Translated material
The day that broke hearts
Americans remember victims of terrorist attacks by name
Yesterday in the United States we remembered the victims of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 . For the first time in six years, 9/11 fell on a Tuesday again. True, the weather in New York yesterday was different - cloudy and rainy, in contrast to the sunny beginning of that terrible day.US President George W. Bush attended a prayer service at St. John's Episcopal Church at 7:30 a.m. and then held a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House. For New Yorkers, the moment of silence in memory of the tragedy of September 11, 2001 actually lasts four minutes at short intervals. The country comes to a standstill as two hijacked suicide planes crash into the World Trade Center (WTC) towers, and as the Twin Towers themselves collapse.
For the first time yesterday, an official ceremony in New York took place in a location other than the location of the terrorist attack. This is caused by large-scale construction work taking place on the site of the collapsed towers. The victims were remembered in nearby Zuccotti Park, southeast of the former World Trade Center. The ceremony began at 8:40 a.m. to the sound of bagpipes and drumming. It lasted more than four hours, during which firefighters and volunteers, the same ones who six years ago rescued people from the rubble of the World Trade Center and cleared away the ruins full of corpses, announced the name list of all victims of the terrorist attack on New York. Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the events of September 11, 2001 as "the day that tore our history and our hearts apart." "We come together once again as New Yorkers and Americans to share a loss that cannot be measured," he said at the funeral ceremony.
The memory of the victims was also honored by the former mayor of New York, and now one of the leaders of the presidential election race, Rudolph Giuliani. His decision to ascend the funeral podium drew criticism in the United States. Many family members of the victims accused Giuliani of trying to score political points. The former mayor had to justify himself: “I was here when it happened, and since then I have been here every year,” he recalled and called his presence at the funeral ceremony “a personal choice.”
Thousands of relatives of the victims still had the opportunity to lay flowers at the place where the skyscrapers rose. The authorities backed down after family members of the victims of the attacks threatened through the media to organize “shadow” memorial events if they were not allowed passage to “Point Zero,” as the dusty stone patch on the site of the Twin Towers is called in the United States.
Meanwhile, the number of victims of terrorist attacks has been increasing over the years. Many of those who survived those terrible events or participated in rescue efforts suffered from respiratory diseases in subsequent years, which doctors associated with the consequences of the disaster. Some died. So, yesterday the name of one of these victims was added to the mournful list for the first time. Felicia Dunn-Jones received the 2974th serial number. On September 11, 2001, she was in a law office building one block from the collapsed towers. Five months later, Felicia died from a pulmonary disease, which doctors considered to be a consequence of the terrorist attack.
Of the 2,974 people officially recognized as victims of the attacks, 2,750 died as a result of the strike on the World Trade Center. 184 people died in the Pentagon building, on which one of the planes hijacked by terrorists crashed.
A memorial ceremony was also held yesterday at the American Defense Department, near the wall into which the plane crashed. “I don’t have words to express to you what’s on my heart, what’s in our hearts, what our compatriots are thinking today. We only hope that today’s ritual will somehow help reduce your suffering,” with these words the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Army, General Peter Pace, addressed the relatives of the victims of the terrorist attacks.
Another 40 dead were on board the plane, which the terrorists failed to use as a bomb. Its passengers resisted, and then the Islamic terrorists who took control of the helm shouted “Allahu Akbar!” crashed the aircraft into a deserted field near the town of Shanksville in Pennsylvania. The funeral ceremony at the site of the plane crash began yesterday a few minutes before the fateful clock reading - 9:55 am. “Short but solemn,” is how one of its organizers, Kevin Newlin, a representative of the local national park service, described the ceremony. The surrounding area was filled with the ringing of bells, and a mournful list of the dead passengers and crew members was read out at the memorial at the site of the plane crash.
The total number of suicide bombers who participated in the attack is 19 people. Today in the United States, many fear that new al-Qaeda emissaries could come to replace them at any moment. US Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday that authorities are concerned about the possible presence of terrorist "sleeper cells" in the country and remain vigilant against the threat of new terrorist attacks. “We are safer, but we are not safe yet,” he emphasized on the television program “Good Morning America!” According to him, al-Qaeda “intends to carry out an operation in the United States that will lead to mass casualties.” “We have prevented some attempts, and we must prevent all others. But we are not sure that we can do this 100%,” added Mike McConnell.
Terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden himself yesterday distributed a 47-minute video containing the will of one of the suicide bombers, Saudi Walid al-Shehri. “We will get you from front and behind, right and left,” the terrorist threatened the residents of the United States. His address was preceded by a call from the head of al-Qaeda for his supporters to join the “caravan” of martyrs. American experts confirmed yesterday that the voice on the tape indeed belongs to terrorist number one.