakers of the Emmy-winning "102 Minutes that Changed America," which will be simulcast on History, A&E and in 150 countries starting at 8:46 a.m. EST on Sept. 11 — the moment of the first impact at One World Trade Center. "Making the 9/11 Memorial" documents the creation of the "Reflecting Absence" memorial leading up to its unveiling (Sept. 11, 8 p.m.).

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Devoting a week of prime time to the anniversary starting Aug. 28, Nat Geo will present rebroadcasts with updated footage and new specials including "Inside 9/11: The War Continues," examining terrorism, Al-Qaeda, and the killing of Osama Bin Laden (Aug. 28, 9 p.m.), "George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview," the most in-depth interview the former president has ever given on the subject (Aug. 28, 10 p.m.), "CIA Confidential: 9/11 Mastermind," about the pursuit of terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed (Aug. 29, 10 p.m.), and "9/11: Where Were You?" following people who made critical decisions during the crisis (Aug. 30, 10 p.m.).

DISCOVERY
Produced by Steven Spielberg, the six-hour event "Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero" chronicles the massive effort that represents the reclamation and renaissance of Lower Manhattan, presented commercial-free Aug. 25-Sept. 1 (8-11 p.m. each night).

A&E
Photographer Andrea Booher tracks down the people she photographed that fateful day in "Portraits From Ground Zero," a commercial-free world premiere (Sept. 10, 10 p.m.).

NICKELODEON
"Nick News with Linda Ellerbee: 'What Happened?: The Story of September 11, 2001'" answers kids' questions and helps them understand the world-changing event (Sept. 1, 9 p.m.).

OWN
Twins who lost a sibling on 9/11 tell their stories in "Twins of the Twin Towers" (Sept. 11, 9 p.m.) and "From the Ground Up" focuses on the widows of firefighters (Sept. 11, 10:15 p.m.).

TLC
"9/11: Heroes of the 88th Floor" recounts the selfless bravery of two men who died saving others in the Twin Towers (Sept. 4, 9 p.m.).
INVESTIGATION DISCOVERY
"ID Investigates: 9/11 Crime Scene Investigators" (above) profiles the NYPD's Crime Scene Unit and its search for survivors and evidence at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the WTC attack (Sept. 4, 9 p.m.).

SMITHSONIAN CHANNEL
A chronological account of the first 18 hours, "9/11: Day that Changed the World" includes interviews with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Vice President Dick Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (Sept. 5, 8 & 11 p.m.; Sept. 6, 5 p.m.). Personal objects from victims and survivors represent the bigger picture in "9/11: Stories in Fragments" (Sept. 5, 9:35 p.m.; Sept. 6, 12:35 a.m., 8 p.m.).

ANIMAL PLANET
A 9/11-themed edition of the series "Saved" profiles two New York families impacted by the attacks whose pets helped them deal with their loss (Sept. 7, 9 p.m.).

SHOWTIME
Grounded in New York on 9/11, Paul McCartney (above) thought the best way to help was to stage a benefit concert, the preparation for which — including rehearsals — and portions of the concert itself, are the basis of the documentary "The Love We Make" (Sept. 10, 9 p.m.). Juxtaposed against time-lapse images of the rebuilding of Ground Zero, "Rebirth" movingly tracks five people — a badly burned survivor and four who lost loved ones — in yearly interviews that show how it's possible to heal despite overwhelming loss (Sept. 11, 9 p.m.).

CNN
As noted in the 9/11 Commission Report, eight people who played small but significant roles that day are the subject of "Footnotes of 9/11" (Sept. 6, 11 p.m.). Medical expert Sanjay Gupta reports on the health conditions affecting Ground Zero responders in "Terror in the Dust" (Sept. 7, 11 p.m.) and Soledad O'Brien focuses on female rescue workers in "Beyond Bravery: The Women of 9/11" (Sept. 8, 11 p.m.). "Beyond 9/11: Portraits of Resilience" interweaves photographs and interviews with officials, survivors and first responders (Sept. 9, 11 p.m.).

USA
Oscar winner Melissa Leo (above) plays a flight attendant reluctantly charged with the care of an unaccompanied Pakistani-American boy after they're grounded en route from New York to L.A. on the morning of 9/11 in "The Space Between," airing commercial-free on Sept. 11 (9 p.m.), followed by the Oscar-winning short documentary "Twin Towers," which follows an elite NYPD rescue unit that was to be the subject of a reality series before fate intervened, claiming many of the members' lives.

BIO CHANNEL
"When Pop Culture Saved America" explains how entertainers buoyed and helped heal the nation in the aftermath of 9/11 (Sept. 5, 8 p.m.). "I Survived 9/11" interviews those who escaped death that day (Sept. 6, 8 p.m.) and "Beyond: Messages From 9/11" profiles people who claim to have received messages from deceased loved ones (Sept. 10, 10 p.m.).

FOX NEWS CHANNEL
In "Freedom Rising with Shepard Smith," the anchor focuses on the rebuilding of Ground Zero and the people making it happen (Sept. 2, 9 p.m.). The channel presents all-day coverage of the anniversary on Sept. 11 starting with a two-hour program at 8 a.m. EDT, simulcast on Fox.

MSNBC
Richard Engel and Rachel Maddow report on the decade since 9/11 in "Day of Destruction — Decade of War" (Sept. 1, 9 p.m., repeating Sept. 9, 10, 11). "On Native Soil" focuses on the 9/11 Commissions report (Sept. 10, 3 p.m.; Sept 11, 9 p.m.) and "9/11: In Our Own Words" blends footage and commentary from the reporters that covered the events of the day (Sept. 11, 8 p.m.).

CNBC
A special edition of "American Greed" entitled "9/11 Fraud" focuses on those who seek to illegally profit from tragedy (Sept. 7, 9 p.m.) and on Sept. 10 "The Suze Orman Show" discusses the money lessons of 9/11 (9 p.m., 12 a.m.).

http://www.mnn.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/stories/remembering-911-a-guide-to-the-10th-anniversary-on-tv

California to New York - Firefighters Cycle to 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Kent native Adam Loeser, left, now a firefighter in California, is part of the "Ride for 9-11" group of firefighters who are cycling cross-country to New York City to honor the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Ten firefighters are riding from the southern California area to honor the 343 firefighters killed in the attacks at Ground Zero. The riders left July 24 and plan to arrive in New York City on Sept. 9 — with stops along the way across the country, including in Loeser's hometown of Kent, OH. Courtesy Adam Loeser Photos (1)
Among the firefighters riding 3,300 miles cross country under the "Ride for 9-11" banner is 1992 Theodore Roosevelt High School graduate Adam Loeser, who has been coordinating his hometown stop with Kent firefighter Brock Murphy.

"They were originally talking about staying in Akron, but since Adam is a Roosevelt grad from Kent he was instrumental in getting them to stay the night in Kent," Murphy said. "So we talked to our fire chief, and he OK’d us to have them spend the night at the station.”

Loeser, who now works as a firefighter at station one in Fullerton, CA, said six of the firefighters are on the road full-time. He rode the first 500 miles the first week and will join the team to ride the last 1,100 miles into New York City.

"The biggest point … is just that it’s a group of firefighters that are honoring the 343 firefighters that died during 9-11, and to remember the people that have supported us and kind of taken up the torch of service personnel that are around the world and protect us on a day-to-day basis," Loeser said. "I’m excited that we’re able to go through Kent."

Loeser said two firefighters in Los Angeles County came up with the idea to ride to Ground Zero in New York a few years ago to honor the firefighters killed in the attacks. He joined the ride to represent firefighters from Orange County and south of Los Angeles County.

A support team is driving along — at a slow crawl — in a motorhome behind the cyclists, and a two-man film crew is shooting the trip for a documentary. All 10 riders from the southern California area serve as financiers, ride organizers, marketers, cooks, drivers and bicycle mechanics.

"It was a lot of different hats that all 10 of us have had to wear to learn a little bit about how to make the whole ride work," Loeser said. "It’s working great. It’s been well received in every city and town that we’ve gone through."

The riders hit St. Louis, MO, Monday. Days earlier they were greeted by firefighters in Oklahoma City, OK.

Loeser will join the group either in Indiana or Toledo. They will then ride into Akron before traveling through Cuyahoga Falls and Stow on their way into Kent. The route can be traced here.

Murphy said they plan to have a police and fire escort guide the riders from the Stow-Kent border east on S.R. 59 to downtown Kent, where the Kent Jaycees will welcome the riders with a meal in Home Savings Plaza. Information on their stop in Kent is available here.

Murphy said he encourages Kent-area residents to line the route and cheer on the firefighters as they ride into Kent next Tuesday. They're expected to arrive in Kent between 3 and 4:30 p.m. Aug. 30.

"It’s hard to say that far out," Murphy said.

They will leave Kent for Pittsburgh the next day.

The riders left California July 24 with the goal of hitting New York in 45 days with stops in Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., along the way. They plan to arrive in New York City on Sept. 9 and finish the ride at the FDNY Firefighters Wall.

The ride is raising money for The Leary Firefighters Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project.

Loeser, a long-time athlete, said the riders trained on 100-mile marathon rides for the memorial trip. One of the toughest parts was stringing together 100-mile bike rides day after day.

But he said it's not about the length of the trip, the lightning, hail storms and other obstacles the riders have run across.

"It's not so much about me or the individual guys," he said. "It's just a group of guys who are trying to make a little bit of a difference."

http://kent.patch.com/articles/911-tribute-ride-will-bring-firefighters-through-kent

Al-Qaeda down but not out

2011-08-24T09:26:00.000-07:00

By David Ignatius, Published: August 23
Government officials refer to it blandly as the “SSE,” or Sensitive Site Exploitation. That’s their oblique term for the extraordinary cache of evidence that was carried away from Osama bin Laden’s compound the night the al-Qaeda leader was killed.

With the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks a few weeks away, it’s possible to use this evidence to sketch a vivid portrait of al-Qaeda, drawing on material contained in more than 100 computer storage devices, including thumb drives, DVDs and CDs, and more than a dozen computers or hard drives — all collected during the May 2 raid.

U.S. officials say three strong themes emerge from their reading of the files, most of which were communications between bin Laden and his top deputy Atiyah Abd al-Rahman. Indeed, because the Libyan-born Atiyah (who’s known to analysts by his first name) was the boss’s key link with the outside, officials see him as more important than bin Laden’s nominal successor, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Here are the highlights:

●Bin Laden retained until his death a passion to launch a significant attack against the United States, ideally linked to the 10th anniversary of 9/11. He and Atiyah communicated often about who might carry out such a strike, with Atiyah proposing names and bin Laden rejecting them. Bin Laden was still looking for a history-changing attack on big, economically important targets — one that would match, if not outdo, the impact of 9/11. Zawahiri, by contrast, favored an opportunistic strategy of smaller strikes.

●Bin Laden was a hands-on chief executive, with a role in operations planning and personnel decisions, rather than the detached senior leader that U.S. analysts had hypothesized. Zawahiri, whom the analysts had imagined as the day-to-day leader, was actually quite isolated — and remains so, despite a dozen communications this year. Zawahiri suffers from mistrust between his Egyptian faction of al-Qaeda and other operatives, such as Atiyah.

●Bin Laden was suffering badly from drone attacks on al-Qaeda’s base in the tribal areas of Pakistan. He called this the “intelligence war,” and said it was “the only weapon that’s hurting us.” His cadres complained that they couldn’t train in the tribal areas, couldn’t communicate, couldn’t travel easily and couldn’t draw new recruits to what amounted to a free-fire zone. Bin Laden discussed moving al-Qaeda’s base to another location, but he never took action.

Analysts did not find in the material any smoking gun to suggest Pakistani government complicity in bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. And it’s clear he was paranoid about being found and killed: He ordered his subordinates to restrict movements to help preserve what remained of al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Fear of being discovered was a subject of regular conversation between bin Laden, Atiyah, Zawahiri and others.

Bin Laden also worried that al-
Qaeda’s status among Muslims was dwindling, and that the West had at least partially succeeded in distancing al-Qaeda’s message from core Islamic values. Concerned about this eroding base, bin Laden counseled affiliates in North Africa and Yemen to hold back on their efforts to develop a local Islamic extremist state in favor of attacking the United States and its interests.

This fear that al-Qaeda’s extreme tactics were burning too hot and alienating Muslims was also the theme of a remarkable message that Atiyah sent in 2005 to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the murderous chief of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In this document, made public five years ago by the United States, Atiyah warned that fomenting Sunni-Shiite violence (which was Zarqawi’s trademark) was potentially ruinous.

The al-Qaeda that emerges from these documents is a badly battered and disoriented group. The June 3 death of Ilyas Kashmiri in a drone attack illustrates the organization’s continuing vulnerability. Kashmiri was a ruthless operator who planned the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and was plotting deadly attacks on Europe last winter that were stopped only because of aggressive counterterrorism work. (Security services from Europe and Turkey arrested about 20 of Kashmiri’s operatives before they could carry out the attacks.)

When top U.S. officials summarize their view of al-Qaeda now, in the run-up to the 9/11 anniversary, they describe an organization that is down but certainly not out. They don’t know of any specific plots targeting the United States, 10 years on. But they’re looking, pulsing every channel they know. They recognize that it’s what we still don’t know about al-Qaeda that’s most dangerous.

davidignatius@washpost.com

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/10-years-after-911-al-qaeda-is-down-but-not-out/2011/08/23/gIQARQ3tZJ_story.html

USS New York "Never Forget" to visit for 9/11 anniversayr

2011-08-24T09:19:00.000-07:00

Associated Press
NEW YORK — A Navy ship built with steel from the World Trade Center will anchor off lower Manhattan for ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer announced Tuesday that the Navy has agreed to bring the USS New York to the state it was named after.

Schumer said the Navy's decision came after weeks of negotiations.

Schumer said in a letter to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus that it would be fitting for those who lost loved ones at the twin towers to be joined by the ship forged with steel from those towers.

The USS New York is an amphibious transport ship built with 7.5 tons of steel salvaged from the trade center. The ship's motto is "Never Forget." It was commissioned in 2009.

—Copyright 2011 Associated Press
http://online.wsj.com/article/APd24ef5b9994c400f9be44c6da4be2319.html

72 POLICE OFFICERS KILLED ON 9/11 TO BE REMEMBERED ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY

2011-08-20T09:36:00.000-07:00

It remains the deadliest day in U.S. law enforcement history: 72 peace officers killed in the line of duty during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to the director of Washington, D.C.'s Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.

Ten years after that tragic day, these heroic men and women will be remembered during a ceremony at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.

On Friday, September 9, at 10 AM (et), U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. will join Board members, supporters and staff of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, as well as dignitaries from law enforcement agencies that lost (an) officer(s) on 9/11, at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. for a special ceremony.

The names of the 72 officers are engraved together on Line 23 of Panels 9 through 22 of the Memorial's west wall. Following brief remarks, the officers' names will be read aloud, and a wreath will be laid in their honor.

"Over the past 10 years, the horrific events of September 11, 2001 seem to have faded a bit from our collective consciousness. But the service and sacrifice of the 72 courageous law enforcement heroes who laid down their own lives that day for the safety and protection of others will always be remembered here at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial," said Craig Floyd, CEO of the Memorial.

Among the law enforcement officers who died on 9/11 were 71 killed at the World Trade Center, plus one officer — Richard Guadagno, a sworn refuge manager with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — who was among the passengers who died in Pennsylvania while fighting to regain control of Flight 93 from the terrorists.

Thirty-seven members of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Force, including its Superintendent, Fred Morrone, died on 9/11; that represents the most fatalities suffered by a single law enforcement agency in one day in U.S. history.

Also killed at the World Trade Center that day were 23 members of the New York City Police Department; five members of the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance; three members of the New York State Office of Court Administration; a special agent with the FBI; a master special officer with the U.S. Secret Service; and a New York City fire marshal who had sworn law enforcement powers.

The names of all 72 officers killed on 9/11 can be found on the Memorial Fund's web site at www.LawMemorial.org/911RollCall. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial contains the names of 19,298 officers who have died in the line of duty throughout U.S. history.

http://www.thecypresstimes.com/article/News/National_News/72_POLICE_OFFICERS_KILLED_ON_911_TO_BE_REMEMBERED_ON_10TH_ANNIVERSARY/49496

2,500 Motorcycles Commemorate 9/11

2011-08-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

The 10th annual ride, organized by America’s 911 Foundation Inc., began Thursday in Shanksville, Pa., and went past the Pentagon in Arlington, Va., on Friday. The riders are set to reach their destination at Ground Zero in Manhattan on Sunday morning — touching all three sites where planes crashed on Sept. 11, 2001.
The ride is tentatively scheduled to enter New Jersey from the Delaware Memorial Bridge shortly before 2 p.m. and arrive in the southern part of Middlesex County via Route 130 by mid-afternoon.
The ride will pass by Cranbury, South Brunswick and North Brunswick on Route 130 North before accessing Route 1 North. It will pass by New Brunswick, Highland Park, Edison, Woodbridge and Rahway before arriving in Linden about 4:30 to 5 p.m.
Police from several Central Jersey towns affected by the ride said their departments plan to have officers help with the traffic situation, which will require numerous intersections to be blocked off as the procession passes.
The ride also has its own official police escorts, who are conducting their own continual, rolling block-offs of intersections.
“We expect them to come here (in Woodbridge) between 3:30 and 4 p.m., and they said they would call our front desk and give us like a 15-minute heads-up,” Woodbridge Police Capt. Roy Hoppock said. “But that’s tentative. Anything could happen and they could be delayed. It’s not a big operation for us. We plan to have as many auxiliary officers out there as we can to monitor it until they get through.”
Linden Sgt. Don Geisheimer said Linden police will temporarily block off intersections along Route 1 as the motorcyclists arrive and travel into the parking lot at Aviation Plaza along Route 1 North, where there will be refreshments and a ceremony at the Applebee’s restaurant. Police also will close intersections as the caravan of riders leaves the city along Route 1, heading toward Elizabeth.
Geisheimer said the motorcycle run is well-organized, and the temporary closing of intersections shouldn’t be a major issue. While the riders are in the Aviation Plaza parking lot, he said, the intersections will be open.
“Local roads won’t be affected,” said Geisheimer who anticipates that it will take about 15 minutes to get all the riders into the lot, which will be closed off by the Applebee’s.
“It won’t be that long,” said Geisheimer, adding that the riders will travel at the 40 mph speed limit.
Rob Brining, 55, of Burlington is one of the volunteer road captains riding in the Sept. 11 event. It’s his sixth. “This is the biggest turnout we’ve had,” he said

http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20110820/NJNEWS/308190031/9-11-motorcycle-ride-hits-Central-Jersey-today.

CBS News 9/11 Anniversary Coverage

2011-08-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

CBS News Schedules 6 Hours of Special Coverage on 9/11 AnniversaryBy Sunday, September 11, Scott Pelley will anchor CBS News coverage of the national memorial ceremonies for the 9/11 attacks from Ground Zero. “Face the Nation” will originate from Ground Zero immediately following the conclusion of scheduled events.

Both “The Early Show” and the “CBS Evening News” will also be live from Ground Zero beginning Friday, September 9. “60 Minutes” will also be entirely dedicated to 9/11 coverage on Sunday night at 7 pmET/PT, with a feature presentation of “9/11: Ten Years Later,” an updated version of the award-winning film CBS aired on the first and fifth anniversaries of the attacks, to follow.

Visit FishbowlNY, where New York TV and radio personalities reflect on 9/11/01 in our series “9/11: New York Remembers.”

CBS News Will Provide Extensive Coverage Beginning Sept. 9 - Sept. 11 On “The Early Show,” “CBS Evening News,” “Face The Nation,” “60 Minutes” and Across All Platforms Including: CBS Radio News, CBSNews.com, CBS Newspath and CBS News’ Polling and Survey Unit

On Sunday, Sept. 11, CBS Will Dedicate Six Hours of Coverage to Mark the Day, Highlighted by a CBS News Special, “9/11: America Remembers,” Anchored By Scott Pelley from Ground Zero, Beginning at 8:00 AM, ET (Check Local Listings)

CBS News announces division-wide coverage plans to mark 10 years since the 9/11 terrorist attacks against the United States. CBS News will provide extensive coverage beginning Sept. 9 – Sept. 11 on THE EARLY SHOW, CBS EVENING NEWS, FACE THE NATION, 60 MINUTES and across all platforms, including CBS Radio News, CBSNews.com, CBS Newspath and CBS News’ Polling and Survey Unit.

Beginning Friday, Sept. 9, CBS News’ THE EARLY SHOW and the CBS EVENING NEWS will broadcast live from Ground Zero in New York City.

On Sunday, Sept. 11, six hours will be devoted to the coverage, beginning with a CBS News special 9/11: AMERICA REMEMBERS, anchored by Scott Pelley (8:00 AM, ET check local listings). Immediately following the coverage of the scheduled events, a special edition of FACE THE NATION will broadcast live from Ground Zero.

In addition, 60 MINUTES (7:00-8:00 PM, ET) will devote the entire broadcast to 9/11 coverage, which will be followed by CBS Television Network and filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet and James Hanlon’s presentation of “9/11: 10 YEARS LATER,” an update of the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning film, “9/11,” to be broadcast on CBS as a special presentation, Sunday, Sept. 11 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT).

CBS News’ coverage will include personal stories from survivors and family members of some of the victims, as well as reports from CBS News correspondents at the World Trade Center, Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.

CBS News’ division-wide programming highlights, beginning Sept. 9, will include the following:

Friday, September 9

• THE EARLY SHOW (7:00-9:00 AM, ET) will provide extensive coverage live from Ground Zero.

• Scott Pelley will anchor the CBS EVENING NEWS (6:30-7:00 PM, ET) from that location.

Saturday, September 10

• THE EARLY SHOW ON SATURDAY (Check Local Listings) will broadcast live from Ground Zero.

• CBS EVENING NEWS will broadcast live from Ground Zero (6:30-7:00 PM, ET).

Sunday, September 11

• Scott Pelley will anchor a CBS News special, 9/11: AMERICA REMEMBERS, live from Ground Zero, beginning at 8:00 AM, ET.

• Immediately following the coverage of the scheduled events, a special edition of FACE THE NATION will broadcast live from Ground Zero.
• 60 MINUTES (7:00-8:00 PM, ET) will devote the entire broadcast to 9/11 coverage.

• The CBS Television Network and filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet and James Hanlon will present “9/11: 10 YEARS LATER,” an update of the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning film, “9/11,” to be broadcast on CBS as a special presentation (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT). For more on this special go to: http://www.cbspressexpress.com/div.php/cbs_entertainment/release?id=28857
• CBS Radio News will offer expanded programming and feature reports, including a five-part series, “Justice In a Time of Terror.” CBS Radio News will also present special short-form reports and long-form weekend roundup: “9/11: America Remembers,” as well as live anchored coverage of the events in NY, DC and PA.

• In addition to a live webcast of Sept. 11 events, CBSNews.com will provide archival footage of CBS News coverage of Sept. 11 and the weeks after, as well as original reports looking forward and back at the impact of the attacks.

• CBS Newspath, the network’s 24-hour news service to its owned stations and affiliates in the U. S. and around the globe, will provide live reports from Ground Zero beginning Friday, Sept. 9 through Monday, Sept. 12. Additionally, CBS Newspath will have a correspondent live at Ground Zero beginning at 5:00 AM, ET on Sept. 11.

• CBS News’ Polling & Survey Unit will present exclusive poll results and statistical analysis.

On Eve Of 9/11 Anniversary, NYPD And FDNY Push For National Emergency Radio Network

2011-08-19T08:12:00.000-07:00

The city's fire and police commissioners urged Congress Wednesday to approve a national emergency radio network in time for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Our Cunningham and Gendar report:

Gathered at a Staten Island firehouse that lost five members in the attacks, Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said their crews couldn't talk to any federal agencies if another terror strike happened tomorrow.

"We've gone light years ahead of where everybody else has gone," Cassano said. "But to have a nationwide system would be even better."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a key proponent of the national radio network, noted, "Congress has yet to fulfill one of the key, outstanding recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report....We needed to have interoperability between local, state and federal first responders."

The nation's police, fire and rescue operations use more than 55,000 separate radio networks.

The goal would be to create a single network on the radio spectrum so rescuers could talk across city, state and regional lines - and share crucial documents like building blueprints or arrest records.

"To reserve part of the spectrum for first responders is critically important to New York and nationally," Kelly said.

Money is not the primary congressional stumbling block.

A review by the Congressional Budget Office estimated a nationwide system would pay for itself through the auction of unused broadband - generating up to $6.5 billion in surplus that could go toward cutting the nation's debt.

The legislation has languished amid partisan squabbling over whether the government or private companies should own and run the network.

"We're going to go back [to Capitol Hill] in September," said Gillibrand, who joined Cassano and Kelly at the station housing Engine 160 and Rescue Company 5. "I think we'll have the support when we have the vote."

"The status quo is unacceptable," she added
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/08/on-eve-of-911-anniversary-nypd-and-fdny-push-for-national-emergency-radio-netw

.MSNBC Announces 9/11 Anniversary Coverage Plans

2011-08-19T08:07:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, September 1st at 9:00 PM/ET, MSNBC will debut 'Day of Destruction - Decade of War.'

The documentary draws from the unparalleled field experience of NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and the distinct analysis and insight of MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to take a broad look at the decade since September 11, 2001. The report explores how America responded to the attacks and how the country has changed. “Day of Destruction: Decade of War” will re-air in its entirety on September 9th, 10th and 11th. Produced by Peacock Productions.

Premiering on Saturday, September 10th at 3:00 PM/ET and re-airing on Sunday, September 11th at 9:00 PM/ET, MSNBC presents the riveting story of the 9/11 Commission hearings with “On Native Soil.”

"On Native Soil" captures the content of the 9/11 Commission's report while exposing new details, including interviews with witnesses who testified for the Commission behind closed doors. It is the story of a loose collection of ordinary Americans - united by their single-minded passion for answers - who challenged a bureaucracy and triumphed. “On Native Soil” is narrated by Kevin Costner and Hilary Swank.

On Sunday, September 11th from 8:00–11:00 AM/ET, MSNBC will simulcast the NBC special.

Later that evening on Sunday, September 11 at 8:00 PM/ET, “9/11: In Our Own Words” will air on MSNBC. In this unique documentary, NBC News anchors and correspondents recall their personal memories of reporting live the morning of September 11, 2001. Weaving together the live footage of that morning with present-day interviews, the special covers the first several hours of reporting as the terrorist attacks on America unfolded.

From Matt Lauer and Tom Brokaw in the NBC News studios in New York, to David Gregory with President Bush, Jim Miklaszewski at the Pentagon and Andrea Mitchell at the Washington Bureau – the NBC News team relives the developments and emotions of that fateful day. “9/11: In Our Own Words ” is an MSNBC original production and was produced for MSNBC by Peacock Productions.

http://www.newsonnews.net/msnbc/11181-msnbc-announces-9-11-anniversary-coverage-plans.html

New Orleans to commemorate anniversary of 9/11

2011-08-19T08:04:00.000-07:00

NEW ORLEANS -- With the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks coming up, New Orleans plans to commemorate the anniversary by asking citizens to pay tribute to the city's firefighters, police officers and emergency medical services workers.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu is asking people to show their appreciation for the city's emergency workers by refurbishing buildings, doing landscaping work, making meals or baking cookies for first responders. The mayor is asking children to write thank you notes or create banners for first responders.

The city's "9/11 Tribute Through Service" initiative is meant to commemorate the men and women who died in New York City, the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania 10 years ago on Sept. 11.

http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2011/08/new_orleans_to_commemorate_ann.html

Emergency Responders Ready To Protect Florida for 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of emergency responders discussed plans to keep South Florida safe from terrorism and other threats during the quarterly summit of the Southeast Regional Domestic Security Task Force.

The meeting on Thursday at the Marriott in West Palm Beach covered preparations to secure the area during the 10th anniversary of 9-11.

Hundreds of agencies plan to have extra people working around the clock in the days leading up to the anniversary, including ocean crews escorting cruise ships arriving and leaving local ports

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw, chairman of the task force, kicked off the all-day event that joined law enforcement and emergency responders from Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/palm-beach/fl-domestic-security-task-force-20110818,0,5313037.story

Secretary of Homeland Defense - No Guarantee Against Terrorist Attacks

2011-08-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

(CNSNews.com) – As the 10th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attack approaches, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said America is “stronger” and “more secure against that type of attack” but will not “offer guarantees.”

“There is no question but that our country is stronger and more secure against that type of attack than it was a decade ago. We have bounced back. We have bounced back very strongly from what was the worst attack ever on our soil. We have made progress on every front to protect ourselves,” she said during an event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday called, "The State of Homeland Security Since 9/11: Looking Back, Looking Forward."

Still, Napolitano cannot guarantee that the U.S. will not be attacked again.

Today, we are stronger than we were on 9/11. There are no guarantees in this world and I’m not here to offer guarantees,” she told the audience.

“There are lots of things that are threatened that can happen but what we can do is maximize our ability to prevent an attack from occurring, minimize the ability of such an attack having a large impact and increase our ability to respond with efficiency and effectiveness and to get as I said earlier, to get right back up on the horse and back to the business of the country

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/napolitano-us-stronger-911-no-guarantees

NYPD Heighten Alert for "Lone Wolf" on 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-18T10:08:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – The NYPD is strengthening its safety net around the city as the 9/11 anniversary approaches and the city’s top cop says he’s very concerned about an attack timed to coincide with the memorials.

in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Reporting Marla Diamond

LISTEN: WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reports

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/08/18/police-commissioner-ray-kelly-nyc-on-heightened-alert-for-911-anniversary/

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the city has not received any specific threats, but is on heightened alert for the 9/11 anniversary.

“We have to be concerned,” Kelly said. “Osama bin Laden spoke about some event on September 11, 2011 twice in the last two years.”

Kelly says bin Laden’s death is not a game changer

Kelly says some of the avengers may be so-called lone wolves, radicallized by what they read online.

President Barack Obama has also said a “lone wolf” terror attack in the U.S. is more likely than a major coordinated effort like the September 11 attacks

FDNY Fire Fighters Release 9/11 Tribute Album fo Anniversary

2011-08-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

As we prepare to mark the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, three veteran New York firefighters have released a moving tribute album -- Beyond The Call: A Musical Tribute to Courage, Honor & Sacrifice.

NYC firefighters Frank Pizarro and Regina Wilson -- both of whom were all the front lines that fateful day on September 11, 2001 -- joined forces with a friend, fellow firefighter Billy Arce, to create the musical group, Beyond The Call.

To mark the anniversary of the worst ever terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the three -- all of whom are accomplished singers -- decided to raise their voices in order to raise money to help those who keep our safe country, be it firefighters, military or first responders -- and their families.

New York Yankees legend-turned-musician Bernie Williams heard about the project and volunteered to play guitar for one of the songs on the CD -- Hallelujah.

RadarOnline.com had the honor of talking with Frank and Regina about their searing memories http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2011/08/new-york-firefighters-release-tribute-album-mark-911-anniversary

Concern of 'Lone Wolf' Attacks on 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Newsroom America) -- President Barack Obama said Wednesday he was less concerned about a spectacular terrorist attack on the upcoming 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and more worried about attacks that could be carried out by individual radicals.

"The most likely scenario that we have to guard against right now ends up being more of a lone wolf operation than a large, well coordinated terrorist attack," he told CNN during a campaign swing through Iowa on a three-day bus tour that included stops in Minnesota and Missouri.

"We still have to stay on top of it, though. We're never letting our guard now, that's part of our job," he said, adding that the U.S. would remain on "heightened" alert with "extra vigilance" on the anniversary.

Obama was asked about the prospects of a new large-scale terror assault on the anniversary of the attacks that destroyed the twin World Trade Center towers in New York City and damaged the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., as well as retaliation for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May.

The president said U.S. national security officials were "constantly monitoring potential risks," but a stepped-up campaign against al Qaeda around the globe had left the organization largely defensive and on the run.

"The risk is always there, and obviously on a seminal event like the tenth anniversary of 9/11, that makes us more concerned -- it means we've got heightened awareness," said Obama.

However, he added, "the biggest concern we have right now is not the launching of a major terrorist operation -- although that risk is always there.

"The risk that we're especially concerned over right now is the lone wolf terrorist, somebody with a single weapon being able to carry out wide-scale massacres of the sort we saw in Norway recently," he said.

National Anti-Terror Campaign Launched Ahead of 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

As the 10-year anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks approaches, the Department of Homeland Security has launched a national television campaign to remind citizens to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to authorities.

The government agency announced the public-service campaign in a blog post Wednesday by Secretary Janet Napolitano. "As I've said in the past, hometown security is the key to homeland security," she wrote. "Time and again, we've seen terrorist attacks thwarted by alert individuals who notify authorities when something just doesn't seem right ... security is a shared responsibility and we all have a role to play."

The TV spots are inspired by a local campaign that began across New York subways and buses in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. The Big Apple's Metropolitan Transit Authority owns the rights to the campaign idea -- and its memorable tagline, "If You See Something, Say Something" -- and has licensed that tagline to Homeland Security for its anti-terror and anti-crime efforts. The MTA's work has proved successful, and was credited with thwarting a potentially deadly attack in New York's Times Square last May.

In one of the national spots (watch below), a woman exits a cab at a train station only to walk in and drop off a bag unattended. With dark, thumping music in the background, the voiceover says: "Maybe you see something suspicious but you don't want to get involved. 'It's nothing,' you think. Can you be sure?"

Along with the TV spots, the the department is running two 30-second radio ads to help raise awareness; one takes place is a shopping mall setting and another at a sporting event.

It's unclear if the radio and TV ads were created internally or with the help of an agency; Homeland Security representatives didn't respond to a request for comment by press time.

While the ads don't reference the 9/11 attacks or other terror attempts specifically, it's clear the U.S. government is on heightened alert in the weeks before the 10th anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The launch of the campaign comes just a day after President Barack Obama, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, said he's especially concerned by the potential of a "lone-wolf" terrorist incident similar to the one that caused mayhem in Norway last month

http://adage.com/article/news/feds-launch-national-anti-terror-tv-campaign-ahead-9-11/229342/

NYPD Dedicated to Fighting Terrorism as 9/11 Anniversary Approaches

2011-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the question of New York's vulnerability to terror attacks is again in the forefront of public discussion.

While the NYPD's main focus has been and continues to be conventional crime fighting, we devote considerable resources to deterring another attack.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, many thought another terrorist attack on New York was inevitable.

While the NYPD never subscribed to that notion, we knew that Al Qaeda and its adherents kept New York at the top of its target list and plotted feverishly to come back and kill New Yorkers.

There have been 13 plots against New York that have been thwarted by either the great work of our Federal partners, NYPD officers, just plain luck, or a combination of all three. They were:

-- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plot to take down the Brooklyn Bridge a year after the destruction of the World Trade Center was abandoned only after Al Qaeda operative Iyman Farris found security at the bridge made it too difficult to attack.

-- The December 2002 plot to disperse cyanide gas in the subway system. It was called off at the last minute by Iyman Zawahiri for what he said was "something bigger."

-- Al Qaeda's Al Hindi plotted against the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup Headquarters in midtown Manhattan and the Prudential Center in New Jersey.

-- The Parachas, father and son, abetted Al Qaeda in what was ultimately believed to be a plan to use shipping containers to smuggle explosives -- possibly even a nuclear device -- into Manhattan's Garment District.

-- An undercover NYPD police officer helped disrupt a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station by lone-wolf admirers of Al Qaeda.

-- Other Al Qaeda sympathizers plotted to bomb fuel storage tanks at JFK International Airport and blow up the Buckeye pipeline that transports jet fuel from New Jersey to JFK and LaGuardia via Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.

-- The plot to flood Manhattan's financial district by simultaneously bombing the PATH subway and the retaining wall at the World Trade Center site.

-- A British-based plot to destroy seven commercial aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean or fly one or more of them into East Coast targets, including New York City.

-- A plot to bomb a Manhattan-bound LIRR commuter train was discussed at the highest levels of Al Qaeda operational leadership.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-08-07/local/29878464_1_ahmed-ferhani-najibullah-zazi-plot

Firefighters Not Invited to Ground Zero on 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Firefighters and other responders will be on the outside looking in when a ceremony is held marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks next month, according to The Daily News.

A city official told the newspaper that that the amount of space at the new memorial and security logistics have forced to city to schedule a separate ceremony for responders on a later date.

Family members of the nearly 3,000 killed in the attacks were invited, along with President Barrack Obama and former president George W. Bush.

"To have a separate service on another day has no significance, no meaning," David Jacobs, who volunteered at the site sifting debris, told the newspaper. "For many of us, we gave a lot at that site."

His childhood friend, a city firefighter, died in the attacks.

In previous years, responders were welcomed at the site, but little construction had begun and space wasn't an issue.

One construction worker told 1010 WINS that he believes they should be invited this year.

"I think that they should be allowed to go because too many of their brothers and sisters lost their lives and they should be the first ones that are included," he said. "They should make it happen. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of people here who shouldn't be here

An estimated 91,000 police, firefighters and other responders helped with the search and rescue efforts in the wake of the attacks

http://www.firehouse.com/news/911news/responders-not-invited-memorial-911-anniversary

A&E 9/11 anniversary with “Portraits from Ground Zero”

2011-08-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

A&E Network and BIO Channel are lining up four doc specials to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, with the former set to air Portraits from Ground Zero, a two-hour special centering on photojournalist Andrea Booher’s pictures taken at Ground Zero in the days following the September 11 attacks.

The special will air on A&E at 10 p.m. EST on September 10. According to the network, Booher was one of the only photographers given full 24-hour access to Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. The doc will feature the subjects of Booher’s photographs, including a firefighter searching for the body of his life-long friend; a teenage girl mourning her stepfather; and a Franciscan friar ministering to the dead.

Elsewhere, BIO will premiere When Pop Culture Saved America on September 5 at 8 p.m., a two-hour documentary that looks at the days and months following the attack, showing “how the non-news media pitched in to bring the nation together,” with comedians, singers, actors and entertainers putting on a variety of concerts, telethons and specials.

Also on BIO, the network’s original series I Survived… will air a special profiling the stories of 12 fire fighters, ambulance workers, defense officials and office workers who all survived 9/11. I Survived…9/11 airs September 6 at 8 p.m.

Finally, A&E’s hour-long special Beyond: Messages from 9/11 looks at people who say they have received signs and messages from lost loved ones, who died during 9/11, from beyond the grave. It airs September 10 at 10 p.m.

Portraits from Ground Zero is produced by Left/Right, When Pop Culture Saved America is made by BrainStorm, I Survived…9/11 is produced by NHNZ, and Beyond: Messages from 9/11 is made by September Films.

Tags: A&E, A+E Networks, Beyond: Messages from 9/11, BIO Channel, BrainStorm, I

CNN Original Documentaries Marking 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-16T14:18:00.000-07:00

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Soledad O’Brien, Drew Griffin and TIME/HBO Presentation Report: 9/11 Ten Years Later
During the week leading up to the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, CNN will premiere four one-hour productions on its domestic network. In investigations led by chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, investigative correspondent Drew Griffin, and anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien, CNN is reporting new insights into the health consequences experienced by the first responders working at New York’s Ground Zero, examining the events of that day through the eyes of people who were on the front lines of one of America’s most tragic days, and profiling several unsung heroines who saved lives on that day. A fourth presentation from TIME in association with HBO features a collection of TIME magazine oral histories from people who experienced the events of that day as they unfolded, and their reflections as the nation reacted in the days, months, and years afterwards.

“It was a day that changed us all and CNN is leveraging its unmatched resources to cover remembrances from around the nation and the world as we look back on 9/11 and what it means a decade later,” says Bart Feder, senior vice president of programming for CNN. “In addition, these documentaries tell stories we feel will evoke pride in the heroism and bravery of the Americans who risked their lives, and some who sacrificed themselves on that day to save others. And, they present an opportunity to remember the difficult work of first responders – and our servicemen and women on the front lines overseas – who continue to try to keep this nation safe each day.”
On Tuesday, Sept. 6 at 11:00pm (replay on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 8:00pm), CNN will debut FOOTNOTES OF 9/11, featuring interviews with people who went to work on Sept. 11, 2001 – and unexpectedly became part of history. Each of the eight people profiled by investigative correspondent Drew Griffin for this documentary is mentioned in The 9/11 Commission Report – their unique experiences are drawn from the 1,742 footnotes of that report and offer critical detail to the tragic events of that day – are literal and figurative footnotes to one of America’s darkest days. They include ticket agents who checked in some of the terrorists, a maintenance technician who answered a call from one of the planes under attack, and the Lt. Col. in the Massachusetts Air National Guard – also a United Airlines pilot – who scrambled to provide defense to New York, and faced possibly having to shoot down a passenger plane.

On Wednesday, Sept. 7 at 11:00pm (replay on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 9:00pm), DR. SANJAY GUPTA REPORTS: TERROR IN THE DUST, will examine how responders who breathed in the toxic dust and noxious fumes at New York City’s Ground Zero are coping with the health effects of the attacks. The environmental hazards at the World Trade Center disaster site – mercury from fluorescent light bulbs, dioxin and benzene emitted as the jets burned, asbestos from the building materials, and more – have caused severe respiratory ailments, immune problems and, some suspect, a greatly increased cancer risk. Among those who speak to Dr. Gupta are two brothers – firefighters who searched for survivors in the pile of the collapsed towers – one whose lungs are now failing and the other who appears to have had no permanent physical effects. Ten years after the attacks chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta speaks to first responders who continue to experience emotional trauma. Dr. Gupta’s investigation includes never before broadcast footage of the collapse of the Twin Towers, the medical consequences of the killer dust, and safety recommendations for future crisis responses.

BEYOND BRAVERY: THE WOMEN OF 9/11 will air on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 11:00pm (replay on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 9:00pm), and profiles the sometimes overlooked female rescue workers who raced to the Twin Towers in the wake of the attack. Anchor and special correspondent Soledad O’Brien looks at the work of these rescue workers over the decade following their life-altering experiences. Among the stories of these heroic women of New York’s Ground Zero is an African-American firefighter whose company lost seven of the 342 firefighters who died that day. She is pushing to recruit more women to this dangerous job, even as the number of female firefighters has dropped to less than one percent of the NYFD. O’Brien also speaks with the family of a decorated police officer and mother who was photographed rescuing survivors just moments before the collapse of the towers. O’Brien reports the present-day health and emotional struggles of these unsung heroines and hears about their determination to be prepared for the next attack – and to restore hope.

On Friday, Sept. 9 at 11:00pm (with replays on Saturday, Sept. 10 at 8:00pm and 11:00pm), CNN will premiere a special presentation from TIME in association with HBO, BEYOND 9/11: PORTRAITS OF RESILIENCE. Captured in words and moving images, this documentary features untold stories drawn from 40 women and men who led and sacrificed for America in the hours, days, and months that followed the attacks. Working with the editors of TIME, award-winning photographer Marco Grob produced an astonishing set of portraits which are coupled with dramatic recollections from government leaders, survivors of the towers, and first responders.

Kathleen Johnston, Brian Rokus, and Bud Bultman produced FOOTNOTES of 9/11, Stephanie Smith and Roni Selig produced TERROR IN THE DUST, and Rose Arce and Geraldine Moriba produced BEYOND BRAVERY.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively-syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media

First Responders Not Invited To 9/11 Anniversary Ground Zero Ceremony

2011-08-13T10:03:00.000-07:00

First responders who were called to the World Trade Center site in the days and weeks following 9/11 will reportedly be on the outside looking in at next month's anniversary ceremony.

According to the Daily News, police officers, firefighters and rescue workers will not be invited to take part in the primary 10th anniversary ceremony activities.

Instead, they will be asked back at the site another day for a separate ceremony.

The News cites security and a lack of room as the reason of the decision.

The presence of President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush will create mounting security concerns.

Thousands of family members will also be on hand.

It's estimated as many as 91,000 people took part in the initial search and rescue at the World Trader Center site.

http://www.ny1.com/content/special_reports/911_a_decade_later/144997/report--first-responders-not-invited-to-9-11-anniversary-ceremony

“Ride of Valor” Launched to Honor Heroes of Flight 93

2011-08-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

Shanksville, PA (PRWEB) August 11, 2011

“Ride of Valor”, a first-ever national effort to honor the 40 Heroes of Flight 93 through a series of community based motorcycle rides across the nation that also includes a unique opportunity to ride virtually online, has been formally launched with registration now available for all categories of participation at RideofValor.com.

Ride of Valor provides an opportunity for individuals to honor the heroism and sacrifice of the 40 passengers and crew of United Flight 93, who stopped a planned attack by terrorists on Washington, D.C., and most likely the U.S. Capitol building saving thousands of lives.

All Ride of Valor activities take place this Summer and Fall, on occasion of the tenth anniversary of 9/11. Proceeds from Ride of Valor benefit completion of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in conjunction with the National Park Foundation. First phase of the Memorial will be dedicated on September 10th.

“Anyone can be a part of Ride of Valor,” said Debby Borza, a principal Ride of Valor organizer and Mother of Flight 93 passenger Deora Bodley.

Motorcycle clubs, organizations, retail shops or any business can host a Ride of Valor for their community or area. Ride of Valor’s coordination team also supplies all materials and support required. “It’s truly easy, and we’re there to help every step of the way,” Borza added.

Ride of Valor also features a unique opportunity for those who don’t own a motorcycle or can’t participate in a ride, to ride from the comfort of their own home as ‘Spirit Riders’ for as little as $10, as
well as at symbolic levels of $40 and $93.

Hosts of rides also can make Ride of Valor a theme of any currently scheduled ride or event in their area. Organizers have encouraged local Ride of Valor hosts to partner with local civic and fraternal groups. Creating a Ride of Valor for a particular day, organizers say, provides maximum flexibility based on three types of rides:

Valor and Honor Ride: 40 riders (or valor bearers) wearing Vests of Valor, each displaying the name and image of a Flight 93 hero. Additional riders may display the official Flight 93 commemorative flag.

Honor Ride: Riders display Flight 93 flags.

Remembrance Ride: Riders don’t display Ride of Valor vests or the Flight 93 flag.

Ride of Valor also announced a “Motorcycle Club Challenge” that offers multiple prizes to be awarded that include recruitment of the most ‘Spirit Riders’ among its members, their families and friends.

All information related to Ride of Valor hosting and registration is available at http://www.RideofValor.com. On the website are tools and guidance for individuals creating Rides of Valor, as hosts, as well as means to initiate and track registrations in all categories, including as online “Spirit Riders.”

The story of the 40 heroes of Flight 93, as well as the planning for and progress of the Flight 93 National Memorial, may also be found through the Ride of Valor’s website. More information is also available at 855-ROV-INFO (855-768-4636); option 1 for general information, or via email at: info(at)rideofvalor(dot)com.

Arlington Virginia Plans 9/11 Commemorations

2011-08-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

We’re one month away from the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and Arlington is planning several events to commemorate the solemn occasion.

On Saturday, Sept. 10 Arlington County will host a special 9/11 tribute event to honor the 184 people who perished during the terrorist attack on the Pentagon.

“The event will be held at the Air Force Memorial and will be emceed by ACFD Lieutenant Dave Santini, with an invocation by ACFD Chaplin Reverend Leonard L. Hamlin, live instrumental music and a vocalist to lead attendees in singing ‘America the Beautiful,’” according to the county web site. “This event is free and open to the public.”

Also on Sept. 10, Arlington’s public safety personnel are hosting a 9/11 memorial 5K race in Pentagon City. Registration for the race, which benefits several 9/11-related charities, is still open.

Another annual public safety-sponsored commemorative event, the First Responders Cup softball tournament, will take place Sept. 9 to 11 at three separate South Arlington fields.

For anyone interested in giving back to the community to honor the memory of 9/11 victims, Arlington County is compiling volunteer opportunities for the 9/11 Day of Service. Among the options is a Sept. 10 and 11 grocery store food drive to benefit the Arlington Food Assistance Center.

More information on 9/11 events in Arlington can be found on the county’s “Arlington Remembers September 11, 2001″ web page.

http://www.arlnow.com/2011/08/11/arlington-plans-911-commemorations/

“New York Remembers” Exhibits in state to mark 9/11 anniversary

2011-08-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

ALBANY — Artifacts from the ground zero terrorist attack and expressions of grief that followed will be on display from Aug. 29 through the end of September in 30 cities across the state, including four in Western New York, as part of New York’s 10th anniversary remembrances of 9/11, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday.

Many of the items included in “New York Remembers” come from the State Museum and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

In addition to an exhibit at State Museum and Empire State Plaza in Albany, there will be displays at the Burchfield Penney Art Center at Buffalo State College, Conference Center Niagara Falls, Batavia City Hall and the Jamestown Municipal Building.

Cuomo urged all New Yorkers to visit the sites. All will be open Sunday, Sept. 11.

“Every community across New York felt the impact of the senseless acts of terrorism that claimed thousands of lives just one decade ago,” Cuomo said. “These exhibitions will give New Yorkers in towns, villages and cities all across the state a gathering place to once again stand as one community to make sure we never forget those who lost their lives on Sept. 11 and to embrace the spirit of unity that brought us together on that day of devastating tragedy.”

Many of the artifacts being exhibited have never been seen by the public. They include the trailer used by families visiting ground zero that includes photographs and messages; damaged emergency vehicles and other vehicle parts;

aluminum and glass from the buildings; religious “symbol steel” created by the workers at the site; and fragments of the airplanes that struck the twin towers, including landing gear and engine parts. The stories behind all the artifacts will be told as part of the exhibitions.

The statewide exhibit won’t have displays in New York City, but national events are scheduled there, and the New York Historical Society plans displays.

“In advance of the 9/11 Memorial Museum opening in 2012, we’re proud to have this opportunity to display some of our treasured artifacts across New York State,” said Alice M. Greenwald, director of the National September 11 Memorial &Museum.

“Authentic objects are crucial to understanding the story of 9/11, from the profound loss to the extraordinary heroism and depths of compassion,” she added. “These exhibits will be an important learning opportunity for people of all ages and a fitting tribute to the many who perished at the World Trade Center on that terrible morning 10 years ago.”

email: citydesk@buffnews.comnull

Bin Laden Capture Movie set for October 2012 Release

2011-08-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

Oscar-winning filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow has been actively developing a movie tentatively titled Kill Bin Laden, so news of the infamous terrorist’s death is sheer lucky coincidence; however, chances are good that the based-on-a-true story project will be fast-tracked and put into production very soon, given recent events.

Joel Edgerton (Smokin’ Aces) is reportedly in line to play the leading man in Bigelow’s Bin Laden flick – or was, as of last Friday. The actor has recently been shortlisted as a prospect to star in upcoming tentpole pics like Snow White and the Huntsman and The Bourne Legacy - the latter of which looks to instead feature Hurt Locker leading man Jeremy Renner, coincidentally enough.

Bigelow’s Bin Laden film is said to be based on a real-life mission carried out some years ago (after 9/11) by military forces, to hunt down and kill the infamous Al Queda leader back when he was reportedly hiding in the mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Chances are good that the film won’t be changed drastically, since Bigelow informed Deadline that “this movie isn’t specifically about [Bin Laden]“; however, it’s all but guaranteed to note his death, via an epilogue of sorts.

http://screenrant.com/osama-bin-laden-movie-kathryn-bigelow-sandy-113358/

Seal Team 6 shot down on Rescue Mission

2011-08-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

..KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The 30 American service members — most of them elite Navy SEALs — who died when their helicopter was shot down had rushed to help Army Rangers who had come under fire, two U.S. officials said Sunday.

The heavy loss shows that clandestine tactics carry huge risks despite the huge success of the SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden more than three months ago. Most of the SEALs who died Saturday were from the same unit that killed bin Laden, although none of the men took part in that mission.

The U.S.-led coalition plans to rely more on special operations missions as it reduces the overall number of combat troops by the end of 2014.

This weekend, the rescue team had subdued attackers who had pinned down the Rangers and were departing in their Chinook helicopter when the aircraft was apparently hit, one of the officials said.

Thirty Americans and eight Afghans were killed in the crash, making it the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. The Rangers, special operations forces who work regularly with the SEALs, secured the crash site in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak province, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the other official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the event, as the investigation is still ongoing. The SEAL mission was first reported by CNN.

NATO was recovering the remains of the twin rotor Chinook helicopter. A current and a former U.S. official said the Americans included 22 SEALs, three Air Force combat controllers and a dog handler and his dog. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because military officials were still notifying the families of the dead.

All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed bin Laden, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Eight Taliban fighters were also killed in the battle, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Afghanistan has more U.S. special operations troops, about 10,000, than any other theater of war. The forces, often joined by Afghan troops, are among the most effective weapons in the coalition's arsenal, conducting surveillance, infiltration and capture missions and night raids.

From April to July this year, 2,832 special operations raids captured 2,941 insurgents and killed 834, twice as many as during the same time period last year, according to NATO.

SEALs, Rangers, and other special operations troops are expected to be the vanguard of the American military effort in Afghanistan as international military forces start pulling out. By the time combat troops plan to have left the country, the coalition will have handed control of security to the Afghan forces they have spent tens of billions of dollars arming and training.

Special operations troops are expected to remain in the country after 2014 for counterterrorism missions and advisory support. Just how many will remain has not yet been negotiated with the Afghan government, but the United States is considering from 5,000 to 20,000, far fewer than the 100,000 U.S. troops there now.

Special forces are frequently used to target insurgent commanders as part of an effort to force the Taliban's leadership to agree to a negotiated peace. The operations, mostly in the form of night raids, are often carried out by Afghan and coalition special operations forces.

Night raids have drawn criticism from human rights activists and infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who says they anger and alienate the Afghan population.

But NATO commanders have said the raids are safer for civilians than relatively imprecise airstrikes.

As U.S. forces removed the wreckage Sunday, nearby Afghan and NATO forces battled insurgents as they carried out clearing operations in the areas around the crash site, a region that is just a stone's throw from the capital. The province, which borders Kabul, has increasingly come under Taliban control in recent months — even as the U.S.-led coalition has begun handing over security for parts of Afghanistan over to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

"There have been a small number of limited engagements in the same district" as Saturday's helicopter crash, NATO said in a statement. "However those clashes have not been in the direct vicinity of the crash site. As of now, we have no reporting to indicate any coalition casualties resulting from these engagements."

___

Associated Press Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this story from Washington. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor also contributed from Washington.

..

Spielberg Mini Series: Rebuilding Ground Zero to air Aug. 25

2011-08-06T11:15:00.000-07:00

Discovery has set an Aug. 25 premiere date for its Steven Spielberg-executive produced miniseries Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero.The two-week television event will air commercial free starting at 8 p.m.

The miniseries will showcase the men and women determined to rebuild and restore the site of the World Trade Center and construction the new 104-story One World Trade Center.

The six-hour special will conclude Sept. 1 and run as a daylong marathon on Science Channel on Sunday, Sept. 11, starting at 5 p.m. to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Paul Mccartney to Air 9/11 Film on Anniversary

2011-08-05T12:22:00.000-07:00

Piecing together a new documentary about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York has brought back bad memories for Sir Paul Mccartney, who watched the Twin Towers burn from the tarmac at the city's Jfk Airport.

MCCartney's TV love story to the Big Apple, which features the rocker roaming the streets in the days after 9/11, will air next month (Sep11) on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the atrocities, and he admits all that happened on that fateful morning came flooding back to him as he watched the footage.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association festival in Beverly Hills via satellite from Ohio on Thursday (04Aug11) MCCartney said, "We were at Jfk on the tarmac and the pilot just suddenly said, 'We can’t take off, we’re gonna have to go back to base.' Out of the window, on the right hand side of the airplane, you could see the Twin Towers. First of all you could see one plume of smoke and you could see two shortly thereafter and I said, 'Well, that’s an optical illusion... or it’s probably just some little fire or something, but it does look pretty serious.'

"We were just looking at that for a while and then suddenly one of the stewards came to me and said, 'There’s something really serious that’s happened in New York and we’ve got to get you out of here.'

"I ended up in Long Island watching it on TV... wanting to go into New York, but nobody was allowed back in, and while I was sitting out there twiddling my thumbs thinking, 'What to do? Was there any role I could play in this?' The idea came to me that maybe we could do a concert, get something together."

The film, The Love We Make, chronicles the concert and features footage of MCCartney on the streets of New York speaking to fans.

He added, "There was fear in the air and I’d never experienced that, particularly in New York."

The bad memories of 9/11 have since been replaced by happier ones of the city - and he admits the Big Apple has always had a big place in his heart: "I married a New York girl - Linda - and I’m about to marry another one, so I think I would think first of Linda and her family and our family and her connections with New York and then my upcoming connections... I have a lot of connections. I love New York."

Obama to visit three attack sites on 9/11 anniversary

2011-08-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will attend anniversary ceremonies on September 11 at the three sites where terrorists launched their deadly US attacks a decade ago, the White House said Tuesday.

"On September 11, 2011, the president and Mrs. Obama will join with the rest of the American people in marking the 10th anniversary of a day that we will never forget," spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

"The president will participate in commemorations at each of the three locations where we lost so many loved ones: in lower Manhattan, in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week that the annual event at the "Ground Zero" site, where the World Trade Center once stood, will be attended by Obama's predecessor George W. Bush, who was president at the time of the worst terror attacks in US history.

Bush had passed up the opportunity to join Obama at Ground Zero in May in the days after US special forces killed terror mastermind Osama bin Laden.

The September event in New York will coincide with the unveiling of a memorial plaza including reflecting pools on the footprints of the destroyed Twin Towers.

Throughout the day, Obama "will pay tribute to those we lost, honor the Americans who responded on that day and who served in harm's way over the last decade," Carney said.

"He will underscore the strength, resilience and unity of the American people."

The day before the anniversary, on September 10, Vice President Joe Biden will attend the dedication of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Carney said.

That is the site where a United Airlines jet crashed into a field after heroic passengers and crew tried to overpower hijackers once they learned a terror attack was in progress.

Copyright © 2011 AFP. All rights reserved. More »

FOX News Coverage 9/11 Anniversary

2011-08-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

!
9/11 Offerings
FOX NEWS RADIO has announced its plans for coverage of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
5-Minute affiliates will be provided with a series, "9/11: Ten Years Later," to use in local newscasts in the month leading up to the anniversary. Each report will be offered in two versions, 60 seconds with a produced open and 40 seconds for insertion into newscasts. One report will be posted each day, seven days a week, from AUGUST 11th through SEPTEMBER 12th.
On SEPTEMBER 11th itself, the network will offer three hours of live anchored coverage. FOX will also offer two hour-long specials for use during that weekend, "9/11 -- Day of Terror" and "Secrets of 9/11."

Robert De Niro to host 9/11 special on CBS 8PM September 11

2011-08-02T10:52:00.001-07:00

Get ready for lots of 9/11 programming coming up on TV as we mark the 10th anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center next month.

Just announced: Robert De Niro will host CBS' 9/11: 10 Years Later, an update of the award-winning 2002 film 9/11. Filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet and James Hanlon were filming in a New York Firehouse when the attack happened. They kept their cameras rolling.

The update will air on Sept. 11 at 8 p.m. and promises to contain the only known footage of the first plane striking the World Trade Center and the only footage from inside Ground Zero during the attacks.

New interviews with many of the firefighters who were featured in the original program will look at how their lives have changed in the 10 years since the tragedy. And New York City Fire Department health officials will discuss some of the health issues that have plagued firefighters working at Ground Zero. Also featured will be footage inside the rebuilding of the site and the 9/11 Memorial.

See photos of: Robert De Niro

SEAL TEAM 6 K9 CAIRO: DETAILS OF BIN LADEN RAID

2011-08-02T09:46:00.000-07:00

A Reporter At Large
Getting Bin Laden
What happened that night in Abbottabad.by Nicholas Schmidle

Shortly after eleven o’clock on the night of May 1st, two MH-60 Black Hawk helicopters lifted off from Jalalabad Air Field, in eastern Afghanistan, and embarked on a covert mission into Pakistan to kill Osama bin Laden. Inside the aircraft were twenty-three Navy SEALs from Team Six, which is officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, or DEVGRU. A Pakistani-American translator, whom I will call Ahmed, and a dog named Cairo—a Belgian Malinois—were also aboard. It was a moonless evening, and the helicopters’ pilots, wearing night-vision goggles, flew without lights over mountains that straddle the border with Pakistan. Radio communications were kept to a minimum, and an eerie calm settled inside the aircraft.

Fifteen minutes later, the helicopters ducked into an alpine valley and slipped, undetected, into Pakistani airspace. For more than sixty years, Pakistan’s military has maintained a state of high alert against its eastern neighbor, India. Because of this obsession, Pakistan’s “principal air defenses are all pointing east,” Shuja Nawaz, an expert on the Pakistani Army and the author of “Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within,” told me. Senior defense and Administration officials concur with this assessment, but a Pakistani senior military official, whom I reached at his office, in Rawalpindi, disagreed. “No one leaves their borders unattended,” he said. Though he declined to elaborate on the location or orientation of Pakistan’s radars—“It’s not where the radars are or aren’t”—he said that the American infiltration was the result of “technological gaps we have vis-à-vis the U.S.” The Black Hawks, each of which had two pilots and a crewman from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, or the Night Stalkers, had been modified to mask heat, noise, and movement; the copters’ exteriors had sharp, flat angles and were covered with radar-dampening “skin.”

The SEALs’ destination was a house in the small city of Abbottabad, which is about a hundred and twenty miles across the Pakistan border. Situated north of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, Abbottabad is in the foothills of the Pir Panjal Range, and is popular in the summertime with families seeking relief from the blistering heat farther south. Founded in 1853 by a British major named James Abbott, the city became the home of a prestigious military academy after the creation of Pakistan, in 1947. According to information gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency, bin Laden was holed up on the third floor of a house in a one-acre compound just off Kakul Road in Bilal Town, a middle-class neighborhood less than a mile from the entrance to the academy. If all went according to plan, the SEALs would drop from the helicopters into the compound, overpower bin Laden’s guards, shoot and kill him at close range, and then take the corpse back to Afghanistan.

The helicopters traversed Mohmand, one of Pakistan’s seven tribal areas, skirted the north of Peshawar, and continued due east. The commander of DEVGRU’s Red Squadron, whom I will call James, sat on the floor, squeezed among ten other SEALs, Ahmed, and Cairo. (The names of all the covert operators mentioned in this story have been changed.) James, a broad-chested man in his late thirties, does not have the lithe swimmer’s frame that one might expect of a SEAL—he is built more like a discus thrower. That night, he wore a shirt and trousers in Desert Digital Camouflage, and carried a silenced Sig Sauer P226 pistol, along with extra ammunition; a CamelBak, for hydration; and gel shots, for endurance. He held a short-barrel, silenced M4 rifle. (Others SEALs had chosen the Heckler & Koch MP7.) A “blowout kit,” for treating field trauma, was tucked into the small of James’s back. Stuffed into one of his pockets was a laminated gridded map of the compound. In another pocket was a booklet with photographs and physical descriptions of the people suspected of being inside. He wore a noise-cancelling headset, which blocked out nearly everything besides his heartbeat.

During the ninety-minute helicopter flight, James and his teammates rehearsed the operation in their heads. Since the autumn of 2001, they had rotated through Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and the Horn of Africa, at a brutal pace. At least three of the SEALs had participated in the sniper operation off the coast of Somalia, in April, 2009, that freed Richard Phillips, the captain of the Maersk Alabama, and left three pirates dead. In October, 2010, a DEVGRU team attempted to rescue Linda Norgrove, a Scottish aid worker who had been kidnapped in eastern Afghanistan by the Taliban. During a raid of a Taliban hideout, a SEAL tossed a grenade at an insurgent, not realizing that Norgrove was nearby. She died from the blast. The mistake haunted the SEALs who had been involved; three of them were subsequently expelled from DEVGRU.

The Abbottabad raid was not DEVGRU’s maiden venture into Pakistan, either. The team had surreptitiously entered the country on ten to twelve previous occasions, according to a special-operations officer who is deeply familiar with the bin Laden raid. Most of those missions were forays into North and South Waziristan, where many military and intelligence analysts had thought that bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders were hiding. (Only one such operation—the September, 2008, raid of Angoor Ada, a village in South Waziristan—has been widely reported.) Abbottabad was, by far, the farthest that DEVGRU had ventured into Pakistani territory. It also represented the team’s first serious attempt since late 2001 at killing “Crankshaft”—the target name that the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC, had given bin Laden. Since escaping that winter during a battle in the Tora Bora region of eastern Afghanistan, bin Laden had defied American efforts to trace him. Indeed, it remains unclear how he ended up living in Abbottabad.

Forty-five minutes after the Black Hawks departed, four MH-47 Chinooks launched from the same runway in Jalalabad. Two of them flew to the border, staying on the Afghan side; the other two proceeded into Pakistan. Deploying four Chinooks was a last-minute decision made after President Barack Obama said he wanted to feel assured that the Americans could “fight their way out of Pakistan.” Twenty-five additional SEALs from DEVGRU, pulled from a squadron stationed in Afghanistan, sat in the Chinooks that remained at the border; this “quick-reaction force” would be called into action only if the mission went seriously wrong. The third and fourth Chinooks were each outfitted with a pair of M134 Miniguns. They followed the Black Hawks’ initial flight path but landed at a predetermined point on a dry riverbed in a wide, unpopulated valley in northwest Pakistan. The nearest house was half a mile away. On the ground, the copters’ rotors were kept whirring while operatives monitored the surrounding hills for encroaching Pakistani helicopters or fighter jets. One of the Chinooks was carrying fuel bladders, in case the other aircraft needed to refill their tanks.

Meanwhile, the two Black Hawks were quickly approaching Abbottabad from the northwest, hiding behind the mountains on the northernmost edge of the city. Then the pilots banked right and went south along a ridge that marks Abbottabad’s eastern perimeter. When those hills tapered off, the pilots curled right again, toward the city center, and made their final approach.

During the next four minutes, the interior of the Black Hawks rustled alive with the metallic cough of rounds being chambered. Mark, a master chief petty officer and the ranking noncommissioned officer on the operation, crouched on one knee beside the open door of the lead helicopter. He and the eleven other SEALs on “helo one,” who were wearing gloves and had on night-vision goggles, were preparing to fast-rope into bin Laden’s yard. They waited for the crew chief to give the signal to throw the rope. But, as the pilot passed over the compound, pulled into a high hover, and began lowering the aircraft, he felt the Black Hawk getting away from him. He sensed that they were going to crash.

One month before the 2008 Presidential election, Obama, then a senator from Illinois, squared off in a debate against John McCain in an arena at Belmont University, in Nashville. A woman in the audience asked Obama if he would be willing to pursue Al Qaeda leaders inside Pakistan, even if that meant invading an ally nation. He replied, “If we have Osama bin Laden in our sights and the Pakistani government is unable, or unwilling, to take them out, then I think that we have to act and we will take them out. We will kill bin Laden. We will crush Al Qaeda. That has to be our biggest national-security priority.” McCain, who often criticized Obama for his naïveté on foreign-policy matters, characterized the promise as foolish, saying, “I’m not going to telegraph my punches.”

Four months after Obama entered the White House, Leon Panetta, the director of the C.I.A., briefed the President on the agency’s latest programs and initiatives for tracking bin Laden. Obama was unimpressed. In June, 2009, he drafted a memo instructing Panetta to create a “detailed operation plan” for finding the Al Qaeda leader and to “ensure that we have expended every effort.” Most notably, the President intensified the C.I.A.’s classified drone program; there were more missile strikes inside Pakistan during Obama’s first year in office than in George W. Bush’s eight. The terrorists swiftly registered the impact: that July, CBS reported that a recent Al Qaeda communiqué had referred to “brave commanders” who had been “snatched away” and to “so many hidden homes [which] have been levelled.” The document blamed the “very grave” situation on spies who had “spread throughout the land like locusts.” Nevertheless, bin Laden’s trail remained cold.

In August, 2010, Panetta returned to the White House with better news. C.I.A. analysts believed that they had pinpointed bin Laden’s courier, a man in his early thirties named Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. Kuwaiti drove a white S.U.V. whose spare-tire cover was emblazoned with an image of a white rhino. The C.I.A. began tracking the vehicle. One day, a satellite captured images of the S.U.V. pulling into a large concrete compound in Abbottabad. Agents, determining that Kuwaiti was living there, used aerial surveillance to keep watch on the compound, which consisted of a three-story main house, a guesthouse, and a few outbuildings. They observed that residents of the compound burned their trash, instead of putting it out for collection, and concluded that the compound lacked a phone or an Internet connection. Kuwaiti and his brother came and went, but another man, living on the third floor, never left. When this third individual did venture outside, he stayed behind the compound’s walls. Some analysts speculated that the third man was bin Laden, and the agency dubbed him the Pacer.

Obama, though excited, was not yet prepared to order military action. John Brennan, Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, told me that the President’s advisers began an “interrogation of the data, to see if, by that interrogation, you’re going to disprove the theory that bin Laden was there.” The C.I.A. intensified its intelligence-collection efforts, and, according to a recent report in the Guardian, a physician working for the agency conducted an immunization drive in Abbottabad, in the hope of acquiring DNA samples from bin Laden’s children. (No one in the compound ultimately received any immunizations.)

In late 2010, Obama ordered Panetta to begin exploring options for a military strike on the compound. Panetta contacted Vice-Admiral Bill McRaven, the SEAL in charge of JSOC. Traditionally, the Army has dominated the special-operations community, but in recent years the SEALs have become a more prominent presence; McRaven’s boss at the time of the raid, Eric Olson—the head of Special Operations Command, or SOCOM—is a Navy admiral who used to be a commander of DEVGRU. In January, 2011, McRaven asked a JSOC official named Brian, who had previously been a DEVGRU deputy commander, to present a raid plan. The next month, Brian, who has the all-American look of a high-school quarterback, moved into an unmarked office on the first floor of the C.I.A.’s printing plant, in Langley, Virginia. Brian covered the walls of the office with topographical maps and satellite images of the Abbottabad compound. He and half a dozen JSOC officers were formally attached to the Pakistan/Afghanistan department of the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorism Center, but in practice they operated on their own. A senior counterterrorism official who visited the JSOC redoubt described it as an enclave of unusual secrecy and discretion. “Everything they were working on was closely held,” the official said.

The relationship between special-operations units and the C.I.A. dates back to the Vietnam War. But the line between the two communities has increasingly blurred as C.I.A. officers and military personnel have encountered one another on multiple tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. “These people grew up together,” a senior Defense Department official told me. “We are in each other’s systems, we speak each other’s languages.” (Exemplifying this trend, General David H. Petraeus, the former commanding general in Iraq and Afghanistan, is now the incoming head of the C.I.A., and Panetta has taken over the Department of Defense.) The bin Laden mission—plotted at C.I.A. headquarters and authorized under C.I.A. legal statutes but conducted by Navy DEVGRU operators—brought the coöperation between the agency and the Pentagon to an even higher level. John Radsan, a former assistant general counsel at the C.I.A., said that the Abbottabad raid amounted to “a complete incorporation of JSOC into a C.I.A. operation.”

On March 14th, Obama called his national-security advisers into the White House Situation Room and reviewed a spreadsheet listing possible courses of action against the Abbottabad compound. Most were variations of either a JSOC raid or an airstrike. Some versions included coöperating with the Pakistani military; some did not. Obama decided against informing or working with Pakistan. “There was a real lack of confidence that the Pakistanis could keep this secret for more than a nanosecond,” a senior adviser to the President told me. At the end of the meeting, Obama instructed McRaven to proceed with planning the raid.

Brian invited James, the commander of DEVGRU’s Red Squadron, and Mark, the master chief petty officer, to join him at C.I.A. headquarters. They spent the next two and a half weeks considering ways to get inside bin Laden’s house. One option entailed flying helicopters to a spot outside Abbottabad and letting the team sneak into the city on foot. The risk of detection was high, however, and the SEALs would be tired by a long run to the compound. The planners had contemplated tunnelling in—or, at least, the possibility that bin Laden might tunnel out. But images provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency showed that there was standing water in the vicinity, suggesting that the compound sat in a flood basin. The water table was probably just below the surface, making tunnels highly unlikely. Eventually, the planners agreed that it made the most sense to fly directly into the compound. “Special operations is about doing what’s not expected, and probably the least expected thing here was that a helicopter would come in, drop guys on the roof, and land in the yard,” the special-operations officer said.

On March 29th, McRaven brought the plan to Obama. The President’s military advisers were divided. Some supported a raid, some an airstrike, and others wanted to hold off until the intelligence improved. Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, was one of the most outspoken opponents of a helicopter assault. Gates reminded his colleagues that he had been in the Situation Room of the Carter White House when military officials presented Eagle Claw—the 1980 Delta Force operation that aimed at rescuing American hostages in Tehran but resulted in a disastrous collision in the Iranian desert, killing eight American soldiers. “They said that was a pretty good idea, too,” Gates warned. He and General James Cartwright, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs, favored an airstrike by B-2 Spirit bombers. That option would avoid the risk of having American boots on the ground in Pakistan. But the Air Force then calculated that a payload of thirty-two smart bombs, each weighing two thousand pounds, would be required to penetrate thirty feet below ground, insuring that any bunkers would collapse. “That much ordnance going off would be the equivalent of an earthquake,” Cartwright told me. The prospect of flattening a Pakistani city made Obama pause. He shelved the B-2 option and directed McRaven to start rehearsing the raid.

Brian, James, and Mark selected a team of two dozen SEALs from Red Squadron and told them to report to a densely forested site in North Carolina for a training exercise on April 10th. (Red Squadron is one of four squadrons in DEVGRU, which has about three hundred operators in all.) None of the SEALs, besides James and Mark, were aware of the C.I.A. intelligence on bin Laden’s compound until a lieutenant commander walked into an office at the site. He found a two-star Army general from JSOC headquarters seated at a conference table with Brian, James, Mark, and several analysts from the C.I.A. This obviously wasn’t a training exercise. The lieutenant commander was promptly “read in.” A replica of the compound had been built at the site, with walls and chain-link fencing marking the layout of the compound. The team spent the next five days practicing maneuvers.

On April 18th, the DEVGRU squad flew to Nevada for another week of rehearsals. The practice site was a large government-owned stretch of desert with an elevation equivalent to the area surrounding Abbottabad. An extant building served as bin Laden’s house. Aircrews plotted out a path that paralleled the flight from Jalalabad to Abbottabad. Each night after sundown, drills commenced. Twelve SEALs, including Mark, boarded helo one. Eleven SEALs, Ahmed, and Cairo boarded helo two. The pilots flew in the dark, arrived at the simulated compound, and settled into a hover while the SEALs fast-roped down. Not everyone on the team was accustomed to helicopter assaults. Ahmed had been pulled from a desk job for the mission and had never descended a fast rope. He quickly learned the technique.

The assault plan was now honed. Helo one was to hover over the yard, drop two fast ropes, and let all twelve SEALs slide down into the yard. Helo two would fly to the northeast corner of the compound and let out Ahmed, Cairo, and four SEALs, who would monitor the perimeter of the building. The copter would then hover over the house, and James and the remaining six SEALs would shimmy down to the roof. As long as everything was cordial, Ahmed would hold curious neighbors at bay. The SEALs and the dog could assist more aggressively, if needed. Then, if bin Laden was proving difficult to find, Cairo could be sent into the house to search for false walls or hidden doors. “This wasn’t a hard op,” the special-operations officer told me. “It would be like hitting a target in McLean”—the upscale Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C.

A planeload of guests arrived on the night of April 21st. Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, along with Olson and McRaven, sat with C.I.A. personnel in a hangar as Brian, James, Mark, and the pilots presented a brief on the raid, which had been named Operation Neptune’s Spear. Despite JSOC’s lead role in Neptune’s Spear, the mission officially remained a C.I.A. covert operation. The covert approach allowed the White House to hide its involvement, if necessary. As the counterterrorism official put it recently, “If you land and everybody is out on a milk run, then you get the hell out and no one knows.” After describing the operation, the briefers fielded questions: What if a mob surrounded the compound? Were the SEALs prepared to shoot civilians? Olson, who received the Silver Star for valor during the 1993 “Black Hawk Down” episode, in Mogadishu, Somalia, worried that it could be politically catastrophic if a U.S. helicopter were shot down inside Pakistani territory. After an hour or so of questioning, the senior officers and intelligence analysts returned to Washington. Two days later, the SEALs flew back to Dam Neck, their base in Virginia.

On the night of Tuesday, April 26th, the SEAL team boarded a Boeing C-17 Globemaster at Naval Air Station Oceana, a few miles from Dam Neck. After a refuelling stop at Ramstein Air Base, in Germany, the C-17 continued to Bagram Airfield, north of Kabul. The SEALs spent a night in Bagram and moved to Jalalabad on Wednesday.

That day in Washington, Panetta convened more than a dozen senior C.I.A. officials and analysts for a final preparatory meeting. Panetta asked the participants, one by one, to declare how confident they were that bin Laden was inside the Abbottabad compound. The counterterrorism official told me that the percentages “ranged from forty per cent to ninety or ninety-five per cent,” and added, “This was a circumstantial case.”

Panetta was mindful of the analysts’ doubts, but he believed that the intelligence was better than anything that the C.I.A. had gathered on bin Laden since his flight from Tora Bora. Late on Thursday afternoon, Panetta and the rest of the national-security team met with the President. For the next few nights, there would be virtually no moonlight over Abbottabad—the ideal condition for a raid. After that, it would be another month until the lunar cycle was in its darkest phase. Several analysts from the National Counterterrorism Center were invited to critique the C.I.A.’s analysis; their confidence in the intelligence ranged between forty and sixty per cent. The center’s director, Michael Leiter, said that it would be preferable to wait for stronger confirmation of bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. Yet, as Ben Rhodes, a deputy national-security adviser, put it to me recently, the longer things dragged on, the greater the risk of a leak, “which would have upended the thing.” Obama adjourned the meeting just after 7 P.M. and said that he would sleep on it.

The next morning, the President met in the Map Room with Tom Donilon, his national-security adviser, Denis McDonough, a deputy adviser, and Brennan. Obama had decided to go with a DEVGRU assault, with McRaven choosing the night. It was too late for a Friday attack, and on Saturday there was excessive cloud cover. On Saturday afternoon, McRaven and Obama spoke on the phone, and McRaven said that the raid would occur on Sunday night. “Godspeed to you and your forces,” Obama told him. “Please pass on to them my personal thanks for their service and the message that I personally will be following this mission very closely.”

On the morning of Sunday, May 1st, White House officials cancelled scheduled visits, ordered sandwich platters from Costco, and transformed the Situation Room into a war room. At eleven o’clock, Obama’s top advisers began gathering around a large conference table. A video link connected them to Panetta, at C.I.A. headquarters, and McRaven, in Afghanistan. (There were at least two other command centers, one inside the Pentagon and one inside the American Embassy in Islamabad.)

Brigadier General Marshall Webb, an assistant commander of JSOC, took a seat at the end of a lacquered table in a small adjoining office and turned on his laptop. He opened multiple chat windows that kept him, and the White House, connected with the other command teams. The office where Webb sat had the only video feed in the White House showing real-time footage of the target, which was being shot by an unarmed RQ 170 drone flying more than fifteen thousand feet above Abbottabad. The JSOC planners, determined to keep the operation as secret as possible, had decided against using additional fighters or bombers. “It just wasn’t worth it,” the special-operations officer told me. The SEALs were on their own.

Obama returned to the White House at two o’clock, after playing nine holes of golf at Andrews Air Force Base. The Black Hawks departed from Jalalabad thirty minutes later. Just before four o’clock, Panetta announced to the group in the Situation Room that the helicopters were approaching Abbottabad. Obama stood up. “I need to watch this,” he said, stepping across the hall into the small office and taking a seat alongside Webb. Vice-President Joseph Biden, Secretary Gates, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton followed him, as did anyone else who could fit into the office. On the office’s modestly sized LCD screen, helo one—grainy and black-and-white—appeared above the compound, then promptly ran into trouble.

When the helicopter began getting away from the pilot, he pulled back on the cyclic, which controls the pitch of the rotor blades, only to find the aircraft unresponsive. The high walls of the compound and the warm temperatures had caused the Black Hawk to descend inside its own rotor wash—a hazardous aerodynamic situation known as “settling with power.” In North Carolina, this potential problem had not become apparent, because the chain-link fencing used in rehearsals had allowed air to flow freely. A former helicopter pilot with extensive special-operations experience said of the pilot’s situation, “It’s pretty spooky—I’ve been in it myself. The only way to get out of it is to push the cyclic forward and fly out of this vertical silo you’re dropping through. That solution requires altitude. If you’re settling with power at two thousand feet, you’ve got plenty of time to recover. If you’re settling with power at fifty feet, you’re going to hit the ground.”

The pilot scrapped the plan to fast-rope and focussed on getting the aircraft down. He aimed for an animal pen in the western section of the compound. The SEALs on board braced themselves as the tail rotor swung around, scraping the security wall. The pilot jammed the nose forward to drive it into the dirt and prevent his aircraft from rolling onto its side. Cows, chickens, and rabbits scurried. With the Black Hawk pitched at a forty-five-degree angle astride the wall, the crew sent a distress call to the idling Chinooks.

James and the SEALs in helo two watched all this while hovering over the compound’s northeast corner. The second pilot, unsure whether his colleagues were taking fire or experiencing mechanical problems, ditched his plan to hover over the roof. Instead, he landed in a grassy field across the street from the house.

No American was yet inside the residential part of the compound. Mark and his team were inside a downed helicopter at one corner, while James and his team were at the opposite end. The teams had barely been on target for a minute, and the mission was already veering off course.

“Eternity is defined as the time be tween when you see something go awry and that first voice report,” the special-operations officer said. The officials in Washington viewed the aerial footage and waited anxiously to hear a military communication. The senior adviser to the President compared the experience to watching “the climax of a movie.”

After a few minutes, the twelve SEALs inside helo one recovered their bearings and calmly relayed on the radio that they were proceeding with the raid. They had conducted so many operations over the past nine years that few things caught them off guard. In the months after the raid, the media have frequently suggested that the Abbottabad operation was as challenging as Operation Eagle Claw and the “Black Hawk Down” incident, but the senior Defense Department official told me that “this was not one of three missions. This was one of almost two thousand missions that have been conducted over the last couple of years, night after night.” He likened the routine of evening raids to “mowing the lawn.” On the night of May 1st alone, special-operations forces based in Afghanistan conducted twelve other missions; according to the official, those operations captured or killed between fifteen and twenty targets. “Most of the missions take off and go left,” he said. “This one took off and went right.”

Minutes after hitting the ground, Mark and the other team members began streaming out the side doors of helo one. Mud sucked at their boots as they ran alongside a ten-foot-high wall that enclosed the animal pen. A three-man demolition unit hustled ahead to the pen’s closed metal gate, reached into bags containing explosives, and placed C-4 charges on the hinges. After a loud bang, the door fell open. The nine other SEALs rushed forward, ending up in an alleylike driveway with their backs to the house’s main entrance. They moved down the alley, silenced rifles pressed against their shoulders. Mark hung toward the rear as he established radio communications with the other team. At the end of the driveway, the Americans blew through yet another locked gate and stepped into a courtyard facing the guesthouse, where Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, bin Laden’s courier, lived with his wife and four children.

Three SEALs in front broke off to clear the guesthouse as the remaining nine blasted through another gate and entered an inner courtyard, which faced the main house. When the smaller unit rounded the corner to face the doors of the guesthouse, they spotted Kuwaiti running inside to warn his wife and children. The Americans’ night-vision goggles cast the scene in pixellated shades of emerald green. Kuwaiti, wearing a white shalwar kameez, had grabbed a weapon and was coming back outside when the SEALs opened fire and killed him.

The nine other SEALs, including Mark, formed three-man units for clearing the inner courtyard. The Americans suspected that several more men were in the house: Kuwaiti’s thirty-three-year-old brother, Abrar; bin Laden’s sons Hamza and Khalid; and bin Laden himself. One SEAL unit had no sooner trod on the paved patio at the house’s front entrance when Abrar—a stocky, mustachioed man in a cream-colored shalwar kameez—appeared with an AK-47. He was shot in the chest and killed, as was his wife, Bushra, who was standing, unarmed, beside him.

Outside the compound’s walls, Ahmed, the translator, patrolled the dirt road in front of bin Laden’s house, as if he were a plainclothes Pakistani police officer. He looked the part, wearing a shalwar kameez atop a flak jacket. He, the dog Cairo, and four SEALs were responsible for closing off the perimeter of the house while James and six other SEALs—the contingent that was supposed to have dropped onto the roof—moved inside. For the team patrolling the perimeter, the first fifteen minutes passed without incident. Neighbors undoubtedly heard the low-flying helicopters, the sound of one crashing, and the sporadic explosions and gunfire that ensued, but nobody came outside. One local took note of the tumult in a Twitter post: “Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1 AM (is a rare event).”

Eventually, a few curious Pakistanis approached to inquire about the commotion on the other side of the wall. “Go back to your houses,” Ahmed said, in Pashto, as Cairo stood watch. “There is a security operation under way.” The locals went home, none of them suspecting that they had talked to an American. When journalists descended on Bilal Town in the coming days, one resident told a reporter, “I saw soldiers emerging from the helicopters and advancing toward the house. Some of them instructed us in chaste Pashto to turn off the lights and stay inside.”

Meanwhile, James, the squadron commander, had breached one wall, crossed a section of the yard covered with trellises, breached a second wall, and joined up with the SEALs from helo one, who were entering the ground floor of the house. What happened next is not precisely clear. “I can tell you that there was a time period of almost twenty to twenty-five minutes where we really didn’t know just exactly what was going on,” Panetta said later, on “PBS NewsHour.”

Until this moment, the operation had been monitored by dozens of defense, intelligence, and Administration officials watching the drone’s video feed. The SEALs were not wearing helmet cams, contrary to a widely cited report by CBS. None of them had any previous knowledge of the house’s floor plan, and they were further jostled by the awareness that they were possibly minutes away from ending the costliest manhunt in American history; as a result, some of their recollections—on which this account is based—may be imprecise and, thus, subject to dispute.

As Abrar’s children ran for cover, the SEALs began clearing the first floor of the main house, room by room. Though the Americans had thought that the house might be booby-trapped, the presence of kids at the compound suggested otherwise. “You can only be hyper-vigilant for so long,” the special-operations officer said. “Did bin Laden go to sleep every night thinking, The next night they’re coming? Of course not. Maybe for the first year or two. But not now.” Nevertheless, security precautions were in place. A locked metal gate blocked the base of the staircase leading to the second floor, making the downstairs room feel like a cage.

After blasting through the gate with C-4 charges, three SEALs marched up the stairs. Midway up, they saw bin Laden’s twenty-three-year-old son, Khalid, craning his neck around the corner. He then appeared at the top of the staircase with an AK-47. Khalid, who wore a white T-shirt with an overstretched neckline and had short hair and a clipped beard, fired down at the Americans. (The counterterrorism official claims that Khalid was unarmed, though still a threat worth taking seriously. “You have an adult male, late at night, in the dark, coming down the stairs at you in an Al Qaeda house—your assumption is that you’re encountering a hostile.”) At least two of the SEALs shot back and killed Khalid. According to the booklets that the SEALs carried, up to five adult males were living inside the compound. Three of them were now dead; the fourth, bin Laden’s son Hamza, was not on the premises. The final person was bin Laden.

Before the mission commenced, the SEALs had created a checklist of code words that had a Native American theme. Each code word represented a different stage of the mission: leaving Jalalabad, entering Pakistan, approaching the compound, and so on. “Geronimo” was to signify that bin Laden had been found.

Three SEALs shuttled past Khalid’s body and blew open another metal cage, which obstructed the staircase leading to the third floor. Bounding up the unlit stairs, they scanned the railed landing. On the top stair, the lead SEAL swivelled right; with his night-vision goggles, he discerned that a tall, rangy man with a fist-length beard was peeking out from behind a bedroom door, ten feet away. The SEAL instantly sensed that it was Crankshaft. (The counterterrorism official asserts that the SEAL first saw bin Laden on the landing, and fired but missed.)

The Americans hurried toward the bedroom door. The first SEAL pushed it open. Two of bin Laden’s wives had placed themselves in front of him. Amal al-Fatah, bin Laden’s fifth wife, was screaming in Arabic. She motioned as if she were going to charge; the SEAL lowered his sights and shot her once, in the calf. Fearing that one or both women were wearing suicide jackets, he stepped forward, wrapped them in a bear hug, and drove them aside. He would almost certainly have been killed had they blown themselves up, but by blanketing them he would have absorbed some of the blast and potentially saved the two SEALs behind him. In the end, neither woman was wearing an explosive vest.

A second SEAL stepped into the room and trained the infrared laser of his M4 on bin Laden’s chest. The Al Qaeda chief, who was wearing a tan shalwar kameez and a prayer cap on his head, froze; he was unarmed. “There was never any question of detaining or capturing him—it wasn’t a split-second decision. No one wanted detainees,” the special-operations officer told me. (The Administration maintains that had bin Laden immediately surrendered he could have been taken alive.) Nine years, seven months, and twenty days after September 11th, an American was a trigger pull from ending bin Laden’s life. The first round, a 5.56-mm. bullet, struck bin Laden in the chest. As he fell backward, the SEAL fired a second round into his head, just above his left eye. On his radio, he reported, “For God and country—Geronimo, Geronimo, Geronimo.” After a pause, he added, “Geronimo E.K.I.A.”—“enemy killed in action.”

Hearing this at the White House, Obama pursed his lips, and said solemnly, to no one in particular, “We got him.”

Relaxing his hold on bin Laden’s two wives, the first SEAL placed the women in flex cuffs and led them downstairs. Two of his colleagues, meanwhile, ran upstairs with a nylon body bag. They unfurled it, knelt down on either side of bin Laden, and placed the body inside the bag. Eighteen minutes had elapsed since the DEVGRU team landed. For the next twenty minutes, the mission shifted to an intelligence-gathering operation.

Four men scoured the second floor, plastic bags in hand, collecting flash drives, CDs, DVDs, and computer hardware from the room, which had served, in part, as bin Laden’s makeshift media studio. In the coming weeks, a C.I.A.-led task force examined the files and determined that bin Laden had remained far more involved in the operational activities of Al Qaeda than many American officials had thought. He had been developing plans to assassinate Obama and Petraeus, to pull off an extravagant September 11th anniversary attack, and to attack American trains. The SEALs also found an archive of digital pornography. “We find it on all these guys, whether they’re in Somalia, Iraq, or Afghanistan,” the special-operations officer said. Bin Laden’s gold-threaded robes, worn during his video addresses, hung behind a curtain in the media room.

Outside, the Americans corralled the women and children—each of them bound in flex cuffs—and had them sit against an exterior wall that faced the second, undamaged Black Hawk. The lone fluent Arabic speaker on the assault team questioned them. Nearly all the children were under the age of ten. They seemed to have no idea about the tenant upstairs, other than that he was “an old guy.” None of the women confirmed that the man was bin Laden, though one of them kept referring to him as “the sheikh.” When the rescue Chinook eventually arrived, a medic stepped out and knelt over the corpse. He injected a needle into bin Laden’s body and extracted two bone-marrow samples. More DNA was taken with swabs. One of the bone-marrow samples went into the Black Hawk. The other went into the Chinook, along with bin Laden’s body.

Next, the SEALs needed to destroy the damaged Black Hawk. The pilot, armed with a hammer that he kept for such situations, smashed the instrument panel, the radio, and the other classified fixtures inside the cockpit. Then the demolition unit took over. They placed explosives near the avionics system, the communications gear, the engine, and the rotor head. “You’re not going to hide the fact that it’s a helicopter,” the special-operations officer said. “But you want to make it unusable.” The SEALs placed extra C-4 charges under the carriage, rolled thermite grenades inside the copter’s body, and then backed up. Helo one burst into flames while the demolition team boarded the Chinook. The women and children, who were being left behind for the Pakistani authorities, looked puzzled, scared, and shocked as they watched the SEALs board the helicopters. Amal, bin Laden’s wife, continued her harangue. Then, as a giant fire burned inside the compound walls, the Americans flew away.

In the Situation Room, Obama said, “I’m not going to be happy until those guys get out safe.” After thirty-eight minutes inside the compound, the two SEAL teams had to make the long flight back to Afghanistan. The Black Hawk was low on gas, and needed to rendezvous with the Chinook at the refuelling point that was near the Afghan border—but still inside Pakistan. Filling the gas tank took twenty-five minutes. At one point, Biden, who had been fingering a rosary, turned to Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman. “We should all go to Mass tonight,” he said.

The helicopters landed back in Jalalabad around 3 A.M.; McRaven and the C.I.A. station chief met the team on the tarmac. A pair of SEALs unloaded the body bag and unzipped it so that McRaven and the C.I.A. officer could see bin Laden’s corpse with their own eyes. Photographs were taken of bin Laden’s face and then of his outstretched body. Bin Laden was believed to be about six feet four, but no one had a tape measure to confirm the body’s length. So one SEAL, who was six feet tall, lay beside the corpse: it measured roughly four inches longer than the American. Minutes later, McRaven appeared on the teleconference screen in the Situation Room and confirmed that bin Laden’s body was in the bag. The corpse was sent to Bagram.

All along, the SEALs had planned to dump bin Laden’s corpse into the sea—a blunt way of ending the bin Laden myth. They had successfully pulled off a similar scheme before. During a DEVGRU helicopter raid inside Somalia in September, 2009, SEALs had killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of East Africa’s top Al Qaeda leaders; Nabhan’s corpse was then flown to a ship in the Indian Ocean, given proper Muslim rites, and thrown overboard. Before taking that step for bin Laden, however, John Brennan made a call. Brennan, who had been a C.I.A. station chief in Riyadh, phoned a former counterpart in Saudi intelligence. Brennan told the man what had occurred in Abbottabad and informed him of the plan to deposit bin Laden’s remains at sea. As Brennan knew, bin Laden’s relatives were still a prominent family in the Kingdom, and Osama had once been a Saudi citizen. Did the Saudi government have any interest in taking the body? “Your plan sounds like a good one,” the Saudi replied.

At dawn, bin Laden was loaded into the belly of a flip-wing V-22 Osprey, accompanied by a JSOC liaison officer and a security detail of military police. The Osprey flew south, destined for the deck of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson—a thousand-foot-long nuclear-powered aircraft carrier sailing in the Arabian Sea, off the Pakistani coast. The Americans, yet again, were about to traverse Pakistani airspace without permission. Some officials worried that the Pakistanis, stung by the humiliation of the unilateral raid in Abbottabad, might restrict the Osprey’s access. The airplane ultimately landed on the Vinson without incident.

Bin Laden’s body was washed, wrapped in a white burial shroud, weighted, and then slipped inside a bag. The process was done “in strict conformance with Islamic precepts and practices,” Brennan later told reporters. The JSOC liaison, the military-police contingent, and several sailors placed the shrouded body on an open-air elevator, and rode down with it to the lower level, which functions as a hangar for airplanes. From a height of between twenty and twenty-five feet above the waves, they heaved the corpse into the water.

Back in Abbottabad, residents of Bilal Town and dozens of journalists converged on bin Laden’s compound, and the morning light clarified some of the confusion from the previous night. Black soot from the detonated Black Hawk charred the wall of the animal pen. Part of the tail hung over the wall. It was clear that a military raid had taken place there. “I’m glad no one was hurt in the crash, but, on the other hand, I’m sort of glad we left the helicopter there,” the special-operations officer said. “It quiets the conspiracy mongers out there and instantly lends credibility. You believe everything else instantly, because there’s a helicopter sitting there.”

After the raid, Pakistan’s political leadership engaged in frantic damage control. In the Washington Post, President Asif Ali Zardari wrote that bin Laden “was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be, but now he is gone,” adding that “a decade of cooperation and partnership between the United States and Pakistan led up to the elimination of Osama bin Laden.”

Pakistani military officials reacted more cynically. They arrested at least five Pakistanis for helping the C.I.A., including the physician who ran the immunization drive in Abbottabad. And several Pakistani media outlets, including the Nation—a jingoistic English-language newspaper that is considered a mouthpiece for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, or I.S.I.—published what they claimed was the name of the C.I.A.’s station chief in Islamabad. (Shireen Mazari, a former editor of the Nation, once told me, “Our interests and the Americans’ interests don’t coincide.”) The published name was incorrect, and the C.I.A. officer opted to stay.

The proximity of bin Laden’s house to the Pakistan Military Academy raised the possibility that the military, or the I.S.I., had helped protect bin Laden. How could Al Qaeda’s chief live so close to the academy without at least some officers knowing about it? Suspicion grew after the Times reported that at least one cell phone recovered from bin Laden’s house contained contacts for senior militants belonging to Harakat-ul-Mujahideen, a jihadi group that has had close ties to the I.S.I. Although American officials have stated that Pakistani officials must have helped bin Laden hide in Abbottabad, definitive evidence has not yet been presented.

Bin Laden’s death provided the White House with the symbolic victory it needed to begin phasing troops out of Afghanistan. Seven weeks later, Obama announced a timetable for withdrawal. Even so, U.S. counterterrorism activities inside Pakistan—that is, covert operations conducted by the C.I.A. and JSOC—are not expected to diminish anytime soon. Since May 2nd, there have been more than twenty drone strikes in North and South Waziristan, including one that allegedly killed Ilyas Kashmiri, a top Al Qaeda leader, while he was sipping tea in an apple orchard.

The success of the bin Laden raid has sparked a conversation inside military and intelligence circles: Are there other terrorists worth the risk of another helicopter assault in a Pakistani city? “There are people out there that, if we could find them, we would go after them,” Cartwright told me. He mentioned Ayman al-Zawahiri, the new leader of Al Qaeda, who is believed to be in Pakistan, and Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born cleric in Yemen. Cartwright emphasized that “going after them” didn’t necessarily mean another DEVGRU raid. The special-operations officer spoke more boldly. He believes that a precedent has been set for more unilateral raids in the future. “Folks now realize we can weather it,” he said. The senior adviser to the President said that “penetrating other countries’ sovereign airspace covertly is something that’s always available for the right mission and the right gain.” Brennan told me, “The confidence we have in the capabilities of the U.S. military is, without a doubt, even stronger after this operation.”

On May 6th, Al Qaeda confirmed bin Laden’s death and released a statement congratulating “the Islamic nation” on “the martyrdom of its good son Osama.” The authors promised Americans that “their joy will turn to sorrow and their tears will mix with blood.” That day, President Obama travelled to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where the 160th is based, to meet the DEVGRU unit and the pilots who pulled off the raid. The SEALs, who had returned home from Afghanistan earlier in the week, flew in from Virginia. Biden, Tom Donilon, and a dozen other national-security advisers came along.

McRaven greeted Obama on the tarmac. (They had met at the White House a few days earlier—the President had presented McRaven with a tape measure.) McRaven led the President and his team into a one-story building on the other side of the base. They walked into a windowless room with shabby carpets, fluorescent lights, and three rows of metal folding chairs. McRaven, Brian, the pilots from the 160th, and James took turns briefing the President. They had set up a three-dimensional model of bin Laden’s compound on the floor and, waving a red laser pointer, traced their maneuvers inside. A satellite image of the compound was displayed on a wall, along with a map showing the flight routes into and out of Pakistan. The briefing lasted about thirty-five minutes. Obama wanted to know how Ahmed had kept locals at bay; he also inquired about the fallen Black Hawk and whether above-average temperatures in Abbottabad had contributed to the crash. (The Pentagon is conducting a formal investigation of the accident.)

When James, the squadron commander, spoke, he started by citing all the forward operating bases in eastern Afghanistan that had been named for SEALs killed in combat. “Everything we have done for the last ten years prepared us for this,” he told Obama. The President was “in awe of these guys,” Ben Rhodes, the deputy national-security adviser, who travelled with Obama, said. “It was an extraordinary base visit,” he added. “They knew he had staked his Presidency on this. He knew they staked their lives on it.”

As James talked about the raid, he mentioned Cairo’s role. “There was a dog?” Obama interrupted. James nodded and said that Cairo was in an adjoining room, muzzled, at the request of the Secret Service.

“I want to meet that dog,” Obama said.

“If you want to meet the dog, Mr. President, I advise you to bring treats,” James joked. Obama went over to pet Cairo, but the dog’s muzzle was left on.

Afterward, Obama and his advisers went into a second room, down the hall, where others involved in the raid—including logisticians, crew chiefs, and SEAL alternates—had assembled. Obama presented the team with a Presidential Unit Citation and said, “Our intelligence professionals did some amazing work. I had fifty-fifty confidence that bin Laden was there, but I had one-hundred-per-cent confidence in you guys. You are, literally, the finest small-fighting force that has ever existed in the world.” The raiding team then presented the President with an American flag that had been on board the rescue Chinook. Measuring three feet by five, the flag had been stretched, ironed, and framed. The SEALs and the pilots had signed it on the back; an inscription on the front read, “From the Joint Task Force Operation Neptune’s Spear, 01 May 2011: ‘For God and country. Geronimo.’ ” Obama promised to put the gift “somewhere private and meaningful to me.” Before the President returned to Washington, he posed for photographs with each team member and spoke with many of them, but he left one thing unsaid. He never asked who fired the kill shot, and the SEALs never volunteered to tell him. ♦

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle#ixzz1TtIi7qyI

Give Kids A Place To Go For 9/11 Anniversary

2011-07-30T08:15:00.000-07:00

Nickelodeon, Ellberbee give kids a place go for 9/11 anniversary

Of all the programming coming in the next several weeks related to the 10th anniversary of 9/11, the most important for children might well be the special edition of "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee" scheduled for Sept. 1, "What Happened?: The Story of September 11, 2001." The commercial-free special is designed to give children a tailor-made forum for emotions and understanding regarding the tragic events.

Ellerbee said she found there was all kinds of misinformation among kids about 9/11, such as "I heard that there were 500 planes that disappeared in the air."

"The most stunning one was, 'I heard that 9/11 never happened,'" Ellberbee said.

In her 20 years of producing groundbreaking news specials aimed at children, Ellerbee said she has learned not to talk down to children and not to be afraid to be straight with them. She also has a philosophy about addressing tragedy.

"Wherever you see bad stuff happening, you see good people trying to make it better," she said.

Posted: Fri, July 29, 2011, 3:12 PM

Read more: http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2011/07/nick-ellberbee-give-kids-a-place-go-for-911-anniversary-.html#ixzz1TbO9ioMh
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Intrepid Museum Honors Organizers Of Multi-City September 11th Run

2011-07-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

Runners from across the nation are getting ready to lace up their sneakers on September 11th.

A kickoff event for the 9/11 Heroes Run was held at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum Thursday.

The five-kilometer run is being held in 25 cities on the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks.

Proceeds will go to the Travis Manion Foundation, which assists wounded veterans and their families.

Before being killed in combat, Manion visited Rescue One, a first-responder unit which lost nearly all of their men on September 11th.

"He came home with a 9/11 hat that they had given him, and the words on the hat said '9/11 Never Forget.' And he handed that to my husband and he said 'Dad, I want you to wear this while I'm gone.' This is why I'm fighting for our freedom," said Janet Manion, Travis' mother.

For more information, visit 911HeroesRun.com.

Ground Zero Cross to be permanent artifact at 9/11 Museum

2011-07-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

One of those artifacts, a cross-shaped steel beam found amid the rubble, has stirred controversy in recent days. American Atheists, a nonprofit group, filed a lawsuit arguing that the cross, which became a symbol of hope to many in the days after the attacks, violated the Constitution because it is a religious symbol and the museum is partly financed by the government.

Mr. Bloomberg, asked about the lawsuit, defended the cross, saying it was a part of history.

“In a museum you want to show things that impacted people’s behavior back then, even if you don’t think it was right,” he said. “Museums are for history.”

He noted that other religious artifacts would be displayed, including a Star of David cut from the steel of the towers, a Jewish prayer shawl and a Bible.

“A lot of people looked to religion for strength after the attack,” he said. “You shouldn’t tell people what religion to practice or whether to practice a religion, but you also shouldn’t prevent people from practicing any religion they want in any ways they want.”

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Presidents to Participate in 9/11 10th Anniversary Ceremony

2011-07-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

MANHATTAN — President Barack Obama will join former President George W. Bush at the name-reading ceremony commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the September 11 attacks, marking the first time a president has participated in the event.

Speaking on his weekly radio show, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that both presidents will be reading poems to mark the solemn day.

"There are no speeches whatsoever," the mayor said. “This cannot be political. That’s why there’s a poem or a quote or something that each of the readers will read."

While both presidents have visited the site before, this is the first time either will participate in the ceremony, a spokeswoman for the mayor confirmed

The highest-ranked White House officials to have participated in the official ceremony in the past have been Vice President Joseph Biden, who was there in 2009 and 2010 and Vice President Dick Cheney, who was there for the 2003 ceremony, the mayor's office said.

While the ceremony has always included the reading of the names of those who died at Ground Zero during the attack, the names of those who died at the Pentagon as well as in the plane crash in Shanksville, Pa., will also be recited for the first time this year.

There will be moments of silence to mark when the planes hit and when the towers crumbled, as well as to commemorate the two additional attacks.

The presidents will be joined by a select group of officials including governors Andrew Cuomo, Chris Christie of New Jersey and George Pataki, who was governor at the time of the attacks.

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani will also participate, alongside Bloomberg.

“That’s it,” Bloomberg said.

"There’s an awful lot of people who would like to participate and you just can't do that."

In addition to the readings, the family members in attendance will be allowed to walk through the memorial plazas and look at their family members' names on the memorial wall.

The public will be allowed access the next day.

Read more: http://www.dnainfo.com/20110729/downtown/obama-bush-participate-911-anniversary-ceremony#ixzz1TW4wETZU

General Motors Helps Expand 9/11 Heroes Run

2011-07-28T08:28:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK, July 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- As the nation nears the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the General Motors Foundation and Chevrolet today donated $250,000 to the Travis Manion Foundation to help grow participation around the country in the 9/11 Heroes Run.

The 9/11 Heroes Run will bring communities together in more than 25 U.S. cities to honor military, police, firefighters and first responders who have given their lives to protect and save others. Proceeds from the 5K races will go to the families of fallen heroes.

The Manion family formed the foundation in 2007 after Marine 1st Lt. Travis Manion was killed by sniper fire while defending against an enemy ambush during a patrol mission in Fallujah, Iraq. In an unusual move, the Iraqis named their operating base Combat Outpost Manion, one of few Iraqi facilities named for an American service member.

Before leaving for his last tour, Manion visited Rescue One in New York City, the First Responder unit that lost more than half its members helping others following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"After a day of sharing their experiences with Travis, he came home even more inspired to serve our country," said his mother Janet Manion. "He gave his father a Rescue One hat that read 'Never Forget' and asked that his father wear it while he was gone. That's why we started the 9/11 Heroes Run four years ago... to honor and remember."

In addition to the 9/11 Heroes Run, the foundation operates the Character Does Matter Leadership Program, programs to Honor the Fallen, and funds Good Grief seminars, scholarships and community service projects that benefit U.S. veterans and families of the fallen.

"We hold our nation's military personnel and their families in the highest regard, and it's our honor to support the families of our fallen heroes," said GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. "I'm personally honored to know the Manion family and to be associated with such a worthwhile endeavor in Travis' name and memory."

Manion, whose father was also a Marine, excelled in the classroom and as an athlete at the Naval Academy, winning several leadership awards and being a nationally ranked wrestler. He was also awarded the Silver Star and the Bronze Star with Valor for his actions in Iraq. Manion Hall at the Basic School in Quantico, Va., is named after Travis and stands as a reminder to future generations of Marine officers of his leadership on and off the battlefield.

Chevrolet is the official pace vehicle of the 9/11 Heroes Run, the brand's latest support for military families. Chevrolet's longstanding commitment includes the GM Military Discount program which provided more than 70,000 discounts in 2010 to military personnel and their families with a cumulative value of more than $60 million.

Those who want to volunteer or register to participate in one of the runs can learn more here.

About the Travis Manion Foundation

Not long after Travis was killed by enemy sniper fire in Iraq, checks in his memory began appearing at the Manion's home. In lieu of flowers, checks from all over the country and the world soon amounted to more than $100,000 and Tom and Janet vowed to give every penny to worthy causes. The year following Travis' death, the newly formed Travis Manion Foundation presented $180,000 in scholarships, $85,000 to Fellowships for wounded and disabled veterans through The Mission Continues, and more than $45,000 for Good Grief seminars to help families of the fallen. Today, the Foundation operates three major programs that Honor the Fallen by Challenging the Living through a Character Does Matter Leadership program, a program that Honors the Fallen, and the 9/11 Heroes Run each September 11th – while still funding Good Grief seminars, scholarships, and community service projects that benefit our Nation's veterans and Families of the Fallen.

About Chevrolet

Founded in Detroit in 1911, Chevrolet celebrates its centennial as a global automotive brand with annual sales of about 4.25 million vehicles in more than 120 countries. Chevrolet provides consumers with fuel-efficient, safe and reliable vehicles that deliver high quality, expressive design, spirited performance and value. The Chevrolet portfolio includes iconic performance cars such as Corvette and Camaro; dependable, long-lasting pickups and SUVs such as Silverado and Suburban; and award-winning passenger cars and crossovers such as Spark, Cruze, Malibu, Equinox and Traverse. Chevrolet also offers "gas-friendly to gas-free" solutions including Cruze Eco and Volt. Cruze Eco offers 42 mpg highway while Volt offers 35 miles of electric, gasoline-free driving and an additional 344 miles of extended range. Most new Chevrolet models offer OnStar safety, security and convenience technologies including OnStar Hands-Free Calling, Automatic Crash Response and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown. More information regarding Chevrolet models can be found at www.chevrolet.com

About the GM Foundation
Since its inception in 1976, the GM Foundation has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to deserving American charities, educational organizations and to disaster relief efforts worldwide. The GM Foundation focuses on supporting Education, Health and Human Services, Environment and Energy and Community Development initiatives, mainly in the communities where GM operates. Funding of the GM Foundation comes solely from GM. The last contribution to the GM Foundation was made in 2001. For more information, visit www.gm.com/corporate/responsibility/community.

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State Department issues new Worldwide Caution of Terrorist Threat

2011-07-28T08:21:00.001-07:00

July 26, 2011

The Department of State has issued this Worldwide Caution to update information on the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world. U.S. citizens are reminded to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness. This replaces the Worldwide Caution dated January 31, 2011, to provide updated information on security threats and terrorist activities worldwide.

The Department of State remains concerned about the continued threat of terrorist attacks, demonstrations, and other violent actions against U.S. citizens and interests overseas. The Department of State believes there is an enhanced potential for anti-American violence given the death of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011. Current information suggests that Al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in multiple regions, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. These attacks may employ a wide variety of tactics including suicide operations, assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings, and bombings.

Extremists may elect to use conventional or non-conventional weapons, and target both official and private interests. Examples of such targets include high-profile sporting events, residential areas, business offices, hotels, clubs, restaurants, places of worship, schools, public areas, and other tourist destinations both in the United States and abroad where U.S. citizens gather in large numbers, including during holidays.

U.S. citizens are reminded of the potential for terrorists to attack public transportation systems and other tourist infrastructure. Extremists have targeted and attempted attacks on subway and rail systems, aviation, and maritime services. In the past several years, these types of attacks have occurred in cities such as Moscow, London, Madrid, Glasgow, and New York City.

Current information suggests that Al-Qa’ida and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. and Western interests in Europe. European governments have taken action to guard against terrorist attack, and some have spoken publicly about the heightened threat conditions. In the past several years, attacks have been planned or occurred in various European cities.

Credible information indicates terrorist groups also seek to continue attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East and North Africa. For example, Iraq remains dangerous and unpredictable. Attacks against military and civilian targets throughout Iraq continue. Methods of attack have included roadside improvised explosive devices, mortars, and shootings; kidnappings still occur as well. Security threat levels remain high in Yemen due to terrorist activities there. The U.S. Embassy has had to close several times in response to ongoing threats by Al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). U.S. citizens as well as other Westerners have been targeted for attack in Yemen. U.S. citizens have also been the targets of numerous terrorist attacks in Lebanon in the past (though none recently) and the threat of anti-Western terrorist activity continues to exist there. In Algeria, terrorist attacks occur regularly, particularly in the Kabylie region of the country. In the past, terrorists have targeted oil processing facilities in both Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

The events of the last few months in many countries in the Middle East, including Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria, have resulted in civil unrest and large-scale protests and demonstrations. The situation in Libya remains volatile and dangerous and the threat of violent military and terrorist operations remains high, even in opposition-controlled areas. U.S. citizens are warned that demonstrations intended to be peaceful can escalate into violent clashes. U.S. citizens are reminded that demonstrations and riots can occur with little or no warning. U.S. citizens are urged to avoid areas of demonstrations if possible and to exercise caution if within the vicinity of a demonstration.

A number of Al-Qa’ida operatives and other extremists are believed to be operating in and around Africa. Since the July 11, 2010 terrorist bombings in Kampala, Uganda, for which the Somalia-based, U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility, there have been increased threats against public areas across East Africa. The terrorist attacks of August and September 2010 against the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces in Somalia, as well as the bombing of hotels and minibuses in Somalia, highlight the vulnerabilities to terrorist attacks in East Africa and around the world. Additionally, the terrorist group Al-Qa’ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has declared its intention to attack Western targets throughout the Sahel (which includes Mali, Mauritania, and Niger). It has claimed responsibility for kidnappings, attempted kidnappings, and the murder of several Westerners throughout the region, including southern Algeria.

U.S. citizens considering travel by sea near the Horn of Africa or in the southern Red Sea should exercise extreme caution, as there has been a notable increase in armed attacks, robberies, and kidnappings for ransom by pirates. Merchant vessels continue to be hijacked in Somali territorial waters, while others have been hijacked as far as 1,000 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia, Yemen, and Kenya in international waters.

The U.S. government maritime authorities advise mariners to avoid the port of Mogadishu and to remain at least 200 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. In addition, when transiting around the Horn of Africa or in the Red Sea, it is strongly recommended that vessels travel in convoys and maintain good communications at all times. U.S. citizens traveling on commercial passenger vessels should consult with the shipping or cruise-ship company regarding precautions that will be taken to avoid hijacking incidents. Commercial vessels should review the Department of Transportation Maritime Administration's suggested piracy countermeasures for vessels transiting the Gulf of Aden, which can be found at http://www.marad.dot.gov/

The U.S. government continues to receive information that terrorist groups in South and Central Asia may also be planning attacks in the region, possibly against U.S. government facilities, U.S. citizens, or U.S. interests. The presence of Al-Qa’ida and its affiliates [Taliban elements, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, indigenous sectarian groups, and other terror organizations, many of which are on the U.S. government's list of Foreign Terror Organizations (FTOs), poses a potential danger to U.S. citizens in the region. Terrorists and their sympathizers have demonstrated their willingness and ability to attack targets where U.S. citizens or Westerners are known to congregate or visit. Their actions may include, but are not limited to, vehicle-born explosive attacks, improvised explosive device attacks, assassinations, carjackings, rocket attacks, assaults, or kidnappings.

Such attacks have occurred in a number of South Asian states, including Pakistan, where a number of extremist groups continue to target U.S. and other Western citizens and interests, and Pakistani government and military/law enforcement personnel. Suicide bombing attacks continue to occur throughout the country on a regular basis, often targeting government authorities such as police checkpoints and military installations, as well as public areas such as mosques, and shopping areas. In Afghanistan, remnants of the former Taliban regime and the Al-Qa’ida terrorist network, as well as other groups hostile to International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)/NATO military operations, remain active. There is an ongoing threat of kidnapping and assassination of U.S. citizens and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) workers throughout the country. There is an increased threat of terrorism in India. Terrorists have targeted public placesin Indiafrequented by Westerners, including luxury and other hotels, trains, train stations, markets, cinemas, mosques, and restaurants in large urban areas.

Supporters of terrorist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Al-Qa’ida, the Islamic Jihad Union, and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement are active in the Central Asian region. Members of these groups have expressed anti-U.S. sentiments and attacked U.S. government interests in the past. Previous terrorist attacks conducted in Central Asia have involved improvised explosive devices, suicide bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings.

Before You Go

The Department of State encourages U.S. citizens living overseas or planning to travel abroad to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). When you enroll in STEP, we can keep you up to date with important safety and security announcements. Enrolling will also make it easier for the Embassy to contact you in the event of an emergency. You should remember to keep all of your information in STEP up to date; it is particularly important when you enroll or update your information to include a current phone number and e-mail address.

U.S. citizens are strongly encouraged to maintain a high level of vigilance, be aware of local events, and take the appropriate steps to bolster their personal security. For additional information, please refer to "A Safe Trip Abroad".

U.S. government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of alert. These facilities may temporarily close or periodically suspend public services to assess their security posture. In those instances, U.S. embassies and consulates will make every effort to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens abroad are urged to monitor the local news and maintain contact with the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate.

As the Department of State continues to develop information on potential security threats to U.S. citizens overseas, it shares credible threat information through its Consular Information Program documents, such as Travel Warnings, Travel Alerts, Country Information, and country specific Messages and Emergency Messages, all of which are available on the Bureau of Consular Affairs website at http://travel.state.gov/. Stay up to date by bookmarking our website or downloading our free Smart Traveler iPhone App for travel information at your fingertips. Follow us on Twitter and the Bureau of Consular Affairs page on Facebook as well.

In addition to information on the internet, travelers may obtain up-to-date information on security conditions by calling 1-888-407-4747 toll-free in the United States and Canada or, from other countries, on a regular toll line at 1-202-501-4444. These numbers are available from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Monday through Friday, Eastern Time (except U.S. federal holidays).
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"9/11: Day that Changed the world," two-hour special from Smithsonian Channel

2011-07-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

The upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11 will set off a spate of programming reflecting on the tragedy. A newly announced two-hour special from Smithsonian Channel, "9/11: Day that Changed the world," aims to put a new spin on the subgenre. In it, the channel said Tuesday, the story of the historic day will be told from the point of view of insiders and those in power.

Among those interviewed are then-First Lady Laura Bush, former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. Also included will be then-New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who will make rare appearance in a 9/11 retrospective, something he often shies away from. Giuliani is to host the evening and offer his views on the day and the anniversary.

Martin Sheen will narrate the special, which will debut on Sept 5.

The programming, Smithsonian said in a statement, will track the 24 hours of 9/11 "to show how the events of the day developed in the airplanes, offices, bunkers, and military headquarters where the President, advisors, security personnel and military were trying to piece together what was happening, who was attacking, and what might happen next.”

In addition to television, the program will be available free of charge on iTunes and on SmithsonianChannel.com. "Day" joins "Rebirth," Jim Whitaker's Sundance hit about the victims of the attack, which is to air on Showtime in conjunction with the anniversary, as well as what will likely be other broadcast and cable specials.

National Geographic secures George Bush exclusive for 9/11 doc

2011-07-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

National Geographic Channel (NGC) is to mark the forthcoming anniversary of 9/11 with an exclusive interview with George W Bush (pictured), in which the former president recounts and reflects on his personal experiences of the terror attacks a decade ago.

George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview will air on NGC in the U.S. on August 28 and in the UK on September 6, representing the cornerstone of the network’s 9/11-themed programming.

The documentary was taped over the course of a two-day interview, and sees Bush opening up “with candid details and personal experiences on the grueling hours and pressure-packed days following the attacks,” according to the network.

The doc will also feature never-before-released archival footage and exclusive materials directly from the George W. Bush Presidential Library. With the interview, the president did not request final approval or ask to see the questions beforehand, but stipulated that the questioning be limited solely to 9/11, and not to other aspects of his presidency.

Recalling his visit to Ground Zero on September 14, Bush says in the doc: “From the air it looked like… a giant scar. But when I actually got to the site, it was like walking into hell.” Elsewhere, he reflects on the death of Osama Bin Laden, saying, “I didn’t feel any great sense of happiness or jubilation. I felt a sense of closure. And I felt a sense of gratitude that justice had been done.”

The interview represents a notable coup for Nat Geo. Bush has received thousands of interview requests since leaving office in 2008, but has kept a low profile. The doc will represent the first time the former president has discussed on camera what he was thinking and feeling, and what drove his real-time decisions in the first minutes, hours and days after the attacks.

The doc is produced by Partisan Pictures. The director-producer is Peter Schnall; the producer-writer is Don Campbell; the editor is Connie Rinehart; the coordinating producer is Whitney Johnson, and the associate producer is Kyle Giddens.

For National Geographic Channels International, the exec producer is Allan Butler, while the senior VP of programming and production is Michael Cascio.

In the UK, the special will form part of Nat Geo’s ’9/11 Week,’ premiering from September 5-9 and encompassing eight hours of new programming. During the week the net will investigate not only what happened and why, but also subsequent events, including the hunt for Bin Laden.

As previously reported, Seconds From Disaster (airing September 5 at 9 p.m. GMT) focuses on the critical minutes as air traffic controllers and the U.S. air force reacted to the hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Elsewhere, 9/11: Washington Under Attack (September 5 at 10 p.m.) tells the stories of the people of Washington DC, the other 9/11 city where a passenger jet was crashed into the Pentagon; while 9/11: Ten Years Later (September 7 at 9 p.m.) updates a doc filmed partly inside the Twin Towers by two French filmmakers in the chaos after the attacks.

The film has been updated 10 years on to tell what happened to some of the surviving firemen featured in the original film, which was simply called 9/11.

Finally, 9/11: The World’s Fallen (September 8 at 9 p.m.) looks at “the lives of those who were making a new life in America when they found themselves in the Twin Towers on the fateful day,” according to the network; while Inside 9/11: What Happened Next (September 9 at 9 p.m.) is the story of what occurred after the attacks – America’s war on terror, the invasion of Afghanistan and the secret operations to take out Al Qaeda figures.

“9/11 is a terrible milestone in world history. Ten years on we have the benefit of time to take a closer look at these unforgettable stories,” said National Geographic Channel UK general manager Simon Bohrsmann.

Read more: http://realscreen.com/2011/07/27/nat-geo-secures-george-bush-exclusive-for-911-doc/#ixzz1TMXfrAqI

Yahoo!, communities across U.S. to honor 9/11 anniversary

2011-07-27T19:15:00.000-07:00

On September 11, 2011, business as usual at Yahoo! will pause for a Digital Moment of Silence to honor those killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At 8:26 a.m. ET, the moment the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center, normal service on the site will cease for one minute. During that time, Yahoo! will encourage visitors to reflect on the victims of the attack and to share their own stories about how 9/11 affected them. Visitors will also have the opportunity to donate to the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

Communities across the country will also be honoring those who were lost in the tragedy. Below is a list of how some areas plan to remember the fallen. If your city, town, neighborhood, or civic group is planning to hold a ceremony or a moment of silence to honor the day, share it with us.

New York City: The 9/11 Memorial will officially open on September 11 with a ceremony for victims' families at Ground Zero. The Memorial will then open to the public on the next day for visitors who reserved passes in advance. On September 10, Community Board 1 will hold Hands Across Lower Manhattan, an event open to all on the West Side Waterfront.

Washington, D.C.: Those who died in the attack at the Pentagon will be honored at a ceremony featuring 700 people, including family members of the deceased and members of the military. It will take place at the Pentagon Memorial, which opened in 2008.

Shanksville, Pennsylvania: A commemorative service to honor those who gave up their lives on Flight 93 will take place at 9:30 a.m. ET on September 11 at the Memorial Plaza. Musical tributes, wreath layings, and additional activities will continue throughout the afternoon.

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PBS Announces Plans for 9/11 Anniversary

2011-07-27T19:11:00.000-07:00

PBS has announced plans to commemorate the 10th anniversary of 9/11 with a mixture of new programs and repeats. The schedule, starting in the week leading up to the anniversary, is to include “America Remembers — 9/11,” a “PBS NewsHour” presentation exploring the lasting effects that the terrorist attacks have had across the United States; the New York Philharmonic 10th Anniversary Concert for 9/11, conducted by Alan Gilbert and taped the day before; and “Engineering Ground Zero,” about the construction of One World Trade Center, including interviews with the architect David Childs and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. “Frontline” will also contribute new programs and presentations of previous documentaries focusing on the response to the attacks. PBS.org will supplement the television shows with full-episode streaming.

Bin Laden's Failed Plan to Attack Trains on 9/11 Anniversary

2011-07-18T10:40:00.000-07:00

Osama bin Laden was working to assemble a team of militants to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, according to communications Navy SEALs seized from his Pakistani hideout when they killed the al Qaeda leader this spring.

Bin Laden and his operations chief, Attiyah Abd al-Rahman, swapped views about the composition of the attack team, with bin Laden repeatedly rejecting names that Mr. Rahman suggested, according to U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence taken from the bin Laden compound.

The plans were only in the discussion phase, U.S. officials said. They haven't seen any signs the nascent plot ever went beyond the early planning, the officials said.

Still, earlier this month in his first meeting with senior staff at the Central Intelligence Agency, acting Director Michael Morell told his staff that one of their top priorities would be to make sure that neither that plan nor any others were carried out.

Plans for an anniversary attack were one of the few specific potential threats to emerge from the trove of documents and other materials taken from bin Laden's residence in Abottabad, Pakistan, in the May 2 raid. An initial analysis of the evidence said al Qaeda hoped to attack trains in the U.S., possibly on the anniversary of Sept. 11.

Other plotting with Mr. Rahman focused on recruiting attackers who had legitimate passports and other travel documents.

Bin Laden communicated with Mr. Rahman largely via documents saved to flash drives that were delivered by trusted couriers, according to people briefed on the communications.

Much of the other threat information in the trove of materials was general in nature or well known, such as al Qaeda's interest in attacking trains.

In the days following the bin Laden raid, officials said the materials seized from the compound showed enthusiasm for carrying out attacks on dates of symbolic significance, prompting U.S. officials to worry about July 4 and Sept. 11. But officials didn't disclose at that time that there had been specific planning for another attack on Sept. 11 this year.

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Getty Images

Work advanced in June on the Sept. 11 Memorial in New York. It is scheduled to be dedicated this year.
.Mr. Rahman ascended within the terrorist organization after al Qaeda's third-in-command, Sheik Sa'id al-Masri, was killed last year in a CIA drone attack in Pakistan. Mr. Rahman has long been on the list of al Qaeda leaders targeted by the U.S.

The bin Laden documents show how central a figure Mr. Rahman had become for the al Qaeda organization, said people briefed on the documents. "Many were not aware of the day-to-day operations role that Attiyah played," said one person.

U.S. intelligence agencies don't know whether al Qaeda ever fielded an attack team or if other details were discussed. For instance, the U.S. doesn't know what targets, if any, bin Laden considered attacking.

Some U.S. officials cautioned that other materials in the trove showed bin Laden was often ignored by his underlings.

"What we found was that he was very isolated, and it is clearly the case he was struggling to continue to hold on to the type of influence and to direct operations in ways he may have been able to do in the past," a U.S. official said.

Counterterrorism officials from half-a-dozen U.S. agencies have completed their reviews of the bin Laden materials, much of which were held at a secure facility at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.

Beyond the planning for an anniversary attack, the bin Laden trove produced few concrete leads of any sort, largely because information that might have located other terrorist leaders, such as phone numbers, ceased to have value almost the instant the U.S. government obtained it, officials said.

"The treasure trove has not led to any big takedowns, because the bad guys knew we had it" and adapted, a senior U.S. official said.

For example, the two phone numbers that bin Laden had sewn into his clothing at the time he was killed didn't provide actionable leads, the official said. One connected to a public phone center in the tribal areas of Pakistan. The other turned out to be a dead end.

Phone numbers retrieved from phones obtained at the bin Laden compound also led nowhere.

The Obama administration, worried about leaks inside the Pakistani government, did not warn Islamabad prior to the bin Laden raid, and the mission has incited a backlash of anti-U.S. anger. U.S. officials believe some elements of the Pakistani government knew bin Laden's whereabouts.

Since the raid, CIA officials have met repeatedly with their Pakistani counterparts to repair relations.

The most recent such meeting came on Thursday, when Pakistan's intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha, met with Mr. Morell at CIA headquarters. U.S. officials said the two men agreed on several steps to improve counterterrorism cooperation between the two nations. Gen. Pasha also met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

Past meetings have had mixed results. At a previous meeting, Mr. Morell provided Gen. Pasha with the locations of two bomb-making facilities. American officials were dismayed to discover subsequently that the militants abandoned the facilities before Pakistani authorities raided them.

Write to Siobhan Gorman at siobhan.gorman@wsj.com

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304521304576446213098582284.html

What Did You Keep From Sept. 11, 2001?

2011-07-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

Published: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 8:09 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 8:09 p.m.
I have my 9/11 relics. I don’t know why I keep them; I can’t say that they make me feel any better. But I keep them nevertheless, as reminders of a world-altering moment, close to where I live and work.

I have a couple of crosses, one made from World Trade Center marble and given to me by a police officer, and another made from the twin towers steel and given to me by a friend who lost someone very close to him. Her name was Ann Nelson, she was from North Dakota, and well after she died, her mother discovered a to-do list on Ann’s laptop: “learn a foreign language; Kilimanjaro; never be ashamed of who I am. ...”

I have the construction helmet that I wore when I camped out near the site with the National Guard, several days after the collapse. I have a flier from the Dakota Roadhouse bar in Lower Manhattan, saying in colorful language that since Osama bin Laden has us working overtime, it’s time to drink. There are other things.

What relics do you have? Do you have scraps of the papers that blew all the way to Brooklyn? A photograph or two that you need to brace yourself to see again? Does your community have a memorial that incorporates something from the catastrophe? The New York Times would like to know. Please send photographs of the relics you have to pix@nyt.com. Tell us, in 125 words or less, why you saved these items and what they mean to you. Some photos will appear in a special report to be published in print and online this Sept. 11. Thank you very much. – DAN BARRY

Note: Your name will be associated with your submission on NYTimes.com. We encourage readers to use their real name or initials

By submitting to us, you are promising that the content is original, doesn’t plagiarize from anyone or infringe a copyright or trademark, doesn’t violate anybody’s rights and isn’t libelous or otherwise unlawful or misleading. You are agreeing that we can use your submission in all manner and media of The New York Times and that we shall have the right to authorize third parties to do so. And you agree to the rules of our Member Agreement, found online at http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/agree.html

Names of all 9/11 victims to be read on anniversary

2011-07-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK (AP) — The names of all the Sept. 11 victims will be read for the first time during a ceremony in New York City on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Besides the names of those killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, relatives will read the names of those lost in terrorist plane crashes at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and in Shanksville, Pa. They also will read the names of the victims of the 1993 trade center bombing.

In all, 2,983 names will be read. In addition, the names will be inscribed in bronze on the memorial plaza.

President Barack Obama is to attend the ceremony, which also marks the opening of the national Sept. 11 memorial to relatives of the victims on Sept. 11, and to the public the next day.

The ceremony will pause six times, each representing when a twin tower was struck and fell, the attack on the Pentagon and the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville. The first moment of silence will be at 8:46 a.m. Eastern time. Local houses of worship are encouraged to sound their bells at that instant.

A "Tribute in Light" commemoration will take place at sundown, with two bolts of light shooting up into the sky symbolizing the towers.

Tickets for the national memorial must be reserved online at www.911memorial.org. The memorial museum is to open next year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office informed victims' families of the anniversary details by letter this month before releasing the information Tuesday.

Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

A Decade, and Counting, of Publicly Mourning 9/11

2011-07-12T16:40:00.000-07:00

Carla Gilkerson, a 54-year-old school bus driver, sits at a table with friends at Abner's diner on Main Street in this small Ohio town. She's never been to New York City and doesn't know a soul who died on Sept. 11 — but talk of the terror attacks a decade ago immediately moves her to tears.

Step outside of Abner's and there, across the road at Main and Center Streets, is one of the largest Sept. 11 memorials outside the attack sites; a granite monument etched with all the victims' names, surrounded by four giant pieces of World Trade Center steel.

Gilkerson often walks and bikes past the memorial, stopping to run her finger over the names. "I feel like I knew them," she said. "And that I can keep their memory alive."

A decade of public mourning for the nearly 3,000 people killed in the nation's worst terror attack hasn't abated; in fact, it thrives in this country, from the steel memorial parks to the fake Statue of Liberty outside a Las Vegas casino to a tiny chapel by ground zero. The attacks have spawned a ritual of extravagant public mourning that hasn't waned; even Americans who didn't lose a loved one on Sept. 11 are still grieving as if they had.

Gilkerson says it best: "I think we'll always mourn our losses from that day."

AP
ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2011 AND... View Full Caption
ADVANCE FOR USE SUNDAY, JUNE 26, 2011 AND THEREAFTER - Victor, left, and Ben Ortega, brothers from El Paso, Texas, walk along the September 11 memorial outside the New York, New York Hotel and Casino, Wednesday, June 22, 2011, in Las Vegas. Across the country, an extravagant ritual of public grief for "our losses" has not abated in a decade, from public memorials of steel and photos to the palpable sadness of strangers. Experts say Americans are still processing the most tragic public event of their lifetimes, before they can begin to let go. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) CloseExperts in grief say the outsized sorrow for "our losses" is Americans' way of processing the most devastating public event of their lifetimes, which they need to do before they can begin to let go. "This," says Michael Katovich, a Texas sociology professor who teaches on death and dying, "is a process of solidifying our memories."

They're still grieving in Hilliard, a suburb of the state capital of Columbus, and an eight hour's drive from New York City. None of its 28,000 residents died on Sept. 11, yet the people who live in the new subdivisions and work in the small brick buildings that line the downtown still mourned. Mayor Don Schonhardt was one of the mourners, and he went to New York to ask authorities there for trade center steel for the city's memorial.

"We felt it was important to be a community in middle America that would say to the U.S. and the world, that we do remember what happened that day," Schonhardt said.

The memorial fills a city block in the center of town with its two pieces of rusted track from the subway that ran underneath the World Trade Center, and two other large hunks of twisted metal from the towers themselves.

Las Vegas has a permanent memorial at the fake Statue of Liberty outside the New York, New York-Hotel Casino. There's a rotating exhibit of items that were left at the casino in the days after the attacks. Recently, about a dozen Fire Department and police T-shirts from around the U.S. were on display in the shadow boxes, which are lighted at night. The hundreds of other items are archived and stored at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. In a city of excess and fantasy, the memorial — which is across the street from the MGM Grand casino and its golden Lion statue and from Excalibur, a medieval-themed gambling hall — is a sober reminder of reality, and visitors stop and peer into the shadow boxes while walking from one casino to the next.

EDITOR'S NOTE — Tamara Lush is traveling the country writing about the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/tamaralush.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13933576&page=2

Demand Strong to Visit 9/11 Memorial

2011-07-12T16:33:00.000-07:00

Despite a technical hiccup that temporarily prevented some people from reserving tickets to the 9/11 Memorial when it opens to the public, 5,000 passes were distributed within the first hour after the ticket system opened at 9 this morning. Within several hours, 11,000 passes had been reserved.

“Basically, it was just a volume issue,” said Michael Frazier, a spokesman for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum. “But that was quickly addressed.”

By early afternoon, all the passes for Sept. 12 and Sept. 13 were taken, and only a handful of times were available for Sept. 14. Tickets for the following weekend, Sept. 17 and 18, were also gone. Mr. Frazier said the memorial encouraged people to reserve passes online for the memorial, which will open on the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with a ceremony for the families of victims. It will open to the public the next day.
The tickets, which are free, are available on the memorial’s Web site. Groups of 10 or more can reserve tickets by telephone, (212) 266-5200. Each ticket is marked with a half-hour block of time during which the visitor can pass through the security checkpoint, but once visitors are inside they can spend as much time as they wish on the memorial plaza, which can hold 1,500 people.

The memorial lists 2,983 names of victims inscribed in bronze on the walls of two pools that stand where the World Trade Center towers once did. Visitors with passes will enter the memorial at 1 Albany Street. A space for the families of victims, who will use a separate reservation system, will be open at 90 West Street.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/demand-strong-to-visit-911-memorial/

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9/11 Memorial Reservations online starting July 11th

2011-07-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

With two months to go before its scheduled opening, the 9/11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan will start taking reservations online on Monday morning.

The passes will be free but will be necessary to enter the memorial, which will open to the public on Sept. 12. The ceremony to unveil the memorial is scheduled for Sept. 11, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack that destroyed the World Trade Center and killed almost 3,000 people. But only members of the victims’ families will be allowed to visit the memorial that day.

Starting at 9 a.m. Monday, other people interested in visiting the memorial will be able to obtain passes for half-hour blocks of time through the memorial’s Web site, 911memorial.org. At the time printed on their passes, visitors will be cleared to join the line to enter the memorial’s security screening station. But the length of time each pass holder can spend on the memorial plaza will not be limited, said Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial and Museum.

On Monday, the memorial will also open a telephone line for reservations for groups of 10 or more, Mr. Daniels said. And each day, a limited number of passes will be available to walk-up visitors at the 9/11 Memorial preview site a couple of blocks away at 20 Vesey Street, he said

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/09/nyregion/911-memorial-reservations-to-be-offered-on-web-site.html

TSA warns of possible airline threat involving implanted bombs

2011-07-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

By Christi Parsons

July 6, 2011, 7:48 a.m.
The government has warned airlines that terrorists are considering surgically implanting explosives into people in an attempt to circumvent screening procedures, according to U.S. officials.

There is no indication of an immediate plot, but the new information could lead to additional screening procedures at the nation’s airports. Existing scanners would not necessarily detect bombs implanted under a person’s skin, experts said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-pn-tsa-implants-20110706,0,7473541.story

How CIA tracked down Bin Laden

2011-07-05T10:42:00.002-07:00

(AP) WASHINGTON - After Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden, the White House released a photo of President Obama and his Cabinet inside the Situation Room, watching the daring raid unfold.

Hidden from view, standing just outside the frame of that now-famous photograph was a career CIA analyst. In the hunt for the world's most-wanted terrorist, there may have been no one more important. His job for nearly a decade was finding the al Qaeda leader.

The analyst was the first to put in writing last summer that the CIA might have a legitimate lead on finding bin Laden. He oversaw the collection of clues that led the agency to a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. His was among the most confident voices telling Obama that bin Laden was probably behind those walls.

Special section: The Killing of Osama bin Laden
A prayer for Osama bin Laden?
Photos: Americans react to death of Osama bin Laden

The CIA will not permit him to speak with reporters. But interviews with former and current U.S. intelligence officials reveal a story of quiet persistence and continuity that led to the greatest counterterrorism success in the history of the CIA. Nearly all the officials insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters or because they did not want their names linked to the bin Laden operation.

The Associated Press has agreed to the CIA's request not to publish the agent's full name and withhold certain biographical details so that he would not become a target for retribution.

Call him John, his middle name.

John was among the hundreds of people who poured into the CIA's Counterterrorism Center after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, bringing fresh eyes and energy to the fight.

He had been a standout in the agency's Russian and Balkan departments. When Vladimir Putin was coming to power in Russia, for instance, John pulled together details overlooked by others and wrote what some colleagues considered the definitive profile of Putin. He challenged some of the agency's conventional wisdom about Putin's KGB background and painted a much fuller portrait of the man who would come to dominate Russian politics.

That ability to spot the importance of seemingly insignificant details, to weave disparate strands of information into a meaningful story, gave him a particular knack for hunting terrorists.

"He could always give you the broader implications of all these details we were amassing," said John McLaughlin, who as CIA deputy director was briefed regularly by John in the mornings after the 2001 attacks.

From 2003, when he joined the counterterrorism center, through 2005, John was one of the driving forces behind the most successful string of counterterrorism captures in the fight against terrorism: Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Nashiri, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Ramzi bin Alshib, Hambali and Faraj al-Libi.

But there was no greater prize than finding bin Laden.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/07/05/national/main20076770.shtml?tag=strip

How CIA tracked down Bin Laden

2011-07-05T10:42:00.001-07:00

How CIA tracked down Bin Laden

2011-07-05T10:42:00.000-07:00

Angola gets ready for 9/11 beam, 15,000 motorcycles

2011-06-21T16:20:00.000-07:00

ANGOLA, Ind. (WANE) - Over 15,000 motorcyclists are expected to gather in Angola on July 1 as a memorial beam from the World Trade Center travels through the area.

An Angola Fire Department spokesman said the 8-foot beam will be at the old Scott's parking lot from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. All county public safety agencies have been invited to have a unit on display.

The following day, Saturday, July 2, beginning at 6:30 a.m., bikers will gather at the old Scott’s parking lot to get ready to escort the beam to its next stop in Elkhart.

When the group leaves Angola at at 10:28 a.m., the motorcyclists will go up State Road 127 to State Road 120 and then west on 120 through Orland. Police officers will block the intersections that have stop lights and stop signs so the line of bikes will be a continuous

Extraordinary pictures of 9/11 relics revealed as they are shipped across world for tenth anniversary memorials

2011-06-21T16:12:00.001-07:00

Draped in American flags and handled with reverence, these are the relics pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center.
They have been stored in Hangar 17 at John F. Kennedy Airport since the recovery operation was completed, and are now being shipped across the world for towns and cities to construct memorials in time for the tenth anniversary of 9/11.
Firefighters from across the U.S. are making a pilgrimage to New York to collect the relics, which were today revealed in a set of extraordinary images.

The photographs of twisted heavy steel, tattered uniforms and even a smashed-up fire truck reveal with terrible poignancy the full devastation of the terrorist attacks.
Organised by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the World Trade Center steel program aims to distribute the relics to firehouses and museums across America.
Some will go even further afield, with tags showing they are destined for memorials as far away as the UK and China.
Bill Baroni, the Port Authority's deputy executive director, told the Boston Herald: 'This is a sacred mission for this agency - to not only rebuild the World Trade Center site, but also make sure that at memorials to 9/11 all across the country, people would be able to, whether in Bergen County, New Jersey, or St. Louis, Missouri ... see what happened that day.

FULL STORY WITH MORE PHOTOS HEREhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2004961/9-11-relics-shipped-world-10th-anniversary-memorials.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

9/11 Beam To Be Installed At Firefighters Memorial Friday

2011-06-21T16:08:00.000-07:00

Fire-Rescue-EMS Battalion Chief Dan Huppe with a beam salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The beam is to be installed Friday in the Manchester Firefighters Memorial Garden on Tolland Turnpike. (Jesse Leavenworth\The Hartford Courant / June 21, 2011)

2:13 p.m. EDT, June 21, 2011
MANCHESTER ——
On Friday morning, local firefighters plan to install a steel beam salvaged from the wreckage of the World Trade Center at the Manchester Firefighters Memorial Garden on Tolland Turnpike.

A concrete base has been prepared to hold the approximately 9 1/2-foot-tall column from the North Tower, which is to be lighted perpetually. Fire officials said the installation, on the grounds of Station No. 5, is slated for 8-10 a.m.

http://www.courant.com/community/manchester/hc-manchester-911-beam-install-0622-220110621,0,5188308.story

Giant 9/11 commemorative flag to fly in Portland

2011-06-21T15:49:00.000-07:00

PORTLAND — A giant American flag will be in Portland Thursday, part of a 50-state tour before it is displayed in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pa., as part of the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Local firefighters and police will raise the 30-foot by 57-foot flag at 2 p.m., hoisting it between two fire department aerial ladders at the Preble Street Extension parking lot, and lower it at 6 p.m. The public is encouraged to attend and sign the logbook at the Back Cove event.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/maine-portland-911-flag.html

9-11 Memorial takes shape as the clock ticks down

2011-06-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK — It’s close to two months to go and counting down.

Construction at the World Trade Center site is at a frenzied, round the clock pace that could be best described as controlled chaos. But it is chaos with a purpose and a very public deadline, which Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials pledge they will meet.
The site will be the focus of world wide attention, along with Pennsylvania and Virginia, on Sept. 11 for the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Port Authority Deputy Director Bill Baroni knows this and sounds almost like British prime minster Winston Churchill during World War II in his resolve. During a tour of the massive construction site Monday, he repeats it like a mantra, talking about the focus, the challenge and the mission, to have the Memorial Plaza completed for the tenth anniversary of the day that changed the world.
“We will hit that deadline,” Baroni said as the sound of construction clattered around him. “It is the sacred mission of this agency.”

http://www.app.com/article/20110620/NJNEWS/306200082/9-11-Memorial-takes-shape-as-the-clock-ticks-down

Military Channel Pays Tribute to U.S. Troops and Elite Forces With the 2011 NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PA

2011-05-20T15:56:00.000-07:00

On the heels of a national victory in the war against terrorism and in honor of the approaching 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Military Channel joins nearly 300,000 Americans as they rally behind our troops at the American Veterans Center's 2011 NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE in Washington, DC. During the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, countless servicemen and -women made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, and this year, thanks to the heroic actions of the Navy SEALs and other elite military forces, we focus more than ever on the true meaning of Memorial Day: honoring those who have fought bravely in defense of America's freedom and that of people around the world. THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE will air live on Monday, May 30 from 2-4 PM ET on the Military Channel.

"In a day and age when more and more of small town America opts to cancel local festivities, THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE remains not only the country's largest Memorial Day celebration, but a beacon of patriotic spirit reminding us that this day holds real significance for the men and women it intends to honor," said James C. Roberts, president of the American Veterans Center, the non-profit educational organization that founded the parade and is dedicated year-round to preserving and promoting the legacy of America's troops.

"It has never been more crucial for us to pause and thank veterans and active duty service members who have fought to preserve every American's liberties. Military Channel's live coverage of the NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE provides a new opportunity for America to recognize its greatest heroes and memorialize those who have fallen in service to their country," said Henry Schleiff, president and general manager, Military Channel and Investigation Discovery.

As America approaches the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE will devote a very special segment to remembering the heroes of that day. The parade will also include a tribute to the Special Operations tactical teams that are currently leading the fight in Afghanistan, a commemoration of the Centennial of Naval Aviation, and recognitions of the 70th anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War II and the 20th anniversary of the Gulf War. Special guests will include musical performers, celebrity veterans and supporters of the military, including Pat Sajak, Gary Sinise, Buzz Aldrin, and Miss America 2011 Teresa Scanlan. Hosts Major Garrett, Leeann Tweeden and Alyse Zwickwill call the action of THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE for Military Channel's viewers. Additionally school marching bands from across the country and military bands will provide patriotic music throughout the parade as they march through the streets of our nation's capital.

For more than 70 years, our nation's capital was without a parade on the Armed Services' most sacred day. In 2005, the American Veterans Center brought this tradition back to Washington by creating THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE. For additional information, please visit www.nationalmemorialdayparade.com.

9/11 A Decade Later: Flight 93 Memorial Draws 1.4M Visitors To Rural PA

2011-05-20T15:42:00.000-07:00

The National September 11th Memorial in Lower Manhattan that is set to open this September has been in the center of many high-profile contentious debates, but another important September 11th memorial in Pennsylvania is in the works. NY1's Bobby Cuza filed the following report.

In Somerset County, Pennsylvania stands a cross made of steel from the World Trade Center, which reminds onlookers of the connection the small town of Shanksville has with the events of September 11, 2001.

A cross in Shankville made of steel from the World Trade Center. A field in the town is where United Flight 93 crashed after passengers battled hijackers for control of the plane. All 40 passengers and crew members were killed after the hijackers deliberately crashed the plane.

“When the plane crashed here, it was only 15 minutes by air to Washington, D.C.,” says Flight 93 Site Manager Jeff Reinbold.

Reinbold's mission is to create a fitting national memorial on the 2,000-acre field.

“We felt very strongly that this design needed to be about this place and that this place was very different that New York or Washington, D.C.," says Reinbold.

Though only a temporary memorial exists now, longtime site volunteer Marlin Miller says it has not stopped over 1.4 million people from visiting.

“It’s been a sense of honor that we are able to extend hospitality, and to volunteer and to welcome people,” says Miller.

A plan for the Flight 93 Memorial. Click to enlarge. When the $60 million first phase of the memorial is complete this September, visitors will be able walk along the flight path and read the names of the 40 victims inscribed on marble walls.

“The remains of the passengers and crew are still here. They are on site," says Reinbold. “We treat the crash site as a cemetery that’s not open to the public, but the public will have the chance to get right up against the edge of it.”

Eventually, the Flight 93 National Memorial will also feature a visitors and education center, memorial groves and a 93-feet-tall tower to honor the victims killed that day.

The project is expected to be complete in 2014.

Malibu Sculptor’s 9/11 Memorial Cross Embarks on Cross-Country Trek to Ground Zero

2011-05-20T15:36:00.000-07:00

Malibu sculptor Jon Krawczyk’s 14-foot-high stainless steel memorial cross for the victims of 9/11 received a fitting send-off Tuesday evening at Bluffs Park. A crowd of nearly 100 well-wishers gathered to hear Krawczyk talk about the inspiration and meaning behind his work of art.

The next day, Krawczyk took the cross on a cross-country tour that will include at least 10 official stops, including the sites of the 9/11 attacks and several fire stations. The final destination will be St. Peter’s Church, located a block from Ground Zero in Manhattan.

Nearly a dozen representatives from Malibu Fire Stations 70 and 88 were at Tuesday's event. Father Bill Kerze from Our Lady of Malibu blessed the cross with holy water.

"I’m very honored to be invited here to bless this cross," Kerze said. "For Christians, the cross is the symbol. My prayer is that this cross will be an instrument of peace, understanding and reconciliation; an instrument in which people who are grieving can receive consolation. I hope people who have been hurt can be opened to the goodness of human beings.”

The sculpture is an artistic version of a Christian cross, and it will be polished to a mirror finish once it reaches St. Peter's. It is accompanied by three steel remnants from the Twin Towers that will be attached later. The names of all the 9/11 victims will be entered into a stainless steel book at the base of the cross. There is also a slot for people to drop notes with their wishes and prayers. A number of Malibu residents offered their notes.

"I think this is a blessing," said Wailani O’Herlihy, a Malibu resident who attended the event with her daughter. "They're carrying this across the United States and taking it to New York. I hope it blesses a lot of people across the U.S.”

Days after the dust cleared from the Twin Towers attack, rescuers discovered a 20-foot-tall steel crossbeam (shaped like a Christian cross) stuck in the ground at Ground Zero. Its symbolism was not lost on those clearing the rubble. The I-beam “cross” from the World Trade Center, also known as the Ground Zero Cross, was mounted on a concrete pillar in 2003. It became a shrine, a place for mourners to write the names of the deceased and a place to hold services.

It was moved in 2006 to St. Peter's during construction. Officials will soon move it again to the National September 11 Memorial & Museum at Ground Zero. Krawczyk was asked by a St. Peters’ parishioner if he could create a replacement for it.

Krawczyk has a personal reason for wanting to build a 9/11 memorial. He is a native of Morristown, N.J. and 25 people from his high school were killed in the attacks. The following inscription will appear on Krawczyk’s finished piece:

The cross is a symbol of hope. It speaks of life’s journey and to life’s limitless potential. For the innocent, whose lives were taken from them, this cross stands as a memorial. For the courageous, who faced death so others might live, this cross stands as a tribute. For all of us, walking the streets today, this stands as an invitation to reflect on who we are and the people we believe we can be one day

Somerset Co. Businesses Prepare For 10th Anniversary of 9/11

2011-05-20T15:30:00.000-07:00

Posted: 2:08 pm EDT May 19, 2011
Updated: 2:26 pm EDT May 19, 2011

SOMERSET, Pa. -- Somerset County is bracing for what's expected to be a record tourist season.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the first phase of the Flight 93 National Memorial is expected to be complete.

On Thursday, the county's business community got a head start on preparing for thousands of anticipated visitors.

Officials said an estimated 350,000 people are expected to visit the county this year, which is 250,000 more than the county usually welcomes each year. Many businesses have already seen a boost from tourists who travel to pay their respects at the Flight 93 Memorial.

In response, the Chamber of Commerce teamed up with the Allegany College of Maryland to host a breakfast meeting for business leaders. Participants got a refresher from the National Park Service on the memorial's design and a rundown of the planned events on Sept. 10 and 11. They also got a look at how to maximize the huge boost in tourism.

Ron Aldom of the Chamber of Commerce said, "We really need to be at our best. We need to be able to connect and give people the best experience that we can. Not only do we need to provide services, But we need to make them really appreciate being here, staying here and return here."

Additional classes will be held through June. For more information, call the Somerset Campus of Allegany College of Maryland at 814-445-9848.

Stay with WJACTV.com, WJAC-TV News and WJACTV.com Mobile for continuing coverage.

Saratoga Springs sculpture will resurrect 9/11 steel

2011-05-20T15:23:00.000-07:00

The steel lies bent, ripped and twisted in the soggy yard at the steel-fabrication plant in Gansevoort. It makes no sound, but speaks a language all Americans understand.

In 3 1/2 months, residents of the Capital Region will become part of the conversation when a large sculpture fashioned from the beams is unveiled outside the Saratoga Springs City Center. The five pieces, weighing from 2,000 to 10,000 pounds, once stood straight and pure as part of the World Trade Center.

When the terrorist-stricken towers collapsed 10 years ago, they became part of the rubble -- and then part of the approximately 1 percent of the steel preserved by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owned the 110-story buildings. The salvaged steel was stockpiled in a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport for distribution to groups and communities, primarily for memorials.

Using the steel for art has been much rarer, says Elizabeth Dubben, project manager for the sculpture and director of exhibitions for Saratoga Arts, the nonprofit organization that is overseeing the project. She says she believes it will be the first large sculpture of World Trade Center steel in the country.

Called "Tempered by Memory," the sculpture is being created by Capital Region artists John Van Alstine and Noah Savett. They've worked as sculptors for decades and exhibited many outdoor pieces.

"We're chomping at the bit to get going," Savett said last week.

Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Tempered-by-Memory-1387212.php#ixzz1MvzXqWS2