Bush proclaims a day "of renewing resolve"

NEW YORK — President Bush and his wife, Laura, stood in somber silence on Sunday after laying wreaths at the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once soared. He later pledged to make the anniversary "a day of renewing resolve" to remember the lessons of the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The Bushes set floral wreaths adrift in reflecting pools that mark the former locations of the north and south towers at the beginning of a two-day fifth-anniversary tour that will take them to all three sites of devastation.

They made a slow procession down a long ramp lined with a flag-bearing honor guard made up of firefighters and police officers, making their way four or five stories below ground level. Uttering no words, the Bushes walked hand-in-hand on the floor of the cavernous pit with bagpipes wailing in the background.

Afterward, the Bushes attended a service of prayer and remembrance at nearby St. Paul's Chapel, greeted firefighters at a firehouse overlooking Ground Zero and toured a private museum next door that is dedicated to 9/11 families.

Across New York, residents marked the day at other ceremonies large and small. From a service of remembrance at St. Patrick's Cathedral in midtown Manhattan to a chant at a Buddhist temple on Staten Island, New Yorkers observed the somber anniversary with prayer and reflection.

In Washington, D.C., thousands of people gathered to walk from the National Mall to the Pentagon, where streaks of light were projected into the night sky to honor the victims.

Sunday's Freedom Walk, sponsored by the Defense Department, was one of more than 120 walks organized in cities in all 50 states to remember the day that hijackers used commercial airliners as weapons, killing nearly 3,000 people in the worst terrorist attacks in U.S. history.

Bush called today's anniversary "a day of renewing resolve."

"I vowed that I'm never going to forget the lessons of that day," he said, clutching his wife's hand. "There is still an enemy out there who would like to inflict the same kind of damage again."

The Bushes' Sunday schedule marked the first stops of nearly 24 hours of observances at the three sites where terrorists wrought death and destruction and transformed his presidency.

Today, he was to visit with firefighters and other first responders at a firehouse in lower Manhattan; attend a ceremony at the field in Shanksville, Pa., where one of the hijacked planes hurtled to the ground; and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon.

As at Ground Zero, Bush did not plan to participate in the official anniversary observances at the other crash sites, intending to avoid the distraction that accompanies a presidential appearance.

He will end the day with an address from the Oval Office at 6 p.m. PDT.

Even before Bush left Washington, surrogates from Vice President Dick Cheney on down spent the Sept. 11 anniversary's eve vigorously defending the administration's record on improving the national defense over the past five years.

"There has not been another attack on the United States," Cheney said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "And that's not an accident."

On television and in 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.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cited additional security at ports and airports and increased cooperation 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 U.S. ports and chemical plants, and other high-value sites are vulnerable.

Meanwhile, ABC moved forward with its miniseries "The Path to 9/11" on Sunday despite angry calls from former Clinton administration officials not to air it because it contained fabricated scenes about their actions before the terrorist attacks.

ABC's editing of the five-hour movie, airing on two successive nights starting Sunday, was evident from the very beginning. Twice, the network de-emphasized the role of the 9/11 commission's final report as source material for the film.

A disclaimer emphasizes that the movie is not a documentary. ABC has said little about the controversy and would not comment Sunday.

Thomas Kean, head of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks and a backer of the film, said on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday that he hadn't seen the final cut of the movie but urged Americans to watch it.

"If people blame Bill Clinton after seeing this, then the miniseries has failed," said Kean, the former Republican New Jersey governor. "That's wrong and it shouldn't happen."

In another development, a video posted on the Internet late Sunday, purportedly by al-Qaida, showed footage of a smiling Osama bin Laden meeting with top planners of the Sept. 11 attacks that struck the United States five years ago.

Excerpts of the footage had aired on Al-Jazeera television Thursday, and al-Qaida announced it would release the full video on the Internet. The 55-minute tape — with English subtitles — surfaced late Sunday on a Web site that often airs tapes and messages from bin Laden's terror network.

The same Web site, which frequently airs al-Qaida tapes and messages, showed a 19-minute videotape earlier Sunday showing the World Trade Center's twin towers engulfed in flames and included an old audio recording of bin Laden praising each of the 19 suicide attackers by name.