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It is eight years since 9/11, and here is an unexpected stage of grief: fear that the ache will go away. I don't suppose it ever will, but grieving has gradations, and "horror" becomes "absorbed sadness." Life moves on, and wants to move on, which is painful for those who will not forget and cannot be comforted. Part of the spookiness of life, part of its power to disorient us, is not only that people die, that they slip below the waves, but that the waves close above them so quickly, the sea so quickly looks the same. I've been...

Note: The following text is a quote: Statement by Secretary Napolitano on the Eighth Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks Release Date: September 11, 2009 For Immediate Release “On the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, our nation pauses to remember a day of sorrow and tragedy, but also a day of heroism and unity. Eight years later, threats to the United States and our allies abroad are persistent and evolving. Homeland security remains a responsibility shared by every individual, community and business. Together, we must build a culture of resiliency and guard against complacency,...

Note: The following text is a quote: Message from the Director: September 11th Statement to Employees by Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Leon E. Panetta on September 11th September 10, 2009 Tomorrow, our nation as a whole will remember those lost to us eight years ago. For the men and women of the CIA, September 11th is a constant, powerful incentive in the war against al-Qa’ida and its violent sympathizers. Our Agency is at the center of that fight. We have no higher priority or greater focus. Alone, and with partners in this country and overseas, the CIA has...

SNIPPET: "It was Hill who converted to Islam as a young U.S. Army paratrooper stationed in Beirut in 1958. It was Hill who learned fluent Arabic. It was Hill who joined the Mujahedeen Freedom Fighters in Afghanistan and fought the Soviet invasion there in the 1980s. It was Hill who personally met Osama bin Laden. It was Hill who used information from Islamic extremists to warn Rescorla that terrorists would use the underground parking garage for a car bomb attack on the World Trade Center. It was Hill who asked the U.S. government to assist him in an assassination attempt...

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing_room/PresidentialActions/ PROCLAMATIONS 9/4/2009 Presidential Proclamation National Days of Prayer and Remembrance, 2009 ### Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary ______________________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release September 3, 2009 NATIONAL DAYS OF PRAYER AND REMEMBRANCE, 2009 - - - - - - - BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA A PROCLAMATION They were daughters and sons, sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, spouses and partners, family and friends, colleagues and strangers. They hailed from cities and towns across our Nation and world. On September 11, 2001, thousands of...

By act of Congress and the signature of President Obama, the eighth anniversary of 9/11 will be America's first officially designated National Day of Service and Remembrance. How must this day unfold? With reverence unsullied by politics or commerce. With memory focused on the barbarity visited upon the United States. With determination redoubled to protect the shores and defeat those who would murder again. The concept of making service a hallmark of 9/11 anniversaries was championed by MyGoodDeed, an organization founded by family and friends of people killed in the attacks. The group's mission statement calls for honoring "the victims...

Obama's Plan to Desecrate 9/11 By Matthew Vadum on 8.24.09 @ 6:08AM SNIPPET: "The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry." SNIPPET: "The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community...

Note: The following text is a quote: Ali Al-Marri Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Al-Qaeda Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, 43, a dual national of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaeda. Al-Marri entered his guilty plea at a hearing this afternoon before Judge Michael M. Mihm in U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. In so doing, al-Marri admitted that he agreed with others to provide material support or resources to al-Qaeda in the form of personnel, including himself, to work under al-Qaeda’s...

1 hr 13 mins ago SNIPPET: "NEW YORK – New York City has positively matched another Sept. 11 victim to long-held human remains after retesting DNA. The city medical examiner's office says 54-year-old Manuel Emilio Mejia has been identified from remains found at the World Trade Center site in the months after the 2001 terrorist attack."

In a stark departure from Bush administration policy, the Justice Department is preparing to charge the only alleged enemy combatant held on U.S. soil in the federal court system, ABC News has learned. U.S. officials said Ali Saleh Kahlah al Marri, a Qatari national whom FBI agents arrested in Illinois in December 2001, could face charges for allegedly providing material support to terrorists. One day before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, al Marri and his family legally entered the United States so he could begin a master's degree program at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. He had received a bachelor's...

The "war on terror" went away with George W. Bush, but there's still a postscript here and there to be attended to. If you're one of the dwindling band of Americans interested in the Flight 93 memorial, this exchange with the presiding honchos of the "Circle of Embrace" (formerly the "Crescent of Embrace") makes for glum reading: “In your depiction, who is breaking the circle?”“The passengers and crew,” said [Memorial Project Manager] Reinbold.“But the circle is a symbol of peace,” Rawls continued. “Who broke the peace? It was the TERRORISTS who broke the peace on 9/11.”Reinbold countered that that the...

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - Plans to close Guantanamo are not sitting well with the Sept. 11 victims' relatives who sat stunned while two alleged terrorists declared they were proud of their role in the plot.

U.K.: Mosque "committed to peace, diversity and interfaith dialogue" hosts conference featuring "spiritual advisor" to 9/11 jihadists A spokesman for the mosque insists the conference organizers are just using their facilities. But no one seems perturbed enough about this "misunderstanding" and "hijacking" of Islam to cancel the conference or appearances by speakers like Anwar al-Awlaki and others named below. The full schedule of festivities can be found here.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants said they wanted to confess to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror conspiracy and asked a military judge to take their guilty pleas at once. "We don't want to waste time," Mr. Mohammed told the judge, Col. Stephen Henley. "We want to enter a plea" to capital charges stemming from the hijack attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. But defense lawyers claimed that two defendants, Ramzi Binalshibh and Mustafa al Hawsawi, were mentally incompetent to take such a serious step, and the judge deferred a decision until psychological evaluations were considered by the military commission,...

Here is video of unrepentant domestic terrorists William Ayers and wife Bernadine Dohrn waxing eloquent about what Barack Obama's victory means for America, the "progressive" movement, and the world. Among other bizarre things, Ayers says Obama's victory signals we have "left the 9/11 era behind." Huh? I guess all the terrorists in the world now love us and won't try to harm us anymore. But, then again, Ayers thinks we, the USA, are the terrorists. Isn't it interesting these pathetic figures stayed under the rocks and in the shadows during the campaign, and now they are out in the open...

Al Qaeda's leadership is suffering from a communication breakdown and struggling to issue directives after its computer network was hobbled in September, the Washington Post reports. Four of the five main online forums that the terrorist group uses to communicate with followers were disabled on Sept. 10, monitors of the Web sites told the newspaper. The loss to Al Qaeda is the equivalent of the Pentagon's and the White House's Web sites suddenly going offline, expert Evan Kohlmann told the Post, and it has left the propaganda strategy that Usama bin Laden and his followers rely on "hanging by a...

At the Investigative Project on Terrorism: CAIR Exec’s Telling Interview. In a recent interview with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islam Online website, and reported by the BBC Middle East Monitoring Service, the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR), Executive Director Nihad Awad reflected on “interfaith dialogue,” the Bush administration, the upcoming presidential election, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Asked about the prospect of a new U.S. president, and whether American Muslims regret support for George W. Bush in 2000, Awad’s answer offers a disturbing window into his soul.“We should not blame the Muslims for taking part in the political process, and we should...

In a video marking the seventh anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, al Qaeda’s top leader in Afghanistan vows more “large-scale” attacks against the United States and its allies. In another segment, the personal adviser to Taliban leader Mullah Omar says al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is alive and well. Al Qaeda leaders featured on the video promise more violence against their enemies. “We inform the forces of the Cross and their apostate agents that the Mujahedeen’s policy in the coming stage, God permitting, is going to be more major, large-scale attacks like the Kandahar prison operation, the...

Hackers prevented Al Qaeda from releasing a videotape to mark the seventh anniversary of 9/11. Al Qaeda has traditionally issued a video or audiotape by either Osama bin Laden or Ayman al Zawahiri, the terror network’s two leaders, to mark their massive terrorist attack on the US. As-Sahab, Al Qaeda’s media unit, had indicated earlier this week that it would post such a videotape on September 11. As-Sahab had banner images on the internet showing a silhouetted head with a question mark and the words, “Wait 11 September”. The US-based intelligence group IntelCenter had speculated the video would be a...