11 September 2018 - 17th Anniversary of 9/11
U.S. Marks the 17th Anniversary of 9/11 With Somber Tributes and a New Monument
Jennifer Peltz (TIME Magazine, 11/09/2018)
Americans are commemorating 9/11 with somber tributes, volunteer projects and a new monument to victims, after a year when two attacks demonstrated the enduring threat of terrorism in the nation’s biggest city.
Thousands of 9/11 victims’ relatives, survivors, rescuers and others are expected at Tuesday’s anniversary ceremony at the World Trade Center, while President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will head to the two other places where hijacked planes crashed on Sept. 11, 2001, in the deadliest terror attack on American soil.
The president and first lady Melania Trump plan to join an observance at the Sept. 11 memorial in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where a new “Tower of Voices” was dedicated Saturday. Pence is attending a ceremony at the Pentagon. Trump, a Republican and native New Yorker, took the occasion of last year’s anniversary to issue a stern warning to extremists that “America cannot be intimidated.”
The long legacy of 9/11
Editorial Board (San Fransisco Chronicle, 11/09/2018)
Few Americans who were alive on Sept. 11, 2001, ever will forget where they were and how they reacted when they heard the news. The consequence of the worst attack on the United States since Pearl Harbor was instantly apparent. America was about to change in myriad ways.
Seventeen years later, the change has been every bit as profound and enduring as anticipated. Enhanced surveillance and security measures adopted in the aftermath of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people have become entrenched. The federal bureaucracy was overhauled and expanded to identify and thwart potential threats, with the Department of Homeland Security overseeing the mission.
It took nearly a decade, but a daring mission ultimately exacted lethal revenge on Osama bin Laden, the terrorist kingpin behind the hijacking plot. His presence in Pakistan only added to persistent questions about that nation’s reliability and efficacy as a partner in the war on terrorism.
'A cesspool of cancer' - 17 years on from 9/11, illnesses still abound
Erin Durkin (The Guardian, 11/09/2018)
John Mormando was in the best shape of his life – a marathon runner and triathlete training for an Ironman competition – when he noticed a small bump on his chest this past March.
He had it checked out by a doctor, and soon received the shocking diagnosis: breast cancer.
“I was floored. I was totally floored,” he said.
9/11 Lost and Found: The Items Left Behind
Madison Horne (History, 10/09/2018)
The attacks of September 11, 2001 killed almost 3,000 people, shocked the world and forever seared 9/11 into memory as a date filled with tragedy, loss and heroism. Artifacts recovered from the attacks, meanwhile, became imbued with solemn significance.
By September 12, anyone who had survived the collapse of the World Trade Center and became trapped in the rubble, had been recovered. Ground Zero workers then began the heartbreaking and dangerous job of searching for remains through massive mounds of debris.
By May 2002, workers had moved more than 108,000 truckloads–1.8 million tons–of rubble to a Staten Island landfill. However, fires burned underground for months, leaving downtown Manhattan in smoke and dust with the intense smell of burning rubber, plastic and steel.