The Pantagraph from Bloomington, Illinois • Page 11

www.pantagraph.com Pantagraph Wednesday, September 12, 2007 All PATRIOT DAY 2007 Sept. 1 1 anniversary marked in Afghanistan focus attention on Afghanistan. He thanked the international community for helping to "return Afghanistan to the people of Afghanistan." Observances around world In Australia, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged parliament not to abandon Afghanistan. "As 911 showed, if we abandon our fellow human beings to lives of poverty, brutality and ignorance in today's global village, their misery will eventually and inevitably become our own," Harper told a joint sitting of the House of Representatives and Senate. "Defeating an insurgency increasingly fueled by the narcotics trade is a painstaking process, but progress is being made and we will not abandon the people of Afghanistan to the likes of the Taliban and al-Qaida," Negroponte said several hours after a ceremony at the U.S.

Embassy flagpole, where rubble from the Sept. 11 attacks is buried. "We can measure the progress we've made here since then and look ahead with optimism to the future." President Hamid Karzai told reporters he lamented the thousands of people killed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, but the attacks helped re- At the U.S. air base near Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, servicemen and women laid flowers at a memorial stone dedicated to Peter Ganci, the New York fire chief who died while rescuing people after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The base supports U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan. In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his country "sincerely shares the grief felt by the American people on this day of mourning perhaps like no other country." In remarks carried by Russian news agencies, he noted that Russia has also been a and "knows the horrors of terrorism firsthand." In Japan, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters at his official residence that the Japanese navy should keep providing fuel for coalition warships in the Indian Ocean. It has been doing so since November 2001 under an anti-terrorism law that has been extended three times but expires in November. The law is a key issue in a special parliament session that opened Monday. "The international community is united in its fight against terrorism, and it is imperative that Japan continue its contributions," Abe said.

"We must debate how to make such an extension possible." By Jason Strazluso ASSOCIATED PRESS KABUL, Afghanistan The main U.S. base in Afghanistan fell silent Tuesday at the moment the first hijacked jetliner struck the World Trade Center. Soldiers bowed their heads in prayer. In the capital, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said America has made progress in Afghanistan against al-Qaida and the Taliban, even though violence in the country is soaring and Osama bin Laden is still at large six years after the Sept.

11 attacks. "I think our best assessment ft rebuilding Vd 1 Associated PressMARY ALTAFFER A tour guide shows photos of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center while talking to a group of tourists overlooking ground zero from the World Financial Center in New York'. goes slowly Although rebuilding officials insist that the fire is a temporary setback, it's clear that for many, getting the demolition back on track is critical, practically and symbolically "This building has to come down before the other pieces fall in place," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer. "It's not a site you can leave to the last." "The fire is a setback to the overall development and future of the World Trade Center site," Stringer said. "It's certainly not an impossible hurdle to overcome, but it's a setback." is that he is still alive and that he is somewhere in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area," Negroponte said.

"I would also make the point that wherever he is, he is hiding." Insurgent violence is at its highest level in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that followed the 911 attacks, exposing the weaknesses of the central government and straining the multinational forces supporting it. More than 4,200 people, mostly militants, have died this year in violence related to the insurgency, according to an Associated Press tally based on figures from Afghan and Western officials. Ilb Associated PressSUSAN WATTS Robert Parks was killed. Kathleen Mullen, whose niece Kathleen Casey died in the attacks, said the place wasn't as important as the remembering. "Just so long as we continue to do something special every year, so you don't wake up and say, 'Oh, it's she said.

Then Mullen joined the procession of mourners who headed down a ramp into the deepest part of The Pit while 240 first responders intoned the names of those who died there. Far fewer people made the pilgrimage to The Pit this year. Organizers estimated the crowd at 3,500, down from 4,700 attendees at the fifth anniversary. "It's a shame that more people aren't here, whether because of the rain or the years that have passed," said Ester DiNardo, who lost her daughter Marisa DiNardo. "This is for my daughter, I'm here for her." 4 6 years on, By Karla Schuster and Ann Glvens NEW YORK The evidence of lower Manhattan's post-Sept.

11 rebound is all around London Teeling, except the one place he expected to see it when he moved into the neighborhood six months ago. Buildefs are razing the structures on both sides of his apartment to make way for new condominiums and commercial development, but a few blocks away, at ground zero, Teeling says he was "rather shocked at how little had happened." "I love it down here, and I still have confidence that they're going to get (ground zero's redevelopment) done," said Teeling, 30, who moved there in January. "But I don't see why six years later, the Freedom Tower isn't up, or even halfway up." Even as the pace of reconstruction picks up at the former World Trade Center site, with the signature skyscraper the Freedom Tower soon to rise above street level, it's clear that the redevelopment of ground zero remains a mix of promise and frustration. New residents such as Teeling and new businesses, including Tiffany's, are relocating downtown. More than 1,700 new apartments were added in lower 1 "i ri JV Loved ones of victims embrace beside a reflecting pool in an area reserved for family members at ground zero in New York on Tuesday during a ceremony marking the sixth anniversary of the Sept.

11 terrorist attacks. Manhattan last year, and the commercial vacancy rate has dropped to 6.9 percent, according to the Alliance for Downtown New York's 2006 "State of Lower Manhattan" report. Yet the Aug. 18 fire at the former Deutsche Bank building at the southeastern border of ground zero heavily damaged and contaminated in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks served as a deadly reminder of how fragile and complex the $16 billion reconstruction of the site is and how easily the recent progress there can be derailed.

Timeline of events on Sept. 11, 2001 8:00 a.m. EDT American Airlines Flight 11, a Boeing 767 with 92 people on board, takes off from Boston's Logan International Airport for Los Angeles. 8:14 a.m. United Air Lines Flight 175, a Boeing 767 with 65 people on board, takes off from Logan for Los Angeles.

8:21 a.m. American Airlines Flight 77, a Boeing 757 with 64 people on board, takes off from Washington Dulles International Airport for Los Angeles. 8:40 a.m. Federal Aviation Administration notifies North American Aerospace Defense Command's Northeast Air Defense Sector about suspected hijacking of American Flight 11. 8:41 a.m.

United Air Lines Flight 93, a Boeing 757 with 44 people on board, takes off from Newark International Airport for San Francisco. 8:43 a.m. FA A notifies NORAD about suspected hijacking of United Flight 175. 8:46 a.m. American Flight 11 crashes into north tower of World Trade Center.

9:03 a.m. -United Flight 175 crashes into south tower. 9:08 a.m. FA A bans all takeoffs nationwide for flights going to or through its New York Center airspace. 9:21 a.m.

All bridges and tunnels into Manhattan are closed. 9:24 a.m. FA A notifies NORAD about suspected hijacking of American Flight 77. 9:26 a.m. FA A bans takeoffs of all civilian aircraft.

9:31 a.m. President Bush, in Florida, calls crashes en "apparent terrorist attack on our country." 9:40 a.m. American Flight 77 crashes into Pentagon. 9:45 a.m. FAA orders all aircraft to land at nearest airport as soon as practical.

More than 4,500 aircraft are in air at the time. 9:48 a.m. U.S. Capitol and White House's West Wing evacuated. 9:59 a.m.

South tower of trade center collapses. 10:07 a.m. (approx.) United Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania field. 10:28 a.m. North tower of trade center collapses.

11 a.m. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani orders evacuation of lower Manhattan. 5:25 p.m. Empty 47-story Seven World Trade Center collapses. SOURCE: Associated Press general public.

"It makes life a whole lot easier," said job seeker Anjelica Jor-dine, 20, Bloomington, who picked up several applications at the jobs fair. She was not a veteran. Among the agencies recruiting at the fair was the Springfield Police Department. "We hire in large groups, and people retire in large groups," said Officer Cliff a recruiter. "We haven't been able to keep the hiring up with the Don't pay full price, go to www.pantagraph.comclickandbicl.

NEW YORK FROM Al "That day we felt isolated, but not for long and not from each other," Bloomberg said. "Six years have passed, and our place is still by your side," he told the victims' families. Now construction equipment crowds the crucible of New York's pain where 2,750 were killed. And with work under way on four new towers, the ceremony was moved for the first time to nearby Zuccot-ti Park away from the footprints of the fallen World Trade Center buildings. Some of the relatives were still seething over that decision, especially those who never got a body to bury and consider the 16-acre site sacred ground.

"For people who don't have any remains, this is their burial ground, this is their cemetery," said Betsy Parks of Bay-onne, N.J., whose brother FREEDOM FROM Al McLean County Judge Robert Frietag, a major in the Army Reserve who also served in Iraq. Before going to Iraq, he discovered his employer, the Illinois Supreme Court, had a rule that said his length of time away from the bench would disqualify him from being a judge on his return. He said the court changed that rule after he pointed out it violated federal law protecting jobs for National Guard members called to active duty "It is absolutely essential worry about civilian employment should be erased so a soldier can focus on his mission," said Frietag, who came home in summer 2006 after 10 months in Iraq. The Patriot Day program included reading names of Illinois servicemen and women and police and firefighters in Illinois who lost their lives in the line of duty since Sept. 11, 2001.

Patriotic songs were sung by soloist Ron Jones, and patriotic music was played by the Brass Band of Central Illinois. Retired Army Lt. Col. Reginald Bernard, a key organizer, estimated the crowd at up to 500 people. That was significantly more than in previous years because there was more room and 7 ri I PantagraphLORI ANN COOK The Patriot Day events at the Interstate Center in Bloomington included a Blackhawk helicopter flown in from the Illinois Army National Guard in Decatur by Chief Warrant Officer Herb Stevens of Bloomington and Chief Warrant Officer Jerry Dill of Decatur.

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Lcense No 0440000296 (IL). much of the event was inside, he said. This was the first year the event was at the Interstate Center instead of downtown Bloomington. Sponsors included the Illinois Department of Employment SecurityEmployer Support of the Guard and Reserve and the U.S. Department of LaborVeterans Employment and Training Service.

A career and benefits fair before the program focused on veterans, but it was open to the.