The row of colored flags eked, creaked, and fluttered in a gusting, biting wind that swept across the hill. The guide raised her voice above the shrill as the people drew closer so they wouldn’t miss a word, wiped their eyes, and bent their heads. It was Shanksville, PA, September 2007, and it was like no other I had ever heard. It was an American tragedy, and it occurred on 9/11/01.

A temporary memorial atop the hill with a forty-foot fence is decorated with flowers, letters, artwork, stuffed animals, badges, flags, and many other items. Thousands of visitors who come here each week can write their thoughts in journals provided on site. No one sat on the benches where the names of the 40 people who perished are written. It would have been disrespectful to do so! Instead, people gathered around the Ambassador (guide), who serves as a human contact, to hear every word of how the passengers and crew planned to take back Flight 93 from the terrorists, knowing that they might have to give their lives.

All of this has been told on TV and in the movies, but as the saying goes, “you would have to be there” to get the full effect of this horrific crash and the terrible loss of these beautiful people. I like to believe the dew on the grass is their tears. The birds flying overhead are their spirits calling out to us not to forget them and to remember that freedom comes at a price! Pride swelled within me that the lives lost here were not in vain. Had these brave people not succeeded in their attempt to divert the terrorists from their intended target, the Capitol, our country could have been devastated.

Did these forty people have a moment to grab for the pictures in their wallets? Did they kiss the smiling faces of their family? Did they shed a tear? Did they utter a prayer before “let’s roll” rang out and they stormed the cockpit?

I asked the same questions when my husband, Frank Connor, was killed while having lunch in Fraunces Tavern, NY City, by the FALN terrorist group in 1975, and again on 9/11 when

another member of our family, Steven Schlag, was killed at the World Trade Center. These are some of the thoughts that haunt families whose loved ones die at the hands of terrorists. Did they have time to say, “I love you guys,” either out loud or in their hearts?

And now I ask myself what the terrorist hijackers might have been thinking. Did they hesitate for a moment to consider that they were about to murder 40 innocent people?

Allah’s name as the cockpit door was thrown open?

Americans must never again be caught off guard. We now know that plots are being hatched against us, all over the world, even in our own country. We cannot let droning politicians lull us into believing that, if we sit back and “play nice,” everyone will love us.

I am so glad I got to Shanksville before the permanent memorial is created. I believe the spirits of these 40 people fill this beautiful meadow, and the hallowed ground it has become, just as in Ground Zero. They are now a part of our history, and every child will stand taller on hearing of their bravery.

To quote Lincoln’s words from his Gettysburg Address, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion for that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion …”

Mary Connor Tully came from Ireland to America in 1957 at the age of 19 living the American dream until her husband Frank Connor was murdered by FALN terrorists in 1975.  Mary writes short stories about rural life in Ireland and as a proud American citizen.

Source: Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, PA.

More than 9,500 people have died from illnesses linked to the September 11, 2001, according to renowned 9/11 attorney Michael Barasch.

More than 9,500 people have died from illnesses linked to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — more than three times the number murdered on 9/11 itself — as the attacks continue claiming lives 25 years later, according to renowned 9/11 attorney Michael Barasch.

The toll, he noted, has long since eclipsed the 2,977 people murdered in the attacks.

“Over 9,500 people have now died of 9/11 illnesses. That’s three times as many who died on 9/11,” Barasch explained. “So while I get it — a lot of people think that an anniversary is only one day — it’s certainly not the case for the 9/11 community.”

The nation on Friday marks a quarter-century since al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets on September 11, 2001, crashing two into New York’s World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

For Barasch, however, the passage of 25 years has created not only a mounting health toll, but an emerging generation with no firsthand memory of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.

“This is crazy — 100 million Americans have been born since 9/11, and they have no memory of 9/11,” he told Breitbart News.

The Barasch & McGarry Charitable Foundation recently awarded six college scholarships to students whose parents or grandparents died from 9/11-related illnesses. What the recipients told him underscored the problem.

“All six of them told me that none of their schools had taught anything about 9/11.”

“It’s not just cops and firefighters,” he stressed.

Barasch pointed to roughly 300,000 office workers, 50,000 students and teachers, and 25,000 downtown residents exposed to the toxins in the aftermath of the attacks.

Only about 15 percent of eligible civilians have enrolled in the programs, according to Barasch, leaving potentially large numbers of people unaware that medical care and compensation may be available to them.

“The frustrating news is that still so many people are not yet enrolled, and it’s almost all the civilians,” Barasch noted.

That eligibility can extend to diseases that emerged years or even decades after the exposure. Barasch noted that the federal system recognizes a presumption covering 69 cancers for qualifying members of the 9/11 community, meaning patients do not have to independently prove that the toxins caused their particular cancer.

“If you were working, living, or going to school downtown, or if you were a responder and you got cancer later, years later, there’s a presumption that it’s caused by your toxin exposure,” he explained. “But people don’t realize it.”

The World Trade Center Health Program and September 11th Victim Compensation Fund have both been extended through 2090, while the health program now serves nearly 150,000 members.

Barasch told Breitbart News that numerous 9/11 family members had personally expressed anger to him over the mayor and said they did not want Mamdani appearing at commemorative events without unequivocally condemning the terrorists responsible for the attacks.

“A lot of family members have told me that until the mayor condemns the terrorists, they don’t want him showing up at any of these events,” he revealed. “They don’t understand why he won’t just come out and say that terrorism is wrong.”

Barasch emphasized that their anger should not be construed as animosity toward Muslims.

“We don’t hate Muslims. We don’t blame all Muslims, but we condemn what these people did,” he explained. “And the mayor can’t seem willing to even do that.”

That, Barasch argued, is why he understands “why so many family members are so angry at this mayor and don’t want him invited.”

Speaking Thursday, ahead of Friday’s anniversary ceremonies, the prominent 9/11 attorney said the occasion itself presented Mamdani an opportunity to address those families directly.

“Until he does,” he warned, “he’s not going to be welcomed.”

Barasch also took issue with a controversial episode last week in which Mamdani used a ceremonial pen to sign executive orders related to the 25th anniversary before it was handed to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented an al-Qaeda detainee held at Guantanamo Bay.

“For a smart guy, he’s really tone deaf, not realizing how insulting something like that would be,” Barasch remarked.

“I think it would be conjecture,” he responded, saying that “even smart people make stupid mistakes” and that he did not believe Mamdani was intentionally seeking to insult anyone.

“But it nevertheless was insulting,” Barasch concluded. “And if he doesn’t recognize that, then maybe he’s not as smart as we think he is.”

His criticism of Mamdani was not categorical.

Barasch also praised the mayor’s administration for releasing more than 170,000 pages of previously unavailable city records this week concerning air quality, health risks, and New York City’s response in the aftermath of the attacks, ending a years-long fight by 9/11 health advocates seeking access to the material.

“Mamdani — let’s give him credit,” Barasch declared. “I don’t always agree with everything, but give him credit. His administration released those records.”

Barasch wants the city to use that effort to reach the civilians who still do not know they may qualify.

“Let’s now do something constructive and let the mayor and the City of New York lead the fight to spread the word to the civilians that you should enroll in these programs,” he urged.

“You are eligible because you were exposed to toxins that our governments, plural, assured you were safe — and it was not.”

Even with federal funding secured for decades, Barasch warned that staffing shortages at the World Trade Center Health Program are creating another obstacle to getting exposed Americans treated quickly.

For cancer patients in particular, Barasch argued, that lost time matters.

“Early detection is the key to beating cancer,” he explained. “And if you get an appointment early, you’ll get diagnosed earlier.”

He is now calling directly on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fill the vacant positions.

“Please, hire the staff that Congress authorized you to hire.”

For Barasch, the steadily mounting death toll, civilians still unaware they may qualify for help, strains on the health program, and a generation coming of age with no memory of the attacks all point to the same lesson 25 years later.

“It’s an ongoing story that sadly is still causing so many people to get sick and die.”

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

Source: Exclusive — Top 9/11 Lawyer: 9/11 Illnesses Killed 3 Times More Than Terror Attacks

September 11, 2001, was just an ordinary Tuesday. That morning at around 8:30 a.m. on the East Coast, most people were either at work or on their commute. Kids were settling in at school.

Whether the TV or radio news was background chatter or the focus, suddenly there were interruptions announcing that at 8:46 a.m. an American Airlines Boeing 767 (with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel) had crashed into New York City’s World Trade Center’s North Tower. The jet hit between the 93rd and 99th floors of the 110-story skyscraper. Hundreds of people were instantly killed, and others were trapped on the higher floors with no way to escape.

Most people immediately assumed it was a terrible accident, and they continued with their day while listening for news updates.

However, 17 minutes later, at 9:03 a.m. United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower between the 77th and 85th floors.

Americans immediately knew that the United States was under attack, with many correctly guessing who had attacked us.

(In October 2025, then mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani visited Masjid At-Taqwa, a mosque in Brooklyn. The smiling Mamdani had his photo taken with Imam Siraj Wahhaj, whom federal prosecutors once named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Is anyone surprised?)

A few minutes later at 9:45 a.m., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officially ordered a complete shutdown of U.S. airspace and commanded all airborne planes to land immediately at the nearest airport.

By this time, passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 were aware that their plane was not experiencing a “regular” hijacking. They had been calling family and friends who told them about the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Knowing they were going to die, their goal was to divert the plane away from wherever it planned to go. (Later it was revealed that the fourth plane was intended to hit the heart of America’s republic — the U.S. Capitol.) At 10:02 a.m., at a speed of 500 miles per hour, Flight 93 crashed in a rural field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The passengers and crew were heroes for diverting the plane away from D.C.

Most of the world was glued to their television, radio, social media, and phones. For the United States of America, there will always be a ‘before 9/11’ and ‘after 9/11’ view of the world.

President George W. Bush, who was in Florida when the strikes started, had been shuttled to various locations for protection while in contact with government agents about the unfolding events. By 7 p.m., he was back at the White House. At 8:30 p.m., President Bush addressed the American people and the entire world from the Oval Office. Sitting at the Resolute Desk, he said:

“Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.”

In the days and weeks following the attack, New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (at the time called “America’s Mayor” for his outstanding post 9/11 leadership) told the American people:

“The attacks of September 11th were intended to break our spirit. Instead, we have emerged stronger and more unified. We feel renewed devotion to the principles of political, economic, and religious freedom, the rule of law and respect for human life. We are more determined than ever to live our lives in freedom.”

On September 11, 2026, Americans will commemorate the horrific day when Muslims attacked the United States of America, killing 2,977 innocent people of all races and faiths. Thousands more who had spent weeks digging out the remains of the World Trade Center in the aftermath (and trying to find pieces of bodies) developed illnesses related to 9/11. Many lived with chronic respiratory diseases and died prematurely. More than 100 search and rescue dogs that were deployed to help find survivors in the rubble of the towers also suffered from medical ailments in the years following their service.

About 40 percent of the World Trade Center victims have been identified. It might have been from jewelry or body parts. Only 261 intact bodies were found. While workers were going through the debris, they found 65,000 items, including 437 watches and 144 wedding rings.

Twenty-five years later, there are many people, organizations, and governments (including many in our own country) that refuse to speak the truth as to who committed the terrorist acts on September 11, 2001. As communist Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar once said, “Some people did something.”

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) asked that the word “terrorist” not be used in conjunction with the 9/11 Muslim terrorist attacks. Former Governor George E. Pataki responded on X to that request:

“I was Governor of New York on September 11, 2001.

The planes did not simply crash into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They were hijacked and deliberately flown into those buildings by Islamist terrorists.

The CBC’s refusal to call September 11 a terrorist attack is political correctness masquerading as journalism. Fear of being accused of Islamophobia cannot become an excuse for denying the plain truth. This is a shameful failure of moral courage.

Truth matters in a free society. Sanitizing September 11 dishonors the nearly 3,000 people who were murdered, the first responders who ran toward danger, and every family that still carries the pain of that day.

No institution should be afraid to tell the truth.”

At this year’s 25th anniversary Memorial Ceremony in Manhattan, families of the victims will gather on the plaza at the Memorial & Museum. They will read aloud the names of the 2,983 people killed in the 2001 attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

A quarter-century ago, the United States was attacked by Islamist terrorists who used planes as their weapons. Today many believe Islamists are attacking the United States with ballots. What do you think?

Robin M. Itzler | September 11, 2026

Robin M. Itzler is a regular contributor to American Thinker. She is the founder and editor of Patriot Neighbors, a free weekly national newsletter. Robin can be reached at RobinItzler@yahoo.com.

Source: September 11. 2001 – American Thinker