Bushes Lay Wreaths At Ground Zero

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush stood in somber silence on Sunday as they laid wreaths at the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. The solemn moment was the beginning of many for the Bushes, who are visiting all three sites of the Sept. 11 attacks, to mark the fifth anniversary.

The Bushes set floral wreaths adrift in reflecting pools that mark the former location of the north and south towers. They uttered no words, and walked hand-in-hand on the floor of the cavernous pit, after a slow procession down the long, flag-lined ramp from the street level four to five stories above.

The Bushes then attended a service of prayer and remembrance at nearby St. Paul's Chapel.

The 240-year-old Episcopal church, across the street from the site, escaped damage and became a center of refuge for weary rescue workers.

They were the first stops of nearly 24 hours of observances at the three sites where terrorists wrought death and destruction and transformed his presidency. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the attacks.

On Monday, the anniversary, he is to breakfast with firefighters and other emergency workers at a firehouse in Manhattan; attend a ceremony at the field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where one of the hijacked planes hurtled to the ground; and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon.

He also plans to speak to Americans in a primetime address Monday night from the Oval Office.

Accompanying the president and first lady at ground zero were New York Gov. George Pataki, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Rudy Giuliani, who was New York mayor at the time of the attacks.

The anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is noted in different ways by Americans, CBS' Jennifer Miller reports.

"It angers me, it really does, it really does," William Harrison, a visitor to New York, said.

For Arlene Russo, the anniversary is one more day — without her son, who she lost on 9/11.

"It's still as fresh as if it were yesterday, it always will be, it
always will be," Russo said.

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.

Mr. and Mrs. Bush wore grim expressions as they took their places for the interfaith service at St. Paul's.

Both greeted Arlene Howard, the mother of victim George Howard, a New York Port Authority police officer, with a kiss on the cheek. President Bush keeps Howard's badge as a constant reminder of the attacks. His widow sat beside Bush in the front-row pew.

A printed message from the Rev. James H. Cooper said: "The message to people who visit St. Paul's is simple: Go back to your communities knowing that a place of love stood next door to Ground Zero. Try to make the world a better place."

The president's aides have made it clear this is no time for politics, reports CBS News chief White House correspondent Jim Axelrod, although the administration spent Sunday morning making its case about how it has handled of the war on terror since 9/11.

Even before President 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 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.

Cheney focused on anti-terrorism efforts that he has been instrumental in supporting: a warrantless wiretapping program to monitor the international communications of people in America with suspected ties to al Qaeda; a system to track international financial transactions; and tough policies on the detention and interrogations of suspected terrorists.

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.

"I think we're in trouble," said Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean. "We have not pursued the war on terror with the vigor that we should have because we've gotten bogged down in this civil war in Iraq."

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow rejected suggestions that the administration's hunt for al Qaeda leader bin Laden — mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks — had bogged down. "We're not at liberty to go into sources and methods, but we have never stopped looking for him," Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush flew to New York.

"Bin Laden is harder to find these days because he in fact does not feel at liberty to move about, he does not feel at liberty to use electronic communications... Under such circumstances, somebody leaves fewer clues," Snow added.

The fifth anniversary falls less than two months before elections in which Republican control of Congress is seen as in danger.

In a series of speeches that began over a week ago and are to continue for at least one more, President Bush and his political advisers are seeking to frame the vote as a choice between Republicans who are effective stewards of Americans' safety and Democrats who would erode protections.

President Bush is doing this in part by aiming to restore the decisive, tough-on-terrorism image he built after the 2001 attacks. Democrats are laboring to make the elections a referendum on the president's prosecution of an unpopular war in Iraq.

Some 2,749 died when the twin towers collapsed after being pierced by hijacked airliners. In all, some 2,973 died in the World Trade Center, Pennsylvania and Pentagon attacks, not counting the 19 hijackers.

The schedule for Monday includes a visit to a firehouse nicknamed "Fort Pitt" in the Lower East Side in honor of the first responders who rushed into the towers.

At the base for Ladder 18, Engine 15 and Battalion 4, the president was to have breakfast with firefighters, police officers and Port Authority police and observe moments of silence to mark the times when planes struck each tower.

From New York, the next stop was to be Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where 40 people died when a plane slammed into the ground, and then the Pentagon, to mark the deaths of 184 there, before returning to the White House for the televised address.

At all three crash sites, each with memorials far from completion, President Bush will not be a part of the official anniversary observances, in order to not have a presidential appearance become a distraction from the ceremonies themselves.

In 2002, President Bush also toured each crash site, embracing family members of the victims and speaking at the Pentagon and New York's Ellis Island. Since then, he has kept a lower profile on the anniversary.