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Empty stretcher honors missing WTC victims

By P. MITCHELL PROTHERO

NEW YORK, May 30 (UPI) -- An honor guard of rescue workers Thursday carried an empty stretcher out of the 60-foot-deep hole that once supported New York City's two tallest buildings in a silent tribute to the more than 1,700 still missing victims of the September terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Just as had been done for the other bodies recovered from the site over the past 8 1/2 months, the American flag-shrouded stretcher was loaded into an ambulance, as hundreds of workers silently lined the ramp out of the site, paying tribute to those that remain unfound or unidentified.

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At 10:29 a.m., a bell was rung in four sets of five rings each -- the New York Fire Department signal for a slain firefighter to honor the 343 "brothers" who died within minutes in the worst terror attack in the nation's history.

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The event -- which left thousands of spectators obviously emotional -- signaled the close of the rescue and recovery phase of the effort to clean, repair and rebuild the 16-acre site that is the most visible scar on lower Manhattan. The attacks left more than 2,800 people dead after both towers were struck by planes, ripped by jet-fuel-powered infernos, and collapsed within 90 minutes of the first impact.

After the stretcher left the ramp, a series of New York police and firemen playing bagpipes preceded a truck hauling a 30-foot long steel beam, part of the south tower that was the last major piece of the huge complex removed by clean-up workers. The beam has come to be a multi-purpose symbol for workers and the city alike with references to the building itself, the efforts of the rescuers and an intact memorial -- in a place where little survived -- to the thousands who died last fall.

Although wrapped in a black funeral shroud and covered with a flag and a circle of white flowers, Beam 1001B had been inscribed with the names of victims, rescue workers, fire companies and other reminders of the tragedy and courage witnessed in the ruins of one of New York's formerly most recognizable symbols. The beam was hauled up the West Side Highway -- which has been the main access point to the site since minutes after the first plane hit -- to a New York Port Authority hanger at New York's JFK airport several miles away. The beam will likely be included in the formal memorial, which is still in the planning stages.

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Thousands of spectators, rescue workers and relatives of the victims watched over the grim procession, as did former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who gained worldwide fame for his leading role after the terrorist attack, his successor Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Gov. George Pataki, R-N.Y., and other state and local figures.

The ceremony began at 10:29 a.m., marking the collapse of the South Tower, after terrorists rammed two airliners into the towers' upper levels. Television caught the shuddering collapse of steel, aluminum concrete and glass, which reminded some of a fountain suddenly turned off.

The processions were accompanied by firefighters in formal and working dress and Port Authority and New York City police, all of whom suffered severe losses in the disaster.

The cortege marched slowly toward the West Side Highway and was to march north to Canal Street, the upper level of the area most affected by the disaster.

Even the close of the site revealed lingering tensions between victim's advocates and the city management over how to manage the recovery. Survivors of victims have accused the city of hastening recovery and clean-up at the expense of identifying the missing and honoring the dead. Several families had asked Bloomberg not to hold the ceremony on a week day, but the mayor said it was better to avoid conflicts with religious services. He also noted that May 30 is the traditional Memorial Day holiday. Even with that argument, hundreds of families are expected to attend a religious service Sunday at the site.

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One family member -- who expressed a general approval of the handling of the site and asked her name not be used -- said many families were insulted by the sense of urgency used to clean the site of debris, considering how many bodies have not been recovered.

"I understand the need of economics, but this place is all most of us have left of our loved ones," she said.

The city has insisted that forensics investigators continue to search the rubble, which has been shifted to a landfill in Staten Island, and hope to use technology to identify victims in the future.

Rescue and cleanup efforts began shortly after the first of two hijacked jetliners rammed into the twin towers on Sept. 11. Four aircraft were hijacked early Sept. 11. Two were steered into the World Trade Center towers and a third slammed into the Pentagon just outside of Washington. The fourth plane crashed in western Pennsylvania, apparently when passengers tried to take back control of the craft.

U.S. officials have said 19 members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaida group carried out the hijackings. As a result, the United States began its war on terrorism with Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, ousting the ruling Taliban, which had given bin Laden refuge. Bin Laden and much of the al Qaida leadership, however, remain at large.

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