The US Department of Defense observed a minute of silence on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States during a remembrance ceremony to honor the victims of the attacks
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2020) The US Department of Defense observed a minute of silence on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States during a remembrance ceremony to honor the victims of the attacks.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley hosted the ceremony.
"Much like this morning, on September 11, 2001, Americans were getting ready for what they thought would be just another work day," Esper said. "No one could fathom that on that bright September morning we would experience the worst terrorist attack in our nation's history, a horrific crime carried out by evil fanatics who would brutally kill the innocent in the name of their distorted cause."
Esper characterized the attack as a "vicious assault" directed not just at the American people and institutions, but also against the nation's most sacred ideals: freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
"Yet, in their attempt to shake the very foundations of our republic, to destroy our way of life, they underestimated our strength, our resolve, our unbreakable spirit," Esper said.
On September 11, 2001, members of the Al Qaeda terror group (banned in Russia) seized four passenger airplanes, crashing two of them in the World Trade Center in New York and another into the Defense Department. The fourth airplane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania after being initially directed toward Washington, DC.
Some 3,000 people from 90 countries lost their lives in the terrorist attacks.
