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The deadly shift

Traian Basescu has got a solution that may turn into a lethal weapon for his political adversary, given the approaching elections. It consists in a surprising shift in the President-government relations. Traian Basescu can practically announce that he is no longer joining the electoral confrontation for the 2009 presidential elections because of striking back to the leadership over a coalition made up of the PD (Democrat Party) and the PLD (Liberal Democrat Party) and aspiring to the PM job, whereas presidency would go to Theodor Stolojan. Not only that such a solution would really confuse the other parties, but it would also be lethal to them due to the final score. This may provide comfortable majority to the present presidential coalition and reliable political support to the future government. Not last, it may be Traian Basescu's chance to get himself reloaded for his second mandate as President, in 2014. Let's look into this scenario.
A real problem that Traian Basescu hasn't solved in a satisfying manner is the relations between the PD and the PLD, given a possible presidential coalition. The so-called 'Popeye the sailor' effect has caused the drawback. By obstinately and constantly playing the opposing party and by being most critical at the government, the PD has managed to erase the memory of a confused electorate. Electors have thus forgotten about the long time this party was in power. And the referendum on the suspension of the President, so poorly approached by parliamentary parties, did but bring the PD more and more points so that the party tops polls right now. The presidential group has eaten so much spinach that the leaders are now sure of success. Some play financial tricks disregarding the law, with Adriean Videanu as most visible example. Because their time has come or because they fancy it has come, the Democrats have refused to share the future prey with the PLD. The latter is a newly made party of Liberal dissidents fully obedient to Cotroceni Palace. They don't have much of an electoral call and this is why their score in polls is rather poor. But there are two reasons why Traian Basescu needs the PLD like he needs air. He must prove the electorate that he still is the outstanding representative of a rightwing coalition, not of a single party. He can thus turn the PLD in a party attracting the Liberals and the Liberal electorate who may split with Tariceanu's Liberals in time. The top electoral positions must be distributed fairly in order to achieve such a coalition. This claim faces the tenacity of some top PD members, ready to rebel against Traian Basescu.
Given these, the solution considered in the Cotroceni political lab, the second great shift between Traian Basescu and Theodor Stolojan, is not only spectacular and surprising, but also realistic. It is a play typical of Traian Basescu. If he gets to head the PD again, Traian Basescu will manage to restore discipline in his party, do away with the rebels and those who drew criminal cases for themselves and be a firm ruler, persuading the party into rejecting the idea of sharing work and success with the PLD. The pride of the PLD would be satisfied with a candidate to Presidency in the person of Theodor Stolojan. The party could thus gain more strength for the electoral competition, while relying on the Basescu engine and on a much more cordial PD.
Traian Basescu may thus prove to public opinion that he could not be a president-player, but that he could promise to become a very active PM at harmonious terms with the head of state. As they are fed-up with so much scandal, Romanians may let themselves entrapped again. But there is one obstacle against this scenario: Traian Basescu may resign beforehand.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua Sambata 15 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Top truants

According to a monitoring report released yesterday by the IPP (Public Policy Institute), the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) leaders Viorel Hrebenciuc, Ion Iliescu, Adrian Nastase and Mircea Geoana, but Liberal Crin Antonescu too, top the list of MPs who play truant.
According to the research, in the February-June 2007 term the activity of the MPs was rather poor. Here are more deputies and senators most fond of missing voting in the Parliament: Conservative George Copos, Corneliu Vadim Tudor (president of the "Greater Romania" Party) and Liberal Crin Antonescu.
But the report also mentions the most diligent MPs: Gheorghe Funar ("Greater Romania" Party), Liberal Gheorghe Gabor and Democrat Gheorghe David.

Ovidiu Banches
Ziua Sambata 15 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

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President Basescu: Vosganian is incompetent, Adomnitei is failure

The President of Romania Traian Basescu can see nothing discriminating in his words about Armenians, but he renews his critique of "incompetent" Varujan Vosganian, the Romanian economy minister. And yesterday he also called Cristian Adomnitei, the education minister "an official who failed the building test, the only field he proved competent in", because the minister hasn't achieved the school repair operation.
When asked to comment on the National Council against Discrimination's action against him, the President claimed he had just uttered some words compensatory for the Armenians, after having publicly called Varujan Vosganian "an incompetent minister". And he pointed: "It is just that Varujan Vosganian hasn't settled his problem". He argued on that the budget project authored by the Ministry of Economy didn't include funds for buying two new presidential aircrafts, which proved Vosganian's anger. The President added: "He didn't eliminate two planes for the President, but two planes for TAROM company". He mentioned it was about an agreement between ex PM Adrian Nastase and ex French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "when with the highways, planes and personal fare". He actually meant a statement he had made in 2004, when accusing the French PM of the time of having come to Bucharest "to get his fare".
"The President has got no reason for such attitude and his response to the press shows how democratic he is. Such a thing couldn't have happened in a civilized state and I think civil society must react strongly. He is actually sending an undemocratic message to his own electorate, probably also because after the scandal with the reporter from Antena 1 channel his popularity has been growing. After the referendum he has shown a certain nervousness because of failing to capitalize his popularity and overthrow the government. Although not aggressed, he is aggressive, which is impossible to understand. Basescu reiterates offenses against the press, although he enjoyed press support. Things were calm around him that moment and he had no reason to get irritated".

A. I.
Ziua Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Compliments to the President

After getting irritated because Mr. Severin, his ex colleague in the party and government, had called him an "allogenous", President Basescu donated blood for some DNA test. We all could thus learn that, far from being an allogenous, Mr. President comes from the Euro-Asian Adam, whose line became local in these places some 40.000 years ago. The experts informed at that time that the President's R1b included the marker of the first non-African people (M168), shared by 90% of Spaniards, 95% of the Irish and 10% of the Romanians. As a rare product of the ceaseless continuity Ceausescu was vainly dreaming about, Mr. Basescu feels entitled to insult any post-Paleolithic newcomer to the country's territory. In the referendum day he told us his opinion about the Roma people (and also about women) and now we era learning how much consideration he feels for the Armenians. Maybe if times were different, we could have also learnt his true opinion on Jews and Greeks. As for the Hungarians, he can't afford it for now.
When Mr. Iliescu scolded the West because of the Westerners climbing trees at times when our brave Dacians were proving their excellency, it was actually the same tribal haughtiness showing its fangs. When Mr. Becali teaches us that it is very good for women, whom he describes as "patient", to stay for ever subordinate to men who don't sigh like women, there becomes visible the same primitive tendency to discrimination. When enraged, Mr. Iliescu too criticized the Anglo-American imperialism, unveiling a trait inherited from the Stalinist stage of anthropogenesis. I get affectionate when I recall that, during the 1992 campaign, Mr. Iliescu got irritated when being asked what he would do for women's equality of chance. And he answered he would develop rural tourism, according to which a woman was bound to the household. Mr. Becali too was furious at Mrs. Deputy Lavinia Sandru and he insulted her by quoting President Basescu's immoral words about the street women.
But, unlike the previous invectives such as the "filthy gypsy" one, this time Mr. Basescu was cheerful, not furious. He probably fancied that he was complimenting the surgeon who had just performed his surgery by saying in public that he was lucky enough to meet the only "good" Armenian among all the Armenians in the country and maybe on the planet. It is therefore obvious that the mother, the father or the grandfather of the distinguished surgeon can't possibly aspire to get Mr. President's consideration. The founders of the Radauti Cathedral, Virgil Madgearu or Harry Tavitian can neither aspire to such a thing.
The truth is that we thus find out the Romanian President's opinion on Romanians, not on Armenians, because he rarely utters words without being hopeful that they will strongly effect on the people whose single legitimate representatives he takes himself for. And since he can afford to represent us in such a way, he is obviously fully convinced that the people is like him: free with words, hostile to what doesn't resemble him, haughty and disdainful at the weaker ones, either in terms of number or in terms of prejudice, and humble in front of the powerful glowworms.
I wish that, after a high level meeting, Mr. President heard his interlocutor, maybe the US President, the Queen of England or Vladimir Putin, it doesn't matter, tell him he is the only "good" Romanian in a nation of dawdlers, thieves and incompetents. But I am afraid that, haughty as we know him to be, after learning that he is genetically more akin to the Spanish and the Irish than to the Romanian nation, he will fancy he has just been complimented.

Zoe Petre
Ziua Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Adrian Nastase's solution

Ex PM Adrian Nastase thinks there should be a group to head the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) and be made of those influential party members now marginalized by the present leaders. He argued for this in his interview to Rompres yesterday, claiming the aim was to guide the PSD to the "positive" way and help the party recover. But what he actually pursues is to take over the PSD again and sack president Mircea Geoana. In order to make sure he is successful, the ex PSD leader would like to stick to the influent sides within the party: Miron Mitrea, the group in Cluj and even Ion Iliescu. It is to be mentioned that there has lately been press rumor about Adrian Nastase, Cristian Diaconescu and Victor Ponta as possible future leaders of the party.
But just as the reloading of the PSD top members is being voiced as solution, the National Anti-Corruption Department demanded the opening of criminal inquiry against Miron Mitrea. One day before the same Department had asked for the same in the case of Adrian Nastase. (...)
Iliescu deciphers message
Ion Iliescu, an honorary president of the PSD, comments that the PSD is already ruled by a group of leaders. Still he adds Nastase's proposal is "to be considered", because it concerns the usage of the party's human and intellectual potential. He comments: "This is not about group leadership. What Adrian Nastase is probably suggesting is to attract various personalities in the party with various missions in the Parliament or other places and establish a sort of Senate of party senior. This view may undergo debate". (...)
Group of leaders exists already
The main PSD leaders have dismissed the proposal, all of them arguing that the PSD is anyway ruled by a group of leaders. But party president Mircea Geoana has made no comment whatsoever.
Titus Corlatean, a general secretary of the party, comments this is actually the state of things and he argues that the present leaders are to be supported and respected. He comments: "I am sorry to see such kind of debate progress in public, because it should be a domestic issue. This is about several colleagues' public statements".
Ilie Sarbu, a vice president of the PSD, comments in his turn: "I don't see what good this can do for the party".
Liviu Dragnea, also a vice president of the party, claims that "in case this isn't frustration, then it is a stupid thing". (...)
Extraordinary congress
The anti-Geoana wing in the PSD estimates the PSD parliamentary groups to meet next Tuesday will decide to summon an extraordinary congress. According to the PSD Status, this may occur if most PSD MPs vote for it.

Roxana Andronic
Ziua Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Bush preserves big troop level in Iraq

WASHINGTON - President Bush's claim that progress in Iraq justifies preserving a large U.S. military presence there for at least 10 more months was shadowed by discouraging developments on the security and political fronts.
Friday morning, 12 hours after Bush's address to the nation, the White House was to report that Iraqi leaders had gained almost no new ground in meeting U.S. benchmarks on bringing about reconciliation and stability. The report being sent to Congress by the White House underscored the difficulty of Bush's argument that American sacrifice was creating space for political progress by Iraqis.
Other bad news hit 12 hours before Bush's speech, when Iraqi police reported the assassination in Anbar province of a prominent figure in a local alliance with U.S. troops against al-Qaida. It was a sharp blow to Bush's frequent celebration of military gains in that region as a model for the rest of the country.
In his 18-minute remarks Thursday night, the president ordered U.S. troop levels to drop to a point they were already slated to reach, while saying they would start seven months sooner than scheduled.
Bush said 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas instead of leaving Iraq beginning in the spring as originally planned. Four more combat brigades would pull out of Iraq as currently scheduled by July.
These troops comprise the troop buildup that Bush ordered in January that boosted U.S. troop strength to 168,000, the highest level of the war. Under the withdrawal plan, troop levels would drop back to around 130,000 by next summer, close to where they were before the buildup.
The president's speech marked only the latest shift in direction — and rationale and packaging — for a war that has lasted 4 1/2 years and cost a half trillion dollars and nearly 3,800 American lives.
Bush's decision sets the stage for a fiery political debate in Congress and on the 2008 presidential campaign trail. Democrats said Bush's modest approach was unacceptable.
"The president failed to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rationale to continue it", Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in the Democrat's televised response.
Congress' majority Democrats pledged to push for a more dramatic reduction in troop levels, which Bush has rejected, and which they say the war-weary public demands, even though they still appear unable to muster enough votes to force an end to the war.
Instead, Democrats hope to win veto-proof support for legislation that would require a narrower mission for a presumably smaller U.S. force, one used only for training Iraq's military and police, protecting U.S. assets and fighting terrorists.
Bush was to reinforce his message the U.S. is winning and that continuing the fight is crucial to American security during a trip Friday to the Marine base in Quantico, Va., just outside Washington. He was to lunch there with 250 Marines, family members and commanders.
Vice President Dick Cheney was scheduled to deliver two Iraq speeches Friday, in Michigan at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
Bush said the U.S. engagement will stretch beyond his presidency. But he hinted further reductions were possible before he leaves office, saying the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker will report again in March.
"The troop surge is working," Bush said. "The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home".
He said his decisions would be guided by the principle of "return on success" — a replacement for his oft-repeated promise that coalition forces would "stand down" as Iraqi troops "stand up".
Despite the stunning setback represented by Thursday's killing of Sunni sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, Bush said Anbar, once considered lost to al-Qaida, shows what can happen across Iraq. Yet while mentioning Abu Risha, with whom the president met last week on a surprise trip to Anbar, Bush said, "In Anbar, the enemy remains active and deadly".
When Bush announced the troop buildup in January, he said it was conditioned on the Iraqis also stepping up — though he attached no consequences if they did not. Their obligations included such previously promised but unmet tasks as sending more and more capable Iraqi fighters into Baghdad, taking on Shiite militias to which the Shiite-led government is sometimes considered beholden, investing heavily in reconstruction projects that help Sunnis as well as Shiites, and enacting several pieces of legislation aimed at promoting reconciliation between warring sects.
The president later agreed to allow lawmakers to codify such benchmarks into law.
The administration's first status report to Congress, in July, showed that the Iraqi government was making satisfactory progress toward meeting eight of 18 benchmarks, unsatisfactory progress on eight more and mixed progress on two.
The followup report to Congress on Friday concluded that Iraqis have done enough to move only one benchmark — allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to hold government positions — from the unsatisfactory to satisfactory column, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
That movement was due to a pact made last month between leading Iraqi politicians from all major sects, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report was not public. Iraqi officials have announced similar deals in the past only to have them fall apart.
Bush officials said there hadn't been nearly enough time between the July report and now — just 58 days — for improvement. The president said there were other, equally important developments, including passage of a budget, the sharing of oil revenues among the provinces even without legislation and local reconciliation efforts that could trickle up to Baghdad.
But in addition to defending Iraqi leaders, he urged them to "make the tough choices needed to achieve reconciliation".

ENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq

* ADVICE !!! *

Starting next week we will publish everyday, from Monday to Friday, under the generic title "Romania's Wonders" a set of pictures illustrating representative monuments, city scapes or views from Romania who can made the "brand" of our country !
Enjoy us next week !

Thanks,
mig007

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His Beatitude Daniel is now Patriarch

His Beatitude Daniel, the Bishop of Moldavia and Bucovina, was elected a Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church yesterday afternoon, due to the 95 members of the Electoral College of the Church who voted for him.
In the second round his opponent was His Holiness Bartolomeu, voted by only 66 members. (...)
"A Patriarch doesn't work all by himself"
When learning about his victory yesterday, the new Patriarch commented: "I am expressing my gratitude to the Holy Synod and the members of the Electoral College of the Church for their trust and I am also expressing my wish to serve the Church. His Holiness the deceased Patriarch left us a bright and rich legacy we must cultivate". He emphasized all those with love for the Church should help him since "a Patriarch doesn't work all by himself".
King's message
In a press release issued yesterday King Mihai and the Royal House announce: "My family and I are standing by all the Orthodox Romanians who have got a new Patriarch, His Beatitude Daniel, starting from today. We believe this day is important for our traditional faith and for tomorrow's Romania". And the comment continues: "The Romanian Orthodox Church went a difficult way in the last century. After being separated by the Iron Curtain for four decades, today's Europeans need each other in order to delete the traces left by a century lacking reason and generosity. We wish this new guidance to bring the Romanian people and Europe blessed values such as generosity, responsibility, loyalty and faith. Without such values there can be no dignified future for our country or for the continent. Today's mankind needs institutions to be proud of, to urge to moral sense, confidence and common sense as well".

George Damian
Ziua Joi 13 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

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Adrian Nastase up to President Basescu

Daniel Morar, a head of the DNA (National Anti-Corruption Department), asked the Romanian President to consent to the opening of criminal inquiry against ex PM Adrian Nastase.
This is the third criminal case against Adrian Nastase that the DNA authors. According to the ex PM's lawyer, Adrian Nastase hasn't been informed so far about the DNA head's request or about the charges in the new case. The lawyer claimed the case had nothing to do with the other two that had sent the ex PM to court.
A communique issued in November 13, 2006 announced the trial against Adrian Nastase, mentioning the latter was also under more investigations because of having taken bribe. There was mentioned that the inquiry was about the way the ex PM had got to own the whole house in Muzeul Zambaccian Street, Bucharest, estimated to more than 1,5 million Euro. Social-Democrat Miron Mitrea is investigated in the same case for bribe.
It is to be reminded that two months ago the Constitutional Court decided that the norms settling the application of usual criminal procedures for crimes committed by ex ministers when they were in power was unconstitutional. The government modified the legislation yesterday, deciding that the charging and suing of ex government members for crimes committed while in power would be proceeded to in keeping with Law 115/ 1999 on governmental responsibility.

Ovidiu Banches & Adrian Galca
Ziua Miercuri 12 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Iliescu strikes back

The layers in the largest party in Romania, the only socialist group, are disturbed. If there is no earthquake coming, then significant changes are to be expected before the countdown for the local and parliamentary elections. The most spectacular evolution of events within the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) may be the deposition of Mircea Geoana, accompanied by a comeback of Ion Iliescu, even if provisory. And, although it is still in shade, we can notice the intensifying regaining of authority with Adrian Nastase as beneficiary.
Right now Mircea Geoana, who got to head the PSD spectacularly, by facing Ion Iliescu, is being blamed for everything. He is reproached that the PSD, although in the opposition, has been losing points in opinion polls instead of improving to get power again. To a party still clientele-based it would be a disaster if the alternation of ruling parties principles was done away with and the left didn't take over after four years of governing by the right. And Mircea Geoana is also blamed for the referendum against the Romanian President, although the PSD isn't guilty of it. Nevertheless, this party failed to focus on the referendum initiative decisively. Others are to be blamed for it, mainly the PNL (National Liberal Party). The Liberals didn't even try an alliance with the other parliamentary parties in order to sack Basescu for good and they neither made use of the time when the President was suspended in order to promote laws to prevent him from playing with the Constitution norms in the future.
Mircea Geoana is also paying for a PSD victory: the law raising pensions for the retired Romanians. The PSD authored the project first, but then the PNL took over. Traian Basescu's rough opposition to the pension raise had a bizarre effect, forcing the government into promoting it vehemently in order to shade the contribution of the PSD. Mircea Geoana is paying for it until the victory comes.
In case their bill against the government fails, he will pay for this too. If it still takes place, it will end up with disaster. Geoana has forgotten about the magic words any MP utters when early elections are a threat: "We are not going home". More recently, Geoana is also blamed for Basescu's chase of his political adversaries, some of them outstanding PSD personalities, by means of criminal investigations dominated by political criteria. It is in progress right now, with the vulnerable president of this party using criminal records as threat himself.
Given these, political enemies are sticking close to Mircea Geoana. There are many who want to fix him. Ion Iliescu is the first, because after the election he was humiliatingly defeated by Mircea Geoana and he nearly quitted. There are more prominent leaders of the PSD who are seeking revenge. One of them is Adrian Nastase, now about to be thrown over board. Dan Ioan Popescu, still somehow influential, was already sacked.
But who will take over, in case Geoana is done away with ? The PSD has got only two solutions available for the time being: interim leaders, Victor Ponta and Cristian Diaconescu undoubtedly among them, or Ion Iliescu's comeback.
I believe that, until things are settled to serve Adrian Nastase, the second solution is more at hand. He would be a guarantor that, Basescu's political revenge will end some day. Whether you like it or not, Iliescu strikes back.

Sorin Rosca Stanescu
Ziua Miercuri 12 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

Atta's mysterious phone call

The French daily Liberation published in yesterday's edition a classified FBI report on the authors of the attacks in September 11, 2001. The document mentions the 19 hijackers' activities in the last 18 months before the attacks. According to the French journalists, the activities of Mohammed Atta, thought to be the brain behind the attacks, include extremely interesting details. A number registered in Romania was on his phone call list. Atta could have dialed it either to contact an accomplice or to get support for his terrorist action, Liberation mentions.
According to RFI Romania, the phone number used by terrorist Mohammed Atta, taken from the FBI report and mentioned by Liberation, is 04071899042, but it is not registered in Romania. RFI quoted sources who read the report said the exact number in the report was 04071899042 (the area code for Romania is 004) and it is present in several official documents, such as some belonging to the court in Virginia, US, or the National Bank of Cyprus. According to such documents, it was used by Ramzi Bin al-Shibh, a friend of Mohammed Atta. The respective number was registered in 2000 in Hamburg, Germany, and 040 is the area code for the latter city, the terrorists' operational base.
On the other hand, the figures after the respective area code have never belonged to a Romanian phone number of any kind. Sources from the National Authority for Communication and Information Technology in Romania told it the RFI.
The report does not present the outcome of investigations and it is therefore unknown to which end Atta could have dialed the number Liberation claims to be in Romania. But the terrorist used a different international number - 17 943 755 60 - , mentioned in the French daily, either to contact an accomplice or to get support for his terrorist action.
When the RFI Romanian asked about the Romanian phone number, one Liberation official mentioned the daily would publish a correction.
Ioan Talpes confirms it
On the other hand, Marius Bercaru, a spokesman for the SRI (Romanian Secret Service), said yesterday that there was no operative connection between the attacks in September 11, 2001 and the so-called phone number from Romania, included on Mohammed Atta's phone call list.
But Ioan Talpes, formerly a presidency adviser for security matters, said he could remember that in 2001 there was rumor that the leader of the hijackers had talked to a person having a Romanian phone number. Talpes added the SRI was the only institution entitled to explain what exactly had happened. (...)

Doru Dragomir
Ziua Miercuri 12 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english

How to Remember 9/11

If actions speak louder than elegy, it tells you where we are that the team coverage on the eve of the 6th anniversary of 9/11 alternated between General Petraeus' performance on Capitol Hill and Britney Spears' performance at the MTV Video Music Awards. Osama returned to prime time, only to be mocked for his "impotence" and apparent need for Grecian Formula. A New Jersey community that lost 100 people that day has had to delay expansion of its memorial because fundraising fell short. September 11 falls once again on a Tuesday, we are six years away from the fire, and wondering what that means.
A USA Today poll found that more than two thirds of Americans view 9/11 as the most memorable news event of their lifetime. Far from pressing it neatly between the pages of a heavy book, to be retrieved only on special occasions, the day in memory has gained in power and urgency. Nearly one third said the event changed the way they lived - which is up from 18% five years ago, as though it was possible to see the change, or at least safe to admit it without having to swat away charges that "the terrorists win" if you do anything differently.
The mass murder remains, more than ever, a collage of personal tragedies. The names are read out one at a time, people march with buttons bearing the face of the one they lost, lay a wreath at a memorial. 13 candles lit in the church that lost 13 members. People make mourning small enough to capture and coax into service: myGoodDeed.org was launched as the micromemorial, a vehicle for people to use the day to do something for someone else. So far 284,185 people have pledged a good deed, to donate blood, take clothes to the Goodwill, knit socks for soldiers, skip lunch and give the money away.
There are many people, of course, who don't need to be reminded to remember. There are the moms sending children who never met their fathers off to their first day of kindergarten. There are the first responders who are discovering that they are sick and in need of treatment, including 2000 New York City fire fighters. There are the presidential candidates who regularly patrol the sacred ground; Giuliani goes there in every speech, Edwards talked about confronting terrorism a few blocks from Ground Zero, and the entire political debate this week is wrapped around the progress of a war that magnifies memory and distorts it. The 9/11 attack united us; the response to it divides us.
The homefront remains on alert, but in a leisurely, one eye open kind of way. Police at the Pentagon scrape the air for signs of radiation or chemical attack, track the wind direction to guide escaping employees. But 9/11 Commission chairs Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton used the anniversary to remind people that security remains a shield with holes. Most air cargo is still not screened, the high tech bomb detectors are indefinitely delayed, and Congress demands tighter standards for drivers' licenses but won't fund them. The broadcast industry has until 2009 to turn over the spectrum that rescuers need to beam signals through concrete and steel. Three years ago, Kean and Hamilton observe, their commission noted that the Department of Homeland Security reported to 88 congressional committees and subcommittees. At least that number has now been pared down - to 86.
Some people fear complacency; others fear forgetting. Others have only limited space in memory, and the day is overwritten by the events that followed, by war and hurricane and every family's private trials. But the record can't be erased, any more than a year can have 364 days, and anything can bring it back full screen, like a glance at a skyline, a siren in the distance, a prayer that comes as reflex as you walk to work and remember the day they never came home.

NANCY GIBBS Time writer
Time Marti 11 Septembrie 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20070911/us_time/howtoremember911

SPECIAL EDITION !!! - IN MEMORIAM ! (The 6th Annyversary of September 11, 2001)

Americans see 9/11 as most important event of their lives

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Six years after the September 11 attacks on the United States, most Americans view the plane hijackings that killed around 3,000 people as the most significant historical event of their lives, according to a poll released Monday.
Eighty-one percent of those surveyed said they see the attacks as the most significant historical even of their lifetimes, with more people on the east coast -- 90 percent -- choosing this view compared to 75 percent on the west coast.
The Zogby International telephone poll surveyed 938 people between September 6 and 9 and has a three-percentage point margin of error.
The poll also showed 61 percent of respondents saying they think of the events at least once a week and 16 percent saying they think of the attacks every day.
A full 91 percent said they believe the United States will be attacked again on US soil.
Sixteen percent said they had personally visited the site of the World Trade Center in New York City to pay tribute to those who died when two passenger jets plunged into the towers and caused them to collapse.
A third jet hijacked by Al-Qaeda militants hit the Pentagon outside Washington, and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

AFP
AFP Marti 11 Septembrie 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070910/ts_alt_afp/usattacksanniversary;_ylt=AhBQQf3PSzDHrqtGZY2HyNCOe8UF