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Bush joins firefighters to mourn

BY CRAIG GORDON | NEWSDAY WASHINGTON BUREAU

10:33 AM EDT, September 11, 2006

President George W. Bush opened a day-long journey of 9/11 remembrances this morning surrounded by New York police and firefighters, as all bowed their heads in unison at the very moment America came under attack five years ago today.

Under clear-blue skies eerily reminiscent of those the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Bush and his wife Laura stood outside the "Fort Pitt" firehouse and marked the moments - first at 8:46 a.m., then at 9:03 a.m. - when planes struck the Twin Towers and a nation awoke to terrorism on its very shores.

As a bell tolled and a flag flew at half-staff above his head, Bush once again used his very presence - but no words - to mark the day. Little needed to be said - the Bushes stood next to a door salvaged from the Ladder 18 truck demolished in the towers' collapse and listened as soloists' versions of Amazing Grace and God Bless America captured the moment.

Rabbi Joseph Patesnick urged those gathered to "dream of peace" as he offered a prayer for the nearly 3,000 lost that day.

After the second moment of silence, the Bushes departed, on to ceremonies in Shanksville, Pa. And the Pentagon before a 9p pm address to the nation tonight.

Earlier Bush began the day at breakfast with about 100 New York firefighters and police inside the firehouse on Pitt Street, which was one of the first to send teams to the burning towers and lost one man that day, Battalion 4 Chief Matthew Ryan. As the president approached with a cup of coffee, those at each table stood to greet him and exchange small talk.

For many watching on TV that morning five years ago, it all seemed some horrible accident, perhaps an airplane that had veered off course - that is, until a second plane hit the South Tower.

Bush himself began that day five years ago reading to schoolchildren in Florida, when his chief of staff Andrew Card whispered in his ear that America was under attack. Bush faced some initial criticism for a tentative and uneven response that morning, as he did not return to Washington until later that day.

Those criticisms largely vanished when Bush came to New York three days later and spoke to rescue workers from inside Ground Zero, pledging a muscular response that he then followed up by invading Afghanistan.

It was his second front in the war on terror - Iraq - that has caused him serious political trouble, trouble he hopes to ameliorate with his address tonight, reminding Americans of this day 5 years ago.