Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, September 04, 2002
Bush Has Big Plans for Sept. 11 Anniversary
President Bush, who will mark the remembrance of Sept. 11 by visiting three terrorist attack sites, plans to start the observances in prayer and close them with a prime-time address to the nation.
President Bush, who will mark the remembrance of Sept. 11 by visiting three terrorist attack sites, plans to start the observances in prayer and close them with a prime-time address to the nation.
The White House on Tuesday released details of the president's Sept. 11 schedule, which will take him and first lady Laura Bush from a private morning church service in Washington, to a moment of silence observed at the White House at 8:46 a.m., ET. That's the exact time that the first terrorist-hijacked jet slammed into the World Trade Center tower in New York. They will go from there to a ceremony at the Pentagon, which also was attacked on that fateful day.
The president and Mrs. Bush will then journey to Shanksville, Pa., and lay a wreath in the field where Flight 93 crashed, presumably en route to another target in Washington.
That afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., Bush will lay a wreath at Ground Zero, site of the former Trade Center towers in New York. At 9:01 p.m., he is to address the nation from New York.
Meanwhile, Tom Ridge, director of Bush's Office of Homeland Security, said Tuesday he thinks U.S. security has improved significantly since the attacks.
"I think we've made substantial progress and I think we are substantially safer than we were on Sept. 11," he said on Good Morning America.