World Pauses to Remember Terror Attacks

— -- Somber ceremonies in Washington, at Ground Zero in New York, and around the country and world marked exactly three months since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

‘We Will Remember’

W A S H I N G T O N — Precisely three months after the first jetliner slammed into the World Trade Center, the American national anthem played today at the White House, across the country and throughout the globe as President Bush vowed to "right this huge wrong."

At 8:46 a.m. ET, a drum roll echoed in the East Room, a solemn backdrop for "The Star Spangled Banner."

Bush said America does not need monuments and memorials to grieve the deaths of more than 3,000 people in suicide hijackings over New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. "For those of us who lived through these events, the only marker we'll ever need is the tick of a clock on the 46th minute on the 8th hour of the 11th day. We'll remember where we were and how we felt. We'll remember the dead and what we owe them. We'll remember what we lost and what we found."

"Every death extinguished a world," he said.

Solicitor General Ted Olson, whose wife, Barbara, died in the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon, spoke at a Justice Department ceremony.

"We will never forget our loved ones who died or who were wounded on Sept. 11," Olson said. "We will fight this evil for as long and as patiently as it takes. We will prevail. We will comfort and care for those who have suffered. We will not forget."

— The Associated Press

Pausing at Ground Zero…

N E W Y O R K — In New York City, firefighters and construction workers stopped work and shut down their heavy machinery to observe a moment of silence at 8:46 a.m. at ground zero.

The program began with Broadway performer William Michael singing "Let There Be Peace on Earth."

As a light drizzle fell, prayers were offered by Christian, Muslim and Jewish clergy. "They took down those structures, but they will not take away the spirit," said Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, a Fire Department chaplain.

"We pray for all the families — the husbands, the wives, the children, the mothers," said John Hiemstra, director of the Council of Churches of NYC. "The geographical, cultural and religious walls that may have divided us have been bridged."

About 150 construction workers, police officers, firefighters gathered for the service, held on the makeshift stage erected at the trade center site. Bagpipers played "Amazing Grace" as the service concluded under gray skies — a sharp contrast to the bright sunny morning of Sept. 11.