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First taken, last remembered — let us never forget their bravery. July 17, 2008 - by

On Friday, just outside of Dallas/Ft Worth International Airport, the first national memorial to 9/11 heroes was dedicated. Shirley Hall, who is a Flight Attendant and the Vice President of the 9/11 Flight Crew Memorial Foundation, explained the memorial sculpture's symbolism during the memorial's July 4, 2008, dedication ceremony: As volunteers on this project, we have each spent time describing this statue in our attempts to raise funds to turn Valerie’s dream into a reality. From Bryce Cameron Liston’s original interpretation to the final magnificent piece of art you see here today, each of us has shared our ideas on...

A Palm Beach man found a new purpose in life after losing his family on one of the hijacked planes that crashed into the World Trade Center.David McCourt believed his life was over after he lost his wife and 5-year-old daughter on 9/11. But a move to Palm Beach and the comforting memories of his family have helped McCourt give life a second chance. ''I think subconsciously I wanted a place that would anesthetize me to the pain, and Palm Beach seduced me with its beautiful tropical landscapes and ocean views,'' he said. McCourt's wife, Ruth, 45, and his daughter...

Last week, Senator Obama made this assertion: "We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?'" Senator McCain should have responded this way: "Barack Obama wants you to think about his race and name. "He does not want you to think about his lack of preparedness for the Presidency of the United States or managing billion dollar government programs or serving as Commander-and-Chief in time...

An antique cherry wood chair scorched to its springs by a fireball inside a Battery Park City apartment. Family letters and wedding invitations miraculously recovered from the rubble. A $2 bill pulled from a victim's bruised wallet that finally convinced his wife he was never coming home. These are the everyday objects of Sept. 11, 2001, all of which will end up in the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

GROTON, Conn., June 18, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----General Dynamics Electric Boat will christen New Hampshire (SSN-778), the U.S. Navy's newest and most advanced nuclear attack submarine, at a ceremony at its shipyard here on Saturday, June 21, at 11 a.m. Cheryl McGuinness of Portsmouth, N.H., is the ship's sponsor. Mrs. McGuinness lost her husband, Tom McGuinness, on September 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center attacks. He was the co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, which was flown into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

U.S. to televise Guantanamo trials to 9-11 families By Jane Sutton 12 minutes ago The U.S. military will televise the Guantanamo trial of accused September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other suspects so relatives of those killed in the attacks can watch on the U.S. mainland. "We're going to broadcast in real time to several locations that will be available just to victim families," Army Col. Lawrence Morris, chief prosecutor for the controversial war crimes court, said at the naval base recently. In February, military prosecutors charged Mohammed and five other captives with murder and conspiracy and asked...

“We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went. We’ve got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn’t come home, to show for that.” — Attorney General Michael Mukasey, speaking last week “in Nancy Pelosi’s hometown.” AG Michael Mukasey revealed new, stunning information: he now knows precisely to whom that call was made. As 13 of the 15 muscle hijackers came late and knew little, that call undoubtedly was...

While the pardon scandals that marked Bill and Hillary Clinton's final days in office are remembered as transactions involving cronies, criminals and campaign contributors, the FALN clemencies of 1999 should be remembered in the context of the increasing threat of domestic and transnational terrorism that was ramping up during the Clinton years of alleged peace and prosperity. To wit, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, the 1995 Tokyo subway Sarin attack, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the 1995 "Bojinka" conspiracy to hijack airplanes and crash them into buildings, the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing, Osama bin...

For those who have forgotten just how corrupt the Clinton’s are (like anyone could forget) this story should bring shivers down your spine. Debra Burlingame, the sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, the pilot of American Airlines flight 77, writes about the Armed Forces of National Liberation [FALN] terrorist group that had wreaked havoc on American soil for decades. 146 bombings and armed robberies were linked to the group including this account of a bombing in 1982: It was nearly 10 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, 1982. Two officers on New York Police Department’s elite bomb squad rushed to...

FAMILIES OF the victims of the September 11 terror attacks on New York have been devastated to learn that body parts of their loved ones have been found in the past two weeks by workers building the replacement for the World Trade Center. Meanwhile, just a few miles away, distraught relatives are left to mourn at the world’s largest rubbish dump — the final resting place for the remains of their sons and daughters. This is the reality of New York more than six years after the attacks on the Twin Towers. It’s a situation described by one still-grieving mother...

Republican Jim Ogonowski, who narrowly lost a congressional race to Niki Tsongas in October, is preparing to challenge U.S. Sen. John Kerry, The Associated Press has learned. Ogonowski, the brother of an airline pilot killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said he’s been attending Republican events around the state since his 6-point loss to Tsongas, a Democrat. "There’s nobody in Washington who represents the status quo more than John Kerry," said Ogonowski, who did not officially declare his candidacy.

WASHINGTON — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign was supposed to be toast by now, imploded by his hot temper, autocratic ways, tumultuous personal life and moderate views on social issues, which would turn off traditional Republican voters once they got to know the "Real Rudy." Or so many of Giuliani's critics thought. Instead, he remains atop the Republican presidential pack in national polls, powered in large part by his image as the steely hero who guided New York through the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. A small but vocal group of New...

A group of 9/11 firefighters and victims' family members with eyes on derailing Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign is close to a decision on forming an entity that would run issue ads in key early nominating states. "TV made him a hero, and we'll use TV to take him down," New York Fire Chief Jim Riches told ABC News. The final decision about the formation of an outside entity will happen sometime within the next few weeks after the group finalizes its plans at a meeting scheduled for after Thanksgiving. So far, though, under Riches' leadership, the group has sought...

LOWELL, Mass. --The widow of 1992 presidential candidate Paul Tsongas defeated the brother of an American Airlines pilot slain in the Sept. 11 terror attacks Tuesday in the special election to replace Democrat Martin Meehan in the U.S. House. Democrat Niki Tsongas of Lowell edged Republican Jim Ogonowski of Dracut, whose brother John died when his plane was hijacked and flown in the World Trade Center. With 170 of 195 precincts reporting, she had 51 percent of the vote to 46 percent for Ogonowski.

Wedding Band From 9/11 Victim Brings Back Lost Spirit By SEAN KIRST   Mark Morabito, who lost his wife on Sept. 11, received her wedding ring back recently. It was found with some of her remains at the site of the crash last month. (Photo by Stephen D. Cannerelli)     SKANEATELES, N.Y. — Mark Morabito does not separate the original meaning of his wife's wedding ring from the way that it was lost. He accepts it all, joy and sorrow, whenever the ring bumps against his chest.Fourteen years ago he bought the ring from a friend, a diamond broker...

In his 9/11 commemoration speech, Patrick observed that while the attack on the World Trade Center was “mean and nasty,” (that’s telling ’em, Deval!) the real tragedy of six years ago was the “failure of human understanding.” Yes, 9/11 was, Patrick said “a failure of human beings to understand each other, to learn to love each other.” [Emphasis added.] To find out what the victims of 9/11 didn’t understand about the terrorists that might have prevented the attack, I turned to Debra Burlingame. Her brother, Chic, was the pilot of American Airlines [AMR] Flight 77 - the plane that hit...

Six years ago, I turned on my television and saw the sickening image of an airplane flying directly into the south tower of the World Trade Center. I did not know that at precisely that moment, somewhere in the skies over the Ohio-Kentucky border, my brother was fighting for his life in the cockpit of his commercial airliner. It would be another 35 minutes before his plane crashed into the Pentagon's west side. Though the term "9/11 family member" had not yet become part of the Sept. 11 lexicon, my first thought upon seeing the plane turn and slam into...

In organizing a State House ceremony for Tuesday to mark the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, planners said yesterday they never envisioned they would set off a political firestorm by not inviting Jim Ogonowski, whose brother was killed in the attacks and who is now engaged in a heated race as he seeks to become the state's first Republican congressman in more than a decade. Ogonowski, who has been a speaker at the ceremony the past four years, was not asked to come back. However, added to the program as the keynote speaker was Martin Meehan, a former US...

The decision to exclude the brother of a pilot killed in the Sept. 11 attacks from ceremonies marking its anniversary has set off a political firestorm in Massachusetts. Jim Ogonowski, who is a Republican candidate for Congress in the heavily-Democratic state, was not asked to speak, as he had for the past four years. Ogonowski?s brother John was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 11, one of two planes that was flown into the World Trade Center. While Jim Ogonowski was not invited, speaking will be ex-Congressman Martin Meehan, whose wife is chairing Democrat Niki Tsongas' campaign against Ogonowski. "I...

9/11 FUND HAS NO CLASS KIN STIFFED BY $125M SCHOLARSHIP CHARITY By SUSAN EDELMAN September 9, 2007 -- A charity that tapped the influence of former President Bill Clinton and ex-Sen. Bob Dole and raised more than $125 million to send the children of 9/11 to college is stiffing families it promised to help, The Post has learned. Clinton and Dole spearheaded a campaign for Scholarship America that raked in millions to "guarantee a college education to the children and spouses of everyone who was killed or disabled on Sept. 11," as Clinton vowed on the Larry King show...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 7, 2007 – On Sept. 11, 2001, Amelia Fields arrived at the Pentagon for her second day of work as an Army budget analyst. It was also her 46th birthday. During his Sept. 7, 2007, visit to the Pentagon, William Fields displays his shirt bearing a photo of his wife, Amelia V. Fields who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attack against the Pentagon. Defense Dept. photo by Petty Officer 2nd Class Molly A. Burgess, U.S. Navy.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. That morning, when hijackers barreled American Airlines Flight 77 into the building’s western...

WHITE PLAINS - Sorrow brought them together but a shared desire for peace and reconciliation has made an unusual friendship blossom between two mothers whose sons were taken from them by the attacks of Sept. 11. Phyllis Rodriguez of White Plains, whose son Greg, 31, worked for Cantor Fitzgerald and died at the World Trade Center, and Aicha El-Wafi of Narbonne, France, the mother of Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th hijacker, came to a luncheon discussion yesterday at the WESPAC Foundation, a peace and justice center in White Plains. "I want something good to come from something horrible," Rodriguez told...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Friday that he misspoke when he said he spent as much time, if not more, at ground zero exposed to the same health risks as workers combing the site after the Sept. 11 attacks. "I think I could have said it better," he told nationally syndicated radio host Mike Gallagher. "You know, what I was saying was, 'I'm there with you.'" The former New York mayor struck a nerve with firefighters and police officers when he said Thursday in Cincinnati that he was at ground zero "as often, if not more,...

Rudy Giuliani drew outrage and indignation from Sept. 11 first-responders yesterday by saying he spent as much time - or more - exposed to the site's dangers as workers who dug through the debris for the missing and the dead. Speaking to reporters at a Cincinnati Reds ballgame he caught between fund-raisers, the GOP front-runner said he helped 9/11 families and defended himself against critics of how he managed the attack's aftermath. "This is not a mayor or a governor or a President who's sitting in an ivory tower," Giuliani said. "I was at Ground Zero as often, if not...

Giuliani claimed he was at Ground Zero "as often, if not more" than rescue workers. The statements enraged 9/11 families and responders. "That's insulting.....He's a liar, he's living in a dreamland," said Fire Capt. James Riches....Riches' fire officers association is opposing Giuliani.

A fight is brewing in New York between some families of September 11 victims and the city over where to hold an annual memorial ceremony after officials said the World Trade Center site was an unsafe venue. The memorial has been held every year at Ground Zero but this year construction is taking place and city officials ruled it unsafe. They have relocated the ceremony to a nearby park.

New York CityFamilies insist 9/11 remembrance be at Ground Zero THE ASSOCIATED PRESS July 31, 2007 Mayor Michael Bloomberg said yesterday that the Sept. 11 anniversary ceremony would not be held in its original Ground Zero location, despite threats by family members to boycott and hold their own shadow remembrance. Construction on the memorial, as well as new buildings that are going up, have made the site unsafe for a large public gathering like the one that has taken place at the site each year since the attacks, he said. Bloomberg said the decision to move the sixth anniversary commemoration...

What does redeployment mean exactly?" asked one reporter [July 25, 2007]. "Get the hell out [of Iraq]," Mr. Murtha replied. -- Jerome L. Sherman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette The Democratic Party's leadership wants no "change of direction" in Iraq; they want complete withdrawal. They are willing to stand by, to ignore the carnage that will come, just as they ignored the killing fields of Vietnam and Cambodia: Another asked if any troops would stay behind to engage in counterterrorism operations. "None, zero," [Murtha] said. He warned that an evacuation of the U.S. embassy in Baghdad could happen, repeating the images of Americans...

Members of Congress me to finalize provisions of the 9/11 security bill. The Democratic majority was using a technicality to block the so-called John Doe amendment from being included. This amendment, which protects citizen whistleblowers from being sued was sponsored by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) after six imams who were removed from a U.S. Airways flight in november filed a lawsuit against the passengers who reported their behavior to flight crews. The John Doe legislation passed the House in April. Now, King wants to include it as a stand-alone measure to assure its passage apart from the larger bill. It's...

The mother of a Sept. 11 victim is trying to prevent her son's absentee father from trying to collect half of the $2.9 million awarded by the Victim Compensation Fund, the Daily News has learned. Elsie Goss-Caldwell will be petitioning a Brooklyn Surrogate's Court judge tomorrow to keep her ex-husband from financially benefiting from the death of a son that she said he had little contact with for 28 years.

Last night, Constitutional expert and talk-radio host Mark Levin spoke with Debra Burlingame about the now revived ‘Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007.’ The proponents of the bill in Congress and the administration are lying to the American people. That is not new news: Debra Burlingame: “This amnesty bill is really a boom to the enemy. I guarantee you that al Qaeda has their guys lined up to get their amnesty, the ones already here and the ones who will come here. They will defraud this system to get their Social Security cards… How do we know that? There is...

9/11 babies old enough to ask for dad By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer Sat Sep 9, 12:03 AM ET NEW YORK - Four-year-old Gabriel Jacobs inherited his dad's sandy hair, long nose and blue eyes. The day they buried what was left of his father — a piece of rib, part of a thigh bone, a bit of one arm — the boy released a balloon into the air, then turned that familiar face skyward to make sure his daddy caught it. This is how a son reaches out to the father he never met. Ariel Jacobs died in...

I just found this very touching video and thought I'd pass it along. The singer/song writer, Kristi Nelson, has a beautiful voice. Click on : Watch Mama Will Hold Me video at the link above (I couldn't get it to work in cable mode but it worked in 56k mode) It's been a tough day. Never Forget.

ALL these cute four-year-olds share a painful anniversary today - their fathers were killed in the September 11 attacks before they were born. The 36 children are now old enough to ask, "Where's my daddy?" to their mothers, who were pregnant with them on that awful day. One mum told her child: "You are the kiss your father left behind." Another widow tells her son his daddy is now "an angel fireman". The women, some in such early stages of pregnancy they hadn't even told their partners the good news, have formed a support group. Just before each 9/11 anniversary,...

As Americans mark today's fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States, Alabama residents who lost family in the tragedy are bracing themselves for the onslaught of images. The public revisiting of such a horrendous and historic event makes their private pain harder. "It's there; you can't help it, especially when they plaster the pictures all over the television, the towers burning and collapsing and burning," Sue Hammond said. For family members of victims, the old saying that time heals all wounds is, for now at least, a fallacy.

FOR starters, I almost missed the story. I'd been The Australian's New York correspondent for more than two years at the time and was set in my ways. Nine o'clock on a weekday morning would normally see me running along the banks of the Hudson River, no mobile phone, preparatory to starting the working day about 10am. Fortunately, my diligent colleague in Washington, Roy Eccleston, was on the ball, and the phone. "Mate, turn on CNN," he said. I think I was a bit grumpy in response. I already had my running gear on, and it was such a glorious...

ST. PAUL, Minn. - While searching for her birth parents two years ago, Mariah Mills found more than she bargained for: A hero of Sept. 11, 2001. Mills' biological father, who had given Mills up for adoption when he and his then-girlfriend were in college, was Tom Burnett, a leader of a group that fought back on United Flight 93 before it crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001. Mills, 21, learned about her birth father in 2004 — after she turned 19, the legal age in Minnesota for requesting a birth certificate with names of birth parents — and...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9, 2006 -- As the United States gets ready to mark the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept, 11, 2001, it is important to remember and honor the memory of every person lost on that day, President Bush said today. “We also remember the brutality of the enemy who struck our country and renew our resolve to defeat this enemy and secure a future of peace and freedom,” Bush said in his weekly radio address to the nation. The president gave a series of speeches earlier this week regarding the nature of the terrorist enemy, the...

Tonight on ABC's "Primetime," Diane Sawyer reunites a group of children born to women widowed on Sept. 11. It's the first time the entire group (children and moms), has been together since Sawyer first featured them in June 2002 - and it's easy to see how the kids, who were all born after Sept. 11, have grown since then. In tonight's special, Sawyer chats with the Sept. 11 widows, and their kids, about how their lives have changed in the intervening five years. She also asks the moms how they've explained Sept. 11 to their children, who are now old...

Five years ago, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, every heartbeat of the babies whose fathers died was a reminder that life must go on — even when their widowed mothers had trouble remembering why. Today, those babies look even more like the fathers they never met, but now they shoot questions like arrows: They want to know what happened to daddy. When Holly O'Neill's daughter asked her what happened to her father, O'Neill gave her a timeline. "I sort of gave her a very simple chronology," she said. "'When we came home, you were in my belly and we...

9/11 Families for a Secure America Endorse John Jacob NEWS RELEASE June 23, 2006 Orem, UT – June 23, 2006 – Today, the Committee to Elect John Jacob announced the endorsement of 9/11 Families for a Secure America for John Jacob. Peter Gadiel, President of 9/11 Families for a Secure America and father of James Gadiel, age 23, World Trade Center, North Tower, 103rd floor, authored the letter written to endorse John Jacob from the 9/11 Families for a Secure America organization, an organization which all lost family members in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “We, who have...

June 13, 2006 -- THE ISSUE: Sen. Hillary Clinton's criticism of Ann Coulter for attacking the widows of 9/11 victims. Sen. Hillary Clinton recently blasted Ann Coulter by stating: "I felt it's unimaginable that anyone in the public eye could launch a vicious, mean-spirited attack on people who I've known in the last 4 1/2 years to be concerned deeply about the safety and security of our country" ("Give-'em-Hill Fury vs. Coulter," June 8). As a parade of Democrats have launched one vicious, heinous assault after another on President Bush, the troops and conservatives, Clinton has remained silent. From...

Well my good friends George and Laura have yet to see the movie United 93. To see it they have invited 2 people from each of the families of those that died on 9/11 aboard Flight 93. After a late lunch/early dinner with the President and First Lady but only one of us will be able to view the movie w/ them. Since my mother has not seen it yet - but is ready to now - she will go in with them to view it...and I will get an up close and personal tour of the White House. This,...

President Bush hosted a special screening of United 93 at the White House on Tuesday night. The film was attended by families of some of the 40 passengers and crew who were killed when their plane crashed on September 11, 2001. First lady Laura Bush was also at the screening. Directed by the British film-maker Paul Greengrass, United 93 is a real-time drama based on the events surrounding the fourth plane to be hijacked, which was believed to have been brought down after members of the crew decided to storm the cabin. The film has been a surprise box office...

US President George W. Bush has hosted an "emotional" White House screening of the film United 93, with relatives of some of the passengers who died aboard the September 11, 2001 flight attending. "It was a very emotional night, because you had family members and a handful of the families had not seen the movie before," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters today of last night's screening. "At the conclusion ... it has a very powerful ending, and it's dead silent as the credits roll" except for "the sounds of quiet sobbing in the room", he said. "It was...

For Immediate Release May 15, 2006 Contact: Kevin Collins (201) 665-2834 9/11 Families for a Secure America board members endorse Spencer for Senate YONKERS – Bruce De Cell, Joan Molinaro, and Peter Gadiel, members of the board of directors of 9/11 Families for a Secure America, today endorsed John Spencer for United States Senate. 9/11 Families for a Secure America is an organization of family members who lost loved ones on 9/11/01 committed to securing America’s borders. “John Spencer has our support because he is a steadfast supporter of border security and legal immigration,� said Bruce De Cell. “He...

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The two Massachusetts women walk down a fly-infested alley where sewage from mud huts drains onto the dirt walkway. In a tiny backyard, they find two dozen chickens, five children -- and one Afghan war widow. Patti Quigley of Wellesley and Susan Retik of Needham -- whose husbands were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks

Relatives of people killed in the Sept. 11 attacks expressed relief, rage, and disappointment after a judge and jury decided Zacarias Moussaoui should spend the rest of his life in prison rather than be put to death. On Thursday, a day after a jury rejected the government's case to have Moussaoui executed, U.S. Judge Leonie Brinkema sent Moussaoui to prison for life. "Yesterday and today there has been a chapter in the walk I take since 9/11, a chapter that is closed," Lisa Dolan said outside the courthouse in Alexandria, Va. Dolan, a mother of two, lost her husband, Capt....

"He just felt that whatever God's plan was for him, it had something to do with the White House and was going to impact a lot of people." A report in Newsmax states: "In a startling interview with Michael H. Brown, publisher of Spirit Daily, Deena Burnett, widow of the Flight 93 passenger Thomas Burnett, recalled that both she and her husband had premonitions about Tom's early death." Burnett, according to his wife, had come back to church after "straying" from God as a young man. Raised a Catholic, he became "so devoted to his Lord" that he gave up...