New York to mark 9/11 anniversary amid the coronavirus pandemic

NEW YORK - With crime on the rise, shops and apartments increasingly vacant and homeless people on the sidewalks, New York on Friday will mark the 19th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic and a bitter fight with the White House.

The city will hold its annual ceremony in memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the bloodiest terrorist attack in US history, punctuated by a minute's silence at the exact moments that Al-Qaeda jihadists crashed two hijacked airplanes into the World Trade Center towers.

Instead of reading out the roll call of the dead, this year the families of victims have recorded themselves. But they will still be present at the "Ground Zero" memorial.

The site museum will also open for the first time since the novel coronavirus brought the city to a standstill in March. 

Almost two decades after the attacks, September 11 remains synonymous with New York's heroism and resilience. 

City leaders have emphasized the latter in the past months as the COVID-19 infection rate -- which killed 23,00 people here, the early epicenter of the disease in the United States -- has been lowered to under one percent.

New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday reminded New Yorkers that their resilience is likely to be tested once again by the social and economic "after-effects" of the pandemic.

- Offices empty until 2021? -

Gale Brewer, president of borough of Manhattan, recognizes that the island renowned for its hustle and energy now faces an array of problems.

Some of these stem directly from the coronavirus pandemic: almost all the white collar workers, such as bankers, traders and insurance employees, have been working from home since March. This has emptied Manhattan's business hubs, leaving thousands of small stores and restaurants without customers.

Boris Tulchinskiy, a 26-year-old software engineer, misses Manhattan but expects to "keep working from home" in neighboring New Jersey until July 2021.

If the more than 60 million tourists who visit New York every year have gone, so too have New Yorkers, fleeing the city by the thousands. 

At least 35,000 people have moved out of Manhattan, judging by requests for absentee ballots for November's presidential elections, Brewer said.

Many businesses are now shuttered: between 2017 and 2020, the number of vacant commercial spaces has almost doubled, up by 78 percent, she said.

Homeless people are now more visible due to the closure of numerous shelters for health reasons, and the transfer of almost 13,000 to live in less contagious conditions in Manhattan's vacant hotels.

The rise in homicides and shootings -- up 47 percent and 166 percent in August, compared with the previous year -- is one of the more striking aspects of the crisis hitting the city.

Even if it is still far below the endemic levels of crime that plagued the city in the 1970s and 80s, New York, which prided itself on being one of the world's safest cities, has now slipped back to 2012 crime levels, the New York Times reported.

- Trump wants to 'kill New York' - 

"I can't tell you how many phone calls I get from people especially in New York City, who are literally worried about the degradation of New York City," governor Cuomo said Tuesday.

Even as the city shows signs of revival -- which include museums reopening in late August and restaurants welcoming diners inside in late September -- its full recovery could take up to three years, Brewer said, citing the estimates of realtors.

In the meantime, and less than two months from one of the most bitterly fought presidential contests in history, the crisis has become the focus of a dispute with Republican President Donald Trump.

The native New Yorker, who made his name in real estate, insists that the rise in crime in the Democratic bastion is due to the incompetence of its leaders. On Tuesday, he once again accused the mayor and the governor of "destroying" the city.

New York officials in turn slammed Trump's refusal to free up billions in emergency federal funds to help the city through the worst of the crisis.

"Trump is actively trying to kill New York City. It is personal. I think it's psychological," Cuomo said. "He is trying to kill New York City."

Agence France-Presse

Filipinos join commemoration of 9/11 attacks in New York

NEW YORK – Thousands gathered at the National September 11 Memorial Plaza here to remember victims of the 9/11 terror attacks 18 years ago.

Twenty Filipinos were among the nearly 3,000 people who perished in the coordinated terror attacks by the Al Qaeda group, then led by Osama din Laden.

The bell rung to mark the exact times of when the planes hit the World Trade Center and when the twin towers fell.

The planes hit the North Tower at 8:46 a.m. and the South Tower at 9:03 a.m. The South Tower collapsed at 9:59 a.m. -- 56 minutes after impact-- while the North Tower collapsed at 10:28 a.m. --- an hour and 42 minutes after impact.

As in years past, the names of all the victims were called, among them Filipino cousins Maria Theresa Santillan and Judy Hazel Santillan Fernandez. Both died at 27 years old.

"Parang kahapon lang nangyari, itong 18 years masyadong mabilis, it hurts," said Judy’s father Expedito Santillan.

(It seems like only yesterday, 18 years went by so fast. It hurts.)

Maria Theresa was working in human resources at the Cantor Fitzgerald on Tower 1 when the attack happened. Her cousin and co-worker Judy was not even supposed to be there at that time.

"I think she’s off but it just so happen she went to the building and then it happened," said Maria Theresa’s mother Ester Concepcion Santillan.

To keep the memories alive for the thousands of lives lost and the countless heroes of the 9/11 terror attacks, New York has started a new tradition: the September 11th Remembrance Day.

The city’s new law requires all public schools to observe a moment of silence every September 11 to remind the younger generation that in America’s darkest day, people showed courage, sacrifice, support and love.

"I’m very appreciative. We should never forget, these are 3,000 innocent people that lost their lives that day and then and to have New York recognize that is very important to my family – If they could establish this in other states that would be great," said Judy’s brother, Richard Fernandez.

Over 6,000 others were injured and at least $10 billion in infrastructure and property were damaged. In the attacks. Many more died of 911 related cancer and respiratory diseases in the aftermath of the attacks.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijacked four passenger airlines --- two of which crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center --- which led to the towers’ collapse.

The third plane hit the Pentagon in Virginia and the fourth crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Before heading to the Pentagon for a ceremony, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump commemorated the 9/11 terror attacks with a moment of silence at the White House South Lawn.

Read more on Balitang America:

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Hong Kong protesters hit pause in memory of 9/11 attacks

HONG KONG - Hong Kong activists called off protests on Wednesday in remembrance of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and denounced a Chinese state newspaper report that they were planning "massive terror" in the Chinese-ruled city.

Hong Kong has been rocked by months of sometimes violent unrest, prompted by anger over planned legislation to allow extraditions to China, but broadening into calls for democracy and for Communist rulers in Beijing to leave the city alone.

"Anti-government fanatics are planning massive terror attacks, including blowing up gas pipes, in Hong Kong on September 11," the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily said on its Facebook page, alongside a picture of the hijacked airliner attacks on the twin towers in New York.

"The 9/11 terror plot also encourages indiscriminate attacks on non-native speakers of Cantonese and starting mountain fires." The post said "leaked information was part of the strategy being schemed by radical protesters in their online chat rooms."

The former British colony of Hong Kong returned to China in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula that guarantees freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland, including an independent legal system, triggering the anger over the extradition bill.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has said she would withdraw the bill but many Hong Kong residents fear Beijing is steadily eroding the autonomy of the Asian financial hub.

China denies meddling and has accused the United States, Britain and others of fomenting the unrest.

"We don’t even need to do a fact check to know that this is fake news," said one protester, Michael, 24, referring to the China Daily post. 

"The state media doesn’t care about its credibility. Whenever something they claimed to have heard on WhatsApp or friends’ friends, they will spread it right away."

The protesters called off action on Wednesday.

"In solidarity against terrorism, all forms of protest in Hong Kong will be suspended on Sept. 11, apart from potential singing and chanting," they said in a statement.

The China Daily report was worrying, said another protester, Karen, 23. "When they try to frame the whole protest with those words, it alarms me," she said. "They are predicting rather than reporting. I think people calling it off today is a nice move."

FAMILY FRICTIONS

The chairwoman of the Hong Kong Federation of Women, Pansy Ho, a prominent businesswoman and daughter of Macau casino operator Stanley Ho, said she was worried about violent extremism.

"Children of all ages are indoctrinated with police hatred and anti-establishment beliefs at school and online mobilized to conduct massive school strikes," she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Lam said in a speech on Wednesday that Hong Kong was grappling with significant challenges.

"My fervent hope is that we can bridge our divide by upholding the one country, two systems principle, and the Basic Law, and through the concerted efforts of the government and the people of Hong Kong," she told business leaders.

The Basic Law is Hong Kong's mini constitution.

Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd has become the biggest corporate casualty of the unrest after China demanded it suspend staff involved in, or who support, the protests.

Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday inbound traffic to Hong Kong in August fell 38 percent and outbound traffic 12 percent compared to a year earlier, and that it did not anticipate September to be any less difficult.

Joshua Wong, one of the prominent leaders of the 2014 "Umbrella" pro-democracy movement which brought key streets in Hong Kong to a standstill for 79 days, said in Berlin that the fight for democracy was an uphill battle.

"I hope one day not only Hong Kong people, but also people in mainland China, can enjoy freedom and democracy," he said.

The protests spread to the sports field on Tuesday, as many football fans defied Chinese law to boo the national anthem ahead of a soccer World Cup qualifier against Iran.

Several peaceful protests are planned for the next few days, combining with celebrations marking the Mid-Autumn Festival.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

World commemorates 911 attacks

A man walks by the Tribute in Light, lit to commemorate the 18th anniversary of September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, USA, Tuesday. The world commemorates the 911 attacks, where nearly 3,000 people were killed after 19 hijackers crashed commercial jets into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.

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Years later, cancer cases linger over 9/11 anniversary

NEW YORK - Jacquelin Febrillet was 26 years old on September 11, 2001 when jihadist hijackers flew two passenger jets into the World Trade Center just two blocks from where she worked.

Fifteen years after the attacks that day, Febrillet, by then a mother of three, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer. The likely cause: a cloud of toxic ash that engulfed her.

"I was there (on) 9/11... For years I have been working down there every day since 9/11. We were never told that something could happen," she says.

Unlike Febrillet, Richard Fahrer, then 19, wasn't in the area on 9/11, but he regularly worked as a land surveyor between 2001 and 2003 in south Manhattan, where the Twin Towers came crashing down.

Eighteen months ago, the young father, now 37, was diagnosed with aggressive colon cancer -- a disease that usually affects older men and which there is no history of in his family.

Febrillet and Fahrer represent a growing category of patient who were living or working close to the World Trade Center in the wake of the attacks, which killed almost 3,000 people.

They were not among the thousands of emergency personnel who rushed to the site or who spent months clearing debris at Ground Zero, but their health is being similarly affected.

As the 18th anniversary of the attacks approaches, New York continues to count the number of people who have developed cancer or other serious illnesses related to the toxic cloud that hovered over Manhattan for several weeks.

'PEOPLE ARE DYING'

The 9/11 attacks released unprecedented amounts of chemicals into the air, including dioxins, asbestos and other carcinogenic substances.

Firefighters, other first responders and volunteers who helped with the months-long clean-up were the first to be affected. Studies found they faced an increased risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Ten thousand of them have been diagnosed with cancer by the World Trade Center Health Program, a federal treatment program helping survivors.

At the end of June this year, 21,000 people not considered first responders were also in the program -- twice as many as in June 2016. Of these, almost 4,000 have cancer, the most common being prostate, breast and skin.

Febrillet, now 44, is one of them. She recalls that the message at the time was to get the city back to normal as quickly as possible.

"People were just going about their business a few days later. But look at what happened a few years later, people are dying," says Febrillet, who also lived close to Ground Zero.

Fahrer, too, laments that city officials did not do more to protect residents and office staff in the vicinity.

"My wife asks me, 'Did terrorists cause your cancer?' I can't say 100 percent, but I do know there could have been better efforts to limit the exposure of healthy adults from entering into the disaster area," he says.

COMPENSATION FUND

Health experts say it is impossible to pinpoint exactly the cause of cancer in every patient, but note that there is a clear correlation between the rate and exposure to toxic debris.

Several studies have shown that the cancer rate "has increased between 10 and 30 percent" among people who were exposed compared to those who weren't, David Prezant, New York fire department chief medical officer, told AFP.

The rate is expected to increase further, he said, as exposed people get older. The risk of cancer increases with age and some cancers, including lung, can take 20 to 30 years to develop, Prezant added.

It is because of this that President Donald Trump signed a bill in July that extends a deadline for victims to file claims for compensation from December 2020 to 2090.

The Victim Compensation Fund will be regularly topped up after exhausting its initial budget of $7.3 billion. The average compensation per patient is $240,000, or $682,000 for a deceased person.

Lawyer Matthew Baione, who represents Fahrer and Febrillet in their pursuit of claims, said the extension recognized that it was appropriate to cover someone "who was a baby during the attacks for the rest of their life."

"We have lost so many people, so many friends are sick," says Febrillet

"You get to a point where you are not asking, 'Have you seen so and so, I wonder how she is doing, is she retired?'

"Instead you are asking, 'So how is the surgery, how is the treatment going?' We are so young, this shouldn't be happening."

cat/pdh/wd

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Accused 9/11 mastermind open to role in victims' lawsuit if not executed

NEW YORK - The accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has indicated a willingness to be deposed by victims who are suing Saudi Arabia for damages, if the United States decides not to seek the death penalty against him.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's offer was disclosed late Friday in a letter filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan by lawyers representing individuals and businesses seeking billions of dollars in damages.

The Saudi government has long denied involvement in the attacks, in which hijacked airplanes crashed into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C., and a Pennsylvania field. Nearly 3,000 people died.

Michael Kellogg, a Washington-based lawyer for the Saudi government, declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier about the letter.

According to the letter, the plaintiffs' lawyers have been in contact with lawyers for five witnesses in federal custody about their availability for depositions.

The lawyers said three, including Mohammed, are housed at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detention camp, where they face capital charges, while two are at the "Supermax" maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado.

According to the letter, Mohammed would not agree "at the present time" to be deposed, but that could change.

"Counsel stated that 'the primary driver' of this decision is the 'capital nature of the prosecution' and that ' n the absence of a potential death sentence much broader cooperation would be possible,'" the letter said.

Mohammed and the other Guantanamo detainees have been attending pre-trial hearings in their cases, the letter said.

James Kreindler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said it was not clear how useful Mohammed might be.

"We're just really leaving no stone unturned," he said.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Saudi Arabia long had broad immunity from Sept. 11 lawsuits in the United States. But that changed in September 2016 when the U.S. Congress overrode President Barack Obama's veto of the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act ("JASTA").

In March 2018, U.S. District Judge George Daniels in Manhattan, who oversees the litigation by victims, said their claims "narrowly articulate a reasonable basis" for him to assert jurisdiction through JASTA over Saudi Arabia.

His decision covered claims by the families of those killed, roughly 25,000 people who suffered injuries and many businesses and insurers.

The case is In re: Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 03-md-01570.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

In commemoration of 9/11 attack

The Tribute in Light installation is illuminated over lower Manhattan as seen from The National September 11 Memorial & Museum marking the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City, USA on Tuesday.

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On 9/11 anniversary, Trump salutes 'heroes' of Flight 93

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump paid tribute Tuesday to the "heroes" who fought back against hijackers on September 11, 2001, vowing America would never flinch in the face of evil and that he would do whatever it takes to keep the country safe. 

Under a grey sky in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Trump praised the courage of the 40 men and women aboard Flight 93 who rushed the four hijackers who had diverted the plane and were targeting Washington.

"The passengers and crew members came together, took a vote, and they decided to act," Trump said. 

"They attacked the enemy. They fought until the very end. And they stopped the forces of terror and defeated this wicked, horrible evil plan."

He said the "brave patriots turned the tide on our nation's enemies and joined the immortal ranks of American heroes."

After calling their loved ones to say final farewells, many passengers aboard Flight 93 are believed to have charged the hijackers and prevented it from striking the US capital.

The plane crashed into a field in the rural Pennsylvanian town, where a permanent memorial called the "Tower of Voices" has been erected.

"This memorial is now a message to the world. America will never, ever submit to tyranny," Trump said, noting that nearly 5.5 million Americans have joined the US military since 9/11. 

"As commander-in-chief, I will always do everything in my power to prevent terrorists from striking American soil," the president added, while also paying tribute to the nearly 7,000 US service members who have been killed "facing down the menace of radical Islamic terrorism."

A short while earlier in Trump's native New York, at Ground Zero, there was a minute's silence at 8:46 am (1246 GMT), the moment the first of two hijacked airliners struck the World Trade Center.

In what has become an annual tradition, relatives began reading out the long list of those who were killed, saying a few words about those who died, in a ceremony that takes longer than three hours.

Deadliest ever attacks

In all, four planes were hijacked by Al-Qaeda militants who used them to topple the trade center's twin towers and hit the Pentagon. 

Flight 93 was the fourth plane.

With 2,996 people killed and more than 6,000 injured, the attacks remain the deadliest ever on US soil. 

They plunged the United States into a chain of rolling wars against Islamic jihadists.

At the Pentagon, a huge American flag was unfurled over the building's western side at sunrise, marking the spot where Flight 77 smashed into the military headquarters.

All 59 passengers and crew aboard the flight were killed, along with another 125 personnel working in the Pentagon.

During a ceremony at the Pentagon's 9/11 memorial site, where the names of the fallen are etched into a series of benches, Vice President Mike Pence touted Trump's support for the military.

"Last year, President trump signed the largest increase in our national defense in a generation," Pence said.

"And with that renewed support, we are giving our men and women in uniform and their commanding officers the resources and rules of engagement they need to fight and win where the perpetrators of this attack found safe haven."

In addition to those killed on September 11, thousands of first responders, construction workers and residents have since developed illness, many of them terminal, as a result of inhaling toxic fumes.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Estimating the cost of 9/11 attack, 16 years later

As the world marks 16 years since Al Qaeda struck the World Trade Center in New York City, economists and analysts struggle to estimate the scale of the damage from the attack on the world's financial capital. Michelle Ong gives a rundown in this report.

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Fil-Am families remember loved ones lost during 9/11

NEW YORK - It has been 15 years since the 9/11 terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, including about 20 Filipinos. The Twin Towers collapsed after two commercial planes hit the World Trade Center buildings.

On Sunday, about 8,000 people, including family and friends of the victims, gathered at the National September 11 memorial plaza.

Four moments of silence were observed at Ground Zero to remember those who died when each plane hit and when each tower fell that started at 8:46 in the morning of September 11, 2001.

Among those honored were Filipino cousins, Maria Theresa Santillan and Judy Hazel Santillan Fernandez, both 27 years old then.

“It’s been 15 years, yet the pain and sorrow is still felt by your family, relatives and friends. We all miss you dearly, kisses to everyone,” said their cousin, Bess Quilino.

Both were employees of Cantor Fitzgerald, an investment bank located at the World Trade Center that lost 658 employees.

About a dozen Santillan family members attend the yearly 9/11 commemoration.

Amelita Fabello-Poral, a Filipino nurse who worked at the NYU Hospital on 9/11, just two blocks away from ground zero says she will always remember September 11 as a day when Filipino nurses in New York stepped up to save lives.

“I’m very happy and proud as a registered nurse. Marami kaming mga Filipino din na mga nurses sa NYU Downtown Hospital, sa Beekman, and we really we’re able to help a lot of patients,” she said.

[I’m very happy and proud as a registered nurse. There are a lot of us Filipino nurses at the NYU Downtown Hospital in Beekman and we really were able to help a lot of patients.]

But for many New Yorkers, the stories of survival, loss of loved ones and the heroism of many will always be remembered not just on September 11 but for the rest of their lives.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

15 years after 9/11, America in perpetual war

WASHINGTON - The 9/11 attacks of 2001 forever changed America and upended its foreign and national security policy, leaving the country for the past 15 years in a war against jihadists -- without ending the upheaval in the Middle East.

Barack Obama, who will leave the White House in January, is the president who tried to get the US military out of the quagmires in Iraq and Afghanistan -- devastating "war on terror" conflicts launched by his predecessor George W. Bush in the wake of the suicide plane strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people.

But Obama's legacy on that front is mixed, with US forces still present in both countries.

And while he worked hard to bring America closer to the Muslim world, he will leave office with the United States bogged down in a seemingly endless conflict against Islamists at home and abroad, experts say.

"The evolving threat of Islamist terrorism compelled President Obama, against his own inclinations, to engage militarily in Iraq once again, and since then in Syria and Libya as well," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"The wars in the Middle East, the metastasis of ISIS, online radicalization and a series of attacks in European and American cities have made the paradigm of a 'global war on terror' very hard to set aside, even 15 years after 9/11," she wrote on the World Economic Forum website.

The US is also still engaged militarily, in limited form or on a purely logistical basis, in Afghanistan, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen to counter myriad threats.

"The thinking of the Obama administration is that big wars make things worse," Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute, told AFP.

So instead, Obama launched a new era in American warfare -- one dominated by drones, special forces and training for local fighters.

The human and financial costs of such engagements are more limited -- a significant fact, after the 5,300 US military personnel killed, 50,000 wounded and $1.6 trillion spent from 2001-2014 in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional data.

Obama's strategy had its best success in May 2011, when US special forces killed Al-Qaeda leader Obama bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 attacks, at his home in Pakistan.

But for Ibish, such a use of "limited resources... looks like a continuous war."

"It is even more than a permanent war because the limited resources cannot change the instability. It accepts the current chaos as being unsolvable," he added.

Evolving threats

In Syria, a lasting peace is still not at hand, though a fresh truce brokered by the United States and Russia -- both now involved militarily in the deadly conflict -- is due to begin Monday.

And a US military re-engagement in the Middle East is not in the plans of either of the candidates looking to succeed Obama -- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Fifteen years after the Twin Towers fell, forever changing New York's skyline, Obama said the terror threat facing America had "evolved," referring to lone-wolf attacks in the United States like the nightclub massacre in Orlando in June.

"So in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and beyond, we'll stay relentless against terrorists like Al-Qaeda and ISIL. We will destroy them. And we'll keep doing everything in our power to protect our homeland," he said Saturday in his weekly address.

Mass surveillance

As Amy Greene -- an American researcher at the prestigious Institute of Political Studies in Paris (Sciences-Po) -- pointed out, "there has not been an attack on US soil of the same scale" as the carefully planned 2001 attacks.

Of course, Washington still fears more small-scale attacks carried out by homegrown attackers, like the Orlando shooting that left 49 people dead or the San Bernardino attacks last December that left 14 dead.

Faced with ongoing threats, the United States has built up a massive surveillance apparatus in the post-9/11 era both at home and abroad.

The budget for the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency has nearly doubled since 2001.

"The threat that I think will dominate the next five years for the FBI will be the impact of the crushing of the caliphate, which will happen," Comey said this past week, referring to the Islamic State group.

Since the passage of the Patriot Act after 9/11, legislation maintained by Obama, "Americans have accepted the idea of giving up some of their freedoms," Greene said.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 40 percent of Americans fear that "the ability of terrorists to launch another major attack on the United States is greater than it was at the time of the 9/11 attacks."

That is the highest share expressing that fear since 2002.

On Saturday, the US State Department warned in its regular "worldwide caution" note to travelers on terror risks that the IS group had "called on supporters to attack US citizens and coalition partners wherever they are."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Obama leads US in remembrance of 9/11, urges vigilance

WASHINGTON, United States - President Barack Obama led the United States Friday in remembrance of 9/11, urging Americans to remain vigilant of "terrorist" threats on the 14th anniversary of the attacks.

Although US forces "have made enormous strides in degrading the core Al-Qaeda," the terror group responsible for the deadly strikes on US soil, "we are well aware of the fact that those threats still exist out there," Obama said in a speech broadcast live to US service members worldwide.

"Both in Iraq and in Syria, in Afghanistan, in North Africa, what we're very clear about is we have significant threats coming from terrorist organizations and the terrorist ideology," Obama warned from Fort Meade, Maryland.

Earlier in the day, at 8:46 am (1246 GMT), a bell chimed three times on the South Lawn of the White House to mark the moment when Flight 11, piloted by Al-Qaeda operatives, careened into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York.

Blue skies and the hum of jet planes landing and taking off at nearby National Airport evoked that day of tragedy.

Obama and his wife Michelle stood solemnly beneath a US flag at half-staff, bowed their heads and marked a moment of silence.

The first couple were flanked by White House chefs, gardeners and housekeepers, as well as national security staff.

Evidence of 9/11's impact was everywhere -- from Obama's stars and stripes lapel pin, now ubiquitous among US politicians, to the presence of Lisa Monaco, his Homeland Security Advisor -- a post that did not exist before the attacks.

Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001 at Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard a hijacked airliner that went down in rural Pennsylvania.

"We honor those we lost. We salute all who serve to keep us safe. We stand as strong as ever," Obama later said in a post to social media.

Almost a decade and a half later, Osama bin Laden is dead and the US presence in Afghanistan and Iraq has ebbed, but Americans' sense of loss and shock has receded little.

In New York, police and relatives of those killed in the World Trade Center read the names of the victims at Ground Zero, now the site of the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum.

At the Pentagon, dozens of family members watched as Defense Secretary Ashton Carter placed a large wreath of white flowers.

"They did not and could not take from us what defines us," Carter said.

- 'Forever war' -

As commemorations across the eastern United States replicated the timeline and solemn geography of September 11, 2001, there was also a reminder that the threat posed by Islamist terror groups remains both clear and present.

"The war that began fourteen years ago still rages around the world today," said Senator John McCain.

"With the forces of radical Islam once again ascendant in the Middle East and North Africa, we must aspire to recapture the spirit of unity that marked our public life in the wake of the 9/11 attacks," he said.

The United States must, he said, "devote ourselves with firm resolve to the lasting defeat of the enemies that attacked us that day, and who seek to attack us still today."

Counter-terror analysts were closely watching for threats from Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State group.

In 2012, a September 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Federal Bureau of Investigation chief James Comey said there were "not any specific or credible threats" this year, but that authorities were on alert.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How Fil-Ams remember 9/11 attacks

It's been nearly 14 years since the September 11 attacks. While many Filipinos in New York now feel relatively safe, the threat of terrorism remains. - ANC, The World Tonight, September 10, 2015

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World Trade Center skydivers 'sullied' 9/11 memories

NEW YORK, United States - Two base jumpers who skydived off the World Trade Center "sullied the memories" of victims of the 9/11 attacks, a New York judge said Monday, slapping them with hefty sentences of community service.

James Brady, 33, who was a steel worker at the site, and "ring leader" Andrew Rossig, 34, avoided jail sentences but were ordered to carry out 250 and 200 hours of community service respectively, and each was fined $2,000.

Their stunt in the early hours of September 30, 2013 has been watched by more than 3.5 million people on YouTube. T-shirts glorifying the jump are still sold on the Internet, the court heard.

The new Trade Center, also known as Freedom Tower, is the tallest building in the United States and is constructed on part of the site destroyed in the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

"After 9/11 the world changed, everything changed," said New York state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.

Brady and Rossig made a "very, very poor decision" to execute a base jump off "an iconic building constructed on hallowed ground," he said.

"In doing so these defendants tarnished the building before it even opened and sullied the memories of those who jumped on 9/11 not for sport but because they had to."

Dozens of people jumped out of the Twin Towers to escape the horrors of being burned to death after Al-Qaeda hijackers flew passenger liners into the Twin Towers.

Brady and Rossig walked onto the site -- under construction in 2013 -- at 3:00 am, climbing 104 flights to where Brady had hidden their gear and parachuted below.

Merchan said the feat was not heroic but "selfish and reckless, and they're fortunate their stunt did not result in tragedy."

'Won't happen again'

Brady and Rossig were found guilty by a jury in June of misdemeanors that included reckless endangerment and unauthorized jumping.

A third defendant, Marko Markovich, 28, is to be sentenced next week.

The defendants expressed regret.

"We didn't want this whole thing to get blown out of proportion," said Rossig. "It's never going to happen again."

"We're sorry and it won't happen again," said Brady.

The judge said their apologies were "hard to reconcile" with videos posted on YouTube and a follow-up interview in Maxim magazine, which the prosecution brandished in court.

"Frankly there have been times when it has come across that the defendants believed this was some sort of joke," said Merchan.

'Selfish act'
Assistant District Attorney Joseph Giovannetti had sought 60 days in jail, three years of probation, $2,000 in fines and 200 hours of community service.

The defendants put the lives, physical safety and property of New Yorkers at risk with their "totally gratuitous and selfish act," he said.

"They knew what they were doing was wrong every step of the way," he said, yet they did everything to "celebrate their perceived accomplishment."

Giovannetti said Brady was "the inside man" who betrayed his contract to break into the construction site and who fed detectives false information in an attempt to mislead the investigation.

Rossig was "the ring leader and the instigator," who befriended Brady in order to gain access to Freedom Tower, the prosecutor said.

Rossig's lawyer Timothy Parlatore said no one in the history of New York had ever gone to jail for base jumping.

Police were tipped off when the manager of a local bagel store watched one of the men, dressed in black, come down and rush off. The defendants were arrested six months later.

The judge defended what was initially a counter-terrorism investigation "given the history of what happened at the Trade Center and given the history of what's going on around the world."

"We can't have people jumping off One World Trade Center downtown," he added.

Rossig, described as a skilled carpenter, will serve his punishment with a charity that builds and renovates homes for disabled veterans.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Bin Laden relatives killed in UK plane crash

YATELEY, United Kingdom -- Members of Osama bin Laden's family were among four people killed when a private jet crashed into a car auction lot in Britain, Saudi Arabia's embassy in London and British police said Saturday.

While the embassy did not identify the dead, a source close to the family speaking to AFP and Saudi media indicated that they were bin Laden's stepmother Raja Hashim, his sister Sanaa, the sister's husband Zuhair Hashem, and a Jordanian pilot.

The Saudi-registered Phenom 300 jet came down on Friday as it tried to land at Blackbushe Airport, a small airfield in Hampshire, southern England.

The police have launched an investigation into what caused the crash alongside the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

The Saudi ambassador "offered his condolences to the sons of the late Mohammed bin Laden and their relations for the grave incident of the crash of the plane carrying members of the family," a statement posted on the embassy's Twitter account said.

The embassy also said it would work with British authorities to investigate the incident and repatriate the bodies for burial in Saudi Arabia.

A police spokesman confirmed that three passengers and the pilot had died.

"We do believe three of the deceased to be the mother, sister and brother-in-law of the owner of the aircraft, all of whom are from the Bin Laden family, but formal post-mortem examinations are ongoing," the spokesman said.

"They were Saudi Arabian nationals and visiting the UK on vacation," he said.

- 'Big column of smoke' -

Osama bin Laden, the leader of the Al-Qaeda militant network and the man behind the 9/11 attacks, was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011.

His father Mohammed, a construction magnate with 54 children, died in a plane crash in Saudi Arabia in 1967.

Footage of the aftermath of Friday's crash showed plumes of black smoke rising into the sky and several cars on fire in the outdoor area of British Car Auctions, where vehicles were parked awaiting sale.

On its website, Blackbushe Airport says it "provides some of the finest executive and private aviation facilities anywhere in the UK".

Robert Belcher, a local plane enthusiast who witnessed the aftermath of the crash, said the jet had been a "regular visitor" to the airport in recent months.

"I was passing the airport on my way home and there was a big column of smoke in the air," he said.

"I could see the plume of smoke waving from about five miles (eight kilometres) away and was hoping it was just a car fire rather than an aircraft accident."

Saudi Arabia's General Authority of Civil Aviation said in a statement Friday that the plane was registered in the Gulf state and that it would work with British investigators to determine the cause of the crash.

British media reported that the aircraft had taken off from Milan's Malpensa airport in Italy.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

With World Trade site largely rebuilt, New York marks September 11

NEW YORK - Until a few months ago, the part of New York City where crowds will gather on Thursday morning to mark the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States had been mostly fenced off to the public.

This year, for perhaps the first time since the attacks, a sense of normalcy and openness has taken root in the city blocks where two airliners hijacked by militants from al Qaeda crashed into the World Trade Center's twin towers.

Rebuilding efforts at the site, where 2,753 people died, are nearing completion. The area, by turns a smoldering grave and an off-limits construction site for more than a decade, is now increasingly reconnected with the surrounding streets.

Against that backdrop, politicians, families of those who died in the attacks and other dignitaries will gather on Thursday to observe moments of silence and hear recitations of nearly 3,000 victims' names. It has become an annual ritual.

Similar ceremonies will also be held in Washington, where a hijacked plane plowed into the Pentagon, and the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where another hijacked plane crashed.

In New York, it is the first commemoration ceremony since the opening of the 9/11 museum and the adjoining repository for unidentified human remains at the site. That is an important milestone for families of the victims, officials say.

"For the first time this year, because the museum opened in May, family members will be able to visit the museum as part of the commemoration," Michael Frazier, a museum spokesman, said.

While lower Manhattan may look and feel different this year, the external threat to the United States represented by the 9/11 attacks still weighs. Islamic State, a militant group that began as an offshoot of al Qaeda, is viewed by Washington as an increasing danger.

The Islamist group, which released videos of its fighters beheading two American hostages, has even revived fears of an attack on American soil.

U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to announce his strategy to fight Islamic State on Wednesday evening, about 12 hours before the Sept. 11 commemorations begin.

Although the reconstruction has been plagued by delays, two of the new skyscrapers built around the site of the fallen twin towers are now open, while 1 World Trade Center, the tallest skyscraper in the Western hemisphere, is due to open later this year.

Thousands of tourists pose for photographs each day around the two memorial waterfalls that mark the footprints of the towers, set in a paved plaza dotted with trees, before lining up to visit the subterranean museum about the attack.

Critics have said that the plaza, with its unusually prohibitive rules for a city public space and deliberate lack of garbage cans, is of little use to people who live or work in the area.

Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic for the New York Times, described the plaza as "formal, gigantic, impersonal, flat, built to awe, something for tourists."

Obama is expected to speak at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, during a private ceremony on Thursday morning for relatives of the people killed in the attack on the building.

The only ceremony open to the general public is at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania, which marks the site where one of the four airliners crashed.

The Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian award, honoring the passengers and crew who were aboard that flight, will go on public display for the first time, the National Park Service said.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

9/11 defendants ask for 'Zero Dark Thirty' court screening

WASHINGTON - The five alleged 9/11 plotters should be allowed the same access to classified information as the makers of 2012 hit film "Zero Dark Thirty," a US military tribunal in Guantanamo Bay was to hear this week.

In a series of pre-trial hearings from Monday, the tribunal was to consider the request made in July by defense attorney James Connell, who asked that 20 minutes of the film be aired in court.

"At this point, we just want to get the same items they gave to Hollywood," Connell -- who represents Ali Abd al-Aziz Ali, also known as Ammar al-Baluchi -- told AFP. Ali's co-defendants support the request.

Ali -- the nephew of the self-proclaimed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammed -- is accused of helping organize logistics for the airplane strikes on New York and Washington.

"Zero Dark Thirty" features a character closely resembling Ali, who is identified as a detainee subjected to torture in a secret Central Intelligence Agency prison.

The 20 minutes of the film at issue show a prisoner named "Ammar" being subjected to simulated drowning, being locked naked in a coffin and stripped and tied with a dog collar in a secret CIA prison.

Ali's lawyers claim the CIA must have given the film's director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal more information about Ali's detention than they were, and that they deserve access to that information.

The organization Judicial Watch accused the Obama administration of giving the Hollywood filmmakers "unusual access to classified intelligence information, including the names of CIA operatives involved" in the May 2011 raid to kill Osama bin Laden.

Connell told AFP he had provided a DVD of the segment of the film he would like the court to see, but was not sure his request would be granted.

He claims prosecutors have given him no information about Ali's arrest, detention or interrogation, but that "documents show" the CIA gave that information to the filmmakers.

The issue is one of several to be taken up this week at the military tribunal.

Monday's hearing was held behind closed doors but other hearings are to be broadcast on a closed-circuit feed to journalists at Fort Meade, outside Washington.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

12 years after 9/11, retiring FBI chief still sees threat

WASHINGTON - He took the reins of the FBI a week before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Twelve years later, Robert Mueller is retiring, convinced that "the threat is still here."

Shortly before passing the baton to his successor James Comey on September 4 -- a dozen years to the day since becoming director -- Mueller spoke to several media outlets, including AFP.

Under his leadership, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has evolved considerably, from an agency probing past attacks to one whose "number one priority" was to prevent them.

"When I came on board, I had been a prosecutor for a number of years, spending time on those kinds of cases -- organized crime, narcotics cases, white-collar cases and the like," recalled the lanky 69-year-old.

"I had in my own mind some ideas where the Bureau needed to go -- and a week later we had September 11."

"I did not expect that I'd be spending my time preventing terrorist attacks," he added.

During the upheaval of the US security apparatus that followed, the FBI saw its prime focus turn to anti-terrorism.

At the time, 2,000 out of 11,000 special agents were immediately transferred from fighting crime to combatting Al-Qaeda. Since then, the number of intelligence analysts at the FBI has more than tripled.

Over time, the danger posed by Al-Qaeda and its affiliates has evolved but, together with cyber threats, will remain "our number one priority for the foreseeable future."

While Al-Qaeda "was badly diminished, decimated," there was growth in other satellites after 2001 -- including the Somali Islamist group Shebab and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in Yemen, Mueller said.

One of Mueller's many accomplishments was the foiling of an attack -- planned by AQAP -- on a commercial airliner bound for Detroit on Christmas Day 2009.

Mueller expressed concern about the "shifting landscape in terms of the countries involved in the Arab Spring -- Tunisia, Libya, Mali, to a lesser extent Algeria, Syria and, quite obviously in the last two months, Egypt."

"Every one of these countries has individuals who you would put in the category of violent extremists that present threats down the road, not just to the US but to Americans overseas," he said.

Mueller also expressed concern about the threat posed by so-called "lone wolf" attackers who often become radicalized and learn how to make bombs online.

"Lone wolf or solo terrorists are much more difficult for us to identify and to disrupt for an attack to take place," he said.

"It's hard to quantify (the threat) because you have one metric and that is preventing all attacks. If there's one attack, you're unsuccessful."

In reference to the fatal shooting at the Fort Hood army base in 2009 and the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, Mueller said: "It's part of a pattern we've seen recently but a pattern that probably will be replicated in the future."

Major Nidal Hasan, a US army psychiatrist, is on trial for the Fort Hood rampage and has confessed to shooting dead 13 people. The marathon bombing, meanwhile, is believed to have been carried out by two brothers of Chechen origin, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

The existence of "lone wolves" is why telephone and Internet surveillance programs are "tremendously important," Mueller explained.

The National Security Agency charged with collecting such data has come under scrutiny in the wake of recent revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the scope of collection programs.

"There have been occasions -- very few, I might say -- when there have had to be some adjustments," Mueller said.

"But I am fairly confident we are doing things the way the American people wants us to, with an appreciation on the potential impact on privacy and civil liberties."

In 2004, Mueller threatened to resign over a warrantless wiretapping program under the administration of George W. Bush.

In the end, he was in the top FBI post for the second longest period after J. Edgar Hoover, who held it for 48 years until his death.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

9/11 anniversary marked under cloud of health woes, funding fights

NEW YORK- Eleven years after the September 11, 2001, attacks, New Yorkers will mark the anniversary on Tuesday against a backdrop of health concerns for emergency workers and a feud over financing that has stopped construction of the $1 billion Ground Zero museum.

While notable progress on redevelopment of the World Trade Center has been made since early disputes over financial, design and security issues, the project remains hobbled by political battles and billions of dollars in cost overruns.

A major sticking point is the museum at the heart of the World Trade Center (WTC) site redevelopment. Construction has been suspended because of a feud over finances between the National September 11 Memorial and Museum foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

When the foundation announced recently that for the first time, politicians would be excluded from having speaking roles in the September 11 anniversary ceremonies, it was seen by many victims' families and others in the 9/11 community as a public reflection of these behind-the-scenes disputes.

Overall site redevelopment costs have grown to nearly $15 billion, up from $11 billion in 2008, according to a recent project audit.

But for many of the families of 9/11 victims and ailing Ground Zero workers, the redevelopment disputes are a disheartening sideshow to the rising loss of human lives.

When the 110-storey Twin Towers came down, thousands of tons of steel, concrete, window glass and asbestos came down with it. While thousands of gallons (liters) of flaming jet fuel and burning plastics released deadly carcinogens.

Last week, the New York City Fire Department added nine names to the 55 already etched on a wall honoring members who have died of illnesses related to Ground Zero rescue and recovery work.

Some estimates put the overall death toll from 9/11-related illness at more than 1,000. Nationwide, at least 20,000 Ground Zero workers are being treated and 40,000 are being monitored by the World Trade Center Health Program.

"We're burying guys left and right," said Nancy Carbone, executive director of Friends of Firefighters, a Brooklyn-based non-profit that helps treat first responders. "This is an ongoing epidemic."

In the past seven weeks, three New York City cops, two firefighters and a construction union worker who toiled at Ground Zero have died of cancer or respiratory illnesses, according John Feal, who runs a non profit that monitors Ground Zero health care issues.

The staggered nature of the respiratory diagnoses have complicated efforts to distribute $2.7 billion in federal victim compensation funds. A range of cancers is expected to be added to the list of ailments covered by the fund this month.

Leslie Haskins, who lost her husband on 9/11, said she has grown disillusioned by the politics of the reconstruction, and wants to see more attention paid to the ailing workers.

"They are sick and dying and their marriages are breaking up," she said. "Why are we pouring all this money into buildings when men don't have enough insurance to buy breathing apparatus?"

Progress and setbacks

Retired Fire Department of New York City (FDNY) battalion chief Jim Riches, who spent nine months digging through the rubble at Ground Zero before his firefighter son's body was recovered, called the reconstruction disputes "a disgrace."

Seven years ago, Riches was hospitalized with acute respiratory disease and fell into a 16-hour coma. He came out of the coma with stroke-like symptoms.

"We can send men to the moon but we can't rebuild some buildings in more than 10 years?" he asked.

Some progress has been made by Larry Silverstein, the developer who owned the lease on the Twin Towers and is now building three office towers at the Ground Zero site, and the Port Authority. The September 11 foundation has also raised hundreds of millions in private and public funding for the overall project.

One step forward was last fall's opening of the September 11 Memorial at Ground Zero, twin reflecting pools in the footprints of the towers. More than four million people have visited.

Also, One World Trade Center, one of the tallest towers in the country, is near completion and expected to open in 2014.

Yet disagreements over costs have undermined the rebuilding and hurt public relations. Among the disputes, the September 11 foundation insists the Port Authority owes it $140 million, according to a source familiar with the financial issues.

The Port Authority believes it is owed $300 million, the source said.

Feal, a demolitions expert who lost part of his leg doing post 9/11 recovery work, is among those who said they are tired of reading about the contentious World Trade Center project when health concerns persist.

"2,751 lives were lost that day," he said "That's sad, but they didn't suffer long. These first responders have been slowly dying for 11 years." (Additional reporting by Joan Gralla)

source: interaksyon.com

Remains of some 9/11 victims dumped at landfill - US

WASHINGTON - Partial remains from some victims of the September 11 attacks were dumped in a landfill, the Pentagon revealed Tuesday for the first time, issuing a report that exposed years of bungling at the US military's most important mortuary.

The portions of remains that ended up at a landfill came from the 2001 attacks on the Pentagon and from a hijacked airliner that went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on 9/11, according to the report by an independent panel.

The revelation came from a review of the troubled mortuary at Dover Air Force Base, which has been blamed for mishandling the remains of some troops killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The military had acknowledged last year that some portions of remains of fallen soldiers at the Dover mortuary in Delaware had been incinerated and sent to a Virginia landfill, a practice that angered military families and led to a new policy.

Starting in 2008, the military decided to dispose of unidentified cremated remains at sea.

But the review released Tuesday said "several portions of remains from the Pentagon attack and the Shanksville, Pennsylvania, crash site" also were taken to an unidentified landfill.

"These cremated portions were then placed in sealed containers that were provided to a biomedical waste disposal contractor," it said.

The report contradicts a 2011 US Air Force account which said there were no records that showed how remains at Dover were handled before 2003.

Details about the 9/11 remains were mentioned in passing as background material in the report, which focused on how to fix management problems at the troubled mortuary.

Retired Army general John Abizaid, who led the review, told reporters it was unclear how many partial remains of September 11 victims were involved.

"I don't know that there's a way to find out," he told reporters.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley later on Tuesday said he was not aware that some remains of 9/11 victims had been taken to a landfill, saying: "This is new information to me."

But Abizaid said he had briefed all the armed services on his report's findings.

The coroner in Pennsylvania's Somerset County who oversaw the recovery of remains from hijacked Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette he was surprised to hear that any remains could have been taken to a landfill.

"Where they would have gotten those remains I have no idea," Wallace Miller was quoted as saying. The only remains sent out were taken to a military institute of pathology in Quantico, Virginia for DNA testing, he said.

The review also contained other revelations of botched management at Dover, with officials raising concerns about problems at the mortuary as early as 2002.

A May 2002 memo referred to worrisome "tracking problems" with remains, and a 2005 investigation confirmed that "human remains were misrouted in a fashion constituting dereliction of duty," according to the report.

In 2006, the remains of victims killed in the crash of a naval training T-29 aircraft were disposed of as "medical waste" instead of a group burial, it said.

The Air Force in 2008 had to pay a $25,000 settlement to the wife of a Marine for "mental anguish and medical costs" due to the loss of the Marine's personal effects, while in 2009 the mortuary faced allegeations of "fraud."

Donley said the Air Force had accepted "responsibility and culpability" over the blunders at Dover mortuary but was now working to ensure no more mistakes occur, Donley said.

"Our focus is from here forward," he said.

An investigation last year found "gross mismanagement" at the facility, with body parts lost in two cases and remains of others mishandled. The findings came after three Air Force employees raised alarm bells over the facility and after an independent probe criticized the Air Force for initially punishing the whistle blowers.

The review issued Tuesday called for bolstering oversight at Dover, restructuring the chain of command overseeing the mortuary, expanding training and hiring more staff members.

It remained unclear Tuesday if the Air Force would sack any of those responsible for the errors at Dover.

article source: interaksyon.com