9/11 Attacks Obama Marks 11th Anniversary
On this day 11 years ago in America the twin towers were struck I would like to commemorate the victims and offer my deepest condolences and obviously Mark the event in history on my website.
President Barack Obama has marked the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, saying the US emerged “even stronger” from that day’s death and horror.
In New York, relatives are reading out the names of those killed when hijacked jets were crashed at the World Trade Center, Washington and Pennsylvania.
Mr Obama laid a wreath at the Pentagon and Vice-President Joe Biden is expected to speak at Shanksville.
For the first time, politicians will not address the ceremony in New York.
At the Pentagon, Mr Obama addressed survivors of the attacks and relatives of those killed. He told them their loved ones would never be forgotten, and that the dead had “helped us make the America we are today”.
“The true legacy of 9/11 will not be one of fear or hate or division,” Mr Obama said.
“It will be a safer world, a stronger nation, and a people more united than ever before.”
The National September 11 Memorial and Museum announced in July that this year’s ceremony at Ground Zero would include only relatives reading victims’ names.
Memorial President Joe Daniels said that, in an election year, it was “honouring the victims and their families in a way free of politics”.
Charles Wolf, whose wife Katherine was killed at the World Trade Center, said the absence of elected officials would make the event more intimate for the families.
“We’ve gone past that deep, collective public grief,” he said.
In the aftermath of the 2001 attacks, the US launched a campaign to destroy the al-Qaeda network headed by Osama Bin Laden.
A team of elite US troops killed the al-Qaeda chief in a raid on his Pakistani compound last year.
On the eve of this year’s 9/11 anniversary, the Pakistani doctor who the Americans say helped them to locate Bin Laden said he had been unaware he was involved with the US operation.
Speaking for the first time since his arrest, Shakil Afridi told Fox News he did not think he needed to escape after the killing but was then kidnapped by Pakistan’s ISI intelligence agency.
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