9/11 – ten and fifteen years later

Read the 9/11 Commission Report

Truthers come in all sorts of guises
Egyptian state media claims Isis is ‘made up’ and 9/11 was carried out by West to justify war on terror
(The Independent) Isis could have been invented by the US to “justify the devastation, partitioning and occupation” of the Middle East, writes Noha Al-Sharnoubi
A columnist for a state-run newspaper in Egypt has suggested the US invented Isis and set up the 9/11 attacks to justify its military interventions in the Middle East.
“Is it possible to believe the official version, from the US government, of the events of 11 September 2001?” wrote journalist Noha Al-Sharnoubi in Al-Ahram, a major national Egyptian newspaper owned by the government.
Ms Al-Sharnoubi said the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks could have been premeditated to “justify the war on terror” in her column, published on 23 August.

12 September
September 11 2001 terrorist attacks (9/11)
A collection of pieces published by the American Enterprise Institute
Jim Talent: The day that seems like yesterday
The enemy who attacked us on September 11 is still attacking us today.  Yet despite our efforts, it must be said that the influence of the enemy is spreading, his strength on balance is growing, his aspirations are as barbaric as ever and his methods are even more cruel.
It is hard to believe that 15 years have passed since the events we are gathered here to remember. September 11, 2001, is a day that will always seem like yesterday. It is frozen in the minds of every American old enough to remember it. We all recall what we were doing the moment we heard about the attacks; we all recall the shock and outrage and horror of seeing, in real time, devastation inflicted on two great American cities.
There were over 8,000 casualties that day, and 2,996 deaths. Those who died represented a cross section of America. They were men, women, and children, including 11 unborn children. They were of many different backgrounds, ethnicities, religions, ages and occupations. Yet they had things in common too. Each had a beating heart and a vital soul; each was precious to a network of friends and family. None deserved to die; all were innocent, and each began that fateful day entirely unaware that, by the time night had fallen, he would meet his Maker.
Is America Any Safer?
This is the story of the first 15 years of how we have dealt with that newfound fear—how we have confronted, sometimes heroically and sometimes irrationally, the mechanics, the politics, and the psychic challenges of the September 12 era.
(The Atlantic Magazine September) Suddenly, we were vulnerable. Not just to disease, tornadoes, accidents, or criminals, but to the kinds of enemies that had always threatened others but never us.
Barack Obama … told me in a recent email exchange … “With nearly 3,000 people killed in the places where we lived our daily lives, there was a feeling that our homeland was truly vulnerable for the first time.” …
On September 10, 2001, the Federal Aviation Administration, which was responsible for air-travel security, had a watch list of 12 people, even though the FBI and the CIA had identified hundreds more in their databases. A proposal to expand the FAA list to include those additional names had been sitting for months in the inbox of an FAA security official. In reporting for a book about the nation’s recovery efforts in the first year after 9/11, After: How America Confronted the September 12 Era (2003), I discovered that two of the hijackers had been on that expanded list. Distribution of their names to the airlines had been delayed because the FBI and the FAA had not resolved which organization’s letterhead should be attached to the memo bearing the new list.

11 September
How Cantor Fitzgerald Survived September 11
The firm lost 658 people—two thirds of its New York City workforce—on 9/11. It survived by dedicating its future to the families of those who died.
(Town & Country) In the weeks that followed, Howard Lutnick made a difficult decision that tied the fate of the firm to the fate of the Relief Fund: Instead of continuing to pay the salaries of the employees who had died, Lutnick promised to give the families of the Cantor Fitzgerald victims ten years of health insurance and 25 percent of the firm’s profits for five years. And if profits over those five years were lower than expected, he guaranteed each family at least $100,000. It was an incentive for the company to not only survive, but to succeed.
The Relief Fund continues to thrive 15 years after its inception. Edie Lutnick credits the backing of Cantor Fitzgerald, which continues to underwrite 100 percent of the fund’s administrative costs, as well as a persistent mission. “We knew we had to listen to the people we were trying to serve, and we had to do things that actually helped them in a way that was most positive,” she said. “More than anything else, our goal was to create a lasting legacy for those that we’ve lost.”
As the families became more stable … the Relief Fund began to expand its scope. The Fund’s leaders hoped to take what they had learned from coping with the 9/11 tragedy to help others in honor of those who died.
In 2005, the Fund’s mission officially expanded to include victims of terrorism, natural disasters, and emergencies.
One of Cantor Fitzgerald’s biggest challenges was how to mark the anniversary of 9/11 itself. It could never be just another work day for the company’s employees, so in 2002, the Fund hosted its first Charity Day, as a way of commemorating those they had lost by helping others.
Every year on the anniversary of 9/11 (or the first business day thereafter) Cantor Fitzgerald (along with its partners like BGC) celebrates Charity Day. The Relief Fund brings in celebrities—this year’s festivities are slated to feature Steve Buscemi, 50 Cent, Julianna Margulies, Peyton and Eli Manning, and Lily Aldridge, among others—to make trades and conduct business with clients in order to raise money for the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund and other charities around the world. And every single employee of the firm gives up their salary or commission in order to ensure that 100 percent of the revenues from the day are donated to the causes. [Good call! Donald Trump joins Pamela Anderson and Robert De Niro at 9/11 charity event — Celebrities including Princess Beatrice, Peyton Manning and Tony Danza made trades for Cantor Fitzgerald
After Losing 658 Employees on 9/11, Cantor Fitzgerald Maintains Commitment to Help Victims’ Families
15 years ago, many financial institutions suffered the loss of employees because of the September 11th Attacks, but none was hurt so deeply as Cantor Fitzgerald.  NY1’s Diane King Hall sat down with CEO Howard Lutnick, and filed the following report.

10 September
Why the ‘9/11 Truth’ movement endures 15 years later
Father of 9/11 victim reconciles unconventional beliefs with grief
(CBC) The Truther movement lives on. Fifteen years later, the devastating attack on America that coincided with the nascent internet age continues to spawn discussions hosted in forums that speculate about the moon landing, the Hollow Earth hypothesis and the JFK assassination.
Despite an exhaustive 2005 special report by Popular Mechanics debunking 9/11 theories, polls still show a sizeable population of Americans dispute the official account.
An October 2006 New York Times/CBS News survey carried out by Angus Reid talked to 1,042 U.S. adults. Asked whether they suspected that the Bush administration had some foreknowledge about the attacks, 28 per cent believed the administration was “mostly lying” about its 9/11 intelligence prior to the attack.
Meanwhile, the group Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth continues to hold symposiums contending that a “controlled demolition” involving “explosives and/or other devices” brought down the Twin Towers and WTC 7. Online videos claim holograms were used to project airplanes into the sky. Local 9/11 Truth chapters around the U.S. still meet for potlucks and seminars.
“People who are more personally distrustful tend to buy into conspiracy theories more,” says Mike Wood, a Canadian lecturer at the University of Winchester in England specializing in the psychology of conspiracy theories.
If anything, Americans seem more distrustful of their government than in a long time.
Some Americans had never heard of al-Qaeda or even Afghanistan before 9/11. And so, alternative explanations filled the vacuum, says Dave Thomas, a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.
How a supposedly little-known group could have changed the course of history “just wasn’t a good enough answer to satisfy” some people’s desire for closure, Thomas says. …
Researchers who study conspiracy theorists point to the dismissal of an official “lone nobody” conclusion on 9/11 as sharing similarities to the continued obsession with the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy in 1963. This, despite the fact the 9/11 Commission report estimates that al-Qaeda was in fact well financed, spending $30 million a year on operations. …
“The internet has been the real equalizer, allowing people like myself to do research and build a community of Truthers. It was the game-changer,” Bollyn says. “The internet gave us the power.”
Thomas, the skeptic with the Committee for Skeptical Inquiries, prefers to think of the internet as an “enabler for pseudo-science,” giving people who at one time worked in isolation on their theories an open community in which to share new conspiracy theories.

16 July
9/11 report: U.S. Congress releases long-classified ’28 pages’
Documents unlikely to end controversy over role of Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. partner in Mideast
(CBC) The U.S. Congress has released a long-classified section of the official report on the Sept. 11 attacks describing an array of potential links between some of the hijackers and officials in Saudi Arabia.
The 28 pages of the report on the 2002 investigation focus on potential Saudi government ties to the 2001 aircraft attacks on the United States, in which nearly 3,000 people died.
The report said the alleged links had not been independently verified.
The pages were released Friday by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee after years of wrangling in Washington between Congress and different administrations, Republicans and Democrats, and urging by families of those killed.
“The matter is now finished,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a news conference in Washington. Asked whether the report exonerated the kingdom, he replied: “Absolutely.”
15 hijackers were Saudi citizens
The release of the previously classified pages is unlikely to end the controversy over the role of Saudi Arabia, an important U.S. partner in the Middle East. Many U.S. officials who opposed their release had worried they would damage diplomatic relations.

2014

10 June
For the Love of Allah, Why Can’t Some Liberals Acknowledge Islam’s Role in 9/11?
It seems that the National September 11 Memorial Museum has been in the news lately for every reason but the fact that it opened last month. … In the days leading up to the opening, a short documentary now available to all museum attendees was screened for a handful of people. Narrated by NBC’s Brian Williams, The Rise of Al Qaeda quickly had critics grumbling that the film distorted the role Islam played in the attacks. They also said it could leave people with the impression that all or most Muslims approved of Osama bin Laden’s ideology and methods. Several articles have appeared decrying this supposed slander against Islam and Muslims, culminating in an absurd piece on Monday by Patrick L. Smith in Salon (of course). …
For those who are curious as to just what The Rise of Al Qaeda actually says, the transcript can be viewed here. It is an unremarkable and straightforward telling of the roots of the radical ideology of bin Laden. Yet, critics have denounced its use of words like “Islamist” and “jihad.” This criticism is typified by erstwhile apologist Nathan Lean, who calls the film’s use of “jihad,” not incorrect, but “one-dimensional” and “uncritical.”

10 May
Unidentified 9/11 remains returned to ‘Ground Zero’
(BBC) Thousands of unidentified remains from the 9/11 attacks have been returned to “Ground Zero” in a solemn ceremony.
Fifteen vehicles took the remains from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner to a repository under the World Trade Center site.
The remains consist of 7,930 fragments of human tissue that could not be identified by forensic teams.
They were placed in metallic boxes, covered in the American flag and taken in a convoy comprising fire trucks and police vehicles to the site of the attacks in downtown Manhattan.
Uniformed firemen and police then placed the boxes in a dedicated facility located underneath the 9/11 Memorial Museum.
The repository is 65 ft (20m) underground and will remain under the control of the Office of the New York Medical Examiner. Only family members and forensics teams will be allowed direct access.
Authorities say this will allow further identification attempts to be carried out if there are advances in forensic science.

1 April 2014
In New York, making space to remember 9/11
(Globe & Mail) It’s a deceptively simple question: How do you begin?
For the staff of the National September 11 Memorial Museum, finding the answer took nearly two years. They explored the question from every angle. Perhaps the starting point for visitors should be the 1993 bombing at the Twin Towers. Or maybe it was the construction of the two buildings in the late 1960s. Or did they need to go all the way back to the Crusades?
In the end, they decided their story would commence “where most people alive that day started,” says Jan Seidler Ramirez, the museum’s chief curator. As visitors enter the exhibition, they will hear reactions from around the world to the initial, confusing moments of the attacks of September 11, 2001, the point at which the unimaginable had not yet become real.
Set to open to the public on May 21, the museum is the final major piece of the $700-million memorial complex at Ground Zero – and arguably the most contentious. Its task is no less than to tell the tale of the worst terrorist attack on American soil in the very place where the violence occurred. It must navigate between the needs of victims’ families, the sensitivities of survivors, the wishes of local residents, and the obligation to educate future generations.
Like nearly everything connected to the World Trade Center site, the museum has been a source of controversy. Some family members, for instance, have urged the staff to be as thorough as possible, telling them not to shy away from the horror of the day and to present an unsparing picture of its consequences. Others have pressed for more restraint, noting that the site amounts to a cemetery.

September 11 2011

If one reads only one piece about the 9/11 anniversary, it should be Frank Rich’s powerful and beautifully written – as always –The 9/11 decade is now over. The terrorists lost. But who won?

Joseph E. Stiglitz: The Price of 9/11
(Project Syndicate) The September 11, 2001, terror attacks by Al Qaeda were meant to harm the United States, and they did, but in ways that Osama bin Laden probably never imagined. President George W. Bush’s response to the attacks compromised America’s basic principles, undermined its economy, and weakened its security.

Boatlift
On 9/11, over 500,000 people were rescued from Manhattan’s seawalls in just nine hours. How did this happen? What heroism made this possible? The answer lies in the resilience of the every day people at the scene that day, and the brave community of mariners who ply the waters of New York’s Harbor. As the buildings fell, hundreds of tugboats, ferries, fishing boats, coast guard cutters and other vessels rushed towards the disaster. They did so at great personal risk.

9/11: A heroine from nose to tail
Michael Hingson’s faithful guide dog Roselle led him to safety from the atrocity of 11 September, and he has paid her tribute in a new book
A common theme links many of the harrowing tales told by survivors of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Those who witnessed the devastation, who encountered victims with severe injuries, or watched as people plunged to their deaths from the doomed World Trade Centre towers all speak of things they wish they had never seen.
Michael Hingson, an office worker who has been blind since birth, saw nothing at all. Yet his escape down 1,463 stairs and 78 floors of the Trade Centre’s north tower, escorted only by a fearless guide dog who led dozens to safety minutes before the building collapsed, remains one of the most remarkable stories among so many from that terrible New York morning.
It is a tale of trust, teamwork and courage, and of a labrador retriever, then just three and a half years old, who was terrified of thunder yet managed to keep her calm and composure amid scenes of unthinkable chaos.

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Arianna Huffington: Honoring the Memory of 9/11 By Honoring the Memory of 9/12
… as the years have gone by my memories of that time have come to focus less on the bewilderment, the fear, the horror, and the outrage that dominated that dark day, and far more on what happened the day after the attacks. So as we commemorate 9/11, we should also remember that this is also the 10th anniversary of 9/12 — the day when the shock began to wear off, the full dimensions of the tragedy began to become clear, and the country began to decide what its reaction was going to be. Ten years ago today, we resolved not to remain sitting stunned in front of our TV screens, but to get out and do something for our nation. On that day, such a throng of people showed up to help at Ground Zero that many had to be turned away, and tens of millions of dollars poured in to charities. People were driven to connect — to the country, to their communities, to their friends and families.
The superficial media obsessions that had been dominating our airwaves prior to 9/11 … gave way to serious discussions about how to repair our country, both physically and spiritually.
VP, former presidents laud courage of Flight 93
Clinton, Boehner to raise $10 million needed for Shanksville, Pa., memorial
(MSNBC) Vice President Joe Biden said the 40 passengers and crew of Flight 93 gave their lives for their country when they overcame four hijackers to crash the plane into a Pennsylvania field.
Former President George W. Bush called the actions aboard Flight 93 on Sept. 11 one of the most courageous acts in U.S. history and a shining example of democracy in action. More than 4,000 people, including relatives of those killed when the plane crashed into a rural Pennsylvania field, attended the service.
He said that even as the U.S. was under attack in New York and Washington, those aboard the hijacked plane defied their four captors by holding a vote to try and overpower them. He said the choice cost them their lives but was successful.
Former President Bill Clinton said he and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner will mount a bipartisan effort to raise the remaining $10 million needed to completely fund the Flight 93 National Memorial, and he praised those aboard the plane as heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice.
How 9/11 looked from the air-traffic control center that saw it coming
(CSM) The air-traffic controllers in ‘Boston Center’ – the facility that oversaw Flight 11 – speak of what happened on 9/11, from the confusion of the first moments to the frustration that military jets could not get to New York City faster.
Tapes reveal terror in air traffic control as 9/11 attacks unfolded
Never-before-released recordings show operators struggling to comprehend horror of strikes
(The Independent) The sheer bafflement of America’s air traffic control network during the two hours when America was under attack on 11 September 2001 was put on vivid display yesterday with the release of complete audio-tape recordings of increasingly frantic communications as the crisis accelerated.
The tapes, which also carry the voices of commercial pilots, military aviation officials and fighter pilots, were originally meant as part of a comprehensive audio history of that day for consideration by the 9/11 Commission, but the panel disbanded before it was completed and the tapes have never been available in their entirety before.
They show air traffic controllers in the eastern United States struggling to grasp what they were witnessing as one by one aeroplanes smashed into their intended targets or, in the case of United 93, into a Pennsylvania field. They also confirm that civilian controllers had difficulty reaching military counterparts to get fighters into the air.
‘It looked like they were blinded by smoke… they just walked to the edge and fell out.’ Victims who plummeted from Twin Towers
We hesitated to include this story, but it is incredibly poignant and makes us wonder what we might have done and what we would have wished our loved ones to do.
9 September
9/11 Anniversary: Obama Thanks Harper For Canada’s Help
U.S. President Barack Obama delivered a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Thursday to thank Canada for its help on 9/11. The letter has been distributed to the public. (CBC) Obama praises Gander for kindness ; Text of President Obama’s letter ; Text of PM Harper’s reply
Ten Lost Years
(Spiegel) Ten years have passed since Sept. 11, 2001, and today only losers remain. Islam has been taken hostage by blinded ideologues. The West has betrayed its values in its struggle against terror, and we are now burdened with Islamophobes. Without 9/11, the crimes of Anders Behring Breivik and the rise of right-wing populists in Europe would be inconceivable.
What remains etched in our minds, 10 years after the fact? Two images tell the entire story. One is of the burning Twin Towers and the other of a prisoner being tortured in Abu Ghraib. This is the iconography of human insanity: the horrific crime in New York and the horrific crime of the war against terror.
Violence was fought with violence, only to generate even more violence.
Anyone who believed that people had learned something from the wars of the 20th century was promptly disabused of that notion at the beginning of the new millennium. In fact, we have learned nothing. We are still all too willing to exterminate each other, even with our bare hands. And we always have good reasons to do so. We are always in the right. See also Bush’s Tragic Legacy: How 9/11 Triggered America’s Decline
8 September
New 9/11 Tapes Show Desperate Search for Hijacked Planes
For the first time, the full audio recordings of communications between military and civilian air traffic controllers as they were dealing with the hijackings on Sept. 11, 2001, have been made public. The multimedia document, published by the Rutgers Law Review, provides a rare real-time look at how government agencies were responding as the hijacking of the four planes was unfolding. A New Type of War
The Story of the FAA and NORAD Response to the September 11, 2001 Attacks Rutgers Law Review + transcript
9/11 Memorial: First Responders Excluded from Ground Zero Ceremony
(International Business Times) The chain status exploded on Facebook on Wednesday: “Due to ‘lack of room,’ NYC police officers, Port Authority police officers and FDNY firefighters are not ‘invited’ to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 at ground zero. Funny — they weren’t invited on that day in 2001, either — they just showed up and became our heroes. Please repost if you think they belong MORE than the politicians who are invited.”
… the number of politicians attending is much smaller than the number of first responders. Bloomberg, President Obama, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be there, along with former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who were in office when the attacks occurred, and a handful of other officials. If the space constraints are in fact set in stone, even uninviting the politicians would not allow first responders to attend.
The injustice, then, isn’t so much that politicians were chosen over first responders — it is that city officials did not make enough room for everyone who deserves to be at ground zero for the anniversary.
7 September
The 9/11 Anniversary Reader: Liberals vs. Neocons Edition
Reading the coverage so you don’t have to — from left to right.
(Foreign Policy) In the lead editorial for their 9/11-themed issue, the Nation‘s editors lament America’s missed opportunity to take advantage of the national solidarity that followed the attacks:
Lost, too, was the chance for a politics built around the kind of social solidarity embodied by those first responders and expressed by the society so moved by their sacrifice. Instead, thanks largely to the administration of George W. Bush, we got a politics of fear that helped launch a long “war on terror,” which in turn gave us a lost decade of American life.
… If the Weekly Standard editors were more subdued than normal, their fellow neocons at Commentary came out swinging. Abe Greenwald kicks things off with a full-throated defense of post-9/11 counterterrorism policies, including the Iraq war.
Chomsky: 9/11 – was there an alternative?
Suppression of one’s own crimes is virtually ubiquitous among powerful states, at least those that are not defeated.
(Al Jazzera) A number of analysts have observed that although bin Laden was finally killed, he won some major successes in his war against the US. “He repeatedly asserted that the only way to drive the US from the Muslim world and defeat its satraps was by drawing Americans into a series of small but expensive wars that would ultimately bankrupt them,” Eric Margolis writes. “‘Bleeding the US,’ in his words. The United States, first under George W Bush and then Barack Obama, rushed right into bin Laden’s trap … Grotesquely overblown military outlays and debt addiction … may be the most pernicious legacy of the man who thought he could defeat the United States” – particularly when the debt is being cynically exploited by the far right, with the collusion of the Democrat establishment, to undermine what remains of social programs, public education, unions, and, in general, remaining barriers to corporate tyranny.
6 September
The 9/11 Anniversary Reader
[Foreign Policy] sift[s] through the glut of 10th-anniversary coverage, so you don’t have to.
With the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaching, it seems like everyone’s going big with reminiscences of the day and reflections on the events that followed. There are memorial editions of magazines, newspaper packages, television specials, and expert panels galore — all remembering, debating, and ruminating on where we’ve come in the decade since.
How 9/11 has shaped a generation of Americans
The terrorist attacks have become this generation’s Pearl Harbor – an epic event that has changed young peoples’ view of the world and America’s place in it.
(CSM) For many it was the first time they’d seen adults cry; the first time they’d felt their security threatened; the first time the outside world had reached through the television screen and tapped them on the shoulder, figuratively speaking.
Not all of them learned Arabic. Not all of them joined the military. Their lives may have been affected by Facebook and new social networks as much as by the visage of Osama bin Laden.
But for those born after the early 1980s, Islamist terrorism has become their tiger in the smoke – the main unpredictable threat to the nation, as was nuclear war in an earlier era. These so-called Millennials have grown up in an age of insecurity and that has made them different from their Generation X predecessors.
Tom Brokaw: ‘Unknowable Future’
A decade after 9/11, Tom Brokaw reflects on his Op-Ed from Sept. 28, 2001, and the need for the whole country to share some of the sacrifices made by military families.
US alert over ‘credible 9/11 terror threat’
Officials say manhunt is under way for suspects as New York and Washington raise security ahead of attacks’ anniversary.
(Al Jazeera) US officials have said they are investigating a credible but unconfirmed threat of a terror attack, reportedly involving bomb-laden vehicles ahead of this weekend’s 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
“There is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information,” the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Thursday.
“We have taken, and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate any threats that arise,” the department added in a statement.
Harper to spend 9/11 in New York City
“On this day, we will pay tribute to Canadians, Americans and all those who lost their lives nearly 10 years ago in these heinous attacks,” Harper said in a news release issued Friday. “As we pay tribute to the victims and their loved ones, we also honour members of the military, law enforcement and intelligence personnel who continue to fight on the front lines against all forms of terrorism.”
Harper will fly to New York on Saturday to attend a private reception for Canadian families who lost loved ones in the terrorist attack a decade ago.
The next day, he will attend a public memorial in honour of the 26 Canadians who were killed in the attacks. The event will occur at the British Garden, a small park in the heart of Lower Manhattan that was created in the aftermath of 9/11 to memorialize British victims of the attack.
Al Qaeda’s Challenge
William McCants
(Foreign Affairs) On 9/11, the global jihadist movement burst into the world’s consciousness, but a decade later, thanks in part to the Arab Spring and the killing of Osama bin Laden, it is in crisis. With Western-backed dictators falling, al Qaeda might seem closer than ever to its goal of building Islamic states. But the revolutions have empowered the group’s chief rivals instead: Islamist parliamentarians, who are willing to use ballots, not bombs.
The Arab Spring and the death of Osama bin Laden represent a moment of both promise and peril for the global jihadist movement. On the one hand, the overthrow of secular rulers in the heartland of the Muslim world gives jihadists an unprecedented opportunity to establish the Islamic states that they have long sought. On the other hand, jihadists can no longer rally behind their most charismatic leader, bin Laden. And the jihadist flagship that he founded, al Qaeda, may lose its relevance in the Muslim world to rival Islamist groups that are prepared to run in elections and take power through politics.
8 September
Christie Blatchford: New York 9/11 memorials miss the full picture
how is it possible that the critical element of the day known as 9/11 — that it was a deliberate attack by Islamic death stars upon civilians living in one of the most vibrant and diverse democracies in the world — and the single most important people, the city’s beloved firefighters, have been forgotten, or if not quite that, then elbowed aside, in modern parlance, marginalized? How can that possibly have happened?
The New York Daily News broke the story last month under a headline that read, City Snubs Finest, and reported that those from the New York Police Department, the Fire Department of New York and rescue workers who flooded the site and stayed for weeks or months, the grim work breaking their hearts and endangering their health, haven’t been invited to the 10th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero this Sunday.
Only families of those killed in the attacks are invited, the story said, with city officials citing space and security concerns as the reason.
7 September
9/11 Conspiracy Files: 10 Years On
(CBC The Passionate Eye) Investigates the conspiracy theories & questions that continue to swirl around the death of bin Laden & 9/11 ten years after the attack
On the tenth anniversary of 9/11Conspiracy Files re-examines whether the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were the work of Al Qaeda, or part of a much wider conspiracy.
Who was responsible for the attacks on the Twin Towers? A decade after their collapse and in the wake of the death of Osama Bin Laden, Conspiracy Files looks again at what really happened on 9/11. Featuring fresh CIA and FBI interviews, along with leading sceptics and new photographic evidence of American Airlines Flight 77 which crashed into the Pentagon, this programme analyses the evidence and looks at what makes conspiracy theories so powerful.
Christie Blatchford: Hard to reconcile Ground Zero with memories of 9/11
… in my first incarnation with the National Post, I was at Ground Zero by about midnight on the night of Sept. 11 — with the airports shuttered, a photographer and I drove down — and spent the next 12 hours smack in the middle of it and the following 10 days or so in Manhattan. We are very happy to see Christie Blatchford return (if only momentarily) to the writer who 10 years ago wrote incredibly sensitive reports from Manhattan. It is a good change from some of her more recent columns.
5 September
Al-Qaeda Lost the Battle Long Ago
(IPS) – Osama bin Laden didn’t live to see the 10th anniversary of Sep. 11. And his organisation, according to many U.S. government insiders, is on its last legs since his death at the hands of U.S. Special Forces in May. “We’re within reach of strategically defeating Al-Qaeda,” Defence Secretary Leon Panetta recently observed. Others disagree, pointing to the strength of Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
Both sides are wrong. In fact, Al-Qaeda had lost its battle even before Sep. 11, 2001. For all the pain and suffering that the terrorist attacks caused Americans, Al-Qaeda’s mission wasn’t focused on the United States, but rather on transforming the Muslim world.
The Muslim world, however, wasn’t listening. Only 10 years later, with the turmoil of the Arab Spring still ongoing and the United States slowly and painfully trying to extricate itself from the quagmires in which it got drawn, can we finally begin to understand the larger significance of 9/11.
2 September
Canadian Skywalkers Fly High in NY
(CBC) Mohawk and Newfoundland ironworkers carry on a family tradition as they work to rebuild 1 World Trade Center, set to be America’s tallest building
27 August
Mohawk “skywalkers” continue to help shape N.Y. skyline
(Canada.com) NEW YORK — Each morning, Steve Cross rides an elevator up to his job in the clouds.
He is part of a team of steel-nerved ironworkers constructing the World Trade Center’s signature tower, the 105-story One World Trade Center.
Not only is he working on one of the country’s most significant projects, he is continuing a legacy — more than a century old — of Mohawk First Nation ironworkers from Canada helping to shape the Manhattan skyline.
24 August
9/11 Exclusion Spurs Outrage
Religious leaders are calling on Mayor Michael Bloomberg to reverse course and offer clergy a role in the ceremony commemorating the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
(WSJ) Rudy Washington, a deputy mayor in former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s administration, said he’s outraged. Mr. Washington organized an interfaith ceremony at Yankee Stadium shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
“This is America, and to have a memorial service where there’s no prayer, this appears to be insanity to me,” said Mr. Washington, who has suffered severe medical problems connected to the time he spent at Ground Zero. “I feel like America has lost its way.”

More than seven years after 9/11, this is what the World Trade Center site looks like
(3 October 2008) Spencer Platt/Getty Images