Bush Honors Sept. 11 Dead, Targets Tyrants
( 2002-09-12 16:43 ) (7 )

US President George W. Bush honored Sept. 11's victims and consoled their loved ones on Wednesday, then told Americans they had been called to defend freedom from "history's latest gang of fanatics."

"Our generation has now heard history's call, and we will answer it," Bush said in a speech delivered to the nation from Ellis Island, with a backdrop of the Statue of Liberty glowing in the night sky. "We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power."

The president spoke after making a somber pilgrimage to the sites where four hijacked aircraft crashed one year ago, killing more than 3,000 people and triggering a US-led war against global terrorism. Bush was to address the United Nations on Thursday and make a case for action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who Bush says threatens to turn over weapons of mass destruction to extremists.

"In the ruins of the two towers, under a flag unfurled at the Pentagon, at the funerals of the lost, we have made a sacred promise to ourselves and to the world. We will not relent until justice is done and our nation is secure," Bush said. "What our enemies have begun, we will finish."

He did not mention Saddam by name, but said the United States would not allow any "terrorist or tyrant" to threaten civilization.

At "ground zero" in New York, where the World Trade Center's twin towers tumbled down in a cloud of smoke, dust and debris a year ago, Bush spent nearly two hours comforting about 1,000 family members who lost relatives there.

It was his last stop on an emotional daylong tour of the three sites where the hijacked airliners crashed. Flanked by uniformed rescue workers, Bush walked hand-in-hand with first lady Laura Bush down a long ramp into the pit where the World Trade Center once stood.

He laid a wreath at the "Circle of Honor" + a wooden memorial covered with flowers laid by mourners and decorated with flags and pictures of some of the 2,801 victims of the center's destruction.

Then he hugged women, men and children and shook hands, as the relatives held up pictures of their loved ones. Tears sprang from his eyes repeatedly. "I'm going to be praying for you," he said to some of the grieving, red ribbons pinned to their chests.

Gusts of wind blew dust around the ground zero pit. A military choir sang "America the Beautiful." In Bush's pocket was the police badge of a New York Port Authority officer who died in the frantic rescue attempt at the towers.

'COMING TO TERMS'

"For all Americans, it has been a year of adjustment, of coming to terms with the difficult knowledge that our nation has determined enemies, and that we are not invulnerable to their attacks," Bush said in his speech.

It was more emotional at ground zero than his visit to a grassy field earlier in the day near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Airlines Flight 93 plunged into the ground and its fiery remains skidded to a halt nearby.

For many, the field marks the first victory in the war on terrorism because passengers rebelled against the hijackers, who were believed to have been taking the Boeing 757 to Washington. All 44 passengers and crew on board were killed, including four hijackers.

Locals said the grass will not grow long where the plane came to a stop, which is the site where Bush and his wife watched a wreath being laid, as a bugler played taps and a breeze caressed the tall grass covering the quiet countryside.

Bush often hails the resistance of Flight 93's passengers, but did not speak publicly in Shanksville on Wednesday. Instead, he exchanged private words with the assembled relatives of crash victims, asking "Are you doing OK?" and telling them, "Hang in there" and "God bless you."

'THEY DID NOT DIE IN VAIN'

Speaking at the first crash site he visited on Wednesday + the Pentagon + Bush vowed to defeat what he called the merciless fanatics who used hijacked planes as missiles.

"The murder of innocents cannot be explained, only endured. And though they died in tragedy, they did not die in vain," Bush said on a mild, sunny morning much like the one last year when 189 people, including five hijackers, were killed at the headquarters of the US armed forces.

With 13,500 people at an outdoor ceremony, Bush watched as a huge, fluttering American flag was unfurled from the newly rebuilt face of the Pentagon that was a smoking hulk of twisted metal, broken stone and shattered glass after the plane hit.

A small handwritten sign reading "Marian we miss you," barely legible through the dust still coating the new construction, was taped to the inside of a Pentagon window, a reminder of the victims in the attacks.

The president vowed to prevail in the war on terrorism he launched after the attack.

The war on terrorism, which began by ousting the Taliban regime in Afghanistan that harbored accused Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden, increasingly has turned toward Iraq despite a lack of public evidence linking that country to the attacks.

"We will not allow any terrorist or tyrant to threaten civilization with weapons of mass murder," Bush said.

The president's day began with a private church service and ended with the Ellis Island address.

At the White House, Bush marked the anniversary with a moment of silence. Tightly clasping the hand of his wife, Bush held the ceremony on the White House South Lawn at 8:46 a.m., the moment the first hijacked jet hit the World Trade Center a year ago.