New York marks 25th anniversary of 9/11 with ceremony amid Trump and mayor controversies

NEW YORK, United States (AFP)—New York commemorated the 25th anniversary of the devastating September 11, 2001 attacks Friday with a ceremony marked by controversy over President Donald Trump's absence and right-wing outrage over the attendance of the city's first Muslim mayor. In an unusual move, Trump was paying his respects at the Pentagon, rather than joining the event in New York, where hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Center and killed most of the 2,977 total victims on that world-altering day. Vice President JD Vance and Trump's four living predecessors -- Republican George W. Bush, who was in office during the attacks, and Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton -- were gathering at the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan. The ceremony, which began just after 8:40 a.m (1240 GMT), was designed to be apolitical, with no speeches. Bereaved family members read out the names of all those killed, with a bell tolling to mark major moments in the attack, which sparked years of US involvement in Middle East wars and bitter controversy over Washington's human rights record. Terry Strada, widow of victim Tom Strada, unleashed a stinging attack on Saudi Arabia, accusing it of complicity in the attacks, and denouncing former presidents who were in attendance. "You are missed more with each year that passes, but how can it be 25 years and still we have no justice for the role that Saudi Arabia played in your murder?" she said in unscripted remarks broadcast live worldwide. The September 11, 2001 attacks were carried out by mostly Saudi hijackers orchestrated by mastermind Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi. Alongside the former presidents was Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Big Apple's first Muslim mayor. He faced a well organized campaign urging him to stay away spearheaded by the right-wing New York Post newspaper and former mayor and Trump-ally Rudy Giuliani. A petition, which has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, accuses Mamdani of associating with unspecified individuals who are "dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies." "It's concerning to me that the mayor is being treated differently simply because he is Muslim," city council member Shahana Hanif told CNN. Mamdani won plaudits for recently revealing thousands of documents showing what city officials knew about toxicity levels of the air in Lower Manhattan following the attacks. After the initial dust cloud that followed the collapse of the World Trade Center, months of pollution and lingering dust ensued, causing cancers from which thousands of New Yorkers still suffer today. - Traumatic, but fading memories - Nineteen Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four airliners on the nearly cloudless autumn day in 2001. Two of the jets slammed into the World Trade Center's Twin Towers, causing the iconic 110-storey buildings to collapse. A third plane struck the Pentagon, while a fourth -- believed to have been aiming for Congress or the White House -- crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back. Beyond those killed on September 11, more than 9,400 other people have died from 9/11-related illnesses, according to the federal program established to provide medical care to those affected. Some 100 million Americans have been born since or are too young to remember the traumatic day. John Fila, a retired firefighter of Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9, said his firehouse lost 15 members on 9/11. "Every year around this time it's a difficult time for us. It's extraordinary the fact that so many people have come back for it," he said. "In our firehouse there's the picture of the 15 that we lost. (New firefighters) see that but it's up to us... to explain those firefighters' lives and what they were doing that day." Fila was the firehouse's last firefighter to serve before September 11. Huge crowds were expected to gather in Lower Manhattan for the memorial service. The Secret Service, which protects presidents, erected a security ring around the site of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. City police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said an anti-drone team would be deployed as a precaution, but stressed there was no intelligence of a specific threat. Al-Qaeda meanwhile has marked the anniversary by releasing a video showing images of late leader Osama bin Laden and his son Hamza, who Trump said in 2019 had also been killed. Ahead of the memorial, a drone show with 2,977 lights rose above New York Harbor, one for each person killed in the attacks.

New York commemorated the 25th anniversary of the devastating attacks of September 11, 2001 on Friday with a ceremony marred by controversy over President Donald Trump’s absence, and right-wing outrage over the attendance of the city’s first Muslim mayor. In an unusual move, Trump paid his respects at the Pentagon, rather than joining the event in New York, where hijacked planes destroyed the World Trade Centre and killed most of the 2,977 total victims on that world-altering day. Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s four living predecessors — Republican George W. Bush, who was in office during the attacks, and Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton — were gathering at the Ground Zero site in lower Manhattan. The ceremony, which began just after 8:40am (5:40pm PKT), was designed to be apolitical, with no speeches. (From L to R) Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former US president Bill Clinton, former first lady Michelle Obama, and former US president Barack Obama attend the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York, the US on September 11, 2026. — AFP Bereaved family members were reading out the names of all of those killed, with a bell tolling to mark major moments of the attack, which sparked years of US involvement in Middle East wars and bitter controversy over Washington’s human rights record. “Memorials like this and discussions about those events are an important part of keeping it alive and understanding how we prevent tragedies like this from ever happening again,” said Robert Kafka, a Chicagoan in his 60s visiting the 9/11 Memorial. Alongside the former presidents was Democratic Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the Big Apple’s first Muslim mayor. He faced a well-organised campaign urging him to stay away, spearheaded by the right-wing New York Post and Trump ally and ex- mayor Rudy Giuliani. A petition, which has gathered more than 100,000 signatures, accuses Mamdani of associating with unspecified individuals who are “dismissive of American institutions or insufficiently critical of extremist ideologies”. “It’s concerning to me that the mayor is being treated differently simply because he is Muslim,” city council member Shahana Hanif told CNN. Former US president George W Bush speaks with New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani during the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York, the US on September 11, 2026. — AFP Mamdani won plaudits for recently revealing thousands of documents showing what city officials knew about toxicity levels of the air in Lower Manhattan following the attacks. After the initial dust cloud that followed the collapse of the World Trade Centre, months of pollution and lingering dust ensued, causing cancers from which thousands of New Yorkers still suffer today. ‘Toxic air’ Nineteen Al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four airliners on the nearly cloudless autumn day in 2001. Two of the jets slammed into the World Trade Centre’s Twin Towers, causing the iconic 110-storey buildings to collapse. A third plane struck the Pentagon, while a fourth — believed to have been aiming for Congress or the White House — crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers fought back. Beyond those killed on September 11, more than 9,400 other people have died from 9/11-related illnesses, according to the federal program established to provide medical care to those affected. Some 100 million Americans have been born since or are too young to remember the traumatic day. People leave flowers during the 25th anniversary commemoration of the September 11, 2001 attacks at the National September 11 Memorial in New York, the US on September 11, 2026. — AFP Logan Miller, 32, lost his uncle during the attacks, and his grandfather to 9/11-related illness in the aftermath. “I think the next generation just can’t fathom what actually transpired and how someone could be impacted by that, and so I actually find them asking more questions,” he told AFP. Huge crowds were expected to gather in Lower Manhattan for the memorial service. The Secret Service, which protects presidents, erected a security ring around the site of the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. City police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said an anti-drone team would be deployed as a precaution, but stressed there was no intelligence of a specific threat.

Americans are commemorating the 25th anniversary of 9/11, remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaida attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.Friday’s milestone anniversary will bring memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll.For others it’s an occasion for private reflection — or, in many schools, education — about the attack that unfolded in a single morning but left nearly 3,000 dead and a decadeslong trail of aftermath, from personal grief to far-flung wars.Police Officer Casey Kloepfer plans to spend time Friday at the Brooklyn station house where his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, reported to work that day before being called to the World Trade Center. He didn’t make it home.Casey Kloepfer was only 4, but he grew up hearing about his father’s affinity for helping people and for a job that enabled him to do so. He became an officer this past June.“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honor him and be the best police officer I can,” he said by phone this week. The 29-year-old wears his father’s badge number and even has joined the New York Police Department lacrosse team, which his dad founded. Trump to attend Pentagon observance On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.The impacts brought down the World Trade Center’s twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power, and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military’s fortress-like headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane also was headed for the nation’s capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before” and after, President Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on Sept. 11 and has often recounted his memories, plans to attend the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony Friday.Vice President JD Vance is expected at the observance at the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York, while other administration officials are headed to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.Planned remembrances extend far beyond the attack sites, from beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington to a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium to a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial. At ground zero, a new tribute to those who fell ill Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the New York commemoration, where relatives read all the victims’ names, punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline. For the first time, this year’s ceremony will add a silent moment to honor people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.It’s a reminder of how the attacks’ long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington’s longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. military found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.The attacks changed U.S. air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan ” if you see something, say something.” Unity, mistrust and scrutiny of New York’s mayor Sept. 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies. But amid the national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor. Yet he is facing some criticism for planning to attend the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.Some complaints came from Republican ex-Gov. George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives, who cited among other things past remarks that some of Mamdani’s political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending.Mamdani, a Democrat, responded this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims’ families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.Sept. 11 isn’t a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organization 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find meal-packing and other volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday.Instead, they will simply display the time. —Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press