Status: 11.09.2021 3:50 a.m.
In a video message on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, US President Biden calls on the US to unite. The attacks are commemorated across the country today. Biden is expected at the attack sites.
In a video message on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, US President Joe Biden called for unity across the country. “That is the central lesson of 9/11 for me. When we are most vulnerable (…), unity is our greatest strength,” said Biden.
This does not mean “that we all have to believe the same thing, but it is important that we respect and believe in one another,” said the Democratic President in the roughly six-minute message recorded in the White House.
20 years after 9/11: remembering the brave passengers of Flight 93
Claudia Buckenmaier, ARD Washington, daily topics 9.45 p.m., 10.9.2021
Biden visits attack sites
Today the United States is celebrating the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 with a series of commemorative events. In New York, the names of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attack will be read out at a ceremony at the former site of the World Trade Center. Biden and his wife Jill will visit all of the 9/11 attack sites during the day.
Members of the Al-Qaeda terror network had flown three hijacked aircraft into the towers of the World Trade Center and into the US Department of Defense outside the gates of the capital Washington. A fourth plane crashed in the state of Pennsylvania after passengers rebelled against the hijackers. The worst attacks in US history shook the world power badly, and the then Republican President George W. Bush subsequently proclaimed the “war on terrorism”.
Commemoration across the country
In addition to the official memorial services, there are funeral services, cultural events and minutes of silence throughout the country in memory of the attacks and the thousands of deaths. For example, the musicians of the New York Metropolitan Opera want to perform Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem” in the evening to commemorate the dead.
In addition, numerous well-known buildings in the metropolis are to be illuminated in blue, including the Empire State Building. Where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood, two blue columns of light rise from the ground for a few nights. The police presence in New York is to be increased on the anniversary of the attacks.
Memories of “extraordinary solidarity”
“Today we commemorate a dark day that has burned itself into the minds of millions of people worldwide,” said UN Secretary General António Guterres, according to the announcement. His thoughts are with the victims and their families, with the survivors and the emergency services who came to the rescue at the time. “Today we stand in solidarity with the people of New York, the United States and all victims of terrorism worldwide.”
The members of the UN Security Council had visited the memorial for the victims in New York in the run-up to the anniversary. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reminded on Friday of the “extraordinary solidarity” of the people around the world after the terrorist attacks 20 years ago. “They gathered in front of our embassies and consulates, prayed, sang and wept. They left handwritten notes, flowers, candles, drawings and memorabilia,” said Blinken.
Among the hundreds of letters in front of the Berlin embassy, for example, there was a handwritten note, Blinken continued. It said: “Kennedy said: ‘I’m a Berliner.’ We say, ‘We are Americans.’ “