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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
December 5, 2001

The World Will Always Remember September 11

The terrorists have told us that we should "forget" the mass murder they perpetrated on September 11.

"No, you should forget the 11 September attacks?"

-- Syed Tayyad Agha -- Spokesman for Mullah Omar; Taliban Press

Conference, Spin Boldak, 11/21/01.

We will never "forget" September 11.

We will never forget the innocent victims and the brave heroes that died attempting to save them.  We will never forget the survivors, the children, the devastated families and the grieving friends they left behind.  And we will never forget the victims who came from more than 80 countries, and many races and religions.

On December 11 -- the three-month anniversary of the September 11 attacks --  President George W. Bush is asking countries across the world to hold remembrance events and to play their national anthems or other appropriate music at the exact moment the first airplane struck the World Trade Center in New York (8:46 EST).

The terrorists would like nothing more than to silence the world's vocal opposition to their frightening vision.

When nations around the world join hands in unity on December 11, the light of freedom and opportunity will once again shine on the terrorists' dark and frightening vision of murder and fear.

President George W. Bush will lead the worldwide initiative with the playing of the national anthem on December 11 at an event at 8:46 a.m.  (EST).  Similar events will also take place at the Pentagon, in New York, and in Pennsylvania.

The President will ask the United Nations, and all U.S. embassies, posts and agencies to hold events in countries around the world.  The President will also encourage the U.S. Congress and citizens all across the world to join in this remembrance on December 11 by holding similar events in their communities.  NASA will hold a special remembrance event in space.

These worldwide events are designed to help ensure that the world never "forgets," and to help remind the world that the terrorists' dark and frightening vision will soon be relegated to history's unmarked graves of discarded lies.