September 11 2001 Terrorist Attack

As he always does on Sept. 11, Ed Casso spent much of the day last year in his living room watching the solemn memorials on television. It had been precisely seven years since terrorists hijacked commercial jets and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Casso, 34, could feel the passage of time taking its toll. "Every year there's a little less coverage," he said. "Every year there's a little less feeling."

Accused Al Qaeda sleeper agent Ali Saleh Kahlah Marri on Thursday pleaded guilty to supporting the architects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In a plea agreement entered before U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm in Peoria, Ill., Marri admitted to one count of conspiring to provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

Lt. Col. Brian Birdwell is in Texas now. Army Chaplain Henry A. Haynes is in South Carolina. Eight years ago today, they were inside the Pentagon at 9:39 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 77 hit its mark. The world tends to give its fullest attention to anniversaries that end in zero or five -- not eight. There will be bagpipes and drums in New York. The president will lay a wreath at the Pentagon. Most of the nation will take a collective pause and move on. But for those like Birdwell and Haynes, directly touched by the terrorist attacks on Sept.

A small fire at the temporary home for the remains of hundreds of World Trade Center victims was likely arson committed after a break-in Saturday, authorities said. The smoldering flames in a section of the facility's chapel on Manhattan's East Side were quickly extinguished. Firefighters got a call around 9 a.m. to respond to Memorial Park, a weatherproof tent on Manhattan's East Side where the city is storing the remains of Sept. 11 victims who have yet to be identified. The fire damaged a wooden bench, while mementos -- pictures, notes, flowers -- honoring the dead disappeared.