9/11: An Alternate History / 9-11-09

Some news briefs for you.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2002 -- President Bush today announced an end to combat operations in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.
Remaining Taliban warlords surrendered all claims to power in a ceremony earlier this week, shortly after an American-British force of nearly 300,000 troops began to overwhelm the country with brute force and sheer numbers.
"We can now turn our goal to the imminent capture of Osama bin Laden," Bush said.

RALEIGH, Sept. 11, 2003 -- Osama bin Laden was sentenced to death today for his part in masterminding the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center precisely two years ago.
Death penalty groups picketed outside the courtroom, sporting signs such as "Scum is still scum / But life is still life / And murder is still murder."
"This is America," President Bush said at a press conference following the verdict. "I welcome peaceful dissent on this and other issues, but I am pleased with the jury's decision. The death penalty exists for reasons like these."
Bin Laden, who was captured late in 2002, was convicted after ten-month trial relatively free of controversy. More than a dozen prosecution witnesses detailed bin Laden's involvement in planning the bombings.

BOSTON, Sept. 11, 2004 -- President Bush reiterated his pledge today that his second term would be dedicated to preserving Social Security benefits for the foreseeable future - at the expense of his tax cuts enacted three years ago.
"Lower taxes are good for the economy and good for entrepreneurship across the nation," Bush said. "But responsibility to future generations dictates that tax cuts be temporary. I have changed my mind in this regard and will push for my 2001 tax relief package to expire in 2006, four years early. There is a time and a place for everything, including tax cuts."
Bush can afford to ignore the far right on the issue of taxes. The Bush-Crist ticket is trouncing its Democratic opposition by an average of 26 points in major polls this week, and most electoral projections have 48 states in the red column.

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 11, 2005 -- Relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina continue to run smoothly and on schedule, according to high-ranking government officials.
"This could have been a major disaster the likes of which our country has never seen," FEMA chief Michael Black said. "A Category 5 hurricane is capable of wiping a city off the map, but our systems worked. Local authorities were organized and ready, having completed a partial evacuation before the inadequate levees failed."
Two deaths have been reported in connection with Katrina thus far.

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 11, 2006 -- An independent autopsy of deceased Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, done by a team of EU physicians, ruled out foul play in the dictator's death.
Hussein ruled Iraq from 1979 until a fatal heart attack on August 31 of this year.

NEW YORK, Sept. 11, 2007 -- Final plans were unveiled today at a ceremony at Ground Zero, detailing a record-setting skyscraper (the planet's second-tallest building and tallest in NY history) and accompanying memorial on the site of the old twin towers of the World Trade Center.
The plans call for a single tower stretching 1,911 feet in the air, overlooking a massive rolling staircase of memorial buildings dedicated to victims of the bombings from six years ago, plus remembrances of the role the NYPD and NYFD played in rescue efforts.

SEATTLE, Sept. 11, 2008 -- Nationwide Service and Remembrance Day kicks off locally this year with than 800,000 participants from across the Northwest ready to spend the day away from school and work. They will join a projected 10 million volunteers nationwide who've pledged to dedicate the day to community projects such as mentoring kids, stocking food banks and refurbishing homeless shelters.
NSRD, the brainchild of Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Illinois), is only three years into its existence, yet has already become the largest community service organization in the nation.
"What this program does is remind us that just like on Sept. 11, 2001, we're all in this together, one nation, indivisible, with much more that unites us than divides us," Obama said in a statement.