From CBS News · · 4m
Twenty-five years on, 9/11 is still counting its dead
America paused for the 25th anniversary, and added a seventh moment of silence for the people the attacks are still killing.
In brief
America paused for the 25th anniversary, and added a seventh moment of silence for the people the attacks are still killing. 9/11 is not a closed chapter. The illnesses keep killing, the accused plotters still have not faced a jury, and the politics of that morning are still live. Originally reported by CBS News.
A quarter century later
Families, survivors and leaders gathered Friday at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and Shanksville. Every living former president came to Manhattan, with Vice President JD Vance and Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Seven times the bell rang
The reading of the names was broken by moments of silence at 8:46, 9:03 and 9:37 for the three impacts, then 9:59, 10:03 and 10:28 for the South Tower, Flight 93 and the North Tower.
The seventh silence
At 12:52 p.m., after the last name, the crowd went quiet again for the thousands who died of 9/11-related illness. It is new this year and will stay in the ceremony permanently.
The toll keeps climbing
Roughly 6,000 responders, survivors and volunteers have died of illnesses tied to the attacks. The FDNY just added 36 more firefighter names to its memorial wall.
“Thirty-six more reminders that the legacy of September 11th doesn't end on one single day”
They said the air was safe
Mamdani released city records showing officials knew about airborne toxins at Ground Zero. The victim compensation fund has taken 112,000 claims and paid out more than $18 billion.
“The government told us the air was safe to breathe”
The call from Flight 11
American Airlines agent Vanessa Minter picked up flight attendant Betty Ong's call that morning. Ong asked her to pray, a supervisor took the line, and then it went dead. Minter met Ong's family this year.
“I don't know, I think we're getting hijacked.”
A widow names Saudi Arabia
Terry Strada used her turn at the microphone to say a court has found the kingdom supported the hijackers, and accused U.S. leaders of shielding it. The solemn crowd cheered.
“Stand with the families, stand with the survivors, stand with Americans.”
Still no trial
The four accused plotters, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, have never faced a jury. A Guantanamo judge has pushed jury selection to June 5, 2028.
“We've yet to see justice or accountability.”
Forty names in a field
Flight 93 went down near Shanksville at 10:03 a.m. after passengers stormed the cockpit, stopping the hijackers short of Washington. Loved ones read all 40 names aloud, each followed by a bell.
Citizen soldiers
Gordon Felt, whose brother Ed died on the plane, keeps retelling what those 40 chose to do. A wreath was laid at the Wall of Names, 40 marble panels in a Pennsylvania field.
“These were the citizen soldiers of the new century.”
The Pentagon reads its dead
The 9 a.m. ceremony honored the 125 killed in the building and the 59 aboard Flight 77. President Trump, Melania Trump, Condoleezza Rice, Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine sat on stage.
Rice carries the remorse
Bush's national security adviser described thinking the first plane was an accident, then watching a second hit 17 minutes later. She said those in charge did what they knew to do, and it was not enough.
“I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen still feel”
Toward one another
The Joint Chiefs chairman said the day was not only loss. At the Pentagon, service members and civilians walked into the smoke to pull their colleagues out.
“Today is not just the story of loss”
Trump ties it to Iran
Speaking in the present tense about the war on terror, the president linked the anniversary to the fight with Tehran and vowed Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.
“We don't have a choice. There can only be victory.”
Hegseth goes further
The defense secretary said the U.S. has spent six months laying waste to the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism, and is raising a new generation to keep fighting.
“Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that have wished us death for nearly half a century”
Not if, but when
DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told a crowd outside headquarters that another attack is likely, blamed immigration enforcement gaps, and accused sanctuary cities of abetting it.
“it's probably not a matter of if, it's more a matter of when, something happens again”
The threat moved indoors
NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said 2001 was a centrally directed al Qaeda plot. Today's danger is scattered and personal, built by social media rather than a command chain.
“people can be radicalized from their couch at home”
What the attacks built
A 20-year war across Afghanistan and Iraq, thousands of American service members dead, trillions spent. At home: Homeland Security, the TSA, ICE, a national intelligence director and vast new surveillance.
Bush's warning
Speaking in Dallas, the wartime president said America drifts into isolationist moods and decides overseas trouble is someone else's problem. He called that forgetting what 2001 taught.
“what happens overseas matters to our national security at home”
2,977 lights over the harbor
Days before the anniversary, drones spiraled into a helix above Lower Manhattan, then locked into the outline of the Twin Towers at full height. One light for each person killed.
The main idea
9/11 is not a closed chapter. The illnesses keep killing, the accused plotters still have not faced a jury, and the politics of that morning are still live.
