The Week: Most Recent domestic-terrorism

The new World Trade Center: Not America's tallest building, after all?

The Week — Fri, 11 May 2012 11:17:00 -0500

On April 30, One World Trade Center in lower Manhattan became the tallest building in New York City, well on its way to becoming, when fully completed, the tallest building in the U.S. But there's one problem: The building's owners — the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and developer Douglas Durst — are messing with the plans, much to the chagrin of the architect. Because of industry rules, the 104-story tower will only reach its symbolically important 1,776-foot height if its 408-foot needle is enclosed, as designed, in an ornamental white shell. If the shell is scrapped ...

The 9/11 memorial: 'Poignant' or 'flawed by bad taste'?

The Week — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:00:00 -0500

The 9/11 memorial at Ground Zero was 10 years in the making, and over that decade, it experienced more than its share of controversy. (The latest: The name of one of the 2,983 victims killed in the terrorist attacks is misspelled on the memorial.) But on Monday, the many battles over the memorial came to an end of sorts, as the eight-acre park — which features victims' names etched onto dozens of bronze panels surrounding two memorial pools at the site of the fallen towers — finally opened to the public. Is it a fitting tribute?

This is a "poignant reminder" of our staggering...

The real legacy of 9/11

The Week — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 14:47:00 -0500

Ten years after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the United States continues to define its relationship with much of the rest of the world in terms of what used to be called the "war on terror," or the Long War. More than at almost any time since the end of the Cold War, U.S. foreign policy is defined by the use of military force and large-scale military deployments abroad, and it is conducted with near-total disregard for the sovereignty even of nominally allied states. The real but relatively small threat from al Qaeda has preoccupied the U.S. for a decade, and the responses to it have mostly...

Bill Clinton's 'perfect' United 93 memorial speech

The Week — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:48:00 -0500

The video: Former President Bill Clinton delivered a moving speech this weekend at the unfinished memorial to the people who died on United Flight 93 when it crashed into a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. (Watch the speech below.) Clinton said the people on the flight stormed the cockpit to prevent the hijackers from crashing the plane into the heart of Washington, D.C., even though they knew they faced all but certain death. The former president likened the passengers and crew of Flight 93 to the Texans at the Alamo and the Spartans of ancient Greece at Thermopylae, who went into battle...

Did conservatives exploit 9/11?

The Week — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:09:00 -0500

The 9/11 terrorist attacks "should have been a unifying event," says Paul Krugman in The New York Times. Instead, they were hijacked for political gain. "Fake heroes" like ex-New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, his boss Rudy Giuliani, "and yes, George W. Bush, raced to cash in on the horror," using the attacks as justification for an unrelated war in Iraq. Krugman charges that "the memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned," and "even people on the Right know this." While commentators on the Right are livid, calling Krugman a "disgusting" and "deranged" coward, and...

Paul Simon's 'heartbreaking' 9/11 tribute

The Week — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 09:42:00 -0500

The video: On Sunday, at New York City's ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, singer-songwriter Paul Simon was supposed to sing "Bridge Over Troubled Water." Instead, Simon surprised the thousands of mourners and dignitaries at Ground Zero — President Obama and former President George W. Bush were both in attendance — with a more brooding choice: "The Sound of Silence." (Watch the performance below.) The song — which opens with the lyric "Hello darkness, my old friend" — was originally written in the wake of the JFK assassination...

Did the post-9/11 decade make us stronger?

The Week — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 09:50:00 -0500

In the 10 years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. has taken giant steps to protect the nation from terrorists. We have largely driven al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and killed Osama bin Laden — the mastermind behind the destruction of the World Trade Center's twin towers. The federal government has put into place sweeping changes in the ways we secure our airports and borders, following many of the policies proposed by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission intended to make the nation "safer, stronger, wiser." Are we indeed stronger as a result?

No doubt about it — we are stronger: On...

Ten years of remembering 9/11: A slideshow

The Week — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:49:00 -0500

Throughout the post-9/11 decade, photographers have beautifully framed our grief by turning emotive, private moments — and overt displays of public remembrance — into opportunities for collective catharsis. Here, a look at some of the most moving photos.

Springsteen's The Rising: Does it deserve to be 9/11's soundtrack?

The Week — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 15:02:00 -0500

A few days after 9/11, as Bruce Springsteen was pulling out of a parking lot, an unidentified fan drove by and shouted, "We need you!" Legend has it that the moment inspired The Boss to create and release 2002's The Rising, an album reflecting on the attacks. His first studio effort in seven years, and his first collaboration with the E Street Band in nearly two decades, it was both a commercial and critical triumph, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts and winning a Grammy for Best Rock Album. Its influence continued to grow: Teachers now use The Rising to teach their young students...

The heroes of Flight 93

The Week — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 13:47:00 -0500

ON SEPT. 11, 400 miles from the collapsed World Trade Center towers, three dozen passengers and crew aboard United Flight 93 remained in airborne purgatory. Starting at 9:30 a.m., for some 30 minutes, 14 of them managed to telephone either loved ones or operators on the ground.

Public relations man Mark Bingham got through to his aunt's home in California. "This is Mark," he began. "I want to let you guys know that I love you, in case I don't see you again." Then, "I'm on United Airlines, Flight 93. It's being hijacked."

Two other callers from the plane not only provided information but also...

The 'chilling' 9/11 audio tapes: 5 takeaways

The Week — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 12:23:00 -0500

Just in time for the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Rutgers Law Review has compiled 114 audio recordings that vividly recount the chaos and terror of the morning of 9/11. The "chilling transcripts and tapes" document how air traffic controllers, military aviation officers, pilots, and flight crew members struggled to understand, then manage, the fatal hijackings. (Explore the interactive archives at The New York Times.) The recordings are "incredibly heavy," but also surprisingly difficult to stop listening to, says John Del Signore at Gothamist. They are...

9/11: Why it's time to move on

The Week — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 10:12:00 -0500

"After we honor the 10th anniversary of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, we need to leave the day behind," says E.J. Dionne in The Washington Post. During the last decade of looking backwards, we've made mistakes that have left America "weaker, more divided and less certain of itself." And "if we continue to place 9/11 at the center of our national consciousness, we will keep making the same mistakes." That would do "nothing to honor those who died and those who sacrificed to prevent even more suffering." Here, an excerpt:

In the flood of anniversary commentary, notice how often the term "the lost...

9/11's canine heroes: A slideshow

The Week — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:17:00 -0500

Among the approximately 11,000 responders to the 9/11 attacks, some 300 were dogs. As America commemorates the tragedy on Sunday, one ceremony will honor these unsung rescue workers. The Tails of Hope Foundation has organized a Recognition Ceremony to honor the search-and-rescue, therapy, and security dog teams that worked in the rubble of the 9/11 attack, offering support and searching for survivors and bodies. Here, a look at some of these canine heroes.

Are there too many 9/11 TV specials?

The Week — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 18:10:00 -0500

No fewer than 40 TV specials marking the 10th anniversary of 9/11 have aired over the past few weeks or will air in the next few days. That fare spans everything from Animal Planet's Hero Dogs of 9/11 to the Oprah Winfrey Network's Twins of the Twin Towers (about twins who lost their sibling on 9/11). The plethora of specials is worrying some critics, who fear that the programming onslaught will amount to white noise that trivializes the occasion. Are their concerns founded?

Yes. This coverage is excessive: The 9/11 anniversary is being diminished, says Brian Lowry at Variety. It's akin to the way...

'Meaningful adjacencies': How the names on the 9/11 Memorial were arranged

The Week — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 12:28:00 -0500

Conventional wisdom suggests that, when planning a memorial to victims of a war or tragedy, you ought to list the names of the victims in some sort of ordered fashion — alphabetically, for example, or possibly by birth date. The creators of New York's 9/11 Memorial, however, are commemorating those who died in a more meaningful — if incredibly complicated — way. Here's a short guide to the strategy:

How are the names listed?
According to a concept known as "meaningful adjacencies." The names, etched onto 76 bronze panels surrounding two memorial pools at the site of the...

The artifacts of 9/11: A slideshow

The Week — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:30:00 -0500

A fireman's helmet, a pair of glasses, a cluster of metal coins: These are just a few of the items that — twisted, melted, muddied, and soiled — have become museum-worthy artifacts since they were recovered in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that occurred in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. On the 10th anniversary, the Smithsonian in D.C. and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in New York are among the museums telling the 9/11 story through such found personal and professional effects. "Each object has its own story, and they're connected to real individuals...