9/11 - five years on

PRESIDENT BUSH will cap two days of ceremonies marking the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks with a primetime television address today from the Oval Office, amid an increasingly bitter election year debate over the Iraq war.

Mr Bush’s aides insisted last night that the 20-minute address would not be political, but Iraq loomed far larger over the solemn day of ceremonies than in any of the previous four years.

With less than seven weeks until mid-term elections, and with Republican control of Congress threatened, Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, accused those who wanted to withdraw troops from Iraq — a clear reference to many Democrats — of sending al-Qaeda the message that “the United States hasn’t got the stomach for the fight”.

During an hour-long interview for Meet the Press on NBC, Mr Cheney dwelt little on the September 11 anniversary, but instead echoed the campaign themes set out in a series of speeches by Mr Bush last week: that Iraq was the central front in the War on Terror and that the desire among those to leave Iraq would make America less safe. “There has not been another attack on the United States. And that’s not an accident,” Mr Cheney said.

Condoleezza Rice, the Secretary of State, also appeared on a series of political talk shows defending the war and the Administration’s policies in fighting terrorism. Democrats hit back, accusing Mr Bush of bungling the war.

“Iraq has made the War on Terror more difficult,” John Kerry, Mr Bush’s 2004 presidential challenger, told CNN. “It is extraordinary how much money has been spent in Iraq versus homeland security. Are we as safe as we ought to be after 9/11? The answer is profoundly no.”

Mr Bush’s address, only the fifth time he has delivered a primetime speech from the Oval Office, ends an eight-day publicity blitz in which he has tried to persuade Americans that they are safer than they were five years ago.

He has repeatedly evoked memories of the terrorist attacks, and the spectre of Osama bin Laden, to bolster support for his Iraq policy and convince voters that Republicans can keep the country safer than Democrats.

As a reminder of the intense political backdrop to this year’s anniversary, Mr Bush’s speech immediately precedes a controversial mini-series about the attacks that has been denounced by Bill Clinton, the former President, and his former aides, as defamatory. The Path to 9/11, on ABC, implies that the Clinton Administration could have killed or captured bin Laden in the late 1990s.

The drama, which stars Harvey Keitel, also reportedly uses archive news footage to imply that Mr Clinton was too preoccupied with the scandal over his intimate relationship with the intern Monica Lewinsky to effectively fight terrorism.

The partisan acrimony will be suspended for a few hours today as Mr Bush attends ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon to honour nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks.

Having laid a wreath yesterday at Ground Zero, where the twin towers stood, Mr Bush will begin the anniversary with breakfast this morning with firefighters in New York.

He will then take part in a moment of silence at 8.46am (12.46pm GMT), the time the first plane hit the northern tower of the World Trade Centre. At the same time Baroness Thatcher will be observing the silence at the White House with Mr Cheney, who invited the former Prime Minister for today’s events.

Before that Lady Thatcher, 80, will join the Vice-President and his wife, Lynn, at a service at St John’s Episcopal Church, opposite the White House.

From New York the President, accompanied by Laura Bush, the First Lady, will travel to Shanksville, Pennsylvannia, where he will lay a wreath at 12.05pm in the field where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after its passengers fought their hijackers.

He will lay another wreath at the Pentagon, where American Airlines Flight 77 crashed, killing 184 people.

Lady Thatcher, on her first visit to America since she attended the funeral of Caspar Weinberger, the former Secretary of State, will also attend a ceremony at the State Department for the non-US citizens killed on September 11, hosted by Dr Rice. At dusk in New York two vertical beams of light, symbolising the twin towers, will illuminate the Manhattan sky.

“We are really pleased Lady Thatcher can attend,” a spokesman for Mr Cheney told The Times. “Great Britain has been such a great ally and her visit shows the solidarity between the two countries.”

Lady Thatcher holds the presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the two highest American civilian awards.

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