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Tag: 9/11 attacks

  • America pays tribute to 9/11 victims on twenty second anniversary of terror assaults

    American residents and leaders throughout the US on Monday paid tributes and honoured the reminiscences of the practically 3,000 individuals who died within the horrific September 11 terrorist assaults because the US commemorates 22 years of the tragedy.

    The victims of the 9/11 terror assaults had been honoured throughout a solemn ceremony on the website of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in Lower Manhattan, the place the dual towers of the World Trade Centre as soon as stood and which had been razed to the bottom when two airways hijacked by Al-Qaeda terrorists crashed into the towers, perpetually altering the Manhattan skyline on September 11, 2001.

    Bells chimed and a second of silence was noticed on the precise time when tragedy struck throughout the US 22 years in the past – at 8:46 am, the precise second when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower, the primary of the 4 assaults that occurred that morning.

    At 9:03 am United Airlines Flight 175 struck the South Tower, at 9:37 am American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon close to Washington DC, at 9:59 am the South Tower collapsed, 10:03 am United Airlines Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania and at 10:28 am the North Tower fell.

    “Today, we remember the 2,977 precious lives stolen from us on 9/11 and reflect on all that was lost in the fire and ash that September morning. The American story itself changed on this day 22 years ago. But what could not — and will not — change is the character of this nation,” President Joe Biden mentioned in a submit on platform X.

    “September 11 is a day not only to remember, but a day of renewal and resolve for every American — in our devotion to this country, to the principles it embodies, to our democracy. That is what we owe one another. And what we owe future generations of Americans to come,” he mentioned in one other submit.

    Vice President Kamala Harris mentioned America will always remember the two,977 lives misplaced 22 years in the past as we speak at Ground Zero, Shanksville, and the Pentagon.

    “We remain indebted to the heroic first responders, and our hearts are with the family members and friends who lost loved ones,” she mentioned in a submit on X.

    At the memorial ceremony, family members and pals learn out the names of all of the practically 3,000 individuals who died within the terror assaults, paying homage to them, signifying the message that the victims won’t ever be forgotten.

    India’s Ambassador to the US Taranjit Singh Sandhu, paying his tributes, mentioned in a submit on platform X “9/11 continues to remind us of the threat that #terrorism poses to the world. India and the US are united in our resolve to fight against this menace #NeverForget #G20”.

    His submit was accompanied by {a photograph} of him paying tributes on the 9/11 Memorial website the place the names of the victims of the 9/11 terror assaults are inscribed into the Memorial’s bronze parapets.

    New York State Governor Kathy Hochul mentioned in a submit “22 years ago, our nation was forever changed by a cowardly act of terror that took the lives of thousands of innocent Americans. New Yorkers are united in our grief for those we lost and our gratitude to the first responders and other heroes of that day. We will #neverforget.”

    New York City Mayor Eric Adams mentioned, “September 11, 2001. We bore witness to so much horror that day. But we also saw courage, bravery, and the New York City spirit. And when the sun rose on September 12, we got up. Because that’s what New Yorkers always do.”

    The New York Police Department mentioned in a submit on X “Twenty-two years ago, our city was changed forever. The NYPD lost 23 members, @fdny lost 343 members, @PANYNJ lost 37 members, and we continue to lose more due to 9/11 illnesses.”

    Several commemoration occasions have been deliberate throughout the US to mark the twenty second anniversary of the 9/11 terror assaults.

    The 9/11 Memorial is a tribute of remembrance, honouring the two,977 folks killed within the terror assaults on the World Trade Center website, close to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and on the Pentagon, in addition to the six folks killed within the World Trade Center bombing on February 26, 1993, the memorial’s web site mentioned.

    The 9/11 Memorial is situated on the website of the previous World Trade Center advanced and occupies roughly half of the 16-acre website. The Memorial’s twin reflecting swimming pools are every practically an acre in dimension and have the biggest man-made waterfalls in North America.

    The memorial was opened in 2011 on the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 assaults.

    Edited By:

    Sudeep Lavania

    Published On:

    Sep 11, 2023

  • US threatened to bomb Pakistan ‘again to the Stone Age’ after 9/11 terror assaults: Musharraf in his memoir

    In his memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’, Pervez Musharraf wrote that the US threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” if it didn’t cooperate with America’s struggle on Afghanistan.

    Islamabad,UPDATED: Feb 5, 2023 23:07 IST

    Former President of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf (Retd), handed away on Sunday (Photo: Reuters)

    By Press Trust of India: The US threatened to bomb Pakistan “back to the Stone Age” after the 9/11 terror assaults if then President General Pervez Musharraf didn’t cooperate with America’s struggle on Afghanistan.

    In his memoir ‘In the Line of Fire’, Musharraf wrote that the menace was delivered by the tough-talking assistant secretary of state, Richard Armitage, in conversations with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief who was in Washington on a go to on the time of the 9/11 assault.

    “In what has to be most undiplomatic statement ever made, Armitage added to what Colin Powell had said to me and told the (ISI) director general not only that we had to decide whether we were with America or with the terrorists, but that if we chose the terrorists, then we should be prepared to be bombed back to the Stone Age,” Musharraf wrote, explaining the state of affairs he confronted after the dual tower assault.

    He stated this was an incredibly barefaced menace, however it was apparent that the United States had determined to hit again, and hit again exhausting.

    Read | Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and his function in Kargil War

    Defending his transfer to hitch the US-led War on Terror in Afghanistan, Musharraf stated that his “decision was based on the well-being of my people and the best interest of my country.”

    “I war-gamed the United States as an adversary. There would be violent and angry reactions if we didn’t support the United States. Thus the question was: if we do not join them, can we confront them and withstand the onslaught? The answer was no, we could not…” he wrote.

    He said, however, the benefits of supporting the United States were many.

    Armitage later disputed the language used, but he did not deny that Pakistan was put on notice to help America’s war effort.

    Gen Musharraf wrote in his book that on September 13, 2001, the US ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, brought him a set of seven demands, including blanket overflight and landing rights.

    Musharraf said that he balked at some of the US demands such as turning over border posts and bases to US forces.

    “How might we permit the United States blanket overflight and touchdown rights with out jeopardizing our strategic belongings? I provided solely a slim flight hall that was removed from any delicate areas,” he wrote.

    Pakistan deserted its assist for the Taliban authorities in Kabul and allowed US overflights of Pakistan.

    Read | Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf passes away aged 79

    Published On:

    Feb 5, 2023

  • On 9/11 anniversary, Biden remembers American unity, vows vigilance

    U.S. President Joe Biden invoked the reminiscence of America’s united response to the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults by al Qaeda and vowed to “never give up” within the face of terrorist threats in a solemn commemoration on Sunday on the Pentagon.

    Biden’s remarks about nationwide unity on the twenty first anniversary of the assaults stood in distinction to his warnings in current days about harmful divisions in American society, together with that some Republicans who assist former President Donald Trump’s agenda pose a risk to democracy.

    “I hope we’ll remember that in the midst of these dark days, we dug deep. We cared for each other. And we came together,” Biden mentioned, as rain fell on troops standing behind him, flanking his protection secretary and high normal.

    Nearly 3,000 folks died within the assaults, when al Qaeda hijackers flew planes into the New York’s World Trade Center towers and into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, whereas a fourth airplane crashed in Pennsylvania.

    A lady reacts throughout a ceremony marking the twenty first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 assaults on the World Trade Center on the 9/11 Memorial and Museum within the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S., September 11, 2022. (Reuters)

    Passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 overcame the hijackers and the airplane crashed in a discipline, stopping one other goal from being hit.

    The anniversary comes a yr after Biden ended the U.S.-led struggle in Afghanistan, launched 20 years in the past to root out the al Qaeda militant group that carried out the 9/11 assaults after plotting them from Afghanistan.

    Biden’s chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops final yr and the ensuing fast fall of the nation to the Taliban drew criticism from members of each political events. But Biden vowed that the battle towards terrorism would proceed. “We will not rest. We’ll never forget. We’ll never give up,” he mentioned.

    Last month, Biden licensed a drone strike in Kabul that killed al Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon who had a $25 million bounty on his head and helped to coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001 assaults.

    First responders stand in a driving rain as a U.S. flag is unfurled on the Pentagon in Washington (AP)

    The disclosure of Zawahiri’s presence in Kabul raised questions concerning the diploma to which al Qaeda is receiving sanctuary from the Taliban.
    U.S. navy and intelligence officers had warned {that a} full U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan may permit al Qaeda in addition to Islamic State to strengthen and, left unchecked, to ultimately plot towards the United States.

    Biden and others argued that the risk from terrorism has unfold all through the world over the previous 21 years, and that there are higher methods to fight it than open-ended navy deployments and struggle.

    “Our commitment to prevent another attack on the United States is without end,” Biden assured.

    The first woman, Jill Biden, attended a ceremony in Pennsylvania on Sunday morning, whereas Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff attended one in New York City.

    In New York, key moments on 9/11, such because the instances at which every tower of the World Trade Center fell, had been marked with a second of silence after the tolling of a bell.

    Families of victims of the 9/11 assaults have waited for years to see a number of of the folks accused of planning and helping the hijackers delivered to trial and convicted, together with self-professed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and 4 others imprisoned on the U.S. navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

    On Sunday, Biden informed reporters that “yes, there is a plan for that” – to carry the accused plotters accountable – however declined to remark additional.

  • 2 a long time later, 9/11 self-professed mastermind awaits trial

    Hours earlier than daybreak on March 1, 2003, the US scored its most thrilling victory but towards the plotters of the Sept 11 assaults — the seize of a raveled Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, hauled away by intelligence brokers from a hideout in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

    The world manhunt for al-Qaida’s No 3 chief had taken 18 months. But America’s try and convey him to justice, in a authorized sense, has taken a lot, for much longer. Critics say it has change into one of many struggle on terror’s best failures.

    As Sunday’s twenty first anniversary of the phobia assaults approaches, Mohammed and 4 different males accused of 9/11-related crimes nonetheless sit in a US detention middle in Guantanamo Bay, their deliberate trials earlier than a army tribunal endlessly postponed.

    The newest setback got here final month when pretrial hearings scheduled for early fall have been cancelled. The delay was yet another in a string of disappointments for family of the practically 3,000 victims of the assault. They’ve lengthy hoped {that a} trial would convey closure and maybe resolve unanswered questions.

    “Now, I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” stated Gordon Haberman, whose 25-year-old daughter Andrea died after a hijacked aircraft crashed into the the World Trade Center, a flooring above her workplace.

    He’s travelled to Guantanamo 4 occasions from his house in West Bend, Wisconsin, to look at the authorized proceedings in particular person, solely to go away annoyed.

    “It’s important to me that America finally gets to the truth about what happened, how it was done,” stated Haberman. “I personally want to see this go to trial.” If convicted at trial, Mohammed might face the loss of life penalty.

    When requested concerning the case, James Connell, an lawyer for considered one of Mohammed’s co-defendants — one accused of transferring cash to 9/11 attackers — confirmed studies each side are nonetheless “attempting to reach a pretrial agreement” that might nonetheless keep away from a trial and end in lesser however nonetheless prolonged sentences.

    David Kelley, a former U.S. lawyer in New York who co-chaired the Justice Department’s nationwide investigation into the assaults, known as the delays and failure to prosecute “an awful tragedy for the families of the victims.” He known as the trouble to place Mohammed on trial earlier than a army tribunal, slightly than within the common U.S. courtroom system,
    “a tremendous failure” that was “as offensive to our Constitution as to our rule of law.” “It’s a tremendous blemish on the country’s history,” he stated.

    The problem in holding a trial for Mohammed and different Guantanamo prisoners is partly rooted in what the U.S. did with him after his 2003 seize.

    Mohammed and his co-defendants have been initially held in secret prisons overseas. Hungry for data that may lead
    to the seize of different al-Qaida figures, CIA operatives subjected them to enhanced interrogation strategies that have been tantamount to torture, human rights teams say. Mohammed was waterboarded — made to really feel that he was drowning — 183 occasions.

    A Senate investigation later concluded the interrogations didn’t result in any useful intelligence. But it has sparked countless pretrial litigation over whether or not FBI studies on their statements can be utilized towards them — a course of not topic to speedy trial guidelines utilized in civilian courts.

    The torture allegations led to considerations that the U.S. might need ruined its likelihood to place Mohammed on trial in a civilian courtroom.

    But in 2009, President Barack Obama’s administration determined to attempt, saying that Mohammed could be transferred to New York City and placed on trial at a federal courtroom in Manhattan.

    “Failure is not an option,” Obama stated.

    But New York City balked at the price of safety and the transfer by no means got here. Eventually, it was introduced Mohammed would face a army tribunal. And then over a dozen years handed.

    Kelley stated discuss of army tribunals 20 years in the past shocked many within the authorized group who had been efficiently prosecuting terrorism instances within the decade earlier than. The idea of a tribunal, he stated, “came out of the blue. Nobody knew it was coming.” Then-Attorney General John Ashcroft was not in favor of tribunals and had been supportive of the Manhattan federal terrorism prosecutions, he stated.

    Now, Kelley stated, with the passage of time will probably be way more troublesome to prosecute Mohammed in a tribunal, a lot much less a courtroom. “Evidence goes stale, witness memories fail.” The passage of time hasn’t dulled the recollections of the victims’ households or dampened their curiosity in witnessing justice.

    Eddie Bracken’s sister Lucy Fishman was killed on the commerce middle. The New Yorker opposed Obama’s proposal to maneuver the trial to federal courtroom — Mohammed is charged with “a military act,” and needs to be tried by the army, he reasoned. And whereas he’s considerably annoyed by the delays, he understands them.

    “The whole world is looking at us and saying, What are they doing after all this time?’” he stated. But he realizes the case is “a process that the world is seeing, that needs to be done under a microscope. … It’s up to the United States to do their due diligence, make sure it’s done right.” “The wheels of justice turn. They turn slowly, but they turn. And when the time comes, and it’s said and done, the world will know what happened,” he provides.

    While Mohammed has lingered at Guantanamo, the U.S. killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a 2011 raid and deputy-turned-successor Ayman al-Zawahri in a drone strike simply this August.

    Investigators with the army fee at Guantanamo Bay stated he plotted the 9/11 assaults for 3 years. They cited a pc arduous drive seized at his arrest which they stated contained images of the 19 hijackers, three letters from bin Laden and details about some hijackers.

    Mohammed, at his tribunal listening to, conceded in a written assertion that he swore allegiance to Osama bin Laden, that he was on al-Qaida’s council and that he served as operational director for bin Laden for the organizing, planning, follow-up and execution of the Sept. 11 plot “from A to Z.” According to the assertion, he additionally took credit score for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center; an try and down U.S. jetliners utilizing bombs hidden in sneakers; the bombing of a nightclub in Indonesia; and plans for a second wave of assaults after the 2001 assaults concentrating on landmarks just like the Sears Tower in Chicago and Manhattan’s Empire State Building.

    He additionally claimed credit score for different deliberate assaults, together with assassination makes an attempt towards then-President Bill Clinton in 1994 or 1995 and an assassination plot towards Pope John Paul II at about the identical time, the assertion
    stated.

    Mohammed’s practically 20 years in authorized limbo differs from the destiny of his nephew, Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six folks, injured 1,000 others and left a crater within the parking storage beneath the dual towers.

    Yousef is serving life in jail after being convicted at two separate civilian trials. He was additionally captured in Pakistan, in 1995, however was delivered to the United States for trial.

    At the time, Yousef stated his proper to kill folks was corresponding to the U.S. resolution to drop a nuclear bomb in World
    War II. Mohammed has provided an identical justification, saying via an interpreter at a Guantanamo continuing that killing folks was the “language of any war.” Bracken traveled to Guantanamo in 2012 to look at one listening to for Mohammed and his co-defendants, and would in all probability go once more if a trial ever occurred.

    “I don’t know if I want to go there again to bring back all the hurt and pain. But if I’m allowed to go, then I guess I would go. Yeah. My sister would do that for me.” “She’s that type of a woman,” he added. Then he corrected himself:
    “She was that type of a woman.”

  • How the CIA tracked the chief of al-Qaeda

    Written by Julian E. Barnes and Eric Schmitt

    Intelligence officers made a vital discovery this spring after monitoring Ayman al-Zawahri, the chief of al-Qaida, to Kabul, Afghanistan: He favored to learn alone on the balcony of his protected home early within the morning.

    Analysts seek for that type of pattern-of-life intelligence, any behavior the CIA can exploit. In al-Zawahri’s case, his lengthy balcony visits gave the company a possibility for a transparent missile shot that might keep away from collateral harm.

    The hunt for al-Zawahri, one of many world’s most needed terrorists, stretches again to earlier than the 9/11 assaults. The CIA continued to seek for him as he rose to the highest of al-Qaida after the loss of life of Osama bin Laden and after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan final yr. And a misstep in the course of the chase, the recruitment of a double agent, led to one of many bloodiest days within the company’s historical past.

    Soon after the United States left Kabul, the CIA sharpened its efforts to search out al-Zawahri, satisfied he would attempt to return to Afghanistan. Senior officers had informed the White House they’d be capable to keep and construct informant networks contained in the nation from afar and that the United States wouldn’t be blind to terrorism threats there. For the company, discovering al-Zawahri could be a key check of that assertion.

    This article relies on interviews with present and former American and different officers, impartial analysts who’ve studied the decadeslong hunt and others briefed on the occasions main as much as the weekend strike. Most spoke on the situation of anonymity due to the delicate intelligence used to search out al-Zawahri.

    For years, al-Zawahri was considered hiding within the border space of Pakistan, the place many Qaida and Taliban leaders took refuge after the US invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. He was needed in reference to the 1998 embassy bombings in Tanzania and Kenya, and the CIA had tracked a community of people that intelligence officers thought supported him.

    The examination of that community intensified with the US’ exit from Afghanistan final yr and a perception amongst some intelligence officers that senior leaders of al-Qaida could be tempted to return.

    The hunch proved proper. The company came upon that al-Zawahri’s household had returned to a protected home in Kabul. Although the household tried to make sure they weren’t being watched and to maintain al-Zawahri’s location secret, intelligence businesses quickly realized he too had returned to Afghanistan.

    “There was a renewed effort to figure out where he was,” stated Mick Mulroy, a former CIA officer. “The one good thing that might have come out of withdrawing from Afghanistan is that certain high-level terrorist figures would then think it is safe for them to be there.”

    The protected home was owned by an aide to senior officers within the Haqqani community, a battle-hardened and violent wing of the Taliban authorities, and it was in an space managed by the group. Senior Taliban leaders often met on the home, however American officers have no idea what number of knew that the Haqqanis have been hiding al-Zawahri.

    If some senior Taliban officers didn’t know that the Haqqanis had allowed al-Zawahri to return, his killing may drive a wedge between the teams, impartial analysts and others briefed on the occasions stated.

    It isn’t clear why Al-Zawahri moved again to Afghanistan. He had lengthy made recruiting and promotional movies, and it might have been simpler to supply them in Kabul. He additionally might have had higher entry to medical remedy.

    No matter what the explanation, his ties to leaders of the Haqqani community led US  intelligence officers to the protected home.

    “The Haqqanis have a very long relationship with al-Qaida going back to the mujahedeen days,” stated Dan Hoffman, a former CIA officer. “They provide al-Qaida with a lot of tactical support that they need.”

    Once the protected home was positioned, the CIA adopted the playbook it wrote in the course of the hunt for bin Laden. The company constructed a mannequin of the location and sought to be taught all the things about it.

    Analysts finally recognized a determine who lingered on the balcony studying, however by no means left the home, as al-Zawahri.

    US officers shortly determined to focus on him, however the location of the home posed issues. It was within the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul, an city space of carefully spaced homes. A missile armed with a big explosive may harm close by houses. And any form of incursion by Special Operations forces could be prohibitively harmful, limiting the choices for the US authorities to conduct a strike.

    The seek for al-Zawahri carried enormous significance for the company. After the US invasion of Afghanistan, the CIA base in Khost province turned residence to a focusing on group devoted to monitoring each bin Laden and al-Zawahri. It was one of many leads developed by the CIA to trace al-Zawahri that proved disastrous for the company’s officers at that base, Camp Chapman.

    CIA officers hoped Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi, a Jordanian physician and propagandist for al-Qaida, would make them al-Zawahri. He supplied American officers with details about al-Zawahri’s well being, convincing them his intelligence was actual. But he was in reality a double agent, and on Dec. 30, 2009, he confirmed up at Camp Chapman with a suicide vest. When it exploded, seven CIA officers have been killed.

    For many, the Khost assault intensified efforts to search out al-Zawahri. “To honor their legacy, you carry on with the mission,” Hoffman stated.

    In 2012 and 2013, the CIA targeted the hunt on Pakistan’s North Waziristan area. CIA analysts have been assured they’d discovered the small village the place al-Zawahri was hiding. But intelligence businesses couldn’t discover his home within the city of a few dozen compounds, making a raid or drone strike unimaginable.

    Still, the U.S. hunt pressured al-Zawahri to stay within the tribal areas of Pakistan, probably limiting the effectiveness of his management inside al-Qaida.

    “Anytime anything related to bin Laden or Zawahri hit the intel channels, everyone stopped to pitch in and help,” stated Lisa Maddox, a former CIA analyst. “It was the CIA’s promise to the public: to bring them to justice.”

    On April 1, high intelligence officers briefed nationwide safety officers on the White House concerning the protected home and the way they’d tracked al-Zawahri. After the assembly, the CIA and different intelligence businesses labored to be taught extra about what they known as al-Zawahri’s sample of life.

    One key perception was that he was by no means seen leaving the home and solely appeared to get contemporary air by standing on a balcony on an higher flooring. He remained on the balcony for prolonged intervals, which gave the CIA likelihood to focus on him.

    Al-Zawahri continued to work on the protected home, producing movies to be distributed to the Qaida community.

    A senior administration official, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate the delicate choices resulting in the strike, stated the intelligence introduced to the White House had been repeatedly vetted, together with by a crew of impartial analysts tasked with figuring out everybody who was staying on the protected home.

    As choices for a strike have been developed, intelligence officers examined what sort of missile might be fired at al-Zawahri with out inflicting main harm to the protected home or the neighborhood round it. They finally selected a type of Hellfire missile designed to kill a single particular person.

    William Burns, the CIA director, and different intelligence officers briefed President Joe Biden on July 1, this time with the mannequin of the protected home, the senior official stated.

    At that assembly, Biden requested about the opportunity of collateral harm, prodding Burns to take him by the steps of how officers had discovered al-Zawahri and confirmed his data, and their plans to kill him.

    Biden ordered a collection of analyses. The White House requested the National Counterterrorism Center to supply an impartial evaluation on the impression of al-Zawahri’s removing, each in Afghanistan and to the community worldwide, stated a senior intelligence official. The president additionally requested concerning the potential dangers to Mark R. Frerichs, an American hostage held by the Haqqanis.

    In June and July, officers met a number of instances within the Situation Room to debate the intelligence and study the potential ramifications.

    The CIA plans known as for it to make use of its personal drones. Because it was utilizing its personal belongings, few Pentagon officers have been introduced into the planning for the strike, and plenty of senior navy officers realized about it solely shortly earlier than the White House announcement, an official stated.

    On July 25, Biden, glad with the plan, approved the CIA to conduct the airstrike when the chance introduced itself. Sunday morning in Kabul, it did. A drone flown by the CIA discovered al-Zawahri on his balcony. The company operatives fired two missiles, ending a greater than two-decadelong hunt.

    This article initially appeared in The New York Times.

  • Al-Qaida chief seems in 9/11 video amid rumors he’s useless

    Al-Qaida chief Ayman al-Zawahri appeared in a brand new video marking the twentieth anniversary of the September 11, assaults, months after rumors unfold that he was useless.
    The SITE Intelligence Group that displays jihadist web sites stated the video was launched Saturday. In it, al-Zawahri stated that ‘Jerusalem Will Never be Judaized’, and praised al-Qaida assaults together with one which focused Russian troops in Syria in January.
    SITE stated al-Zawahri additionally famous the US army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of battle. It added that his feedback don’t essentially point out a latest recording, because the withdrawal settlement with the Taliban was signed in February 2020.

    Al-Zawahri made no point out of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan and the capital Kabul final month, SITE added. But he did point out a January 1, assault that focused Russian troops on the sting of the northern Syrian metropolis of Raqqa.Rumors have unfold since late 2020 that al-Zawahri had died from sickness. Since then, no video or proof of life surfaced, till Saturday.
    “He could still be dead, though if so, it would have been at some point in or after Jan 2021,” tweeted Rita Katz, SITE’s director.
    Al-Zawahri’s speech was recorded in a 61-minute, 37-second video produced by the group’s as-Sahab Media Foundation.

    In latest years, al-Qaida has confronted competitors in jihadi circles from its rival, the Islamic State group. IS rose to prominence by seizing massive swaths of Iraq and Syria in 2014, declaring a ‘caliphate’ and increasing associates to a number of international locations throughout the area.
    IS’s bodily ‘caliphate’ was crushed in Iraq and Syria, although its militants are nonetheless energetic and finishing up assaults. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the shadowy chief of IS was killed by US particular forces in a raid in northwestern Syria in October 2019.
    Al-Zawahri, an Egyptian, grew to become chief of al-Qaida following the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan by US Navy SEALs.

  • UK PM Boris Johnson: 9/11 assaults didn’t divide us

    The Sept. 11, 2001, al Qaeda assaults within the United States didn’t divide those that consider in freedom and democracy, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson mentioned in a video message marking the twentieth anniversary of that day.
    Nearly 3,000 folks had been killed, together with greater than 2,600 on the World Trade Center in New York, after hijackers seized management of airplanes and used them to assault the World Trade Center’s twin towers and the Pentagon simply exterior Washington.
    Sixty-seven British nationals had been among the many useless.”While the terrorists imposed their burden of grief and struggling, and whereas the menace persists at this time, we will now say with the attitude of 20 years that they didn’t shake ourbelief in freedom and democracy,” Johnson mentioned within the video message.
    “They failed to drive our nations apart, or cause us to abandon our values, or to live in permanent fear.”The message shall be performed at an occasion held in London’s Olympic Park, the place there’s a memorial sculpture created fromsteel salvaged from the collapsed World Trade Center towers.
    Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden plotted the 9/11 assaults from inside Afghanistan. That sparked a U.S-led invasion that swiftly toppled the Taliban authorities there in 2001, however Western forces remained within the nation for an additional 20 years.

    Johnson linked the 9/11 anniversary with the current return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American, British and different NATO forces.
    “Recent events in Afghanistan only strengthen our determination to remember those who were taken from us, cherish the survivors and those who still grieve, and hold fast to our belief in liberty and democracy, which will always prevail over every foe,” he mentioned.

  • Trying to search out your mom’s stays from Ground Zero, 20 years later

    Last month, two detectives confirmed up at Nykiah Morgan’s Long Island house.
    Her son, Dante, referred to as her whereas she was at work. “They’re here about Grandma,” he stated.
    Nearly 20 years in the past, Dorothy Morgan, Nykiah Morgan’s mom, disappeared into the rubble of the collapsed towers, like many of the 2,753 floor zero victims on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. She was working as an insurance coverage dealer within the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

    With no stays, her daughter was by no means in a position to give her a correct burial. But now the detectives had arrived with information that the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office had simply positively recognized Dorothy by way of superior DNA testing.
    “I didn’t know they were still attempting that after all these years, that it was something that was ongoing,” stated Morgan, 44, a private assistant. “At this point, what is it that you’re sifting through?”
    Nykiah Morgan, whose mom, Dorothy, turned the 1,646th World Trade Center sufferer to be recognized by way of DNA testing, in Westbury, Conn., Aug. 29, 2021. (Anna Watts/The New York Times)
    For 20 years, the health worker’s workplace has quietly performed the biggest missing-persons investigation ever undertaken within the nation — testing and retesting the 22,000 physique components painstakingly recovered from wreckage after the assaults. Scientists are nonetheless testing the huge stock of unidentified stays for a genetic connection to the 1,106 victims — roughly 40% of the bottom zero loss of life toll — who’re nonetheless and not using a match in order that their households can reclaim the stays for a correct burial.
    Like kinfolk of many of the different victims, Morgan had submitted a reference pattern practically twenty years in the past of her mom’s DNA — so way back, she doesn’t recall what it was. But by way of new know-how, the health worker’s workplace matched her pattern to a tiny bone fragment discovered amid the hundreds of stays.
    Her mom turned the 1,646th World Trade Center sufferer to be recognized by way of DNA testing. Remarkably, the 1,647th match got here days later: a person whose title the company didn’t launch in accordance together with his household’s needs.
    They have been the primary constructive identifications since 2019. Victim identifications come lower than yearly right this moment, a far cry from the years instantly after 2001, when there have been lots of of identifications annually.
    After all, the collapse and restoration at floor zero was not like smaller disasters, such because the condominium collapse in Surfside, Florida, that killed practically 100 individuals in June. There, the authorities have been ready to make use of speedy DNA testing and different strategies to rapidly determine victims.
    Many stays recovered at floor zero had broken and degraded within the fiery rubble for weeks or longer and subsequently had scant quantities of DNA to extract.
    By 2005, with the company operating dry on constructive hits, its officers instructed households they have been pausing work on the undertaking as a result of they have been merely not making any extra matches with present DNA forensic know-how.
    But the company rapidly resumed the mission in the identical 12 months, utilizing more-refined strategies that helped it efficiently retest beforehand analysed samples within the stock of stays, which is now break up between the health worker’s midtown Manhattan headquarters and the particular storage repository below its jurisdiction on the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
    The company was considerably distracted from the DNA undertaking by the coronavirus pandemic and the scramble to rearrange storage and reclamation of hundreds of COVID-19 victims. But the genetic identification undertaking stays “a sacred obligation,” a number one precedence for the company, and the success of a promise made to households in 2001, stated Dr. Barbara Sampson, the town’s chief health worker.
    She stated the company is optimistic about next-generation sequencing, the most recent DNA know-how that can assist scientists higher analyse unidentified stays. “It’s a much more sensitive technology, so we’re very hopeful it will help us find more new identifications,” Sampson stated. “We committed back then to do whatever it takes, as long as it takes and that’s what we’ll continue to do so.”
    Last week, Carl Gajewski, a DNA lab supervisor who helps oversee the 9/11 undertaking, entered an area formally often called the Bone Grinding Room, the place to keep away from contaminating the fragile genetic materials, staff should go well with up from head to toe in protecting gear and ensure the slicing of bone fragments is completed with a small electrical noticed inside a transparent plastic field containing the bone mud.
    Carl Gajewski, a DNA lab supervisor, provides an illustration on a “bone mill,” which crushes stays that can be utilized to extract DNA to assist determine victims of the 9/11 assaults, in New York, Aug. 26, 2021. (Anna Watts/The New York Times)
    Gajewski confirmed how staff ready the bone fragments — lots of them the scale of a Tic Tac — for evaluation. The fragments are first scraped clear with a razor after which scoured with a toothbrush and varied detergents. Since it’s tough to extract DNA from an intact bone, the fragment is then crushed into as advantageous a powder as attainable.
    Lab staff have been nonetheless utilizing a mortar and pestle to manually crush bone fragments when the undertaking first started in 2001, he stated, however have since automated the method by way of ball bearings and ultrasonic vibration. Fragments are put in a glass tube and frozen with the assistance of liquid nitrogen in a “bone mill” machine that shakes it vigorously.
    Scientists additionally now use incubation and varied chemical substances to extract DNA to attempt matching to the samples submitted way back by members of the family: a sufferer’s clothes, toothbrush or, within the case of 1 sufferer, a funeral prayer card for his mom that he used to carry to his head in prayers each night time.
    “The DNA extraction is only half the battle,” stated Mark Desire, the company’s assistant director of forensic biology, including that of the roughly 150 DNA profiles made annually, most wind up matching beforehand recognized 9/11 victims, whereas others draw no matches within the database.
    The prospect of positively figuring out each final sufferer is unattainable, Desire stated.
    Some victims could by no means be recognized as a result of they totally incinerated, and the households of practically 100 victims declined to submit a pattern or supplied one with too little DNA for matching.
    The identification course of is tedious and repetitive, so in these uncommon cases when a constructive match happens, it units the lab abuzz with pleasure and “breathes energy into the team,” Desire stated.
    Gajewski stated that after 13 years of involvement with the undertaking, he nonetheless will get chills when a constructive identification is made.
    An illustration vial of small bone fragments that can be utilized to extract DNA, which has been used to assist determine victims of the 9/11 assaults, in New York, Aug. 26, 2021. (Anna Watts/The New York Times)
    The company returns any newly recognized stays in a vacuum-sealed package deal marked with an American flag and the “disaster identification number” assigned to every of the 22,000 stays. If kinfolk want to not obtain stays, they’re stored within the repository at floor zero.
    Awaiting phrase of stays from the health worker is “an agonising ordeal for the families,” stated Rosemary Cain, of Massapequa, New York, who in 2002 obtained the recognized stays of her son George, a 35-year-old firefighter.
    Cain stated the town ought to take into account curbing the DNA investigation if family members nonetheless with out stays consented.
    “They should ask them if ‘At this stage, do you want us to continue the testing?’” she stated. “I think it’s giving a lot of people false hope who are sitting and waiting for remains.” She additionally criticised the town for finding the repository within the museum as an alternative of a devoted location aboveground.
    A spokesperson for the health worker’s workplace stated that households have the choice of declining to be notified about any attainable identifications.
    Still, the individuals working to determine the stays imagine it’s a particular responsibility to proceed the search. While forensic scientists are educated to stay unemotional about their work, many know concerning the victims they’re in search of to determine by way of studying information profiles and thru the company’s continued interplay with victims’ households.
    The company continues to attend Family Day each Sept. 10 to supply victims’ family members updates concerning the standing of the DNA investigation.
    “You’re usually not emotionally attached, but with the World Trade Center, it became personal — you talk to the families, there’s hugging and crying,” stated Desire, who raced to the location earlier than the South Tower collapsed together with the previous chief health worker, Charles Hirsch, and two different colleagues.
    All 4 have been injured and practically died when the tower collapsed in entrance of them. Desire’s tattered company windbreaker stays on show in one of many labs, together with a photograph of the lab staff staggering away in ripped, dusty clothes.
    That morning, Dorothy Morgan was engaged on the 94th ground for Marsh & McLennan, an insurance coverage firm that misplaced 295 staff and 63 different contractors and shoppers within the assaults.
    With no fast proof of loss of life, Nykiah Morgan questioned if her mom was unconscious someplace or wandering in a daze. She traveled to Manhattan day after day looking for her. After greater than a month, her mom was memorialised at her church, the Allen AME church in Queens.

    Now that her mom has been recognized, Morgan is unsure whether or not she nonetheless needs, after so a few years, to reclaim the stays. After all, a full coffin interment for a tiny bone fragment may resurrect extra ache than it buries.
    “You suddenly have to decide what to do with a loved one who died 20 years ago,” she stated. “It’s almost like reopening old wounds. Over time, you feel like you’re getting better and then this happens 20 years later and you’re dealing with it all over again.”