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GOD BLESS AMERICA

THIS CANDLE WILL BURN UNTIL THE TERRORIST WHO ATTACKED AMERICA PAYS WITH THEIR LIVES

Tuesday's chronology of terror

September 12, 2001 Posted: 12:27 PM EDT (1627 GMT)

8:45 a.m. (all times are EDT): A hijacked passenger jet, American Airlines Flight 11 out of
Boston, Massachusetts, crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center, tearing a
gaping hole in the building and setting it afire.

9:03 a.m.: A second hijacked airliner, United Airlines Flight 175 from Boston,
crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center and explodes. Both
buildings are burning.

9:17 a.m.: The Federal Aviation Administration shuts down all New York City
area airports.

9:21 a.m.: The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey orders all bridges
and tunnels in the New York area closed.

9:30 a.m.: President Bush, speaking in Sarasota, Florida, says the country has suffered an "apparent
terrorist attack."

9:40 a.m.: The FAA halts all flight operations at U.S. airports, the first time in U.S. history that air
traffic nationwide has been halted.

9:43 a.m.: American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon, sending up a huge plume of smoke.
Evacuation begins immediately.

9:45 a.m.: The White House evacuates.

9:57 a.m.: Bush departs from Florida.

10:05 a.m.: The south tower of the World Trade Center collapses, plummeting into the streets below. A
massive cloud of dust and debris forms and slowly drifts away from the building.

10:08 a.m.: Secret Service agents armed with automatic rifles are deployed into
Lafayette Park across from the White House.

10:10 a.m.: A portion of the Pentagon collapses.

10:10 a.m.: United Airlines Flight 93, also hijacked, crashes in Somerset County,
Pennsylvania, southeast of Pittsburgh.

10:13 a.m.: The United Nations building evacuates, including 4,700 people from the headquarters
building and 7,000 total from UNICEF and U.N. development programs.

10:22 a.m.: In Washington, the State and Justice departments are evacuated, along with the World
Bank.

10:24 a.m.: The FAA reports that all inbound transatlantic aircraft flying into the United States are being
diverted to Canada.

10:28 a.m.: The World Trade Center's north tower collapses from the top down
as if it were being peeled apart, releasing a tremendous cloud of debris and
smoke.

10:45 a.m.: All federal office buildings in Washington are evacuated.

10.46 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell cuts short his trip to Latin
America to return to the United States.

10.48 a.m.: Police confirm the plane crash in Pennsylvania.

10:53 a.m.: New York's primary elections, scheduled for Tuesday, are postponed.

10:54 a.m.: Israel evacuates all diplomatic missions.

10:57 a.m.: New York Gov. George Pataki says all state government offices are
closed.

11:02 a.m.: New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani urges New Yorkers
to stay at home and orders an evacuation of the area south of Canal
Street.

11:16 a.m.: CNN reports that the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention is preparing emergency-response teams in a precautionary
move.

11:18 a.m.: American Airlines reports it has lost two aircraft. American
Flight 11, a Boeing 767 flying from Boston to Los Angeles, had 81
passengers and 11 crew aboard. Flight 77, a Boeing 757 en route from
Washington's Dulles International Airport to Los Angeles, had 58
passengers and six crew members aboard. Flight 11 slammed into the
north tower of the World Trade Center. Flight 77 hit the Pentagon.

11:26 a.m.: United Airlines reports that United Flight 93, en route from
Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California, has crashed in
Pennsylvania. The airline also says that it is "deeply concerned" about
United Flight 175.

11:59 a.m.: United Airlines confirms that Flight 175, from Boston to Los
Angeles, has crashed with 56 passengers and nine crew members
aboard. It hit the World Trade Center's south tower.

12:04 p.m.: Los Angeles International Airport, the destination of three of the crashed airplanes, is
evacuated.

12:15 p.m: San Francisco International Airport is evacuated and shut down. The airport was the
destination of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania.

12:15 p.m.: The Immigration and Naturalization Service says U.S. borders with
Canada and Mexico are on the highest state of alert, but no decision has been
made about closing borders.

12:30 p.m.: The FAA says 50 flights are in U.S. airspace, but none are reporting
any problems.

1:04 p.m.: Bush, speaking from Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, says that
all appropriate security measures are being taken, including putting the U.S. military on high alert
worldwide. He asks for prayers for those killed or wounded in the attacks and says, "Make no mistake,
the United States will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts."

1:27 p.m.: A state of emergency is declared by the city of Washington.

1:44 p.m.: The Pentagon says five warships and two aircraft carriers will leave the U.S. Naval Station in
Norfolk, Virginia, to protect the East Coast from further attack and to reduce the number of ships in
port. The two carriers, the USS George Washington and the USS John F. Kennedy, are headed for the
New York coast. The other ships headed to sea are frigates and guided missile destroyers capable of
shooting down aircraft.

1:48 p.m.: Bush leaves Barksdale Air Force Base aboard Air Force One and flies to an Air Force base in
Nebraska.

2 p.m.: Senior FBI sources tell CNN they are working on the assumption that the
four airplanes that crashed were hijacked as part of a terrorist attack.

2:30 p.m.: The FAA announces there will be no U.S. commercial air traffic until
noon EDT Wednesday at the earliest.

2:49 p.m.: At a news conference, Giuliani says that subway and bus service are
partially restored in New York City. Asked about the number of people killed,
Giuliani says, "I don't think we want to speculate about that -- more than any of
us can bear."

3:55 p.m.: Karen Hughes, a White House counselor, says the president is at an undisclosed location,
later revealed to be Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, and is conducting a National Security Council
meeting by phone. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are in a
secure facility at the White House. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is at the Pentagon.

3:55 p.m.: Giuliani now says the number of critically injured in New York City is up to 200 with 2,100
total injuries reported.

4 p.m: CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor reports that U.S. officials say there are
"good indications" that Saudi militant Osama bin Laden, suspected of coordinating the bombings of two
U.S. embassies in 1998, is involved in the attacks, based on "new and specific" information developed
since the attacks.

4:06 p.m.: California Gov. Gray Davis dispatches urban search-and-rescue teams to New York.

4:10 p.m.: Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex is reported on fire.

4:20 p.m.: U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Florida, chairman of the Senate Intelligence
Committee, says he was "not surprised there was an attack (but) was surprised at
the specificity." He says he was "shocked at what actually happened -- the extent
of it."

4:25 p.m.: The American Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the New York Stock
Exchange say they will remain closed Wednesday.

4:30 p.m.: The president leaves Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska aboard Air
Force One to return to Washington.

5:15 p.m.: CNN Military Affairs Correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports fires are
still burning in part of the Pentagon. No death figures have been released yet.

5:20 p.m.: The 47-story Building 7 of the World Trade Center complex collapses.
The evacuated building is damaged when the twin towers across the street
collapse earlier in the day. Other nearby buildings in the area remain ablaze.

5:30 p.m.: CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King reports that U.S.
officials say the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania could have been headed for one of three possible
targets: Camp David, the White House or the U.S. Capitol building.

6 p.m.: Explosions are heard in Kabul, Afghanistan, hours after terrorist attacks targeted financial and
military centers in the United States. The attacks occurred at 2:30 a.m. local time. Afghanistan is
believed to be where bin Laden, who U.S. officials say is possibly behind Tuesday's deadly attacks, is
located. U.S. officials say later that the United States had no involvement in the incident whatsoever.
The attack is credited to the Northern Alliance, a group fighting the Taliban in the country's ongoing
civil war.

6:10 p.m.:Giuliani urges New Yorkers to stay home Wednesday if they can.

6:40 p.m.: Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, holds a news conference in the
Pentagon, noting the building is operational. "It will be in business tomorrow," he
says.

6:54 p.m.: Bush arrives back at the White House aboard Marine One and is
scheduled to address the nation at 8:30 p.m. The president earlier landed at
Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland with a three-fighter jet escort. CNN's King
reports Laura Bush arrived earlier by motorcade from a "secure location."

7:17 p.m.: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says the FBI is setting up a Web site for tips on the
attacks: www.ifccfbi.gov. He also says family and friends of possible victims can leave contact
information at 800-331-0075.

7:02 p.m.: CNN's Paula Zahn reports the Marriott Hotel near the World Trade Center is on the verge of
collapse and says some New York bridges are now open to outbound traffic.

7:45 p.m.: The New York Police Department says that at least 78 officers are
missing. The city also says that as many as half of the first 400 firefighters on the
scene were killed.

8:30 p.m.: President Bush addresses the nation, saying "thousands of lives were
suddenly ended by evil" and asks for prayers for the families and friends of
Tuesday's victims. "These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of
American resolve," he says. The president says the U.S. government will make no
distinction between the terrorists who committed the acts and those who harbor them. He adds that
government offices in Washington are reopening for essential personnel Tuesday night and for all
workers Wednesday.

9:22 p.m.: CNN's McIntyre reports the fire at the Pentagon is still burning and is considered contained
but not under control.

9:57 p.m.: Giuliani says New York City schools will be closed Wednesday and no more volunteers are
needed for Tuesday evening's rescue efforts. He says there is hope that there are still people alive in
rubble. He also says that power is out on the westside of Manhattan and that health department tests
show there are no airborne chemical agents about which to worry.

10:49 p.m.: CNN Congressional Correspondent Jonathan Karl reports that Attorney General Ashcroft
told members of Congress that there were three to five hijackers on each plane armed only with knives.

10:56 p.m: CNN's Zahn reports that New York City police believe there are people alive in buildings near
the World Trade Center.

11:54 p.m.: CNN Washington Bureau Chief Frank Sesno reports that a government official told him
there was an open microphone on one of the hijacked planes and that sounds of discussion and "duress"
were heard. Sesno also reports a source says law enforcement has "credible" information and leads and
is confident about the investigation.

The day we all lost something

By Michele Mitchell
CNN Headline News

NEW YORK (CNN) -- I watched the
second plane strike the World Trade
Center. Standing on the corner of a
street in Brooklyn Tuesday morning,
which was choked as usual with cars
and vans, I stared with clumps of
neighbors at the flames shooting up
from Tower One.

"Wow, that's some fire," one woman
said. "They're going to have a terrible
mess"

And then, thunder punched the air as
the other tower was hit. It sounded like an earthquake. This was the point when I knew --
because I had sat through so many hearings on Capitol Hill and met with so many
terrorism experts -- that we had been attacked.

Not knowing what else to do, I headed for the subway, planning to reach my office in
Manhattan before the island was, inevitably, sealed off. As the subway crossed the
Manhattan Bridge, I watched the first tower collapse.

This felt like an earthquake. The subway car rocked as a cloud of ash-like dust and
debris rose up. I remember that my jaw dropped. I remember that I gasped. I remember
that the entire car recoiled in the shock. And then, as the car jolted ever-so-slowly
forward, we practically froze in silence.

Because the invincible tower had fallen, because that meant many people were dead,
because now we were going underground during a terrorist attack.

More poetic souls say New York is a city built by thousands of hands -- the cobblestones
laid in SoHo, the suspensions strung along the Brooklyn Bridge, the bricks and steel
sculpting the skyline. It has always been a city of a thousand stories (and of storytellers),
but never like today.

I used to live in Washington. When the stories came pouring in from there -- the
Pentagon hit, friends unaccounted for -- I realized that what one congressman said was
true: "Everybody seems to know somebody who's dead."

This will become a moment of thousands upon thousands of stories. There is the
newlywed husband with whom I spoke, hysterical because his wife hadn't returned home
from her office in the trade center; the lawyer/pundit I debated in the past who called
her husband twice from her cell phone before her plane plunged into the Pentagon; a
colleague who was just a block away when the first tower collapsed.

These are among the stories I know. What I hesitate to think about are the stories I don't
know.

But there are bright moments, like the man on my street who brought a stack of pizzas to
the police officers stationed there late into the night; or the line, blocks and blocks long,
of people waiting to give blood at the hospital. Everyone seems extra careful now to be
considerate and concerned, because we don't know who lost what.

We are only sure that an enormous loss happened, and it's one we've all suffered.

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