WASHINGTON, May 30 (UPI) -- President George W. Bush remained in Washington Thursday as cleanup on Ground Zero -- where more than 2,800 people perished after two commercial airliners were steered into the World Trade Center towers -- officially ended with solemn pageantry.
Bush returned Tuesday from a weeklong excursion to Russia, Germany, Italy and France and did not have a public schedule Wednesday. Thursday, he remained at the White House where, at the time of the New York ceremony, he was briefing his Cabinet on his trip. Bush then held an impromptu news conference with reporters where he acknowledged the somber occasion.
"We started the Cabinet meeting today with a prayer from (U.S. Department of Transportation) Secretary (Norman) Mineta, who in his prayer reminded us that this is a somber day for America. It is a day in which we've removed all the debris from Ground Zero," Bush said.
"On behalf of a grateful nation, I want to thank all those who participated in the cleanup of that deadly site; and want our nation to continue to offer our prayer to those families and friends and citizens who still hurt as a result of the attacks of September the 11th."
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said during his afternoon briefing that Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh was the highest-ranking administration official to attend the ceremony. Aides said Allbaugh represented the president.
At the same time, there was no sense among the New York congressional delegation that anyone was upset that Bush did not attend the ceremony. One aide said his congressman understood that the president might have had more pressing tasks in Washington.
The last steel beam from the south tower was taken down in the ceremony. It remained standing after both towers collapsed on Sept. 11 after 19 hijackers plunged two commercial airliners into the top floors. The U.S. government identified Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden and his al Qaida group as masterminds behind the attack. Bin Laden has yet to be captured despite a U.S. military operation in Afghanistan to dismantle the group and remove its funding source, the Taliban government, from power.
Members of the New York congressional delegation watched quietly, as the beam and an empty stretcher representing the people who died in the attack but whose bodies were not recovered were removed from the 16-acre area. They made no remarks.
Bush first visited the site in New York on Sept. 14 when he stood amid rescue and recovery workers with a bullhorn and American flag and declared, "I can hear you! I can hear you, and the rest of the world hears you, and the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!"
He returned to Ground Zero in November after warning member governments of the U.N. General Assembly about the continued global danger of terrorism and groups such as al Qaida. Bush was accompanied to the site by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and other world leaders.
