Obama Visits NY To Honor September 11 Victims
By VOA
U.S. President Barack Obama travels to New York on Thursday to honor the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, days after U.S. forces killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Mr. Obama is scheduled to lay a wreath at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center buildings and meet privately with relatives of those killed in the 2001 al-Qaida attacks. The White House says the president is not expected to make public remarks.
Presidential spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday Mr. Obama wants to meet with the families to share with them the important and significant, yet “bittersweet” moment following the death of bin Laden.
Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday pays tribute to the September 11 victims by laying a wreath at a memorial at the Pentagon.
Mr. Obama on Friday will travel to Kentucky to honor soldiers at Fort Campbell who supported the Navy SEALs in their attack on bin Laden’s compound early Monday in the Pakistani military garrison town of Abbottabad.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Mr. Obama decided Wednesday he will not release the death photos of the al-Qaida leader, saying the graphic images would create a national security risk and could incite violence.
Mr. Obama told U.S. television network CBS that he has no doubt that U.S. forces killed bin Laden, and that the man behind the September 11 terrorist attacks received the justice he deserved.
The Obama administration says the secret operation inside Pakistan was lawful. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the raid was an act of national self-defense. He said the U.S. special forces would have taken the world’s most wanted terrorist into custody if he had surrendered.
He warned of possible retaliatory attacks, and said the fight against terrorist threats is far from over.
