Bin Laden Tape Rouses 9/11 Pain, Vigilance

Sept. 9, 2007 — -- The kids are back in school. The economy may be teetering on recession. And the presidential primary season is in full swing.

But when Osama bin Laden's first videotaped message in nearly three years hit the airwaves earlier this week — almost six years to the day after the Sept. 11 attacks — Americans stopped, watched and took stock.

"It sucks to hear this … days before the anniversary," said Charles Wolf, whose wife, Katherine, was killed in the World Trade Center. "But I think the positive thing is that it will remind people it hasn't gone away."

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows 60 percent of Americans believe the country is safer than it was before 9/11, the highest figure in more than a year and a half. And though one in four Americans worry "a great deal" about another attack, the poll shows fear has subsided somewhat. Sixty-six percent of respondents said they fear another major terrorist incident, matching the lowest number since 9/11.

Cautious optimism appears to be growing despite this summer's failed bombings in Great Britain, bleak assessments by the government's anti-terrorism intelligence agencies and the arrest in Germany earlier this week of three men suspected of planning attacks against U.S. and German targets. And despite foiled plots in recent years to take down airliners, U.S. passenger volume this summer returned to pre-9/11 levels.

"It's not as top-of-mind anymore as it was right after 9/11," said frequent business flier Amber Miller. "I can't say that I feel 100 percent safe. However, it's not always a thought when I fly."

The relatives of the 9/11 victims fear the public is starting to forget. This week, the World Trade Center Family Center released the results of its annual survey of 9/11 family members, which found a 19 percent drop in "strong support" received from others in the last year and a 15 percent increase in those receiving "poor or no support."

"There probably is some Sept. 11 fatigue," Dr. Minna Barrett, the center's director of research and training, told The Associated Press.

Family members recently criticized one New York City television station's initial decision to broadcast on its main channel only part of the ground zero anniversary event. The station has now said it will televise the entire ceremony, including the hours-long reading of the nearly 3,000 victims' names.

Though fewer Americans seem to be holding their breath for the next terrorist attack, the ABC News/Washington Post poll suggests the government is not getting higher marks for that trend. Fifty-four percent of respondents said the war on terrorism is going well, down from a whopping 70 percent about a year after 9/11 and before the Iraq invasion. The number of Americans expressing confidence in the government's ability to prevent future attacks remained largely unchanged, about half of respondents.

And nearly six years after the twin towers fell, the Pentagon was besieged and a field in Pennsylvania became hallowed ground, the face and words of bin Laden remain unsettling to many.

"It's a reminder that he's still out there and that the possibility of an attack at any point is still a reality," said Miller.