The United States remembered the victims in moving memorial services to mark the 20th anniversary of the devastating attacks on September 11th. In the presence of US President Joe Biden at 8:46 a.m., the sound of a bell initiated a minute’s silence at the ground zero attack site in southern Manhattan in New York – exactly at the time when Islamist terrorists saw the first of four hijacked aircraft 20 years ago had flown into one of the twin towers of the World Trade Center. After the minute’s silence, relatives read the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed, sometimes with tears.
The terrorists hijacked four aircraft on September 11, 2001. After they piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center, another plane flew into the south tower a short time later. American Airlines Flight 77 directed the attackers to the Department of Defense in Washington. A fourth plane crashed in Pennsylvania after people on board resisted the hijackers.
Memory of “normal people”
The mastermind behind the attacks, Osama bin Laden, was killed in 2011 after a long search in a US military operation. Mourning events also took place at the Pentagon and the Shanksville crash site on Saturday. In Pennsylvania, George W. Bush, who was US President on September 11th, also took part.
In addition to President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, numerous relatives of the victims and survivors came to the memorial service at today’s memorial in New York. Former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were also present with their wives. Mike Low, whose daughter Sara worked as a flight attendant and was killed in one of the hijacked aircraft on September 11th, should be thought of as “completely normal people”. “For the past 20 years, my family has experienced incredible suffering at the thought of lives that could no longer be lived,” he said. Then musician Bruce Springsteen sang his song “I’ll See You In My Dreams”. Biden’s speech was not planned.
National unity is the greatest strength of the United States, Biden had said in advance by video message on the occasion of the commemoration. In the days after the attacks, heroic action, resilience and “a true sense of national unity” were demonstrated. Ex-President Obama expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims and remembered the emergency services at the time and the US military. The military’s courage over the past 20 years also helped bring down bin Laden. Obama was president when a special unit of the military killed the then al-Qaeda chief in Pakistan.
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