Ns News Online Desk: Americans commemorated the lives lost during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on Sunday, as they pledged to “never forget” the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil. Police officers attend a ceremony at the 9/11 Memorial marking the 21st anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York, Sept. 11, 2022.
EPAThe loss still feels immediate to Bonita Mentis, who wore a necklace with a photo of her slain sister, Shevonne Mentis.
“It’s been 21 years, but it’s not 21 years for us. It seems like just yesterday,” she said before reading victims’ names at the World Trade Center to a crowd that included Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff. Mentis’
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) participates in a wreath-laying during an observance ceremony for the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.
EPAAt the Pentagon, which also was targeted on 9/11, President Joe Biden vowed that the U.S. would continue working to root out terrorist plots and called on Americans to stand up for “the very democracy that guarantees the right to freedom that those terrorists on 9/11 sought to bury in the burning fire, smoke and ash.” First lady Jill Biden spoke at the third attack site, a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
On Sept. 11, 2001, conspirators from the al-Qaida terrorist group seized control of jets to use them as passenger-filled missiles, hitting the trade center’s twin towers and the Pentagon. The fourth plane was headed for Washington but crashed near Shanksville after crew members and passengers tried to storm the cockpit.
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris attends a ceremony marking the 21st anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in the Manhattan borough of New York City, U.S.
REUTERS
The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, reconfigured national security policy and spurred a U.S. “war on terror” worldwide. Sunday’s observances came little more than a month after a U.S. drone strike killed a key al-Qaida figure who helped plot the 9/11 attacks, Ayman al-Zawahri.
Pierre Roldan, who lost his cousin Carlos Lillo, a paramedic, said “we had some form of justice” when a U.S. raid killed Osama bin Laden in 2011. “Now that al-Zawahri is gone, at least we’re continuing to get that justice,” Roldan said.The self-proclaimed mastermind of the attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, still awaits a long-postponed military tribunal. An attorney for one of Mohammed’s co-defendants this week confirmed ongoing negotiations toward a potential agreement to avoid a trial and impose lesser but still lengthy sentences.
An Honor Guard made up of Conroe police and fire personnel present the colors during a Sept. 11 Observance ceremony on the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, held at the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park Sunday, Sept. 11, 2022, in Conroe, Texas.
(MICHAEL WYKE/HOUSTON CHRONICLE VIA AP)
