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On politicized Sept. 11 anniversary, mourners gather
Mosque, Quran controversies overshadow memorials; president calls for unity
Family members of the victims of 9/11 gather around the ground zero reflecting pool where the twin towers once stood on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, in New York City on Saturday.
Moments of silence were held at 8:46 a.m. and 9:03 a.m., the times hijacked jetliners hit the north and south towers of the World Trade Center. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were attending separate services at the Pentagon in Washington and a rural field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
"Let today never, ever be a national holiday. Let it not be a celebration," said Karen Carroll, who lost her brother, firefighter Thomas Kuveikis. "It's a day to be somber; it's a day to reflect on all those thousands of people that died for us in the United States."
But the rallies planned in New York embroiled victims' family members in a feud over whether to play politics.
Nancy Nee, whose firefighter brother was killed at the World Trade Center, is bitterly opposed to the Park51 proposed mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero. But she didn't plan to join other family members at an anti-mosque rally hours after the anniversary ceremony.
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What they're saying about 9/11 anniversary
Elizabeth Meehan, 51, rode a bus to the rally from her home in Saratoga, New York, about 180 miles away.
She said she is a Christian and thinks it's important for Christians to encourage religious freedom. Critics say it dishonors the dead to put a mosque near ground zero.
"I just wanted to be as at peace with everything that's going on as I possibly can," Nee said. Even nine years later, she said, her brother George Cain's death "is still very raw. ... And I just don't have it in me to be protesting and arguing, with anger in my heart and in my head."
Jim Riches planned to pay respects at ground zero to his firefighter son, Jimmy, then
NEW YORK β A day of mourning for nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims began Saturday with moments of silence and tears near ground zero, and with observers bracing for protests over a mosque planned blocks away on what is usually an anniversary free of politics.
Family members gathering at observances in New York and Pennsylvania brought flowers, pictures of loved ones and American flags, but no signs of opposition or support for the mosque. The names of all the people killed at the World Trade Center site were read aloud at a three-hour ceremony Saturday on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Demonstrators began to gather in support of an Islamic center that's generating controversy because it's two blocks from ground zero.
They carried signs in Saturday's rally with such slogans as "The attack on Islam is racism" and "Tea Party Bigots."
They gathered near City Hall in the afternoon and planned to march closer to ground zero, where a protest by opponents was planned.
Bagpipes and drums played to open the ceremony, followed by brief comments by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
"Once again we meet to commemorate the day we have come to call 9/11. We have returned to this sacred site to join our hearts together, the names of those we loved and lost," Bloomberg said. "No other public tragedy has cut our city so deeply. No other place is as filled with our compassion, our love and our solidarity."
