9/11attack
9/11attackIsrael news photo: Flash 90

On Tuesday, people all over America, as well as Israel, rmourned the anniversary of the 9/11 plane hijackings and terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, the field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon building in Washington D.C. , all of which took the lives of some 3,000 Americans.

In Manhattan, as they got out of the local subway stop on their way to work between 7:30 and 9:30 a.m., commuters crossed the overpass that looks down on the site where the towers once stood as preparations were underway for the annual name-reading ceremony held at the site for family members of the victims. It also pays tribute to the six casualties of the World Trade Center bombing that occurred in February of 1993.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was present at the scene for the event, which began at 9:30 and is closed to the public.   

According to the website for the Memorial that –when finished - will feature a breathtaking new tower, still iunder,construction, to stand at One World Trade Center and two twin reflecting pools for gazers to recollect the tragic events of that day, “[the] Memorial’s twin reflecting pools are each nearly an acre in size and feature the largest manmade waterfalls in North America. The pools sit within the footprints of where theTwin Towers once stood. Architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker created the Memorial design selected from a global design competition that included more than 5,200 entries from 63 nations.”

“The names of every person who died in the 2001 and 1993 attacks are inscribed into bronze panels edging the Memorial pools, a powerful reminderof the largest loss of life resulting from a foreign attack on American soil and the greatest single loss of rescue personnel in American history,”according to the website.

“The memorial officially opened to the public on September 12, 2011.”

On the very same Tuesday, September 11, 2012, several incidents of mob violence against U.S. embassy facilities were reported  in the Libyan city of Benghazi and Cairo, Egypt.

In Benghazi, an armed crowd of Islamists set fire to the U.S. consulate, during protests that were incited by a film they said was offensive to the tenets of Islam.

In Cairo, a similar Sulafist mob consisting of some 3,000 heads,waving black banners (perhaps – but not confirmed to be affiliated with the international terrorist network al Qaeda) tore down the U.S. flag at the U.S.embassy there. They were protesting a film they considered offensive to theProphet Mohammed. The film was produced by expatriate members of Egypt's Christian minority resident in the United States, according to a report.

"Asked whether the attack in Libya and the earlier demonstration against the US mission in Egypt could be connected, the official said it was unclear yet if the protests had been coordinated." read a report in the AFP.

"Another Libyan witness said armed men had closed the streets leading up to the consulate, among them ultra-conservative [Sulafist Islamists]."

"The Libyan incident came as thousands of Egyptian demonstrators tore down the Stars and Stripes at the US embassy in Cairo and replaced it with a black Islamic flag, similar to one adopted by several militant groups." read the report.