President Obama addresses family members and friends who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001.

Mike Mount
CNN Senior Pentagon Producer

The day stood in stark contrast to the sunny, brisk morning eight years ago. Chaos surrounded this patch of land at the Pentagon that day. But now a steady rain bathed it in a calm silence as the memorial service began.

Holding umbrellas, President Obama, Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen stood at the entrance of the Pentagon memorial. It is marked by a stone embedded in the ground with the September 11th date and time, 9:37a.m., reminding people of the exact moment when hijacked American Airlines flight 77 was flown into the building killing 184 people.

The three stood silently listening to a military band play the National Anthem, each than spoke about the day.

President Obama was observing his first September 11th as the commander in chief.

"Eight Septembers have come and gone. Nearly 3,000 days have passed; almost one for each of those taken from us," the president said, now standing uncovered in the rain. "But no turning of the season can diminish the pain and the loss of that day, no passage of time and no dark skies can ever dull the meaning of this moment."

One year ago the Pentagon memorial was dedicated in a public ceremony. Friday, the ceremony was for the families only. The rain did not deter, as about 300 family members of those 184 people killed stood by the individual memorials to each victim.

Secretary Gates spoke to those families and to those who survived.

"Words are inadequate to remove the pain of that loss. In the lives of these patriots, we can find some solace," Gates said.

"Because they lived, and because of the great pinnacle of their sacrifice, and because of the sacrifice of thousands more since that day, we remain a strong and free nation," he continued.

Since that day eight years ago, the country has had its troops at war eventually spreading to two conflict zones with more than one million enlisting after September 11, 2001.

Adm. Mullen took the moment to speak about the men and women serving in uniform that he said are protecting this country from future attacks.

"In harm's way you have deployed them and in harm's way they stand for you and for each other," Mullen said to the crowd. "Eight years of war has changed our troops and their families, but it has not bested them."

"Indeed, it is difficult to describe the selflessness I see when I visit them in the field and in the fleet, in hospitals and here at home," he said.

All three left their speeches short and to the point directing their thoughts on the day, not discussing the battle in the country where the September 11th attacks were planned.

Politically, the war is quickly losing favor in the United States as death tolls mount and additional troops continue to move into Afghanistan with possibly more troops to be requested from the commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal later this year.

This year has been the deadliest in the Afghan campaign, and as more troops enter the country the number of deaths is expected to increase Gates has said.

This plot of land is scheduled to house the permanent Flight 93 memorial.

David Mattingly | BIO
AC360° Correspondent

To me, the most powerful image of 9/11 will always be the large, blackened pit outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I was vacationing in Altoona, Pa. at my mother-in-law's house when the attacks happened. When the reports first came in of a plane crash in Shanksville, I remember the immediate confusion I felt and the questions that came to mind: Was the crash a coincidence? How could it be part of the attack? Why Shanksville?

Details came in slowly that day but it soon became clear that the passengers of Flight 93 fought back against their hijackers. Their bravery prevented the jet from reaching it's apparent destination to a target in Washington, DC.

Knowing this, it was almost overwhelming to see the crash site for the first time. All I could see were some small pieces of debris scattered around the impact crater. The destruction was so complete there was nothing I could identify as a piece of an aircraft.

Like many frequent flyers, the Flight 93 passengers' actions touched me deeply. The thought of how easily that could have happened to me still resonates. I've never stopped wondering if I have what it takes to rise up in the face of death they way they did. I still think about them every time I board a plane.

David Puente
AC360° Producer

New Yorkers woke up this morning to harsh winds and rain, only adding to the feeling of gloom that comes with every 9/11 anniversary. The pain of that day comes back and hits deeper when you see the pictures of the victims and heroes on TV and hear their names read aloud by family and volunteers at the World Trade Center memorial services.

I was comforted this morning by recalling the feeling of unity that New Yorkers felt in the days after the attacks and how much of the world joined with us. I remembered how some of that international unity came from countries that some Americans might not have expected, like from Fidel Castro in Communist Cuba.

Today in New York, Cuban artists present an exhibit called “Date with the Angels.” It features 41 Cuban artists who express their reactions to the 9/11 disaster at the World Trade Center. They derived inspiration from two photographs taken in the aftermath of the attack. The exhibition was originally presented in Cuba in 2004 where Ricardo Alarcon, President of the National Assembly in Cuba, again expressed the government’s unity with New York.

“Since that terrible Tuesday we are all New Yorkers,” he said. “The sadness among Cubans ran very deep. This [exhibition] is a message of peace and friendship to New York and the United States.”

The artists all worked at the Taller Experimental de Grafica, Cuba’s renowned printmaking facility. The exhibition is now in Manhattan at The School of Visual Arts' Westside Gallery in Chelsea through Sept. 19.

Follow David on Twitter @puenteac360.

New York came to a halt Friday as people held a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m.

CNN/Opinon Research Corporation

Concern about a terrorist attack in the United States is roughly half of what it was immediately after the September 11 attacks, according to a new national poll.

Thirty-four percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national survey released on the eve of the eighth anniversary of 9/11 say they think an act of terrorism in the U.S. over the next few weeks is likely, with 64 percent indicating such an attack is not likely. The 34 percent figure is down 20 points from three years ago and is nearly half the 66 percent who in late 2001 felt a terrorist attack was likely.

The poll also indicates that only one in 10 say that a terrorist attack is likely in the community where they live. More than six in 10 say they have confidence in the Obama administration's ability to protect the country from terrorism, although only one in four say they have a great deal of confidence.

Find full results to the poll here...

Friday marks the eighth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks that killed 2.752 people.

Gene Bloch
Managing Editor
CNN New York

On this eighth anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks, as we remember the 2,976 people who died, we have the story of a trading firm that donates 100 percent of its profits on this day to charity. For the last five years, BGC, a firm spun off from Cantor Fitzgerald which lost 658 employees at the World Trade Center, has made the 9/11 anniversary a day of service. Susan Lisovicz is reporting on Newsroom and from the NYSE later today.

We’re looking ahead to another anniversary, marked next week – the collapse of Lehman Brothers. CNNMoney’s sister publication, Fortune Magazine, got special access to some of the people in the highest offices on Wall Street at the time of the collapse. We’ll share some of what they remember, what they say has changed, and what they’ve learned.

On the economic front, Monday will be a big day – as we mark the one year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers (note, the actual anniversary is Sept 15), President Obama will deliver what the White House is billing as a major speech on the financial crisis at Federal Hall in New York. He’s expected to discuss the steps that the Administration has taken to boost the economy, and steps that need to be taken to prevent such a crisis from reoccurring.

Consumers grew more optimistic in September. The Reuters/University of Michigan Survey reported an increase in its sentiment index.

General Motors is offering consumers something unique – if you don’t like your GM car, return it and get your money back. GM, in a bid to appeal to consumers upset about decades of poor quality and the carmaker's government bailout, is launching money-back guarantees. Between Sept. 14 and Nov. 30, buyers will be able to return Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet or GMC products within 60 days if they don't like them. Such programs are commonplace in other businesses, but not for cars. CNNMoney has the story.

Gas prices rose for a second straight day, with AAA reporting the national average for a gallon of regular unleaded at $2.580, up four tenths of a cent.

On CNNMoney today:

Word on the street: No job prospects. The economic picture has started to improve, but those out of work see no recovery in sight.

Buy a new General Motors car. Don't like it? Return it and get your money back. General Motors, in a bid to appeal to consumers upset about decades of poor quality and the carmaker's government bailout, is launching an unusual program: money-back guarantees. Between Sept. 14 and Nov. 30, buyers will be able to return Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet or GMC products within 60 days if they don't like them. Such programs are commonplace in other businesses, but not for cars.

Chrysler is preparing to resume auto leasing, according to a dealer briefed on the plans, more than a year after the auto maker was forced out of the business and three months after it emerged from bankruptcy. Chrysler now relies on GMAC for its dealer financing.

Lend to family the right way. A loan to a relative can actually be a sweet deal for both sides, if it's served up correctly.

Reporter's Note: More than a dozen Cabinet Secretaries and the like will help commemorate this anniversary of 9/11. President Obama has called for prayer and remembrance.

Tom Foreman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

Dear Mr. President,

I suppose one of the sadder duties of your new office is commemorating this day; all those innocent people killed, all that fear and chaos, and the sense that the security we lost that morning will likely never fully return, at least not in our lifetimes. I know that you and your Cabinet will be doing things to mark the moment, but I thought you might be interested to know what I do every year at this time: I count up some good things that have happened since 2001.

In the past eight years, commercial passenger jets have taken off and landed safely in this country more than 87-million times.

2-billion times, people went hiking, camping or fishing in our nation’s parks and wild places.

About 4-million patent applications were filed.

More than 1-million new books were published.

Close to 2-billion cartons of apples were grown.

Almost 18-million weddings took place.

More than 32-million babies were born, who will grow up saying 9/11 happened before they were even alive.

The seasons changed 32 times. NFL Football began 8 times. Two Presidential elections were held. We prayed, and played, and danced, and swam, and laughed, and read, and cried, and cared with each other more times than anyone can ever count.

A terrible thing happened eight years ago, and out of respect, decency and wisdom we should never forget. But we should also remember all the good that has come to our country since, and I can think of no better day to do so.

Call if you have a moment. Hope all is well.

Regards,

Tom

Follow Tom on Twitter @tomforemancnn.

Find more of the Foreman Letters here.

Last year, New Yorkers paused for a moment of silence to remember terror victims.

Jay S. Winuk
Special to CNN

The eighth anniversary of the attacks of September 11 raises a compelling question for millions of Americans: How should we best observe this uniquely tragic day in our nation's history?

Surely, it should not be a holiday. This is no time for days off from work and three-day weekends to enjoy barbeques and white sales.

No, September 11 is a day for reflection, and its historical and emotional significance should not lessen with time or be diminished in any way. It is a day to focus on the substantial lessons learned.

I'm a 9/11 family member. My brave brother, Glenn J. Winuk, was a partner at a large law firm, Holland & Knight, located two blocks from the World Trade Center.

Keep Reading...

U.S. Camp Phoenix in Kabul, Afghanistan after a ceremony marking the 7th anniverisary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Peter Bergen & Katherine Tiedemann Peter Bergen is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and Katherine Tiedemann is a program associate there. Peter Bergen is also an AC360° Contributor and CNN National Security Analyst

Editor's Note:

This week, as we remember the nearly 3,000 American citizens who died in the rubble of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or in a remote field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, we also should think about the civilians who are still dying in Afghanistan.

Consider, for instance, the recent American airstrikes on Azizabad, a village in western Afghanistan, on Aug. 22. The United Nations, Afghan government officials and independent witnesses all say that the United States killed about 90 civilians in these strikes, most of them women and children. Cellphone videos of the scene show motionless children lying under checkered shawls and veiled women shrieking alongside them.

According to a report by Carlotta Gall of the New York Times, dozens of freshly dug graves are scattered in the village's cemeteries, some so small they could fit only children. The U.S. initially said that many fewer civilians had died, but it has now promised a thorough investigation.

It's a grisly story but hardly an isolated one. The month before the Azizabad incident, Afghan officials say that American airstrikes near Kabul killed 27 civilians at a wedding party - including the bride. In another incident, on March 4, 2007, nine civilians died when their mud home north of Kabul was hit by two 2,000-pound bombs dropped by U.S. aircraft. American officials said they were aiming for two insurgents seen entering the house after firing a rocket at a U.S. military outpost, according to Human Rights Watch.

Keep reading

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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New Yorkers gather to hold a vigil to remember the victims of the 9/11 attacks.

Gary Tuchman | Bio
AC360° Correspondent

For seven years, I have marveled at the utter cowardice of the 9/11 hijackers. Could there be anything lower than knowing you're going to die, and deciding that you want to take as many innocent human beings who have families, hopes and dreams with you? It also astounds me so many people did and still do consider Osama Bin Laden a hero.

Certainly, it's a terrible disappointment the guy hasn't been brought to justice. But really; if he is still alive, he's too afraid to stick his face out in public. It's all part of the cowardly terrorist tradition.

Now, let's talk about the courageous. . I started meeting them seven years ago, when I watched rescuers search for survivors at the World Trade Center site as fires raged and tons of metal from the ruined complex hung precariously.

Rhona Chambers, the registered nurse who took me to the fallen towers in the hours after the disaster and showed me how and she and so many others risked their lives to try to save others. Genelle Guzman, the last survivor pulled out of the rubble; more than a day later, who thought she was going to die pinned by wreckage in the dark.

Claudia and Bob Capello, who lost their beloved son who worked in the World Trade Center. Their kindness to this reporter in the confusing days after 9/11 can only be described as inspirational. And then there is someone I knew longer than the rest. As I spoke on camera from Ground Zero in those initial horrifying days, I was surprised that as a former New Yorker, I didn't know anyone personally who died. But I was wrong.

My friend Diane Inghilterra, who worked with me early in my TV career had a 2 year old son named Sam and a husband named Louis who had the day off on September 11th. But Louis decided to go into his office anyway that morning in the World Trade Center to get some work done so he could enjoy a few days off with his family without worrying about paper piling up on his desk.

It was several days later that I found out from a mourning Diane that Louis was killed and that she too was a widow. Today, her son Sam is 9 and is just starting to truly understand what happened to his father. Diane is living through much of the initial torment all over again. To all the single 9/11 parents like Diane: you are the heroes. To call the people who caused such pain "heroic" and "brave" is not only infuriating, but ignorant.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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Memorial today at the World Trade Center towers site.

Jonathan Wald
CNN Producer

I was about to go to bed after pulling an all-nighter. I had just put the finishing touches to my project – the final requirement of a postgraduate journalism degree – when my brother called me from London and told me to turn on the television. I sat in front of the television with my grandmother, both of us transfixed by the unfolding events.

I struggled to comprehend what I had just seen. Any tiredness was replaced by agitation. Struck by an overpowering sense of helplessness I left the apartment block. I tried to give blood but hospitals turned me away, as they were afraid I might be incubating mad cows disease, having lived in the United Kingdom during the late 80's. I tried to act as a volunteer but volunteer groups turned me away, as they already had enough people to fulfill their needs.

The last place I felt I could be of some use was CNN's New York bureau, where I had been an intern for two months. I walked across town through the endless blare of emergency sirens. The office I walked into was virtually unrecognizable. Only a week earlier, we had released a piece looking at how it had essentially been "a no-news summer" with the disappearance of Chandra Levy saturating CNN's coverage. Now, every person was scribbling, typing, dialing, running and shouting – not in rage but so as to be heard over the accumulative noise of the newsroom.

In the face of the most traumatic news event to ever confront the bureau, it was running at maximum efficiency. For my part and I believe for others, this was a personal as much as a professional necessity. We all knew people who could be in or around the World Trade Center when the towers were struck and collapsed. The only way of dealing with our worst fears was to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into our work.

But as an intern what would my work be now? The moment I came into the view of the assignment desk, a voice called out to me, "Jonathan, deal with line number 2." On the other end of the phone was the wife of a New York fireman, struggling to contain herself. She couldn't contact her husband and the last she saw of him was in some CNN footage as he hurtled, atop a fire truck, towards the burning towers. There were several others like her who caught a glimpse of their relatives in our video and reached out to us in a desperate attempt to trace them. I fielded many of their calls, building a database of people who ultimately had suffered an awful loss or a narrow escape. In the case of the woman I first spoke to, the video proved to be the last she saw of her husband.

The uncertainty and insecurity extended to our own staff. Communication was at a premium as the volume of calls in the city overloaded and crashed the cell phone networks. A giant white board at the center of the newsroom would chart the locations and last time of contact for all our colleagues around Ground Zero. It was an exercise that assumed an increased sense of urgency after the collapse of the towers. We breathed a collective sigh of relief as they all eventually called in.

The grim reality of what had happened became increasingly vivid as tapes flowed back into the bureau. One in particular caught the attention of everyone in the newsroom. It showed a plane slicing into one of the towers more closely and clearly than any other video. Everyone stopped what they were doing and huddled round the same monitor to view it. At the point of impact one producer standing next to me took a sharp intake of breath, her eyes welled up and she bit her lip. After pressing her eyes shut, as if to suppress the image, she returned to her work. For it was all she could do.

In the small hours of the morning before sunrise I waited outside the main newspaper depot and gathered their first reactions to the events of September 11th. All blazoned with declarations of war and tragedy I ran them back to our round-the-clock live position with a view of Ground Zero smoldering in the background.

The streets were barren and still, save for the occasional, lingering siren. The acrid stench emanating from the wreckage of Ground Zero, had begun to fill the air and would remain heavily for weeks to come. I walked back to my grandmother's apartment and lay on the bed for several hours, unable to sleep, before returning to work.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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Watch Deborah Feyerick's report on the verdict of eight men who changed the way we fly.

I boarded a plane this morning in Des Moines, Iowa. The sun was barely up. For a split second I wondered whether I should fly today. It is, after all, September 11th. Seven years later. I wonder whether Al Qaeda might use today as a day to show the world they can still strike. I wonder if somehow flying today is disrespectful to the people who died seven years ago - people who started the day just like I did, wheeling a small suitcase through the airport just before dawn to get someplace else - people with plans on an ordinary day.

The security line is longer than I expect. TSA agents have created a window-box display showing items you can carry on and items you can’t– like full size shampoo, and Scope, and lotion - fixed behind glass like a piece of modern art. “Oh, I like that shampoo,” says the woman in front of me who then tosses a 20oz Pepsi into the gray, plastic bin and sends it through X-ray where it is promptly confiscated by a TSA agent wearing the new royal-blue TSA shirt.

I look around at my flying companions. I think two guys are military. For a split second I think they might be US Air Marshals – though it doesn’t much matter because looking at the rest of us they’re bigger, stronger and can likely take down anyone who moves towards the cockpit. I think about the passengers on United Flight 93 who fought back against the hijackers. USA Today has a front page interview with the flight controller who desperately tried getting other planes out of United 93’s flight path – the confusion, the disbelief, the shock of it all.

Two hours into my flight, the rising sun reflects off the clouds in a brilliant pattern and I think, “Two hours. We’re safe. We’re still flying straight.” I check the time – 9am New York time – minutes after the hijackers crashed the first plane into the North Tower seven years ago. I know the exact times because, like so many, I spent the next year living it every minute of every day.

The pilot’s voice comes over the speaker, “Those on the left can see Manhattan.” It’s been seven years. I’m almost used to the new skyline. The absence of the World Trade Center Towers doesn’t affect me as deeply as it once did. Still when I drive past the gaping hole where the towers once stood – it’s like an open wound cut into the once perfect landscape. I used to look for the Trade Center Towers to orient myself and figure out which way to walk. I don’t do that anymore.

My friends in law enforcement tell me it’s quiet, “Too quiet.” A terrorism expert in London reminds me, “Al Qaeda is patient. They have all the time in the world.” Seven years. I think of the babies who were just born then – like mine - now in elementary school. I think of all they’ve learned. I think of all they’ve missed. I wonder about the mothers, the wives, the fathers, the families. I wonder if they’re OK. I wonder if they were able to find the strength to rebuild. Maybe I should have stayed in Des Moines an extra day.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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2006 Memorial in Jersey City, NJ for victims of the September 11 attacks, looking out at the NYC skyline.

Cate Vojdik
AC360° Writer

Seven years ago this morning a ringing phone woke me. I glanced at the clock; it was sometime after 9 a.m. I picked up and heard my friend Catherine asking with urgency, "Are you watching this? Is your television on?" It wasn't. A storm the previous night had knocked out the satellite dish at the cabin north of Manhattan where I'd been spending weekends.

Sept. 11, 2001 fell on a weekend for me. At the time I was a news writer at a weekend broadcast at another network and Monday and Tuesday were my days off.

"Two planes crashed into the twin towers," Catherine continued. It took a moment for her words to sink in. After shaking the sleep from my brain, I thanked her for the heads up and flipped on the radio in time to hear that a plane had hit the Pentagon. I began tossing my clothes into my duffle bag. Before I'd finished packing up, the World Trade Center’s south tower fell. I wouldn't see the images until much later that day. The radio channel with the best reception at the cabin was broadcasting Dan Rather's reporting. Listening to him describe the tower as it crumbled, my mind's eye filled in the horrifying blanks.

I jumped into my car and began the drive home, which normally took 90 minutes. This day it would take almost five hours. The closer I got the slower my progress. Manhattan was sealed off by this point and I knew there was no chance of reaching the newsroom. I was aiming for Hoboken, just across the Hudson River, where I lived at the time. I remember talking to my sister on my cell phone as I drove. She said something along the lines of, "Are you nuts? Why are you going back to a city under attack?" She'd been watching the horror unfold all day on television. It's an old but true saw: Journalists run toward disasters when everyone else is fleeing. But it wasn't just a professional reflex. I literally felt an urgency to be at home, with loved ones, in my city under attack.

As I drove I couldn't shake the thought that the death toll would be enormous, perhaps in the tens of thousands. (Mercifully, far fewer would perish, but at the time no one knew how many had escaped the towers before they fell.)

As I got close to the city, on the New Jersey side of the river, the smell hit me. A thick odor announced the clouds of smoke that soon loomed in the distance. This is as close as I would get to Ground Zero that day. Manned roadblocks prevented access into Hoboken from the highways. Police were directing cars west. Having a driver's license with a Hoboken address didn't make a difference. Hoboken and Jersey City, both with ferry landings, were still considered evacuation points for the injured if needed.

Heading west, I stopped at the first hotel I saw. The lobby was packed; I wasn't the only one stranded so close to home. There were no rooms available so I squeezed into the crowd gathered around the lobby’s enormous television. Finally, I saw the towers falling.

I called a friend in a nearby suburb and made my way to his house, where I huddled on the sofa-bed deep into the night, with the television turned down low, unable to sleep. I couldn't shake the thought that all the men and women who had perished in the attacks had been safe in their beds 24 hours earlier, many curled next to wives and husbands, their lives ahead of them.

The next morning, Hoboken was unsealed and so was Manhattan. I drove home, changed my clothes and walked to the ferry landing a few blocks from my house. What I remember best is the smell and smoke and quiet. As I walked from the subway stop at 66th street to my newsroom, the streets were oddly and unnervingly empty.

This morning, in my apartment that faces south toward where the WTC once loomed, I watched the 9-11 coverage on TV. When the bells clanged to mark the minute when each tower fell, my mind's eye, once again, filled in the blanks.

Editor's Note: We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world. Peter Bergen is CNN’s national security analyst. He produced bin Laden’s first television interview which aired on CNN in 1997. He shares his thoughts below:
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Peter Bergen | Bio
AC360° Contributor
CNN National Security Analyst

Seven years after 9/11 the author of the largest mass murder in American history is free, almost certainly living in Pakistan, which is, at least nominally, a close ally in the US-led ‘war on terror’. As he no doubt savors the anniversary of his greatest “triumph” Osama bin Laden seems untroubled by serious kidney illness as was once rumored, nor does he appear to be troubled by American efforts to find him.

Since his disappearance at the battle of Tora Bora in eastern Afghanistan in mid- December 2001 US intelligence agencies have not had any definitive information about the al Qaeda’s leader’s whereabouts. While there are informed hypotheses that he is in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, on the Afghan border, perhaps in one of the more northerly areas such as Bajaur, these are simply hypotheses not actionable intelligence. In other words, American intelligence agencies have nothing of any substance on bin Laden. Given the hundreds of billions of dollars that the ‘war on terror’ has consumed the failure to capture or kill al Qaeda’s leader has been one of its signal failures.

That said, it is worth bearing in mind that finding any one individual can be hard. Think of Mohamed Aideed, the anti-American Somali warlord who was known to be in Mogadishu, the capital city of Somalia in 1993, yet some 20,000 US soldiers deployed there were not able to find him. Think also of Radovan Karadzic, the alleged Bosnian Serb war criminal arrested in July in Belgrade who it took more than a decade to track down after the end of the civil war in the former Yugoslavia, and he was hiding in a relatively small country in Europe, not the badlands of the Afghan-Pakistan border.

And given the fact that bin Laden is not making obvious errors such as talking on phones the signals of which can be intercepted and the fact that no one in his immediate circle will rat him out for the long-advertised cash rewards for his head it is likely that al Qaeda’s leader could evade detection for years or even decades.

There are, however, areas where al Qaeda’s leader is vulnerable. The most obvious being his continuing penchant for releasing audio- and videotapes. He has released around twenty since 9 /11. Those tapes give strategic guidance to al Qaeda and the wider militant jihadist movement, but they also provide a window of opportunity to find bin Laden as the chain of custody of those tapes eventually leads back to him.

One such an opportunity is likely to come over the next several weeks. Unable to stage a domestic sequel to 9/11, al-Qaeda’s chief will probably feel compelled to issue a videotape in the week or so before the Nov. 4 election, just as he did four years ago. On that tape bin Laden is likely to tell Americans that it is immaterial whether they elect McCain or Obama, instead they must get their government to change its policies in the Muslim world or face the consequences. Such a video must be recorded and couriered to an Internet cafe in Pakistan to be uploaded or delivered to one of al Jazeera’s offices around the world, actions that could be traced back to the world’s most wanted fugitive.

Another potential vulnerability may emerge out the startling number of missile attacks that have been launched against suspected al Qaeda hideouts in Pakistan in the past several weeks. Since July 28 there have been six American missile strikes into the Pakistani Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) where al Qaeda is headquartered. There have been twice as many missile strikes in the past six weeks alone than the three such strikes in the whole of 2007.

These attacks have killed key al Qaeda leaders such as Abu Haris and Abu Khabab al Masri and seem to be based on better human intelligence on the ground integrated with real-time information coming from various kinds of satellites and drones feeding back overhead imagery of the FATA to US military and intelligence planners; the same kind of fusion of human and signals intelligence that has helped to dampen down the insurgency in Iraq.

The most recent missile strike on September 8 was aimed at a compound in the FATA owned by Jalaluddin Haqqani and Sirajuddin Haqqani, key leaders of the Taliban-led insurgency who are also long time allies of al Qaeda. While neither of the Haqqanis died in the strike, their family members including wives and children were. These attacks seemed designed not only to create an ever-shrinking numbers of safe havens for al Qaeda but also to create uncertainty among the terror organization and its allies that will in turn lead to increased communications between them that can then be intercepted, so leading US intelligence officials to additional targets.

Bizarrely, the CIA closed its dedicated bin Laden unit in 2005. Today, however, the hunt for al Qaeda’s leader seems to have once again to have taken a top priority for the US government. No doubt President Bush would like to leave office with this rather large piece of unfinished business finished. I am not holding my breath, but will be happy to be pleasantly surprised.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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Erica Hill
AC360° Correspondent

This is my first 9/11 in New York. Everywhere I go today – the bank, the park, the subway – I can’t help but wonder what the people around me are feeling and thinking on this somber anniversary. Were they downtown that morning? Did they lose someone they loved on that terrible day? Are they also new to NY, scanning the faces of their neighbors, wondering what the protocol is?

On our family walk this morning, we witnessed something incredibly moving by chance…and feel lucky to have been a part of it. Making our way uptown, we noticed Riverside Drive was closed, and there were a number of firefighters on our path wearing their dress uniforms. Initially I figured they were coming from a memorial ceremony somewhere downtown. I’d forgotten about the beautiful monument in Riverside Park dedicated to New York’s Bravest: the Firefighters.

As they assembled near the Firemen’s Memorial, I couldn’t help but search the faces of these brave men and women for a hint of their memories, their stories from that painful day. A few of them met my gaze with kind eyes. I wanted to thank them, to tell them how sorry I am that they have to relive this day each year, to ask them what this morning is like for them, and to apologize for intruding. I looked at the young women in pretty floral skirts and wondered if they were her to remember a husband lost on September 11th. I saw a woman about my mother’s age standing toward the back – was she here to honor the memory of her son?

As the names of the 343 firefighters and paramedics killed that day were read, the silence was oddly comforting. It felt right to be in this place, at this moment, remembering and honoring the fallen in our own ways. As my son went back and forth between my husband and myself, we each hugged him a little tighter, gave him an extra kiss and silently told him that he is everything to us. I watched the toddlers playing at the feet of their parents, and felt hopeful. I imagine these children growing up with this annual ceremony, knowing the bravery, the sacrifice, and the indescribable bond their parents will forever share with their lost brothers.

I am honored to have chanced upon this memorial this morning, although I doubt it was truly by chance. Thank you to the brave men and women who allowed us to be a part of it, and who selflessly protect us every day.

Editor's Note: We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world. Arsalan Iftikhar is an international human rights lawyer, founder of themuslimguy.com and Contributing Editor for Islamica Magazine in Washington DC.
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Arsalan Iftikhar | BIO
Founder, themuslimguy.com

Mahatma Gandhi once said that, “I have nothing new to teach the world…Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills.” Since time immemorial, our human experiment has revolved around the enlightened advancement of collective human thought. Within the current ungodly global mix of perpetual war, everlasting human poverty, extremist terrorism and global racism; our human race has completely and utterly lost its collective mind. Since our world has gone completely bonkers, the unquenchable thirst for social justice of this young American Muslim human rights lawyer and public diplomat must be positively channeled at this juncture of infinite global sadness towards a purpose-driven life guided down an untaken road called Islamic Pacifism.

9/11 was ten days after my twenty-fourth birthday. As a second year law student at the time, even though I had already lived more than two decades; in many ways, my life only truly began at 8:46 am EST on September 11, 2001. Because as an American Muslim, that would be the day that my country was attacked by people who would also infamously hijack my religion.

Since that fateful day seven Septembers ago, my life as a human rights lawyer, media troubadour and public diplomat has now become one big absurd game of television musical chairs and YouTube video clips. From CNN to The TODAY Show to BBC World News, I have spent a dizzying chunk of the last several years on the proverbial 'hot seat'; as a global Muslim public intellectual for over a billion mainstream Muslims who never want to be represented by the bobble-headed terrorist, Osama bin Laden.

So alas, with my trusty ThinkPad and red Swingline stapler, that day began my never-ending quest to condemn terrorism as an international media spokesperson, defeat hate crimes as a leading American Muslim civil rights lawyer, educate the general public about Islam and help create a millennial version of Islamic Pacifism for our entire global community today.

This revived gentle giant of global pacifism shall welcome all people; regardless of any race, religion or socioeconomic status. Whether you are white, black or purple, whether you are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or celebrate Festivus; our next generation of youthful global pacifists can help reclaim our culture of humanity from sinister warmongering dinosaurs with names like Osama, Coulter, Hamas and Cheney.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said that, “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” By giving global pacifism a millennial makeover, we shall use the witty humor of Jon Stewart, the humanistic nuance of Noam Chomsky and the fearless determination of Nelson Mandela to quench our collective thirst for social justice.

With the hipster slyness of Danny Ocean to the groovy idealism of John Lennon, for anyone in the world who has ever earnestly prayed for a Muslim Gandhi; you can sleep peacefully at night knowing that the life memoirs of this young Muslim pacifist shall one day be playfully entitled ‘The Autobiography of Gandhi X’.

Finally proving that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword, everyone can rest easy knowing that Barack Obama is not the only brown civil rights lawyer from Chicago with the audacity of hope running through his every vein.

Do not worry, ladies and gentlemen, a billion Muslim pacifist sisters and brothers continue to challenge those who hijacked Islam and we will spend our lives serenely hijacking it back; by any peaceful means necessary.

Even though some Americans may mistakenly think that Muslims only know recipes for Molotov cocktails; here are some other societal contributions of Muslims to modern civilization:

For example, it was Muslims who invented algebra.

Most people would also probably be surprised to learn that it was a Muslim who designed the Sears Tower in my sweet home of Chicago.

Even more surprising is the fact that 4 out of 57 Muslim nations on earth have already elected female heads-of-state; something that we as Americans have been unable to do thus far in history.

Additionally, the greatest American boxer ever, Muhammad Ali; and the funniest dude in America, Dave Chappelle, are both Muslims.

Most importantly, 3 out of the last 5 Nobel Peace Prize winners have been Muslims; one for fighting poverty in Bangladesh, one for disarming nuclear weapons and Shrin Ebadi, the Iranian Muslim human rights lawyer valiantly fighting for the rights of women worldwide.

But more important than Nobel Peace Prizes, Muslim culture has brought crunchy falafel, henna tattoos and yummy hummus to our American shores.

But all because of one terrorist cave-dweller, 1400 years of Pan-Islamic cultural and societal progress goes down the drain.

Thanks a lot, Osama…

Your ‘Gandhi X’ has also been cast in an upcoming Leonardo DiCaprio Hollywood spy movie thriller (Body of Lies with Russell Crowe) and has also emerged victorious at The Doha Debates in front of 300 million BBC World television viewers.

Honoring the fact that two Nobel Peace Prize winners and an American president (Bill Clinton) had also previously graced that same stage in Doha; this Muslim pacifist used that same global stage to call for the complete eradication of every form of global racism in the world, including Islamophobia and Anti-Semitism.

Black. White. Muslim. Jew. It doesn’t matter. It’s all wrong.

Nonetheless, I still get called a 'terrorist' by knucklehead racists because of my unabashed love of Islam and am still called a Muslim 'hippy' by knucklehead extremists for my unabashed platform of peace.

Well, since Islam means 'peace' anyway, I shall proudly wear the 'Islamic Peacenik' label as a badge of honor. Because with such seething hatred in the world today, the only thing that anyone can condemn me for is my seething love.

As the Religious Lefty or whatever other silly names Osama and Coulter can conjure in their puny little brains; this Islamic pacifist will continue to reclusively perch atop the shadowy rooftops of the world somberly awaiting the next global light beacon from the Muslim Bat-Signal in the form of silly Danish cartoons, ungodly acts of terrorism or diplomatic calls for reconciliation.

In explaining the utter human simplicity of my global pacifism, we should be reminded of the sage words of Albert Einstein: “My pacifism is an instinctive feeling; a feeling that possesses me because the murder of men is disgusting…My attitude is not derived from any intellectual theory but is based on my deepest antipathy to every kind of cruelty and hatred…”

It should be no secret that our world is in darkness tonight. A pacifist Mozart to every racist Salieri out there, by successfully turning the world into a United Colors of Benetton advertisement, we can ensure that the only thing that all the beautiful babies of the world will ever need to worry about is filling their cute tummies, pooping in their smelly diapers and deciding which color Nerf ball to play with today.

Alas, everyone on all sides should now lay down their bombs and/or water-boards for one moment and contemplate whether we collectively wish to take a path towards perpetual war or coexistent peace and align ourselves with devilish racist warmongers or choose to be on the side of loving warrior angels.

Until that wondrous day when racist warmongers worldwide are overcome with the righteous ferocity of global peacemakers, this Islamic Pacifist welcomes one and all to our globally-warmed Sherwood Forest as our merry band of billion pacifist believers continue to gently comfort the afflicted, ruthlessly afflict the comfortable and lovingly wonder if God will ever forgive us for what we have done to each other.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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Reza Aslan | BIO
Author, “No god but God”Perhaps the most significant change to have occurred over the last seven years of fighting the War on Terror is that we are no longer battling a terrorist organization called al Qaeda. We are now fighting a global social movement called al Qaeda.

The truth is al Qaeda was never the coherent, global entity it is so often imagined to be – an organization with an easily identifiable leadership structure and a systematic ideology. That al Qaeda existed only in the imaginations of those of us desperate for the days when America’s enemies were nations that could be assuredly defined and armies that could be conventionally overcome. It is no wonder that word al Qaeda continues to be rendered into English as “the base.” A base implies something concrete and conquerable, something that can be defended or assailed.

But the word al Qaeda also means “the rules” or “the fundamentals,” and is used by Arabs most often to refer to the basic teachings or creed of Islam. In that light, it may be somewhat appropriate to consider al Qaeda an Islamic form of fundamentalism, in so far as that word implies puritanical adherence to the elemental doctrines of a religion. But it is imprecise, and even dangerous, to consider al Qaeda the operational seat of global Islamic extremism.

al Qaeda is more like an ideological nerve center – a kind of brain trust propagating a series of simple propositions whose purpose is to classify the world into Good and Evil. Friend and Foe. Us and Them. As al Qaeda’s chief ideologue Abu Musab al-Suri said, “al Qaeda is not an organization…It is a call, a reference, a methodology.”

al Qaeda as methodology may be hard to swallow. Methodologies do not kill people; people kill people.

But when bin Laden refers to al Qaeda's attacks on America as “messages” to America, he is conveying a fundamental truth about the tactic of terrorism. These are not necessarily actions in pursuit of specific political or social ends. They are symbolic statements of power directed at a carefully selected audience. Indeed, it is the audience that can be regarded the principal victims of terrorism. Perverse though it may seem, terrorism’s actual victims – the bloodied, maimed, and murdered – are merely tools through which the terrorist’s “message” is delivered. What is that message? It is simply this: We are powerful, we are aggrieved, and we will not be ignored.

That is a message that has resonated with a wide spectrum of people – particularly young people – across the world (and not just the Muslim world). It is a message that cuts across all boundaries of religion, culture, class, and ethnicity. It is a message that has fed off the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the larger War on Terror: the use of torture; extraordinary renditions; the flaunting of international laws. It is a message that has become far more important than the messenger.

Of course, you can’t shoot a message (especially when you can’t even shoot the messenger).

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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Nic Robertson | BIO
Senior International Correspondent

It’s hard for me to see clearly what’s on the blurry cell phone video from Afghanistan.

Are there children and women under those blankets, were as many as 90 people killed in a US air strike as Afghan and UN officials suggest. The countries lawmakers believe so, they want strict controls put US troops. I just don’t know.

But what is painfully clear to me the strengths and weaknesses the coalition had in it’s pursuit of Osama bin Laden in the weeks following the 9/11 attacks are not only unchanged after 7 years, but threaten to unravel the hunt of the worlds most wanted terrorist.

When bin Laden fled with hundreds of die-hard al Qaeda fighters to the mountains of Tora Bora in western Afghanistan for his last stand against the coalition, the coalition made a fatal mistake.

They had the superiority in the air. The spy planes or drones to track and locate the man who had declared war on the west 3 years earlier and the bombers to pound the caves he and his followers were hiding in. Ground troops were almost an after thought. Small teams of ‘Special Forces’ hired local warlords to cut off bin Laden’s escape.

In a London café recently, a Libyan who fought along side bin Laden in Afghanistan long before 9/11 told me he knew how the al Qaeda leader escaped. Not over the nearby border in to Pakistan as widely surmised, but back in to Afghanistan to the assured security of old tribal allies. To Warlords he could count on because their ancient customs and rigid codes of conduct forbade them to turn him in.

Capturing or killing bin Laden failed because too much faith was put in air power alone. Today the coalition’s hunt for bin Laden is unraveling because of the same reliance on airpower.

With every child or woman killed in the hunt for bin Laden or the Taliban, the threads that bind the people of Afghanistan to their President Hamid Karzai weaken. As they tear so the tolerance for the coalition that keeps Karzai in power stretches to breaking point.

In the minds of Afghans, the Soviets who occupied the country two decades ago were butchers whose barbaric tactics killed hundreds of thousands of their countrymen. A decade after putting in over 100,000 troops, the ‘Red Army’ slunk back to their collapsing empire defeated. They lost because they so enraged the Afghan's tribesmen. Across the country they turned on them in droves.

The Coalition uses wholly different tactics than the Soviets and goes out of it’s way to avoid collateral damage and civilian casualties, but the Afghan’s are finding it hard to tell the difference. When their President and their Parliamentarians tell them US forces killed 90 people, most of them children, they find it hard to feel anything else other than anger.

A couple of months ago I met Malalai Joya, a young Parliamentarian who is one of Karzai’s biggest critics. She challenges him for failing to rid the government of warlords and corruption. She is an ardent supporter of the democratic and human rights changes the West wants for Afghans. But she had a stark warning for me. “I know the people of my country” she said “they will not tolerate occupation for long”.

When a reformer like Joya says this I know patience with the coalition must be running out. And if time is running out for US troops in Afghanistan so time is running out in the hunt for Bin Laden.

According to Hamid Mir, the last journalist to interview bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader was last seen in the west of Afghanistan in early 2005. Mir, whom I met in Pakistan recently says he talked with one of Bin Laden’s guards who told him the al Qaeda leader narrowly missed capture by British forces in south Afghanistan late 2004. He narrowly escaped after a three day fire fight. British forces have not verified this account of a battle to capture bin Laden.

But perhaps more interesting is what the guard had to say about how they’ve avoided capture so long, by local support. The guard told Mir al Qaeda fighters married local women and by so doing ensured undying protection from the tribes they married in to.

Mir reports finding shopkeepers in Eastern Afghanistan who were proud to tell him they’d sold food to feed the al Qaeda leader. bin Laden is using culture to buy loyalty.

In tribal society when some one is killed a blood debt must be paid. Money given or another life taken in return. Disputes can span generations, it’s no different when coalition forces kill innocents... however unfortunate the circumstances. The debt and the anger to have it repaid in blood is growing.

Where bin Laden is able to use local culture to his advantage, the coalition is losing with every air strike that goes wrong. They lose what little leverage they had over the loyalties of the tribes bin Laden hides among.

In the past few years, as coalition casualties in Afghanistan have climbed beyond those in Iraq, I’ve heard solders and officers vent their frustrations privately away from the camera. Many feel let down, the resources they need are not there.

Officers don’t like to admit on camera they don’t have enough troops but in some cases are so strapped for soldiers they are putting car mechanics and logisticians in the front line positions. With troops so thinly spread the reliance on air power goes up, not just to defend them but to find their targets in the vast mountainous country.

There are just over 60,000 NATO troops in Afghanistan. About half are US forces. That’s less than half the number of troops in Iraq. Plus Iraq is significantly smaller and has it’s own security forces totaling over half a million now. Afghanistan doesn’t even have close to one tenth of troops anywhere close to being 'battle ready.'

The shortage of ground troops that so hampered the early efforts to catch the al Qaeda leader now appears not only to be one of the biggest factors for why he is still on the run but if air strikes continue to cause high collateral casualities may well contribute to the biggest setback at bringing him to justice. The loss of freedom for US troops to hunt him down in Afghanistan.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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U.S. Army soldiers salute three American flags, representing the three sites of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, at a ceremony to mark the seventh anniversary at Camp Liberty in Baghdad.

Arwa Damon | BIO
CNN International Correspondent

“Hot, its always hot...” the soldier responded, the collar of his flak jacket soaked in fresh sweat, mixed with that of months of patrolling. We’d only been out an hour, already drenched in sweat, and we’re only carrying about a third of the weight that the soldiers are. Two hours after they return to their base in downtown Baquba, they are out again, flak jackets still wet from the previous patrol. They live on a combat outpost. Sleep whenever they can, work out at the gym. There’s no TV and very little escape from combat. For these soldiers the routine of 9/11 will be like any other day.

We were just embedded with the 2nd SCR in Baquba, and among other stories we’re covering, we were also talking to young troops about 9/11.

Part of me forgot just how young some of the soldiers fighting out here are, with all their gear on they seem much older than their years. The ones we were talking to were barely in their teens when 9/11 happened, too young to realize the global impact that day would have and how it would forever alter their lives.

“I was in the 8th grade I think. Art class. I didn’t know what was going on, they just sent us home,” one of them told us.

And now seven years on, they know it. For some it prompted them to join the military. For all, it shaped their military career. They are in Iraq fighting America’s so-called “war on terror”, though many not really aware that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

The guys are exhausted. You see it in their eyes, in the way that they move, in their speech that seems to be in slow motion. They’ve been here for 13 months now and its taking its toll. They joke about the next deployment being Afghanistan.

And in the words of one New Yorker, they want America to know something on 9/11.

“Just know that we are doing the best we can to prevent anything like that from happening ever again.”

Editor's Note: We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world. FDNY Battalion Chief Tom Narbutt shares his experience from 9/11. Off-duty at the time, Tom made the treck to New York, arriving on the scene shortly after the collapse of both towers:
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Tom Narbutt
FDNY Battalion Chief (Ret.)

As I was responding to the emergency at the World Trade Center, I knew that a catastrophic event had occurred. But it was not until I actually arrived that I realized what had occurred. The scene was surreal. I could suddenly understand what it must have been like during the Lodon Blitz in World War II.

After I arrived at the Command Post set up near the site and was sent over to 7 World Trade Center to get a progress report from the Chief in Command. '7 WTC' ' was the location of the Mayor’s Emergency Command Center.

I will never forget that walk. It felt like I was walking on sand at the beach; The concrete was pulverized into fine granular pieces. What also surprised me was the lack of furniture in the rubble. No office equipment or anything else to be found... Just steel and papers.

Another thing that struck me; The firehouse across the street from the collapse, Engine 10 and Ladder 10, had only a minimal amount of damage.

When I arrived at 7 WTC the Chief was evacuating all fire personnel from the area. The fire had gotten pretty intense in this building from collateral damage it recieved. Before I could even get situated, the building began to sucumb... and a short time later, 7 WTC collapsed... but without the loss of life.

I never ran so fast in my life.

After 40 years with the FDNY, I saw many names of men I had worked with and people I knew: Deputy Comm. Bill Feehan, whom I went to 'Proby school' with.... Chief Tom DeAngelis from Batallion 8... Capt. Frank Callahan of Ladder 35...the list goes on.

After working well into the night, we made it back to Queens to rest, regroup, and return to the site.

When I went back the next day, I made my way up Liberty Street... and thats when I saw it. They antenna from the roof of the North Tower. Standing perfectly straight in the middle of everything. Like it just came straight down from the top.

It took a few days to realize that we lost 343 members. In my years in the FDNY I was assigned to Ladder 12 as a Firefighter, Ladder 35 as a Lieutenant, and Ladder 105 as a Captain. All had lost members, many I had met and one point or another...

...but I have a list of names and pictures of all 343 hanging in my home.

Editor's Note:
We are devoting many posts today to the anniversary of 9/11, with first-hand accounts, insight, and commentary dedicated to that day seven years ago that changed our world.
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An airplane flies overhead toward Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport as members of a Military honor guard stand at attention for the unveiling of the benches at the Pentagon Memorial, Thursday, Sept. 11,2008

Steve Turnham
CNN Producer

On 9/11 I was the Senate producer for CNN. By the time I got to work the House and Senate had already been evacuated. I ended up on the roof of the CNN bureau, with a veteran cameraman, pointing the lens at the sky, waiting for a plane to come barreling down the Mall and into the US Capitol.

By then the Pentagon had already been hit, and there was smoke drifting across the city. But no one was quite sure yet what had happened. Rumors were flying that a plane was heading into DC, to the White House maybe, or the Capitol. As it turned out that plane was the one that crashed in Pennsylvania, but in those early hours, nothing was certain.

Another network reported as fact that a plane was flying down the Potomac River towards us (CNN did not report this). We tried to get ready for anything. What if it hit the Capitol and the explosion reached us a quarter mile away? What if it missed, and hit closer to us? We decided if we did see a plane, we'd shoot as long as possible, then leave the live shot rolling, and duck behind a wall.

In the end, mercifully, there was no plane. The Capitol was not hit, because of the heroism of those passengers on Flight 93, who fought the hijackers and brought the plane down in that Pennsylvania field.

As we waited, the city fell silent, except for the sound of distant sirens. Our thoughts turned away from what might have happened before our eyes, and back to the magnitude of what had actually taken place.