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thenationalherald.comSt. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was the only place of worship destroyed in the tragedy of September 11, 2001. Since then, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has been working on rebuilding the structure as both a church and a national shrine. In honor of the victims of the terrorist attack, the St. Nicholas Church, still under construction, was lit up for the first time ever on Friday night, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of that sorrowful day. Members of the Greek-American community, local politicians, representatives of Hellenic associations and organizations, and relatives of Greek Americans who lost their lives...

The FBI, complying with President Biden’s recent executive order, made public late Saturday night a previously classified April 4, 2016 “review and analysis” report about Operation Encore, the bureau’s highly sensitive investigation of possible Saudi complicity in the 9/11 terrorist attack.The 16-page report is nevertheless heavily redacted in ways that will likely disappoint members of the 9/11 Families who have pushed to learn more about Encore since its existence was first disclosed in December 2016 in documents released to Florida Bulldog amid Freedom of Information Act litigation.For example, the names of many persons who were interviewed by FBI agents during...

The terror attacks on September 11, 2001, shook the free world. Americans at home, abroad and our allies mourned the tragic loss of life that day. For American expats in the United Kingdom, London became the focal point of their grief. On September 12, Queen Elizabeth II made a request that broke a 600-year-old royal tradition. For centuries, the Bands of the Household Division played music during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace and all the other Royal Palaces and Castles. The music played during the ceremony has always been a mix of traditional British songs and popular...

On this date in 1683, the Ottoman Empire was defeated in the Battle of Vienna. That's one reason this date was chosen for the attack 20 years ago. On this date in 1960, the "Sharon Statement" was published, announcing hte founding of Young Americans for Freedom. On September 11, 2004, 17 years ago, legendary Broadway songwriter Fred Ebb of Kander and Ebb fame ("Cabaret", "Chicago", "New York, New York", etc.), left us. 36 years ago today September 11, 1985 Pete Rose became MLB's All Time Leader in Hits! He Surpassed Ty Cobb for the Record and they are the only...

At least two of the 9-11 hijackers probably had a U.S.-based support network, according to a former FBI agent. Danny Gonzalez worked on “Operation Encore,” the still-secret investigation into the two Saudi hijackers who were based in San Diego. Gonzalez told CBS News he’s confident the records of that operation will show the hijackers had help. “19 hijackers cannot commit 3,000 mass murders by themselves,” Gonzalez told the network.

The CIA has tapes of 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh being interrogated in a secret overseas prison. Discovered under a desk, the recordings could provide an unparalleled look at how foreign governments aided the U.S. in holding and questioning suspected terrorists. The two videotapes and one audiotape are believed to be the only remaining recordings made within the clandestine prison system. The tapes depict Binalshibh’s interrogation sessions at a Moroccan-run facility the CIA used near Rabat in 2002, several current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the recordings remain a closely...

… As if I don't remember the moment I finally knew that my father was never coming home. Or I don't remember the sound of my sister's cries down the hall when that moment came for her. Or the day we told my grandparents that there was no one left to be rescued, that their son was somewhere in that pile of rubble and yet he wasn't there at all. The terrible sound of my grandfather's voice as he sobbed, "My baby. My baby" about his 52-year-old son. The wordless wails my grandmother made as she lay on my sister's...

WASHINGTON - Osama Bin Laden talks tough, but other mujahedeen laughed at him in Afghanistan because he would get scared and bolt when under fire, a new documentary reveals. "When Bin Laden used to hear the explosions, he used to jump. He used to run away," his longtime friend Hutaifa Azzam says on "CNN Presents: In the Footsteps of Bin Laden." "I still remember that me, and my elder and younger brothers, we used to laugh," says Azzam, the son of Bin Laden's mentor in radical Islam, Abdullah Azzam. Abdullah Azzam and Bin Laden jointly created a mujahedeen support organization...

They call her Assata Shakur but, no matter the name by which she’s known, Chesimard is a homegrown – and unrepentant -- American terrorist. JoAnne Chesimard: BLM unashamedly embraces her and, recently, the New York City school system decided to incorporate her so-called wisdom into its curriculum. Therefore, it is more imperative than ever to shine a bright light upon the life, times, and accomplishments of one JoAnne Deborah Chesimard, a.k.a., Assata Olugbala Shakur. If you are, like me, of a certain age and grew up or lived in New Jersey during the 1970s and 1980’s, the name JoAnne Chesimard...

On Thursday, the Virginia Department of Education published a video entitled, “Culturally Responsive and Inclusive 9/11 Commemoration,” detailing how Virginia public school teachers should handle the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 jihad terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. The emphasis on that day and thereafter must not be on the ideology of the attackers or the ongoing jihad terror threat; rather, the focus is entirely on acknowledging and eradicating what the video calls “anti-Muslim racism.” The video is narrated by a hijab-wearing woman, Amaarah DeCuir, who describes herself as “Professorial Lecturer, School of Education, American University...

Shortly after Islamists attacked America on 9/11, then-Senator Joe Biden demanded that the United States should send a taxpayer-funded, "no strings attached" gift of $200 million to the Islamic Republic of Iran, a bombshell report has revealed. In the weeks following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Biden reportedly said that "this would be a good time" to hand over a huge chunk of tax dollars to the Iranian regime while America was in mourning.

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German court postponed on Wednesday the verdict on a Moroccan accused of aiding the Sept. 11 attackers after prosecutors said they had found a new witness, casting doubt on his expected acquittal. The Hamburg court where Abdelghani Mzoudi is on trial said that the verdict would not now be issued Thursday as expected after a request from prosecutors to hear evidence from two police officials about a new witness. "Federal prosecutors sent to the court today a substantial transcript dated January 19 regarding the questioning of a witness whose reliability is guaranteed and who would incriminate...

Several months ago, I took part in an interview with the magazine Psychology Today for an article on political transformation, particularly in the post-9/11 landscape. My inclusion was based on an SFGate.com article I'd written on the subject, "The Making of a 9/11 Republican" as well as the online discussion group I started for fellow former lefties, the 9/11 Neocons. The Psychology Today article, titled "The Ideological Animal," is now published in the January/February 2007 issue. With the exception of the inaccurate term "pro-war rallies" to describe my experiences as a counter-protester at leftist rallies, I felt that I was...

While many in the nation, from Oakland to New York, rally in protest over the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, I keep wondering: What about the good cops? As with our military personnel, we are often quick to hang the allegedly corrupt but slow to honor those who serve honestly to protect. According to the nonprofit National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, there are more than 900,000 of them who are serving in the United States; about 12 percent are women. The FBI reported that there were 404 incidents of "justifiable homicide" by American police in 2011. That...

For years, many Republicans and conservatives have charged that President Barack Obama was shielding embarrassing intelligence and policy details about Iran in order to support the nuclear deal reached last year. With Donald Trump's upset victory, the party of Lincoln will have an opportunity to declassify and disclose this information. While no decisions have been made, two early picks to Trump's cabinet suggest this is going to happen. Let's start with retired general Michael Flynn, the next president's choice to be national security adviser. Flynn served for two years as Obama's director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to...

Note: The following blog entry is a quote: Iranian Official: The U.S. Is No Longer Immune to Attack At a November 21, 2009 conference in Qom, Ali Saeedi, Khamenei's representative in the IRGC, aimed a veiled threat at the US, saying that this country is no longer immune to attack. Assaults like 9/11 have proved that its stability can be compromised, he explained. Source: Fars (Iran), November 22, 2009 Posted at: 2009-11-22

WASHINGTON - A U.S. customs inspector praised for keeping the 20th hijacker in the 9/11 plot from getting into the country told Congress yesterday that the "hostile" Saudi gave him the creeps and vowed, "I'll be back." Jose Melendez-Perez told the 9/11 Commission, the panel probing the attacks on America, that he was spooked enough by the man identified only as "Al-Qahtani" to put him on a plane out of Orlando after he arrived in the U.S. from London and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, with a one-way ticket and $2,800 in cash. Al-Qahtani was dressed head-to-toe in black when he...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. is detaining a Saudi man in Cuba who is believed to be the intended 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror plot, sources said yesterday. The Al Qaeda agent, identified by officials only as al-Qahtani, was intercepted in August 2001 by an alert Customs inspector at the Orlando airport but wasn't held, sources said. "He was a little hinky when he came in and they put him on the next flight out," a senior law enforcement official told the Daily News. Al-Qahtani was later picked up by coalition forces in Afghanistan and transferred to the...

A board reviewing the status of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay has decided against releasing a Saudi who U.S. authorities believe narrowly avoided becoming one of the hijackers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Lawyers for prisoner Mohammed al-Qahtani asked the Periodic Review Board last month to send the prisoner to a rehabilitation center in Saudi Arabia for treatment of severe mental illness. The board, made up of representatives of six government agencies, turned down the request in a statement released Wednesday. …

Press Release Source: Newsweek NEWSWEEK: Case Closed Against Syrian-Owned Business in Germany to Avoid Antagonizing Syrian Government, Officials Suggest Sunday January 18, 10:11 am ET Police Reports Show Employees Had Al Qaeda Connections; One Believed to Have Recruited Muhammad Atta in Hamburg # NEW YORK, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- After a September 2002 raid near Hamburg, Germany, of a Syrian-owned textile business called Tatex that was suspected of terrorist ties, German prosecutors began preparing their case and the U.S. considered freezing Tatex's bank accounts, as it had done in dozens of other companies suspected of financing terrorism. Then last summer,...