The United States is preparing to mark tomorrow with commemorative ceremonies the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, which shook the entire world on September 11, 2001, according to Reuters, Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
A quarter of a century ago, on the morning of September 11, local time, two hijacked planes crashed one after the other into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York. A fire followed and the twin towers collapsed one after the other. A third hijacked plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., which was partially destroyed. A fourth hijacked plane crashed in the Shanksville area of Pennsylvania after passengers rebelled against the terrorists and the plane never reached its intended target. A total of 2,977 people died in the terrorist attacks, most of whom were killed in the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the agencies recall.
Twenty-five years later, there is already a whole new generation in the United States who were not born at the time of the attacks or were too young to remember exactly what happened on September 11, 2001. According to statistics, this amounts to about 100 million young Americans.
Today, in Washington, D.C., the Pentagon building looks as if it had never been partially destroyed in the attacks. And in place of the twin towers in New York, many new skyscrapers and a memorial complex with a museum and a park in memory of the victims are being built. On the site where the twin towers themselves once stood, there are now water mirrors, on the bronze railings of which the names of the victims of the attacks are listed. In Pennsylvania, where the fourth hijacked plane crashed, there is also a memorial today.
Every year, September 11, 2001, is commemorated in an already established way - with three main commemorative ceremonies in Washington, in New York and in the Shanksville area. They are usually attended by the president and vice president, former governors and relatives of the victims. The ceremony at the Pentagon is more politicized and Trump will attend it tomorrow. According to the “New York Times“ he refused to travel to the ceremony in New York because it usually does not allow speeches by politicians and leaders, and only relatives of the victims are allowed to make statements. Trump denies the allegations of the “New York Times“.
The ceremony in New York at the site where the Twin Towers stood 25 years ago, known as Ground Zero, will be attended tomorrow by Vice President J.D. Vance and three former presidents - Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Republican George W. Bush, who was the head of state of the United States during the attacks. In the evening after this ceremony, two huge beams of light will illuminate the sky over New York.
Last night, in memory of the victims of the attacks, there was a light show in the sky over New York Harbor. It involved 2,977 drones, the same number of victims of the terrorist attacks. The drones painted various light pictures, with the climax of the light show coming when the drones outlined the twin towers of the World Trade Center in the sky with lights, which collapsed a quarter of a century ago, reports “ABC News“. The light show was created in cooperation with the families of the victims and the people from the services who first responded to the attacks.
In addition to the direct victims of the four terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, today there are more than 9,400 additional victims of the consequences of the attacks, according to data from a special federal health program.
The alleged mastermind of the attacks is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, one of the main commanders of the terrorist Osama bin Laden, leader of the terrorist group “Al Qaeda“, which claimed responsibility for the September 11 attacks. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed has been in prison at the Guantanamo Bay military base for 20 years and it recently became clear that his trial will begin on June 5, 2028.
The only person convicted so far for the September 11 attacks is Frenchman Zacarias Moussaoui, Agence France-Presse recalls. Today, he is 58 years old and is serving a life sentence in a prison for especially dangerous criminals in Colorado. He was arrested in 2006 on charges of complicity in the attacks. He recently requested to be allowed to serve his sentence in France.
The September 11, 2001 attacks led to an avalanche of other events, including decades of wars in which more than 900,000 people died, mainly in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, Reuters notes.
The memory of the victims and the events of 25 years ago is kept alive at the Museum at the Ground Zero Memorial Complex in New York. Witnesses to the events of a quarter century ago and relatives of some of the victims are specially trained to tell visitors to the Museum what happened a quarter century ago. Their stories are especially useful for young people who have learned about the attacks only from the stories of their parents and teachers at school, says Beth Hillman, the Museum's director. The memorial complex in New York is visited by 2.4 million people annually, recalls Agence France-Presse.
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced on Tuesday that tens of thousands of documents will be published, concerning, in his opinion, the city government's concealment of the truth about the toxicity of the city's air after the terrorist attacks, recalls Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press.
The publication of the documents online was decided as part of an agreement with an organization called “Health Watch After 9/11“, which defends victims of polluted air in the city after the 2001 attacks and which filed a lawsuit to force the city government to make these documents public.
The collapse of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York during the attacks caused a huge cloud of dust. Then, for months, the air was polluted with particulate matter. This caused, among other things, cancers. “People got sick because the leaders they trusted lied to them, telling them they could breathe toxic air safely”, stressed Zohran Mamdani, quoted by Agence France-Presse.
Around 173,000 documents will be published in parts over 12 months. They could question the actions of two of Mamdani's predecessors - Rudy Giuliani, who was mayor at the time of the attacks, and Michael Bloomberg, who had held the mayor's post since the winter of 2002.
When asked about the names of political leaders who concealed information from the general public, Zohran Mamdani avoided a direct answer, indicating only that "we are talking about a large number of people who were trusted by New Yorkers."
Recently, the “New York Post“ wrote, citing health statistics published on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, that the number of cancer cases among survivors of the September 11 attacks has increased dramatically in the past decade. The collective term “survivors” of course, the few people rescued from the Twin Towers, the people who lived, worked, and studied in the area of the World Trade Center during the attacks, and all the people who participated in the rescue efforts at Ground Zero. In 2015, there were 3,204 confirmed cases of cancer among survivors of the attacks. Ten years later, there were 57,044 confirmed cases of cancer among survivors of the attacks, according to a special program called the “World Trade Center Health Program“.