Sept. 11, five years later: ‘We stand together’

updated 6:15 p.m. ET Sept. 11, 2006

NEW YORK - At the sad tolling of bells and a rabbi’s hopeful reading, President Bush and a sea of firefighters and police officers silently bowed their heads Monday to mark the moments five years ago when terrorists pierced the nation’s defenses.

On the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush stood in front of a door salvaged from a fire truck destroyed on that tragic day, a flag at half staff above him. The observance outside a Lower East Side firehouse came on a crisp cloudless morning eerily reminiscent of the sunny, workaday morning when hijackers commandeering commercial airliners struck, killing nearly 3,000 people.

The group paused twice, at 8:46 a.m. and at 9:03 a.m. EDT, marking the moments when the two planes slammed into the towers of the World Trade Center. Bagpipes wailed, a firefighter sang “Amazing Grace,” a policeman sang “God Bless America” and a choir sang “America the Beautiful.” Bush and his wife, Laura, stood ramrod straight and wordless in the bright sunshine.

Rabbi Joseph Patesnick read from a passage from Deuteronomy: “You should choose life by loving God and living his commandments.” The simple ceremony concluded with more bagpipes and a salute from Bush.

The World Trade Center site fell silent four times as Americans paused in airport security lines, at churches and at quiet commemorations Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

At ground zero, a cavernous pit still largely unchanged from the first anniversary, family members of the 2,749 people lost held photos of loved ones, crossed themselves and sobbed quietly.

The site fell silent twice more, at 9:59 a.m. and 10:29 a.m., when the south and north towers fell.

‘The war is not over’
In excerpts from the speech he will make before the nation on Monday night, Bush set the tone for the nation's war footing going into the future.

“We face an enemy determined to bring death and suffering into our homes. America did not ask for this war, and every American wishes it were over. So do I. But the war is not over, and it will not be over until either we or the extremists emerge victorious. ...

“We are in a war that will set the course for this new century — and determine the destiny of millions across the world.”

‘We stand together as one’
“Five years have come, and five years have gone, and still we stand together as one,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “We come back to this place to remember the heartbreaking anniversary — and each person who died here — those known and unknown to us, whose absence is always with us.”

“We’ve come back to remember the valor of those we’ve lost, those who innocently went to work that day and the brave souls who went in after them,” added former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

VIDEO Bush interview Sept. 11: "Today" show anchor Matt Lauer talks to President Bush about 9/11. NBC News

The president began a grim but high-profile journey through all three scenes of the day’s devastation on Sunday with wreath-layings in the vast gash that is all that remains of the World Trade Center’s twin towers. Similarly painful memories were renewed at the Pentagon and in Shanksville, Pa.

Former President Clinton, speaking before a Jewish conference in Washington, recalled how 9/11 transformed the world.

“We had an astonishing moment of unity in America and around the world,” he said.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement, “Five years later, we have to continue to move forward with unity, urgency, and in the spirit of international cooperation, because we are not yet fully healed and not yet as safe as we should be.”

In Shanksville, the weather matched the mournful mood. Steel gray skies spit cold rain on the field where 9/11 families gathered to remember their dead with the president. Bush and his wife stood without umbrellas and bowed their heads in front of a large wreath honoring the victims.

The Rev. Paul H. Britton, whose brother, Marion Britton, died on Flight 93, offered a prayer for all as well as a personal benediction to Bush, whom he called “our conscience and our heart.”

“We gather here connected by sorrow,” Britton said.

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