WASHINGTON, 12 September — Leading a wounded superpower in grieving remembrance, President George W. Bush went to the symbol of American military might yesterday to vow that the United States would win the war that started amid the death and destruction of Sept. 11, 2001. A minute’s silence marked ceremonies across the globe in a day of tearful remembrance a year after extremists struck terror into the heart of America.
On a blue and red draped rostrum in front of the spot where American Airlines flight 77 smashed into the Pentagon’s southwest facade, Bush portrayed his country as embarked on a titanic battle between good and evil in "the first great struggle of a new century".
The enemy "won’t be stopped by decency or a hint of conscience, but they will be stopped", he warned in a capital torn between sorrow, patriotism and fears of a new attack to mark the first anniversary of the worst terrorist atrocity of modern times.
With the color-coded national security alert at an unprecedented level of orange, indicating a "serious threat", anti-aircraft missiles and troops in battle dress guarded key Washington sites. Above the city, military planes flew, just as in the first days of shock a year ago. As in the weeks after Sept. 11, Vice President Dick Cheney has canceled public engagements to vanish to a "secure undisclosed location".
In a poignant touch, 100 Washington area schoolchildren, classmates of children who died in the disaster or whose parents died, recited the Pledge of Allegiance. At 9.37 a.m., the moment the aircraft hit the building, the crowd fell silent beneath a line of American flags.
"One year ago, men, women and children were killed here because they were Americans, because this place is a symbol of our country’s might and resolve," said Bush, who later visited Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and then Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, the two other sites that will for ever be connected with Sept. 11.
In New York, at 8:46 a.m. (1246 GMT), the moment the first hijacked airliner slammed into New York’s World Trade Center, thousands gathered at Ground Zero and fell silent to remember the 2,800 people who died there.
In Britain, the United States’ closest military ally since the attacks, the anniversary was marked by a minute’s silence and a moving memorial service in the capital’s Saint Paul’s Cathedral.
Hundreds of people — many of them US tourists — lined the streets outside the historic domed cathedral, where Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair joined 2,000 others in remembering the victims.
More than 3,000 white rose petals representing the victims, including 67 Britons, who died in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, were released inside the cathedral’s great dome.
Tributes and condolences poured in from around the world, along with notes of caution tempered by worries about the threat of an anniversary attack. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz sent a message to former US Attorney General and peace activist Ramsey Clark expressing sympathy for families of the victims of the attacks.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan led hundreds of UN staff and diplomats in a minute’s silence. "There could be no greater affront to the spirit and purpose of the United Nations than the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11," Annan said in a ceremony held in the riverside garden outside UN headquarters. "We come together as a world community because we were attacked as a world community," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a midnight phone call to Bush and Russian lawmakers held a moment of silence at the start of their session. "In Russia, we say that time heals everything, but there are things that we cannot forget and which must not be forgotten," Putin said.
Stock exchanges across the world also held a minute’s silence for the 3,025 victims of all nationalities killed in the attacks.
In Brussels, the US flag was raised alongside those of EU member states outside the European Parliament.
Security was stepped up at US embassies around the world following warnings of attacks by Al-Qaeda militants in Asia and the Middle East. US embassies in Indonesia, Malaysia and Bahrain remained closed.
Minor attacks were reported on US bases in Afghanistan. The US military said a gunman fired on Bagram Air Base, the US military headquarters in Afghanistan, just after dawn while a Special Forces camp at Lwara, near the eastern city of Khost, came under rocket attack around midnight. No American serviceman was hurt.
Southeast Asian lawmakers pledged to fight terrorism, but said they were opposed to unprovoked military action against Iraq.
In a joint communiqué adopted at the end of the 23rd general assembly of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Organization (AIPO) in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi, legislators said further strides were needed to tackle terrorism.
"The assembly reiterated ASEAN’s commitment to countering terrorist acts in all forms and manifestations in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the fundamental principles of international law," it said. (The Independent & agencies)
