Bush lays wreath at Ground Zero

US president George W Bush today embarked on nearly 24 hours of sombre observances at the three sites where 9/11 terrorists wrought death and destruction and transformed his presidency.

He intended to offer few words during appearances at Ground Zero in New York where the World Trade Centre twin towers fell, in the Pennsylvania field where one of the hijacked planes hurtled to the ground and at the Pentagon crash site. But Americans will hear more from him during a prime-time address tomorrow night from the White House.

Even before Bush left the capital, surrogates from Vice President Dick Cheney down spent the eve of the September 11 anniversary vigorously defending the administration’s record on improving the national defence over the past five years.

“There has not been another attack on the United States,” Cheney said on NBC television’s Meet the Press. “And that’s not an accident.”

On television and newspaper opinion columns, Cabinet secretaries and agency heads sought to make the case that the government under Bush has made important changes that have lessened the risk of attack.

Cheney focused on anti-terrorism efforts that he has been instrumental in supporting: a warrantless wire tapping programme to monitor the international communications of people in America with suspected ties to al-Qaida; a system to track international financial transactions; and tough policies on the detention and interrogations of suspected terrorists.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cited additional security at ports and airports and increased co-operation among intelligence agencies, a point echoed by the nation’s intelligence chief, John Negroponte.

Democrats, however, contend the administration has fallen short because so little cargo is inspected at US ports and chemical plants, and other high-value sites are vulnerable.

“I think we’re in trouble,” said Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean. “We have not pursued the war on terror with the vigour that we should have because we’ve gotten bogged down in this civil war in Iraq.”

The fifth-year anniversary falls less than two months before elections in which Republican control of Congress is widely predicted to be in danger.

The president attended church in Washington today and went biking before heading to New York with his wife, Laura.

Their first stop: laying a wreath at Ground Zero, where 2,749 died when the twin towers collapsed after being pierced by hijacked airliners.

Later, Bush planned to attend a service of prayer and remembrance at St Paul’s Chapel. The 240-year-old Episcopal church, across the street from the site, escaped damage and became a centre of refuge for weary rescue workers.

Tomorrow’s schedule includes a visit to a firehouse nicknamed “Fort Pitt” in the Lower East Side in honour of the first responders who rushed into the towers.

At the base for Ladder 18, Engine 15 and Battalion 4, the president was to have breakfast with firefighters, police officers and Port Authority police and observe moments of silence to mark the times when planes struck each tower.

From New York, Bush’s next stop was to be Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 40 people died when a plane slammed into the ground, and then the Pentagon, to mark the deaths of 184 there, before returning to the White House for the televised speech.

At all three crash sites, each with memorials far from completion, Bush did not plan to participate in the official anniversary observances, intending to avoid the distraction that accompanies a presidential appearance.

He was visiting separately to lay wreaths and visit with relatives of the some of the nearly 3,000 who died five years ago.

In 2002, the first year anniversary, Bush also toured each crash site, embracing family members of the victims and speaking at the Pentagon and New York’s Ellis Island. Since then, he has kept a lower profile on the anniversary.

He usually makes a trip across the street from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church and then presides over a moment of silence on the White House lawn. This year, Cheney was to perform those duties.