Posted on 09/10/2002 3:16:52 AM PDT by BigWaveBetty
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush ( news - web sites) will set aside any discussion of Iraq and highlight America's "moral calling," when he addresses the nation on Wednesday night, the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, a White House spokesman said.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites) on Monday said Bush would wait for Thursday's U.N. speech to discuss Iraq, in an address expected to seek international support to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ( news - web sites).
His U.N. speech is expected to lay out more fully than before his case for taking action to eliminate what he has described as a threat posed by Saddam's weapons program.
But in his nationally televised anniversary speech from New York, Bush will reflect on the significance of last year's attacks on the United States, Fleischer said.
"The goal is to capture in a picture America's visions and the poignancy of a deeply emotional moment," Fleischer told reporters. "The president wanted a setting that reminds America again of our moral calling, our higher purpose as the beacon of liberty and freedom for people around the world."
The Wednesday night speech will cap a day of commemoration of the hijacked aircraft attacks, which killed about 3,000 people. Bush will visit the Pentagon ( news - web sites), the World Trade Center in New York, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania -- the sites where the four hijacked planes crashed.
It will be Bush's first visit to Shanksville, where he is expected to lay a wreath. Fleischer said about 150 White House employees will attend the commemoration, many believing they owe their lives to the passengers who evidently resisted the hijacking on United Airlines Flight 93 and forced it to crash before it could reach Washington.
There has been speculation that the plane was headed for the White House but other reports said the U.S. Capitol was probably the real target.
'WE'LL PROBABLY NEVER KNOW'
"What happened in Shanksville saved a lot of lives. There are many people (at the White House) who think it saved their life -- co-workers, staff of the president, and he's heard from those people," Fleischer said.
A reporter for al-Jazeera Arabic satellite television told Reuters on Sunday that a key member of the al Qaeda network blamed for the attacks told him in an interview that the hijackers on Flight 93 had intended to hit the U.S. Capitol.
"We'll probably never know if the plane ultimately was headed toward the White House or the Capitol," Fleischer said. "But no matter where it was ultimately headed, the act of heroism that took place on that aircraft stands out as one of the most amazing feats of heroism in our country's long history of heroes."
Shanksville residents have taken to describing the crash area as the site of America's first victory in its war against terrorism.
Bush, in excerpts of a CBS television interview released on Monday, recalled as among his most painful memories of the past year the "blood lust" of families of victims of the World Trade Center attacks.
"There was a lot of blood lust," Bush said of his meeting with victims' families shortly after the attacks. "People were, you know, pointing their big old hands at me saying, 'Don't you ever forget this, Mr. President. Don't let us down."'
The interview is to be broadcast on CBS' "60 Minutes II" on Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday Bush will attend a private church service with first lady Laura Bush at 7:45 a.m. That will be followed by a moment of silence at the White House at 8:46 a.m., the moment the first aircraft smashed into New York's World Trade Center.
He is to attend a Pentagon observance of the attack before heading to Pennsylvania. After the Shanksville ceremony, Bush heads for New York to lay a wreath at the Ground Zero site of the World Trade Center attacks. His national address is scheduled for 9:01 p.m.
Busy day today. Don't forget to vote if your primary is today!
Back after my errands.....
HLL, looking forward to your pictures from yesterday!
everyone check out my thread I posted last night about my rememberances of last year. My title for it is "A Day I'll Never Forget". I would have pinged you all to it but it was late by the time I finished writing it and only had a chance to ping a few people to it.
It's long but a good read.
Thanks Pippin, I look forward to reading it later.
We pray for the safety of President Bush and his administration.
How tragic to think of all the lives that would have been saved WORLDWIDE if we'd had a real President for the previous eight years.
What a horrific thought. I wonder if there is anyway we could put together a 'body count'.
Good morning to you and to IG!
And a Big AMEN to that!
Sounds like "42nd Street" meets bin Laden.
Elliott is such a lovely name for a little girl.
•The litigious Larry Klayman, president of the conservative group Judicial Watch, called us yesterday in great excitement to report that rats, hundreds of 'em, had swarmed into the nonprofit's School Street SW headquarters over the weekend after fleeing a construction site allegedly owned by the Democratic National Committee.
"Apparently the demolition work next door dislodged some rat colonies, and they invaded our fifth-floor offices. They defecated on people's desks and gnawed on telephone and computer cables. We've been invaded by packs of rats from the DNC."
The only problem with Klayman's theory is that the Democratic Party doesn't have anything to do with the site, DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe told us yesterday. Whatever construction is planned, McAuliffe said, will occur at the DNC headquarters building several blocks away. Klayman's response: "Maybe these were rats sympathetic to the Democrats and acted because they were upset that the Democrats weren't coming." WashPost
Larry was the libs' darling as long as he was suing Cheney and bashing Bush, but he's back to being "litigious" and a conservative.
Can anyone explain this one?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
