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Some relatives of the Sept. 11 victims, upset about plans to build a cultural center at ground zero, launched an internet campaign urging donors to withhold contributions to the World Trade Center memorial. An open letter, published on a Web site called ``Take Back the Memorial'' and purportedly signed by 14 family groups, urged the boycott. But the letter was withdrawn after at least one group protested the use of its name on the posting, according to a report in The New York Times on Tuesday. Gov. George Pataki, speaking Tuesday in Troy, N.Y., said it was ``very unfortunate'' that...

Families and spokespersons for the victims of 9/11 have banded together to form “Take Back the Memorial,” a group working to prevent an addition at Ground Zero designed to show why our nation ”deserved” what happened on that infamous day in September. Plans for the International Freedom Center (IFC) at Ground Zero were revealed in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Debra Burlingame, a member of the board of directors for the WTC Memorial Foundation and sister of Charles F. “Chic” Burlingame III, captain of American Airlines flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. “Rather than a respectful tribute...

Britain celebrated an epic naval victory Tuesday but a descendant of its hero Admiral Horatio Nelson said the Battle of Trafalgar bicentenary was trying too hard not to offend historical enemies France and Spain. A highlight of the world's biggest naval review was featuring two fleets enacting a 19th century sea battle. But they have been called simply the red and the blue fleet rather than by country names, which has sparked a shot across the bows from Nelson's great great great granddaughter. "I am anti-political correctness. Very much against it. It makes fools of us," said 75-year-old Anna Tribe....

September 11th Families to Hold News Conference in Washington in Protest of Current Memorial Plans at Ground Zero Washington, D.C., - Families of the victims of the September 11th attacks will hold a press conference and memorial walking tour in Washington, D.C. to protest the current plans for the memorial at Ground Zero in New York. Washington, D.C. is the first stop on a national grassroots outreach campaign to alert the American people to the continued minimization of the memorial and to urge President Bush and Congress to take action. Current plans for the site call for institutions that have...

Sometimes... the most important quality an architect can possess is optimism. For example, it took 12 years for the Jewish Museum I designed in Berlin to finally open to the public. A few hours later it had to close. The date: Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. That jarring confluence of events not only predated but also presaged my role in rebuilding ground zero. And the memories of what we went through in Berlin give me confidence that we will succeed in New York as well. When I won the museum competition, Berliners were divided between those who felt my design would...

Seemingly terminal reconstruction gridlock may not be the only scandal plaguing the site of the destroyed Twin Towers. Now serious concerns are being raised about the nature of the principal Ground Zero memorial. The International Freedom Center is to be a 250,000-square-foot museum with a self-professed mission to "harness the power of history and use it as a springboard for contemporary dialogue and debate" on the meaning of freedom.... Because odds are that, at the end of the day, this center won't focus on freedom's triumphs, so much as on its failures — particularly those in which America can be...

Most Americans have not been paying attention to the bureaucratic wrangling and political jockeying that has plagued the construction of the World Trade Center Memorial at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan. But it’s not just New Yorkers and developers and 9/11 families who should care. A good portion of the project is federally subsidized. All of us have not only a financial stake, but also a moral stake, in protecting the honor of the victims­ and the dignity of our country. A Blame America Monument is not what we need or deserve. But it looks like one is already in...

Must-read. Debra Burlingame, sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which terrorists crashed into the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, has blown the whistle on George Soros and other human rights zealots who are trying to turn Ground Zero into a blame-America monument. Her piece is up at the WSJ.com site (subscription required...also try here). Here are a few blood-boiling excerpts: The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary "gateway" to the underground area...

LONDON - Critics of a U.S.-backed plan to build a pipeline transporting Caspian Sea oil to Western consumers are urging the World Bank (news - web sites)'s private investment arm to delay a decision on whether to help finance the $3.6 billion project. Environmentalists and human rights groups contend the pipeline, which would carry crude from Azerbaijan to Turkey's coast, endangers villages and wildlife in its path, and could spark conflict in a region already seething with ethnic tensions. The International Finance Corp., the World Bank's Washington-based private investment arm, was to have made a decision this week on lending...