Survivors mourned at New York's Ground Zero on Thursday as John McCain and Barack Obama suspended their rancorous White House campaign to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. A moment of silence began ceremonies at the side of the giant pit where the World Trade Center towers once stood, followed by the reading of almost 3,000 victims' names.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda-hijacked airliners demolished the Twin Towers and also crashed into the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, was the day the United States "broke." The anniversary, he said, was about "New Yorkers, Americans and global citizens remembering the innocent people from 95 nations and territories that lost their lives that day."
McCain and Obama - due to visit Ground Zero, after the official ceremonies - declared a truce and suspended advertising. "There will be no speeches," Democrat Obama's spokeswoman Linda Douglass said. "This is going to be a moment when politics are set aside." Victims' relatives, some choking on tears, read out names of the dead. A string quartet, alternating with a classical guitar and flute, played mournfully in the background as the litany unfolded.
Survivors, who wore white ribbons pinned to their chests, often broke off to add brief tributes. One fought to control himself as he condemned the "cowardly men" who killed his loved one. A woman managed a smile as she called to her deceased husband Chuck, saying: "Until we meet again may God hold you in the palm of his hands."
At the Pentagon, thousands joined President George W. Bush and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to dedicate the first September 11 memorial. A Marine Corps bugler played taps from the roof where fire-fighters had unfurled an American flag while the building burned after the attack. The somber patriotism provided a rare moment of unity in a country less than two months from the end of an increasingly divisive presidential race.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said there was no doubt the United States was better protected than in 2001 and that terrorists' potential for hijacking airplanes had been "substantially reduced."
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