Bush compares domestic violent extremists to 9/11 terrorists
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Today marks 20 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
Nearly 3,000 people died in the attacks, which were orchestrated by al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
President Biden is visiting all three sites to mark the anniversary.
Our live coverage had ended for the day. CNN will air “Shine A Light,” a one-hour event that will pay tribute to the victims of 9/11, at 8 p.m. ET.
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Biden attends wreath-laying ceremony at National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial
From CNN’s DJ Judd
(Pool)
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden are in attendance for the wreath-laying ceremony at the National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial this afternoon.
Also at the ceremony are Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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Panetta on Bush's domestic terrorism remarks: "A terrorist is a terrorist," whether in US or abroad
Leon Panetta (right) during his interview with Jim Acosta on September 11, 2021
(CNN)
Former Secretary of Defense and CIA Director Leon Panetta said he’s glad that former President Bush called out domestic terrorism in his speech at the Flight 93 memorial today.
He also said said President Biden should “focus on the future” regarding Afghanistan.
“I really think it is important for President Biden to move on. He made a decision, whether you agree or disagree with the decision, he made it. I think what’s important now is for the President to focus on the future and how is this country going to make sure that 9/11 never happens again,and that we will protect our country from terrorists abroad and terrorists here at home. I think that’s the key message he has to send to the American people,” Panetta said.
California Rep. Lee says the tragedies of 9/11 "still echo in our hearts"
From CNN's Dan Merica
Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., waiting to greet Vice President Kamala Harris at Oakland International Airport on Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, to campaign for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who faces removal from office in a Sept. 14 recall election.
(Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Rep. Barbara Lee, the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization for the use of force in Afghanistan following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, acknowledged the anniversary in remarks and compared the unified response to the terrorist attack to the need to unite in the face of the pandemic.
“Now we are working together through this tragedy of the pandemic, of the inequities that we have within our system, and that means we have to make sure that we continue to work to beat back this recall and make sure that Gavin Newsom continues to be our governor, because he has fought to hard, so hard to close these inequities, to unify this state,” Lee said.
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Twin sisters fled Wall Street holding hands on 9/11
From CNN's Christina Zdanowicz and Deblina Chakraborty
Ivilina Popova and her twin sister, Elmira, came to the US from Bulgaria in 1991. After working at universities in different cities, they left academia so they could be together. The pair moved to New Jersey, Ivilina said, and landed jobs on Wall Street. When the second plane hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, she said she felt numb and as though darkness took over as she fled with her sister.
Biden offers praise for Bush's remarks, expresses hope the US can "demonstrate that democracies can work"
From CNN's DJ Judd
President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media as he visits the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department in Shanksville, Pa., Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021.
(Evan Vucci/AP)
President Biden spoke briefly with reporters Saturday while visiting the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department, where he reflected on the day’s events.
The President spoke about a friend of his from Delaware, who lost a son on 9/11, acknowledging he, “like a lot of people, is probably having a tough day today.”
Biden also offered praise for a group of passengers on board United Flight 93, who seized control of the cockpit and redirected the plane to an empty field in Pennsylvania, marveling, “Talk about genuine heroism.”
The president also offered praise for former President George W. Bush’s remarks earlier at the Flight 93 Memorial.
“I thought President Bush made a really good speech today, a genuinely good speech, about who we are, we’re not—the core of who we are is not divided, it’s just this notion of, I don’t know how to explain it,” Biden said.
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After 9/11, this Muslim American knew life would never be the same again
From CNN's Christina Zdanowicz and Deblina Chakraborty
Sept. 11, 2001, was a wakeup call, said Sadia Sheikh, who moved to the US in 1978 from Pakistan. When she turned on the TV that morning, what she saw on the screen hit her hard. At that moment, as a Muslim American, she said she knew her life would never be the same again.
Flight 93 widow says husband's last words to her were "don't worry, we're going to do something"
Deena Burnett Bailey, the wife of a Flight 93 victim, speaks with CNN from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11. She is joined by her daughters.
(CNN)
Deena Burnett Bailey, the wife of a Flight 93 victim, said this year’s Sept. 11 anniversary is different for her — not because it’s been 20 years since the attack but because her daughters are all now grown adults.
“And so to be able to come back to Shanksville, to bring them, to show them where it all happened and to be able to share that experience with my adult daughters … it brought us full circle,” she said.
This is the first time all three of her daughters have gone to the memorial, she said. Her twin daughters were 5 and her younger daughter was 3 when her husband, Tom Burnett, was killed.
On Sept. 11, 2001, they talked to each other at least three times while he was on the plane, she said.
“He started sharing the information I was giving him to the people around him. He just sounded very matter-of-fact, like he was just gathering the information and trying to sort it out,” she said.
“He called again a third time and he told me that he put a plan together to take back the airplane. They were waiting until they were over a rural area to take back the cockpit. He said not to worry,” she said.
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CNN will air 9/11 special "Shine A Light" tonight
The Tribute In Light shines into the sky from Lower Manhattan during a test on September 07, 2021 as seen from the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
As part of the 20-year remembrance of 9/11, CNN will air “Shine A Light,” hosted by anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper.
The one-hour event will pay tribute to the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the 9/11 attacks, their families, survivors, rescue and recovery workers and volunteers, and those in the military.
The program will feature discussions with young adults who were affected by the events of 9/11 and its aftermath.
The event will also include musical performances by Brad Paisley, Common, H.E.R., and Maroon 5 and appearances by Robert De Niro, Leonardo DiCaprio and Eli Manning.
“Shine A Light” will air on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español at 8 p.m. ET.
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Trump visits NYPD precinct in midtown Manhattan
From CNN's Elizabeth Joseph
Former President Donald Trump visited the NYPD's 17th police precinct in New York on Saturday Sept. 11, 2021.
(Jill Colvin/AP)
On the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, former President Trump visited the New York City Police Department’s 17th precinct in Manhattan’s Midtown East neighborhood.
Trump issued multiple statements attacking President Biden Saturday, and unlike Biden and former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, Trump was not in attendance at the National September 11th Memorial in Manhattan.
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Biden defends withdrawal from Afghanistan during remarks at fire station in Shanksville
From CNN's DJ Judd
President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media as he visits the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11.
(Evan Vucci/AP)
President Biden defended his administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan in brief remarks to the press pool in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, Saturday.
Biden, who was visiting the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department where first responders were among the first on the scene at the United Flight 93 crash in a nearby field in 2001, asked reporters traveling with him, “If you had told anybody that we were going to spend $300 million a day for twenty years to try to unite the country after we got bin Laden, after Al Qaeda was wiped out there—could Al Qaeda come back? Yeah, but guess what, it’s already back other places.”
“What’s the strategy? Every place where Al Qaeda is, we’re going to invade and have troops stay in? Come on,” Biden said.
Some context: In an interview earlier Saturday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin defended America’s capabilities to address threats in Afghanistan, telling CNN it is more “difficult, but not impossible” to address threats in Afghanistan without the presence of US troops on the ground.
Biden has already made stops today at the 9/11 memorial in lower Manhattan and the United Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville—he’s expected to make one final stop at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, though he is not scheduled to give remarks there.
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Bidens make unannounced stop at Shanksville fire department
From CNN's DJ Judd
President Biden and first lady Jill Biden made an unannounced stop at the Shanksville Volunteer Fire Department after participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at the United 93 memorial.
There were some cheers as the President stepped out of the motorcade. The President met with dozens of people at the firehouse, which was set up to serve hot dogs and hamburgers.
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New York governor signs new laws to support 9/11 first responders
From CNN's Elizabeth Joseph
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul attends a 9/11 security briefing at One Police Plaza in New York on September 10.
(Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
To mark the 20th anniversary of 9/11, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed three pieces of legislation aimed at helping World Trade Center first responders apply for benefits, her office said in a news statement Saturday afternoon.
In addition to first responders who were at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the new laws will also include emergency dispatchers and communications personnel.
“We will ensure they receive the support and benefits they deserve,” Hochul said in the statement.
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President of Flight 93 families organization calls for 9/11 information to be declassified
From CNN's Melissa Alonso
Gordon Felt, the president of the Families of Flight 93, speaks at a ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11.
(Pool)
The “ripple effect of Sept. 11 is unfathomable,” said Gordon Felt, the president of the Families of Flight 93 at an observance ceremony in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, marking the 20th anniversary of 9/11 attacks.
Felt’s brother, Edward, was among the passengers who died in the crash of Flight 93.
“To date, an additional 2,000 first responders that took part in [the] immediate rescue and continued recovery efforts have died from related illnesses, and with every month, we continue to lose more,” Felt said.
Felt echoed the calls of fellow victims’ families urging government officials to release classified information related to the attack.
Some context: Last week, President Biden ordered a new declassification review of documents related to the attacks, including the previously classified documents related to Saudi Arabia’s involvement.
“The real question that we must all ask ourselves is: Have we as a society moved on and left the hard-earned lessons of Sept. 11 behind?” Felt said. “Have we become desensitized to what really happened that fateful morning?”
“In the aftermath of Sept. 11, we saw beyond our differences, so that in unity we could survive the devastation of the day,” Felt said. “E pluribus unum — out of many, we became one.”
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Bidens participate in wreath-laying ceremony in Shanksville
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden lay a wreath at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, on September 11.
(Evan Vucci/AP)
President Biden participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at the United 93 memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, to mark the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
He was joined by first lady Jill Biden and was seen speaking with Gordon Felt, the president of the Families of Flight 93.
Biden gathered with families of the United 93 victims in a rural Pennsylvania field. Forty passengers and crew died on that day in 2001.
The President is not expected to give public remarks today. He will next travel to the Pentagon to attend a wreath-laying ceremony there.
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9/11 victim’s daughter: "The body parts came annually"
From CNN's Christina Zdanowicz and Deblina Chakraborty
Angela Mistrulli’s father, Joseph, and her mom were set to go on their first real vacation together on 9/11, but he got called into work first. He was a carpenter working at Windows on the World, the restaurant at the top of the World Trade Center’s North Tower.
Seventeen years old at the time of his death, she said the unexpected fallout she continues to deal with after his loss has made it difficult to heal.
Actor Robert De Niro says 9/11 memorials serve as a reminder to the next generation
(CNN)
Actor Robert De Niro said he hopes the 9/11 memorials will teach the next generation that a similar attack could happen again.
De Niro lived just blocks from Ground Zero on Sept. 11 and called himself “a New Yorker through and through.” He helped found the Tribeca Film Festival to assist with the recovery of downtown Manhattan.
“The neighborhood, downtown, Tribeca, has come back. Now we have the pandemic. That’s another horrible situation. But we’ll get through that, too. It’s just all the loss of life and sadness and unhappiness in between,” he said.
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Military, family members of 9/11 victims gather in Guantanamo Bay
From CNN's Ellie Kaufman
People enter a chapel at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba on September 11.
(Ellie Kaufman/CNN)
Twenty years after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a group of military members, family members of 9/11 victims and observers gathered in a chapel in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, at the same time the first plane struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center to honor the almost 3,000 lives lost that day.
The small ceremony dedicated to the lives lost, especially the lives of two victims whose family members traveled to Guantanamo to spend the anniversary, recounted the events of September 11 as they occurred that morning, retelling them in small fragments interrupted only by the single toll of a bell.
Elizabeth Berry, the sister of Capt. William “Billy” Francis Burke, Jr., gave a speech to those gathered in the chapel, describing the sacrifices her brother made that day as the leader of his fire department, Engine 21, in Manhattan.
Burke led his firefighters to Ground Zero after the towers were struck, she said. He was on the 27th floor of the North Tower, trying to evacuate people from the building, when the South Tower fell.
After the South Tower fell, a mayday call went out on the radio, Berry said. Burke told his firefighters to evacuate the building and get to safety, but he stayed behind with two men, one of whom was in a wheelchair and couldn’t be evacuated.
Because he told two companies of men to leave, they all survived. Burke stayed behind with the two men until the tower collapsed. His remains were never found, Berry said.
Berry is one of five family members that traveled to Guantanamo Bay this week to observe pretrial hearings in the military commission case of five people accused of plotting and executing the 9/11 attacks. The case has been in pretrial litigation since 2012 when the five men, who are detained at the Guantanamo Bay prison, were arraigned.
Berry and her husband, Paul, still hope that one day the case will be brought to trial and there will be some level of justice for her and other family members that survived victims of the attacks.
“I think justice for each of us has a very different definition. I will speak for me, only me, justice is telling the world in a trial what these terrorists did to murder so many people,” Paul Berry said. “That’s justice, and from that the verdict will be what the verdict is.”
Honoring lives lost: The Naval base held a commemorative 9.11km run in the morning, followed by a raising of the flag from the Naval base headquarters with the base’s commanding officer and a ceremony at the base’s chapel.
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One of the very few to survive the Twin Towers’ collapse says he’ll never be free of 9/11
From CNN's Christina Zdanowicz and Deblina Chakraborty
Sept. 11, 2001 never really ended for Tom Canavan, who was evacuated from the North Tower’s 47th floor after the plane hit and then was buried when the South Tower came down. He dug his way free and became one of the fewer than two dozen people to survive the collapse. It’s still hard to sleep because of what he saw, he said. He previously worked with the 9/11 Memorial and Museum to educate others and preserve the legacies of those who died.
“Most people say, ‘Oh, you were part of 9/11’. I just tell them, ‘You know what, 911 is part of me,’” Canavan said.
US is safer than it was 20 years ago, defense secretary says
US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin speaks during a remembrance ceremony to mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, at the Pentagon in Washington, DC on September 11, 2021.
(Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reflected on the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11 in the wake of the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan and US forces leaving the country just weeks ago.
Austin said that while there is no longer an on-the-ground presence in Afghanistan, it’s “difficult but not impossible” to track movements in the country. He also shared a message for troops who served in Afghanistan and who may be going through complex emotions right now.
Austin said he hopes there will be more flights to evacuate American citizens who want to leave Afghanistan, like the ones this week.
When asked if he thinks the US is safer now than 20 years ago, he said “yes.”
“I think if you look at the fact that our capabilities are greatly increased from what we had 20 years ago, if you look at the fact that the way that we operate in the inner agency is far beyond what we would have ever imagined 20 years ago, I think we are safer altogether, yes,” he told CNN.
Some context: In April, President Biden originally set today’s date as the day US forces would withdraw from Afghanistan.
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Daughter of FDNY captain killed on 9/11 says her dad was the "embodiment of bringing light into the darkness"
Left: Cait Leavey, the daughter of a New York City Fire Department captain killed on 9/11. Right: A photo of Leavey with her father.
(CNN/Leavey family/9/11 Memorial and Museum Foundation)
Cait Leavey, the daughter of a New York City Fire Department captain killed on 9/11, said her dad “loved his family, loved the firehouse.”
Leavey said one organization that helped her through the healing process was Tuesday’s Children, “a charity formed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States to help the more than 3,000 children who lost a parent that day,” its website stated.
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