CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the documents were the agency’s single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Americans commemorated the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday (September 11, 2026), remembering the shock, the dead and the sweeping consequences of the al-Qaeda attacks on symbols of U.S. might and prosperity.

The milestone anniversary brought memorial rituals — wreath-laying, flag-flying, moments of silence, vigils and readings of victims’ names — and volunteer projects in tribute to a day that about half of U.S. adults remember as the most historic event of their lifetime, according to a new poll. On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda extremists hijacked four commercial jets and crashed them into New York’s World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Elsie Caldwell carried a photograph of her son, Kenny Caldwell, to the trade centre to hear his name and all the others read aloud Friday morning (September 11, 2026). She last spoke to him that morning a quarter-century ago.

“Mom, I just want to let you know that I love you,” Ms. Caldwell said he told her in a final phone call. She is one of many relatives of victims whose remains never were recovered.

The attacks brought down the World Trade Centre’s twin towers — icons of U.S. economic power and among the tallest buildings on Earth — and blew a hole in the Pentagon, the U.S. military’s fortress-like headquarters near Washington. The fourth plane was headed for the nation’s capital, officials concluded, but the aircraft went down in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew members stormed the cockpit and fought the hijackers.

“In the course of history, there are a few moments that divide time into, really, what came before and after, President Donald Trump said at a 9/11 remembrance in Washington this week. The Republican, who was in his native New York on September 11 and has often recounted his memories, attended the Pentagon’s anniversary ceremony Friday (September 11, 2026).

Former President George W. Bush, who was in office on 9/11, and former Presidents Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden and current Vice President J.D. Vance convened for the observance at the National September 11 Memorial in New York. Other administration officials went to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

For Angilic Casalduc, attending the New York commemoration “helps to show you’re not alone.” She lost her mother, Vivian Casalduc.

“There’s no timeline for grief, and unfortunately, no one can say how you can grieve, but coming here once a year makes it feel just a little bit better,” she said.

Traditionally, there are no political speeches at the ground zero commemoration, where victims’ relatives read aloud the long list of names and add personal messages. They thanked first responders and the military, talked about their loved ones’ lives, and mentioned family milestones they’ve missed. Many of those who spoke were too young to have met the relatives they lost.

The ceremony has long been punctuated with moments of silence at key points in the attack timeline, and this year organisers added another moment to honour people who were exposed to the clouds of toxic dust released by the twin towers’ fiery collapse and have since died of cancer and other illnesses. Questions remain about how many people developed health problems linked to the dust.

It’s a reminder of how the attacks’ long shadow has reached into many corners of life in the U.S. and beyond.

The U.S.-led global war on terrorism included invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan — the latter Washington’s longest war — and detentions and harsh interrogation of terror suspects in an international network of secret CIA prisons. The U.S. found and killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011, but accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed still awaits a trial 23 years after his capture.

The attacks changed U.S. air travel, prompted new federal surveillance and intelligence-gathering powers and banking regulations, and generated ongoing debate over the balance between security and freedom. The Department of Homeland Security, many state anti-terrorism laws and billions of dollars in state and local counterterrorism funding all are post-9/11 creations.

So, too, is the culture of individual vigilance summed up by the slogan “ if you see something, say something.”

September 11 generated a wave of patriotism that propelled some Americans to join the military, fire departments, police forces or other public agencies.

Casey Kloepfer became a New York police officer this June. He was 4 when his father, Officer Ronald Kloepfer, was killed at the trade center.

“It’s big footsteps to fill, but it’s definitely something that I take very seriously and want to continue to honour him and be the best police officer I can,” the 29-year-old, who wears his father’s badge number, said by phone this week.

Amid the calls to service and for national unity that many remember, the attacks also fanned mistrust, prejudice and hate crimes directed at Muslims.

In the quarter-century since, Muslim Americans have played a growing role in public life, from statehouses to Congress to New York City Hall, where Zohran Mamdani is the city’s first Muslim mayor. Yet he faced some criticism for attending the anniversary ceremony at ground zero, something his predecessors have done for years.

Some complaints came from Republican ex-Governor George Pataki and 9/11 victims’ relatives, who cited, among other things, past remarks that some of Mr. Mamdani’s political associates have made about the attacks. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Republican, also inveighed against Mamdani attending, though the two shook hands Friday as they and other officials awaited the start of the observance.

Mr. Mamdani, a Democrat, said earlier this week that he loves the city and country and wants the anniversary to focus on victims’ families, first responders and New Yorkers who helped one another after the attacks, which he called a “horrific act of terror.” The 34-year-old mayor was an elementary school student in New York on 9/11.

Remembrances extended far beyond the attack sites, including beams of light projecting from New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, a stair climb at Mississippi State University’s football stadium and a ceremony at Honolulu’s 9/11 memorial.

September 11 isn’t a federal holiday, but Congress has designated it both Patriot Day and a National Day of Service and Remembrance.

“One appropriate way to remember is by serving,” says Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn Winuk and then co-founded the volunteer organisation 9/11 Day with friend David Paine. The group helps people find volunteer opportunities and this year arranged for dozens of Times Square billboards to pause their advertising at 9:11 a.m. Friday (September 11, 2026).

Instead, they simply displayed the time.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays tribute to the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks at the 9/11 Memorial site in New York during his visit to the U.S. in 2014. File. (Photo: X/@narendramodi)

In President Donald Trump’s telling at a White House event on Tuesday (September 8, 2026), two firefighters bodily lifted him to safety from a site near an unstable building after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“And I’ll never forget,” Mr. Trump said, “we thought it was coming down on top of us, and two firemen, big strong guys — and I’m not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arm, said, ‘Got to get out of here!’” Mr. Trump said.

His comments, at an event honouring emergency personnel killed on 9/11, appeared to be a new installment in a constantly evolving narrative that Donald Trump has told over the years about his actions after the attacks.

It’s a story that has long featured the New York property tycoon as the hero, with variations on him taking workers down to Ground Zero.

But Trump’s version of events is one that U.S. media say is disputed by rescue officials present at the time.

The remarks also come amid a stir about Mr. Trump not being present as President in New York for the 25th anniversary of the attacks in which 2,977 people were killed.

Instead of being at the site where Al-Qaeda hijackers rammed planes into the World Trade Center towers, Mr. Trump will pay his respects on Friday (September 11) at the Pentagon in Washington, another target in the attacks.

Trump and the White House have hotly denied reports that he chose the Pentagon because he was not allowed to deliver a speech at the 9/11 memorial.

“This is more Corrupt News, I’ve been to New York many times over the years, and no one ever speaks, it’s a ‘solemn ceremony!’” Mr. Trump said on his Truth Social network last week.

But it will still place the 80-year-old native New Yorker away from the main focus of the day’s commemorative events.

Vice President J.D. Vance and Donald Trump’s four living predecessors — Democrats Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, as well as Republican George W. Bush, who was president at the time of the attacks — are all expected at “Ground Zero.”

Later on Friday (September 11), Mr. Trump is due to fly to Ireland, where he will attend the Irish Open golf tournament at his family’s golf course over the weekend.

‘More famous than me’

His absence from New York marks a contrast with Donald Trump’s usual approach, which has been to put himself at the heart of the 9/11 story.

Two days after the attacks, Trump told reporters that he had been to Ground Zero and had sent 100 workers to the site to help recovery efforts. CNN and the New York Times said people present at the site disputed his account.

In the event on the White House Ellipse on Tuesday (September 8), where a steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower was on display, Mr. Trump gave a fresh account of his actions that day.

Mr. Trump said it had been a “beautiful morning” and that he had then seen a news alert on television, before looking out of his window “and I saw things that I never want to see again.”

He added that he was overseeing a building project and that he “took the whole crew down there right after this happened.”

Trump clarified his recollections in a lengthy Truth Social Post Tuesday (September 8) evening.

“I was there, obviously not on the same day as the collapse, but shortly thereafter, with a large group of Construction Workers,” Mr. Trump wrote in a post accompanied by a video showing answering reporters’ questions.

“I was there as soon as the Law allowed,” the U.S. president added, as he lashed out at journalists and accused them of spreading “fake news.”

At Tuesday’s (September 8) event, Mr. Trump meanwhile presented the highest US civilian honour to the family of volunteer firefighter Welles Crowther, who was killed while helping lead people out of the South Tower.

Crowther, an equities trader, became known as the “man in the red bandana” after survivors told stories about a mysterious man wearing one over his nose and mouth.

“The Man in the Red Bandana. He’s become more famous than me, I don’t like it,” Mr. Trump said with a chuckle.

Published – September 09, 2026 09:38 am IST

Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that shook the United States. The terror attack in 2001 on one of the then-iconic sites in New York, the World Trade Center, also had a huge impact globally. The September 11 attacks were the deadliest attacks on US soil since the Pearl Harbour bombing in 1941 that launched the US into World War II.

On September 11, 2001, planes crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and a field in Pennsylvania. The terror attacks claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 people and injured countless others. 

Here’s what happened:

• On the morning of September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US passenger airplanes.
• After taking control of the aircrafts, terrorists crashed two of them into the upper floors of the Twin Towers (the North and South Towers) of the World Trade Center complex in Manhattan between 8 and 9 a.m. Within two hours, both the 110-storey towers collapsed.
• The debris of the Twin Towers led to the collapse of all other buildings in the World Trade Center complex, including the 47-story 7 World Trade Center tower.
• The third plane crashed into the headquarters of the US Department of Defense – Pentagon in Virginia.
• The fourth plane crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers tried to fight back against the hijackers.
• The attacks killed 2,977 people from 93 nations: 2,753 people were killed in New York; 184 people were killed at the Pentagon; and 40 people were killed on Flight 93. 

The destruction of the World Trade Center affected the economy of Manhattan and had a significant effect on global markets. While the cleanup of the World Trade Center site was completed in May 2002, the Pentagon building was repaired within a year. The construction of One World Trade Center began at the World Trade Center site in 2006 and it opened to the public in 2014. Several memorials have been built in memory of the victims of the September 11 attacks.