20 years later: Looking back at the 9/11 terrorist attacks
20 years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. On the day of the attacks, WRAL News provided the Triangle with continuous coverage and local updates throughout the day.
Posted — UpdatedMemories of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are fresh in many Americans minds 20 years later.
For some, it's the striking image on the TV screen of the Twin Towers on fire. Or the photo captured of the man falling from the burning towers, headfirst. Others remember the streets marked with makeshift memorials, with families mourning beside them.
The 9/11 anniversary events today mark the solemn moments that upended America 20 years ago.
By the end of the day, President Joe Biden will have visited all sites of the 9/11 attacks, to pay his respects to the victims. Biden marked the milestone anniversary, his first as president, weeks after the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan nearly two decades after the U.S. first knocked them from power in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Former presidents Obama, Clinton and Bush all attended 9/11 memorials today, displaying a sign of unity. Former president and New York native Donald J. Trump did not attend the memorial services with the other presidents. His ally and lawyer Rudy Gulliani, former mayor of New York, was at the event.
"In the weeks and months following the 9/11 attacks, I was proud to lead an amazing, resilient, united people. When it comes to the unity of America, those days seem distant from our own," Bush said.
"So much of our politics has become a naked appeal to anger, fear and resentment. That leaves us worried about our nation and our future together. I come without explanations or solutions. I can only tell you what I've seen. On America's day of trial and grief, I saw millions of people instinctively grab for a neighbor's hand and rally to the cause of one another. That is the America I know."
Bush also warned the country of domestic terrorism threats, saying that there is "little cultural overlap between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home."
"They are children of the same foul spirit and it's our continuing duty to confront them," he said.
President Biden spoke briefly with reporters after leaving Shanksville on Saturday afternoon, praising former President Bush's speech.
“I thought President Bush made a really good speech today, a genuinely good speech, about who we are, we’re not — the core of who we are is not divided, it’s just this notion of, I don’t know how to explain it,” Biden said.
Before leaving Pennsylvania on Saturday, Biden addressed the fragility of American democracy. He said he's become appalled at how coarse dialogue has become between the two political parties.
"Are we going to — in the next four, five, six, 10 years — demonstrate that democracies can work, or not?” he told reporters.
Vice President Kamala Harris also spoke at Saturday's events, reflecting on the heroism of Flight 93 passengers.
"In a time of outright terror, we turned toward each other. In the face of a stranger, we saw a neighbor and a friend. That time reminded us the significance and the strength of our unity as Americans, and that it is possible in America," she said.
“On the days that followed Sept. 11, 2001, we were all reminded that unity is possible in America," she said. "We were reminded, too, that unity is imperative in America. It is essential to our shared prosperity, our national security, and to our standing in the world.”
On the day of the attacks, WRAL News provided the Triangle with continuous coverage and local updates throughout the day.
WRAL News crews were sent to Washington and New York to cover the aftermath of the attacks.
Reporter Scott Mason traveled to Washington, D.C., to cover the attacks on the Pentagon. Mason said that he was there to tell what happened, but also to provide people with hope. That's what kept him afloat while covering the terrorist attacks. "I felt that I was meant to be there, doing these patriotic stories," he said.
Dozens of men from North Carolina were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. 24-year-old Marine Mark Adams died after a roadside bomb exploded near him in Iraq.
- 2,448 American service members were killed in Afghanistan
- 3,826 U.S. contractors were killed in Afghanistan
- 66,000 Afghan military members and police officers
- 47,245 Afghan civilians
Forbes estimated that the war cost Americans $300 million each day, for 20 years. By 2050, the United States will have spent $6.5 trillion on the war, including interest rates.
On Sept. 11, 2021, family members who lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks called for the government to de-classify documents relating to the Flight 93 plane crash. Last week, President Joe Biden ordered a new declassification review of documents related t the attack.
Officials say that our country is much more secure and safe than it was 20 years ago.
“We're safer here at home, because we’ve got an integrated intelligence community and law enforcement in a way that we never had, pre 9/11,” Michael Leiter told NBC News. “We're safer globally, because we have a network of allies who have similar structure set up. ... None of that means we're safe, but we are absolutely safer than we were 20 years ago.”
Over the years, the CIA and military have killed thousands of militants in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Syria. That effort has severely weakened Islamic extremists forces from initiating another attack, NBC reports.
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