President Obama spoke at the Pentagon on Friday to those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001, telling them no words would heal their pain yet calling for a renewed resolve against the ones who attacked the country eight years ago.
Obama laid a wreath of white flowers at the Pentagon, where 184 people lost their lives when a hijacked jet smashed into the military icon outside the nation's capital."No words can ease the ache of your hearts," Obama told a crowd of relatives and friends standing under umbrellas in a steady rain. The plane, American Airlines Flight 77, struck the Pentagon's west wall.
Earlier in the day, the president and first lady Michelle Obama held a moment of silence outside the White House to mark the eighth anniversary of the al Qaeda attacks that killed 2,752 people.At the Pentagon, Obama was introduced by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who spoke of the "great pinnacle of sacrifice" shown that day.
"Eight Septembers have come and gone," Obama said. "Nearly 3,000 days have passed, almost one for each one who has been taken from us."We recall the beauty and meaning of their lives," he said. "No passage of time, no dark skies can dull the meaning of that moment.
"Let us renew our resolve against those who perpetrated this violent act," Obama said.The nation paused at the moments when the planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon -- symbols of America's financial and military might -- and at a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Officials believe that plane's target was either the White House or the Capitol.
There was silence at the site of the former World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m., the time the first plane struck the North Tower, followed by another at 9:03 a.m. when a jet struck the South Tower.
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Family members and friends of those killed read their names in solemn roll calls at each site as bells tolled.In London, England, U.S. Ambassador Louis Susman and his wife, Marjorie, laid a wreath at the September 11 Memorial Garden in Grosvenor Square.At ground zero in New York, a woman whose husband worked on the 94th floor of one of the twin towers recalled that day.
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