Obama to honor 9/11 victims at Ground Zero
NEW YORK — President Barack Obama was to lay a wreath at Ground Zero Thursday and meet families of the 9/11 victims, just days after ordering the operation which eliminated Al-Qaeda…
NEW YORK — President Barack Obama was to lay a wreath at Ground Zero Thursday and meet families of the 9/11 victims, just days after ordering the operation which eliminated Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden.The trip will be steeped in symbolism at the haunting site of the September 11, 2001 massacre where Al-Qaeda militants slammed two hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, collapsing the towers and killing thousands of people.Yet the White House stressed this was not a victory tour by Obama, but a form of homage to almost 3,000 people killed in the attacks, which triggered Washington's controversial global war against Al-Qaeda nearly a decade ago.Calling the death of bin Laden a "cathartic moment for the American people," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama wanted to "honor the spirit of unity in America that we all felt in the wake of that terrible attack."His wreath will be laid in remembrance of the hundreds of firemen and others killed trying to rescue people from the collapsing Twin Towers."He will also meet with families of the victims and first responders in private," Carney said Wednesday. "He wants to meet with them and share with them this important and significant moment, a bitter-sweet moment, I think, for many families of the victims."Joining Obama will be New York's senior US Senator Charles Schumer, who rejected a suggestion that the president's visit was an unnecessary victory lap after announcing to the nation late Sunday that America's enemy number one had been shot and killed in a Pakistani compound after a years-long manhunt."He deserves huge credit and should be here," Schumer told CNN from Ground Zero early Thursday."The shoulders of Americans and people throughout the world stand a little taller because we know now this is a turning point in the war on terror," Schumer said."People feel we'll win this war" on terrorism, he added. "Forces of freedom win."He also credited president George W. Bush and what Obama's predecessor did to "lay the groundwork" for bin Laden's
last modification 2011-05-05 17:00:38
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