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.

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source: news.abs-cbn.com

3 arrested over central Sydney 'terror plots'

SYDNEY -- Australian police on Tuesday arrested three men accused of links to the Islamic State group over an alleged plot to attack police stations, embassies and defense facilities in central Sydney.

The men -- aged 20, 23 and 30 -- were arrested in raids in the city's suburbs after their online activities raised suspicion.

Two of them will face charges of being members of a terrorist organization and of preparations to carry out terror attacks.

"We will say that they had a number of targets, including police stations, defense establishments, embassies and councils, courts and churches," Australian Federal Police Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney told reporters.

The plots were said to be in the "early stages", but included moves to import weapons and explosives to target facilities in the central business district.

The third man -- described as an "associate" -- will be charged with lesser offences.

New South Wales police assistant commissioner Mick Willing said the men "knew each other via social media" including WhatsApp and Telegram, and shared a "like-minded philosophy".

Late last year, Australia passed controversial laws allowing spy agencies and police to access encrypted communications from suspected criminals and terrorists.

Police said one of the suspects had come under the watch of authorities after returning from Lebanon last year, alleging he had made plans to go to Afghanistan to fight with the Islamic State.

Police said there was no further threat to the public.

source: news.abs-cbn.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

APEC leaders to condemn terror attacks

MANILA - Asia-Pacific leaders called for increased international cooperation and solidarity against terrorism as they condemned recent terrorist attacks that killed hundreds in France and Lebanon and downed a Russian airliner over Egypt.

“Under the shadow cast by the terrorist attacks in Paris, Beirut, and against Russian aircraft over the Sinai, and elsewhere, we strongly condemn all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism in all their forms and manifestations,” said the 21 leaders representing member-economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).

“We stress the urgent need for increased international cooperation and solidarity in the fight against terrorism.”

The “urgent call” was contained in a draft of the statement the APEC leaders are scheduled to issue late Thursday, at the end of their 2-day meeting in Manila.

Although APEC is primarily concerned with lowering trade barriers, facilitating investments, and integrating the region’s economies, the leaders took note of the link between terrorism and economic growth.

“We will not allow terrorism to threaten the fundamental values that underpin our free and open economies,” they said. “Economic growth, prosperity, and opportunity are among the most powerful tools to address the root causes of terrorism and radicalization.”

The APEC leaders’ last major statement on terrorism was in Shanghai in 2001, shortly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States. At that time, the terrorism statement was in a separate document from their main statement on lowering of trade barriers and facilitating investments.

In APEC 2015, the reference to terrorism is incorporated in the main declaration.

The leaders also welcomed APEC members’ efforts to counter terrorism, especially measures to combat terrorist financing and prevent the travel of foreign terrorist fighters.

“We further encourage economies to implement fully the APEC Consolidated Counter-Terrorism and Secure Trade Strategy and to continue taking collective and individual actions and sharing best practices to secure infrastructure, travel, supply chains, and financial systems from terrorist activities,” they said.

ADVANCING FREE TRADE
The leaders of the APEC forum members gathered in Manila on Wednesday to hold a two-day meeting. A major agenda item was how to push ahead with their ultimate goal of establishing a broad free trade zone under the Free-Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) framework.

Discussions will be intensified in particular after 12 countries, all APEC members, concluded years of negotiations last month to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc that covers 40 percent of the global economy.

"We reaffirm our commitment to advance the process in a comprehensive and systematic manner towards the eventual realization of the FTAAP as a major instrument to further APEC's regional economic integration agenda," the draft joint declaration reads.

The TPP and other regional trade pacts under negotiation have been considered as fundamental steps toward creating the ambitious FTAAP free trade zone.

"We note the recent development on the free trade agreements in the region and the progress of the possible pathways to the FTAAP, including the finalization of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations," the draft notes.

It goes on to say the members also "encourage the early completion of negotiations for (the) Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership" which is seen as another huge multilateral trade initiative that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, China, Japan and India, along with three other partners, are seeking to establish.

A summit of the 12 countries involved in the U.S.-led TPP was also held Wednesday on the sidelines of the APEC summit.

"While our focus is on approval and implementation of the results of negotiations with our current partners, we have also seen interest from a number of economies throughout the region," the leaders said in a statement issued after the TPP meeting.

The trade treaty "isn't (just) about boosting exports between our countries in the Asia-Pacific. The TPP is also helping to write the rules of global trade for the 21st century," U.S. President Barack Obama, the chair of the meeting, said.

The 12 TPP countries will need to ratify the agreement before bringing it into force.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged the partners to work on the necessary procedures promptly. The TPP pact would be "pie in the sky" if it does not take effect, he said.

The APEC forum, established in 1989, groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. -- with a report from Kyodo News

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com