Eternal flame to mark site of attack

WORLD leaders will light an eternal flame, and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will lead a reading of the names of 2,823 victims during a day of “simple and powerful” observances marking the anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks.

“This will not be an ordinary day for anyone in New York,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in announcing a plan that “honours the memory of those we lost that day and that gives New Yorkers, Americans and people around the world the opportunity to remember and reflect.”

The day-long series of remembrances on September 11 will start early in the morning with bagpipe and drum processions that will begin in each of the city’s five boroughs and converge at the World Trade Center site.

At 8.46am local time (1.46pm BST) - the time the first hijacked airliner slammed into one of the Twin Towers - the city will observe a moment of

silence. Mr Giuliani, who was praised for his courageous leadership after the attack, will begin the reading of the names of those killed.

A cross-section of New Yorkers and people from around the world will

follow Mr Giuliani in reading the names, which is expected to take most of the nearly two-hour service.

Governor George Pataki will read Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which includes the line: “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.”

Meanwhile, it was revealed yesterday that an FBI informant secretly recording a conversation with a tax assessor ended up making what is believed to be the only known uninterrupted

audio recording of the September 11 attacks. Steven McArdle, a tax consultant, was at a nearby hotel to meet the assessor as part of an investigation. Their discussion was being recorded by two FBI agents a few blocks from the twin towers. On the tape, obtained by the New York Daily News, the conversation about bribery was stopped by the muffled boom of the first hijacked plane hitting the north tower.

“That was an explosion,” Mr McArdle said on the tape. “Let’s get out of here.” Mr McArdle ran to West Street, capturing panicked voices and screams, the sounds of sirens and the rumble as the second plane approached and then crashed into the south tower.