US marks 9th anniversary of September 11 attacks

Nine years after the September 11 attacks, President Barack Obama said the US has forced Osama bin Laden "deep underground" but Americans will face an expanded terror threat for years to come from other al-Qaeda extremists "willing to die to kill other people."

The government is no less determined to kill or capture the September 11 architect, Obama said. But Americans must remember the fight is with al-Qaeda terrorists, not the much wider world of people of Muslim faith.

Families of more than 2,700 people killed at the World Trade Center will mourn their loved ones by reading their names at an anniversary ceremony Saturday morning to be attended by Vice President Joe Biden. Obama will attend a service at the Pentagon.

But a debate over a planned mosque near ground zero that has polarized the nation could mar the ceremonies.

Thousands are expected at protests both for and against the proposed Islamic center and mosque north of ground zero. Some victims' family members are torn about whether to engage in a political rally on the anniversary of their loved ones' deaths.

On the eve of the anniversary of the 2001 attacks, a day magnified by heightened tensions over a planned mosque near Ground Zero and a Florida pastor's threat to burn Korans, Obama sought on Friday to reinforce the country's founding belief of religious tolerance.

Saturday, he said, should be a day not only to mourn but to show that "we are not at war against Islam. We're at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam to engage in their destructive acts."

Speaking to reporters in the White House East Room, Obama was blunt about the enduring terror threat that has gripped the country since al-Qaeda terrorists slammed planes into New York's World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon in suburban Virginia and the central Pennsylvania countryside.

"It's just a reality of today's world that there are going to be threats out there," Obama said. "I think, ultimately, we are going to be able to stamp it out. But it, it's going to take some time."

Al-Qaeda leaders 'holed up'

Conceding that efforts to capture or kill bin Laden have so far failed, Obama said that al-Qaeda leaders are "holed up" in a way that has made it difficult for the group to operate.

Counterterrorism officials concur that the core al-Qaeda leadership - believed to be in hiding in Pakistan along the mountainous border - has been hurt and degraded over the past nine years, and has been struggling for funding.

Obama, describing the pursuit and pressure on bin Laden, said that "we have the best minds, the best intelligence officers, the best special forces, who are thinking about this day and night. And they will continue to think about it day and night as long as I'm president."

Getting bin Laden, said Obama, though extremely important to the country's national security, would hardly solve all problems.

He said homeland security has improved in the past nine years. But, with a nod to the foiled December 25 attempted airliner attack and the botched Times Square car bombing in May, Obama added, "There is always going to be the potential for an individual or a small group of individuals, if they are willing to die, to kill other people. Some of them are going to be very well organized and some of them are going to be random."

A report issued Friday by a group led by the two former 9/11 Commission chairmen said the terror threat has become more complex, as al-Qaeda and an array of affiliates and allies in countries like Yemen and Somalia take on a broader strategy.

"I think the American relationship with the Islamic world is one of the really great foreign policy challenges of the next decades," said former 9/11 co-chairman Lee Hamilton. "We're not going to solve it in a year or two or five or even 10 years."

Obama said the country should observe the September 11 anniversary as a day of "service and remembrance." Americans should find a way to serve their fellow citizens and rekindle the spirit of unity and common purpose felt in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks, he added.

The president is expected to attend a service at the Pentagon on Saturday, Vice President Joe Biden will go to New York while first lady Michelle Obama will appear with former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

The ceremonies will be held in the backdrop of an ultimatum set by Florida Pastor Terry Jones.

On Friday, he demanded that Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf cancel his plan to build a mosque near ground zero within two hours, or else he will carry out his plans to burn copies of the Koran.

Jones flew to New York, despite not receiving an answer from the Imam, in the hopes of meeting with him. Meanwhile, protests against the initiative attended by thousands resumed in northeast Afghanistan.

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