Marking 15 years since 9/11, ceremony keeps personal focus

As Sept. 11 made us nervous, it also has made us suspicious.

Almost 3,000 people died when hijacked planes slammed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11, 2001.

It was not the first time Islamic terrorists had attacked on American soil – a bomb had gone off at the World Trade Center in 1993 – but it was the deadliest and most shocking. It surpassed the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, which claimed 2,403 American lives. More than 6,000 others were injured.

Who was behind the attacks, and why? .

Nineteen hijackers died in the attack, later claimed by Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda, which led directly to the USA war in Afghanistan and indirectly to the invasion of Iraq.

The attacks involved four plane hijackings, two from Boston, one from Newark and one from Dulles International outside Washington. What was it used for before 9/11? The World Trade Center was formulated in the early 1960s by the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Development Association.

They escaped the building 13 minutes before the tower collapsed. At the same time, having worked in newspapers most of my adult life, I knew there was work to do – what it would be, I couldn’t say, but I needed to get to the office.

Rescue workers evacuate a man through rubble and debris after the collapse of one of the World Trade Center Towers, September 11, 2001. The explosion tore a hole seven stories up, killed six people and injured more than 1,000.

“You have magnificent new towers that are standing”.

An independent panel completed the 9/11 Commission Report a year after the attacks.

The mother of Mohammed Atta, one of the kamikaze hijackers who destroyed the World Trade Center, says she believes her son is alive at the United States prison in Guantanamo Bay, in an interview published Sunday in Spain. I’m on a plane that’s been hijacked, I’m on the plane, I’m calling from the plane. Where was that plane headed? The huge 757 plane crashed into a grassy field, killing everyone on board.

Outside of Washington, D.C., a third airplane flew into the Pentagon, the nation’s military headquarters. The U.S. still has thousands of forces in Afghanistan and Iraq even as it has ended large-scale combat operations.

The war against terror seems likely to continue for years, and the security experts will argue with one another over the best course for defeating it.

A rehearsal before the ceremony begins takes place at 7:30 a.m.at the World Trade Center site on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. Other skyscrapers and buildings are planned for the site. Later Sunday, Obama will speak at a ceremony at the Pentagon honoring those killed in the attacks.

All 40 passengers and crew members aboard the hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 were killed after it was crashed into an open field in Stonycreek Township, Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

An American flag flies in the foreground as one of the World Trade Center towers burns in the background on September 11, 2001.

The attacks greatly increased government focus on terrorism, not just in the US but around the world. Airport screening is drastically heightened. “Through the Neil G Shastri Foundation, Neil’s family and friends hope that they are honouring his memory by touching a few lives and doing some good in ways that Neil was never able to do”, the foundation said. Could a similar attack occur in America today?

President Barack Obama said no words or deeds could ever truly erase the pain of loss, but urged Americans to stand true to the nation’s ideals and not allow groups like Al-Qaeda and IS to divide the country.

A girl touches the National September 11 Memorial, ahead of the 15th anniversary of the attacks in Manhattan, New York, local time September 9, 2016.

“I feel like the guy in Marseille has as much as a problem as I do right now”, Shane said.