DLR'sCock
09-11-2004, 12:48 PM
http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=143276123&p=y43z76986&n=143277066
Families to read victims' names for 9/11 anniversary
11/09/2004 - 09:19:06
On the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, dignitaries, community leaders and relatives of victims stood at ground zero and gave voice to the names of the dead. Last year, the children of victims took up that task.
And on Saturday, once again, the names of the 2,749 people lost in the World Trade Centre attack were to be read aloud – this time by parents and grandparents of those lost in the attacks three years ago.
Like both times before, the ceremony will pause four times for moments of silence, marking the exact minute of each plane crash and tower collapse.
Nancy Brandemarti, who has never attended the ground zero remembrance, will read a poem for her son, Nicky Brandemarti, a financial analyst who died just weeks before his 22nd birthday.
“Every day is hard, but this day is a little bit harder,” she said. “This day is just a day to think about him.”
After the first moment of silence at 8.46am (1.46pm Irish time), names will be read in alphabetical order, pausing at 9:03 (2.03irish time), 9:59 (2.59pm Irish time) and 10:29 a.m. (3.29pm irish time).
At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed that day by another hijacked plane, officials were to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence. In Pennsylvania, bells will toll across the state at the minute the fourth plane went down, killing the 40 passengers and crew killed aboard Flight 93.
Nationwide, communities will observe September 11 in their own ways, with services at local firehouses, memorial dedications, bell-ringing events and flag ceremonies.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was scheduled to participate in the ground zero remembrance, said parents and grandparents were asked to lead the ceremony because the city wants to “acknowledge their great sacrifice and thank them for helping all of us to shoulder the loss.”
His predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey were also expected to deliver readings.
During the ceremony, families will be able to walk down a ramp to the footprints of the towers. The area, seven stories below street level, is considered sacred ground by many. It was there that rescue workers combed the debris with rakes, painstakingly searching for the tiniest fragments of human remains.
Three years later, work still continues to identify the 20,000 pieces of human remains that were recovered. The medical examiner’s office has identified about 1,570 victims, or just 60%. They do not expect to match the remains of every victim because some remains were too badly damaged to yield readable DNA, and some people were essentially vaporised in the fiery collapse.
Meanwhile, much has changed at the 16-acre site.
By the first anniversary, the debris of the 110-storey towers had been cleared, but there was little activity there other than construction that had begun to replace commuter train tracks. By the second anniversary, the train station was nearly complete, and it opened last November.
The redevelopment of the site has seen another major step in the last year - the laying of the cornerstone for the 1,776-ft-tall Freedom Tower, the skyscraper expected to be completed by 2009. The 20-ton slab of granite was laid at the site in a July 4 ceremony this summer.
Victims were to be honoured at several other events in New York City on Saturday, including a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for fallen firefighters and the dedication of a memorial to Staten Island victims at the ferry terminal across the harbour from the trade centre site.
The US government agency that owns the World Trade Centre site says it intends to hold Saudi Arabia and nearly 100 other defendants liable for the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the complex.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced last night that it planned to join as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed a week ago by Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a bond trading firm that lost two-thirds of its workers in the trade centre attack.
The Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit named as defendants Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and other accused terrorists, along with financial institutions and charitable organisations that allegedly raised money for terrorism efforts.
In a statement, the port authority said it had “an obligation to preserve its legal options at this time” because a three-year statute of limitations was about to expire.
“We also have a responsibility to the millions of people who live and work in the region as well as to our bondholders to pursue every legal avenue to recover the losses we sustained on September 11,” according to the port authority, which lost 84 of its employees in the 2001 attacks.
The Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit sought €5.9bn in damages.
Although Saudi Arabia had been named as a defendant in similar lawsuits, the Cantor Fitzgerald action was particularly pointed in its criticism, accusing Saudi Arabia of supporting al-Qaida with money, safe houses, weapons and money-laundering.
It said Saudi Arabia engaged in a pattern of racketeering as it participated directly or indirectly in al Qaida’s work through its “alter-ego” charities and relief organisations, which it funded and controlled.
Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its 1,050 employees on September 11 and now has offices in midtown Manhattan.
Saudi Arabia defended itself last month as a loyal ally in the fight against terrorism, citing the September 11 Commission’s conclusion that the Saudi government did not fund al-Qaida.
Saudi embassy spokesman Nail al-Jubeir said the ads told Americans “these are the facts that your own independent commission has said about Saudi Arabia. You make up your mind”.
But the commission had also criticised Saudi Arabia, calling it “a problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism”. It said Saudi-funded Islamic schools had been exploited by extremists and, while Saudi co-operation against terrorism improved after the September 11 attacks, “significant problems remained”.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers.
Families to read victims' names for 9/11 anniversary
11/09/2004 - 09:19:06
On the first anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, dignitaries, community leaders and relatives of victims stood at ground zero and gave voice to the names of the dead. Last year, the children of victims took up that task.
And on Saturday, once again, the names of the 2,749 people lost in the World Trade Centre attack were to be read aloud – this time by parents and grandparents of those lost in the attacks three years ago.
Like both times before, the ceremony will pause four times for moments of silence, marking the exact minute of each plane crash and tower collapse.
Nancy Brandemarti, who has never attended the ground zero remembrance, will read a poem for her son, Nicky Brandemarti, a financial analyst who died just weeks before his 22nd birthday.
“Every day is hard, but this day is a little bit harder,” she said. “This day is just a day to think about him.”
After the first moment of silence at 8.46am (1.46pm Irish time), names will be read in alphabetical order, pausing at 9:03 (2.03irish time), 9:59 (2.59pm Irish time) and 10:29 a.m. (3.29pm irish time).
At the Pentagon, where 184 people were killed that day by another hijacked plane, officials were to lay a wreath and observe a moment of silence. In Pennsylvania, bells will toll across the state at the minute the fourth plane went down, killing the 40 passengers and crew killed aboard Flight 93.
Nationwide, communities will observe September 11 in their own ways, with services at local firehouses, memorial dedications, bell-ringing events and flag ceremonies.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who was scheduled to participate in the ground zero remembrance, said parents and grandparents were asked to lead the ceremony because the city wants to “acknowledge their great sacrifice and thank them for helping all of us to shoulder the loss.”
His predecessor, Rudolph Giuliani, New York Gov. George Pataki and New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey were also expected to deliver readings.
During the ceremony, families will be able to walk down a ramp to the footprints of the towers. The area, seven stories below street level, is considered sacred ground by many. It was there that rescue workers combed the debris with rakes, painstakingly searching for the tiniest fragments of human remains.
Three years later, work still continues to identify the 20,000 pieces of human remains that were recovered. The medical examiner’s office has identified about 1,570 victims, or just 60%. They do not expect to match the remains of every victim because some remains were too badly damaged to yield readable DNA, and some people were essentially vaporised in the fiery collapse.
Meanwhile, much has changed at the 16-acre site.
By the first anniversary, the debris of the 110-storey towers had been cleared, but there was little activity there other than construction that had begun to replace commuter train tracks. By the second anniversary, the train station was nearly complete, and it opened last November.
The redevelopment of the site has seen another major step in the last year - the laying of the cornerstone for the 1,776-ft-tall Freedom Tower, the skyscraper expected to be completed by 2009. The 20-ton slab of granite was laid at the site in a July 4 ceremony this summer.
Victims were to be honoured at several other events in New York City on Saturday, including a Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for fallen firefighters and the dedication of a memorial to Staten Island victims at the ferry terminal across the harbour from the trade centre site.
The US government agency that owns the World Trade Centre site says it intends to hold Saudi Arabia and nearly 100 other defendants liable for the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and destroyed the complex.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced last night that it planned to join as a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed a week ago by Cantor Fitzgerald Securities, a bond trading firm that lost two-thirds of its workers in the trade centre attack.
The Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit named as defendants Saudi Arabia, al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and other accused terrorists, along with financial institutions and charitable organisations that allegedly raised money for terrorism efforts.
In a statement, the port authority said it had “an obligation to preserve its legal options at this time” because a three-year statute of limitations was about to expire.
“We also have a responsibility to the millions of people who live and work in the region as well as to our bondholders to pursue every legal avenue to recover the losses we sustained on September 11,” according to the port authority, which lost 84 of its employees in the 2001 attacks.
The Cantor Fitzgerald lawsuit sought €5.9bn in damages.
Although Saudi Arabia had been named as a defendant in similar lawsuits, the Cantor Fitzgerald action was particularly pointed in its criticism, accusing Saudi Arabia of supporting al-Qaida with money, safe houses, weapons and money-laundering.
It said Saudi Arabia engaged in a pattern of racketeering as it participated directly or indirectly in al Qaida’s work through its “alter-ego” charities and relief organisations, which it funded and controlled.
Cantor Fitzgerald lost 658 of its 1,050 employees on September 11 and now has offices in midtown Manhattan.
Saudi Arabia defended itself last month as a loyal ally in the fight against terrorism, citing the September 11 Commission’s conclusion that the Saudi government did not fund al-Qaida.
Saudi embassy spokesman Nail al-Jubeir said the ads told Americans “these are the facts that your own independent commission has said about Saudi Arabia. You make up your mind”.
But the commission had also criticised Saudi Arabia, calling it “a problematic ally in combating Islamic extremism”. It said Saudi-funded Islamic schools had been exploited by extremists and, while Saudi co-operation against terrorism improved after the September 11 attacks, “significant problems remained”.
Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of bin Laden and 15 of the 19 hijackers.