Pentagon Renovation Complete After 17 Years

Terror imam Anwar al-Awlaki chowed down with top brass

(NEWSER) - Anwar al-Awlaki, currently on the FBI's "kill-or-capture" list, was invited to lunch at the Pentagon a few months after the 9/11 attacks, a Fox News investigation finds. The Yemeni-American cleric dined with Defense Department brass as part of a Pentagon campaign to reach out to moderate Muslims, a defense official says. He "was considered to be an 'up and coming' member of the Muslim community," according to the official. More»

President, VP, and First Lady mark 9/11 anniversary

(NEWSER) - President Obama laid a wreath at the Pentagon; Michelle Obama joined Laura Bush at the Flight 93 crash site; Vice President Biden went to Ground Zero. Their comments on the 9/11 anniversary, via the Wall Street Journal and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette :

• President Obama: Americans “are not—and never will be—at war with Islam. It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda, a sorry band of men which perverts religion,” he said, adding that the best way to honor the victims is to “stay true to our traditions here at home as a diverse and tolerant nation.”

President urges a split nation to remember sense of unity

(NEWSER) - At the dawn of the ninth 9/11 anniversary, President Obama looked out over a divided country and urged it to remember that shared sense of horror and unity it felt as it watched towers collapse. "If there is a lesson to be drawn on this anniversary, it is this: We are one nation—one people—bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals," he said in his weekly address. More»

(AP) - The nation marked the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks today in ceremonies under gray skies in New York City, at the Pentagon, and at the crash site of Flight 93 in Pennsylvania. Today also was the first time the anniversary was observed as a national day of service, following an order President Obama signed this year. To see images from the ceremonies, click "Slideshow" at left. More»

Ill-timed drill coincides with Pentagon ceremony

(NEWSER) - In a case of not-so-great timing, the Coast Guard conducted a training exercise on how to handle a rogue boat this morning in the Potomac River—with 9/11 commemorations taking place at the Pentagon and the president's motorcade crossing a nearby bridge, the Washington Post reports. The exercise caused a media buzz when CNN picked up the chatter on a scanner and reported that the Coast Guard had confronted a boat entering restricted waterways and fired shots. More»