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thedrifter
09-10-05, 07:54 PM
Major developments following the 9/11 attacks
September 10, 2005, 11:31 AM EDT

2001

_ Sept. 11: Terrorists hijack four jetliners and crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field. The twin towers and Seven World Trade Center collapse.

_ Sept. 13: Osama bin Laden identified as prime suspect in the attack.

_ Sept. 14: Nineteen hijackers identified and linked directly to bin Laden.

_ Sept. 17: Wall Street trading resumes, ending stock market's longest shutdown since the Great Depression. Dow loses 684.81 points, its worst-ever one-day point drop.

_ Oct. 7: First airstrikes launched in Afghanistan. Bin Laden, in videotaped message, praises God for Sept. 11 attacks.

_ Oct. 26: President Bush signs anti-terrorism bill giving police unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain and eavesdrop in pursuit of possible terrorists.

_ Nov. 25: First wave of Marines lands near Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.

_ Dec. 22: Hamid Karzai and his transitional government sworn in to lead Afghanistan.

2002

_ Feb. 14: Leaders of House and Senate intelligence committees announce joint inquiry of intelligence community's failure to prevent the attacks.

_ Sept. 18: Investigator for joint inquiry testifies that intelligence agencies disregarded many warnings that terrorists might use planes as bombs.

_ Nov. 25: Bush signs legislation creating Department of Homeland Security.

_ Nov. 27: Bush signs bill establishing independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks.

_ Dec. 11: Congressional inquiry issues final report on intelligence failures leading up to terrorist attacks. Key recommendations include creating Cabinet-level director of national intelligence.

_ Dec. 13: WTC death toll drops to 2,792, one of several drops since the first anniversary of the attacks.

2003

_ Jan. 1: Thousands of newly hired government workers begin screening every checked bag at the nation's commercial airports for explosives.

_ Jan. 27: The independent 9/11 commission, headed by ex-New Jersey governor Thomas H. Kean, launches its 16-month investigation.

_ Feb. 19: Moroccan student Mounir el Motassadeq receives the maximum 15-year sentence in Germany for helping Sept. 11 hijackers. It was the first conviction tied to the terror plot.

_ Feb. 27: Architect Daniel Libeskind's Freedom Tower plan, including a 1,776-foot spire and sunken memorial, chosen for rebuilding trade center.

_ March 3: Design announced for Pentagon memorial, with 184 benches _ each placed over an individual reflecting pool _ inscribed with a victim's name.

_ March 31-April 1: The 9/11 commission holds first public hearings, a half mile from ground zero.

_ May 7: Federal investigators report that fireproofing on the WTC's steel floor supports was never tested and might not have met city building code.

_ Aug. 28: The Port Authority releases 2,000 pages of transcripts from emergency calls and radio transmissions following attacks.

_ Nov. 6: Firehouse across from World Trade Center re-opens.

2004

_ Jan. 23: The New York City Medical Examiner places final death toll from trade center attacks at 2,749.

_ June 16-17: 9/11 Commission concludes 20 months of investigation with a preliminary report that fails to find "credible evidence" of Iraq and al-Qaida collaboration on attacks.

_ July 22: 9/11 Commission delivers final report to President Bush; its key findings include the failure of the Bush and Clinton administrations to make anti-terrorism a top priority.

_ Dec. 17: Bush signs Intelligence Reform Act, a historic overhaul of the national intelligence system.

2005

_ March 24: Court ruling orders New York and its Fire Department to release tapes and transcripts of post-attack interviews with city firefighters, along with 911 calls from department personnel.

_ April 22: Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person indicted in the U.S. for the attacks, pleads guilty to conspiring with the Sept. 11 hijackers. He faces the death penalty at a hearing next year.

_ July 25: Former 9/11 Commission members give government "mixed grade" in following through on the panel's year-old recommendations.

_ Sept. 7: A design is chosen for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. The design pays tribute to the heroic struggle by passengers who thwarted an attack on the nation's capital.

Compiled by Associated Press researcher Judy Ausuebel.

Ellie

thedrifter
09-10-05, 08:54 PM
Son recalls loss of parents in Sept. 11 Pentagon attack
Press release

WASHINGTON — Four years after his parents died when American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, Marcus Flagg said the United States must never forget the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks so the country never again experiences such a tragic day.

“If we don’t honor it and remember it, it will happen again. History repeats itself,” said Flagg, here for weekend commemoration activities marking the fourth anniversary of the attacks.

Flagg acknowledged it’s painful to return to the Pentagon, where his parents, retired Navy Rear Adm. Wilson F. “Bud” Flagg and his wife, Dee, met their tragic end, along with their 182 fellow aircraft passengers and Pentagon employees.

“It’s good to be back, but it’s also sorrowful,” said Flagg, who like his father, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, served in the Navy, then became a commercial pilot. “I know what happened not more than a couple yards from here.”

That makes the Pentagon a fitting start point for the Sept. 11 “America Supports You Freedom Walk,” Flagg said. The walk begins in the Pentagon parking lot at 10 a.m. and ends near the Washington Monument, where country music star Clint Black will present a musical tribute.

“I think it’s a wonderful tribute that the Pentagon is doing the memorial walk,” Flagg said. “I can’t think of a better place to start it. It’s a great tribute to the passengers and crew of flight 77, and also to the soldiers, sailors and airmen” who were killed or injured, and the families they left behind.

Flagg said he also strongly supports the Pentagon Memorial Fund project, calling it a “fantastic tribute” to the lives stolen on Sept. 11.

During the days following the attacks, as he planned his parents’ funerals at the U.S. Naval Academy Cemetery in Annapolis, Md., Flagg said he felt “overwhelmed with gratitude” for the country’s outpouring of support and patriotism.

He felt similarly moved earlier this year at an inaugural ball, where he met troops who’d been seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting the global war on terror that resulted. “Their courage and determination in the face of adversity inspired me,” Flagg said.

That inspiration drove Flagg to join “Circles of Influence,” an effort based at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Va., that helps severely injured servicemembers and their families.

In July, Flagg traveled to Baghdad, Iraq, as a representative of families affected by the Sept. 11 attacks and to thank “as many soldiers as I could” for their contributions.

Many of the hundreds of troops he met told Flagg they had joined the military specifically because of attacks that claimed his parents and thousands of other Americans, he said.

“I considered it an honor to meet these men and women and was humbled to be in their presence,” he said. “They expressed their pride in the job they are doing there. As a former naval officer, I understand and support them in their mission.”

Today, as the United States prepares to commemorate the fourth anniversary of Sept. 11, and as thousands of its servicemembers are serving the country around the world and at home, along the hurricane-decimated Gulf Coast, Flagg said America has good reason to be proud of its military.

Whether they serve “in Iraq, Afghanistan or along our southern coast, we all owe them a debt of gratitude,” he said.

— Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service

Ellie