Click a name at left
to learn more.";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Ed Fine
(World Trade Center
‘dust man’)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_edfine_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Stan Honda", "AFP - Getty Images file", "298", "231", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
A businessman who worked at New York-based Intercapital Planning Corp., Ed Fine became widely known from a 9/11 photograph that depicted him covered in dust, napkin held to his nose and mouth while still clutching his briefcase. Head bowed and his dark suit turned a light gray, Fine, 58, shuffled through ankle-deep debris from the tower that had just collapsed. A clock behind him displayed the time: 10:14 a.m.
Fine was waiting for an elevator on the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the building. Thinking a bomb had gone off, Fine and others made their way down the emergency stairs. Fine reached the street and began to walk away from the World Trade Center when the South Tower collapsed at 10:05 a.m., engulfing everything in the area in a cloud of smoke and debris.
There, photographer Stan Honda of Agence France-Presse took his picture, an image used by Web sites, newspapers and magazines around the world. Days later, a friend told Fine his photo was on the cover of Fortune magazine.
“I was focused in on: I must get uptown, I must keep surviving, I must walk,” Fine told the “Today” show. “And I wasn’t looking or thinking about anything other than surviving.”
NOW
Fine, who is married and has two grown children, lives in suburban New Jersey. According to an e-mail to msnbc.com from his son Stuart, Fine operates two businesses: an investment, public relations and consulting firm called Carpe DM (a play on \"carpe diem,\" Latin for \"seize the day\") and SEPA Capital Group, which evolved out of EIF Capital and raises private-investor money for both public and private companies. Stuart Fine is both a partner of SEPA and the CEO of Carpe DM.
\"I believe I was saved for a reason, but I don't know what that reason is,\" Fine told the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper in 2002. \"I believe that everything is in some way interconnected -- all the inches and seconds of our lives. You don't know how, but they are.\"
Fine says he was no kind of hero. \"My picture got taken,\" he told USA Today in 2006. \"It was a perfect picture, but all I was trying to do was get uptown.\"
Before 9/11 he was a workaholic, he added. On vacations, he used to spend \"half a day on the phone and the other half on the computer.\" Now, \"if I make one business call a day, that's a lot.\"
The battered black briefcase, the suit -- a gray Joseph A. Banks single-breasted model he bought in the late ‘90s for about $300 -- and the shoes he wore on 9/11 sit in his closet as a constant reminder of how fortunate he is to be alive, Fine told msnbc.com. He used the briefcase for several more years until his wife insisted he get a new one. He agreed to part with it, USA Today quoted him as saying, \"but I felt a little disloyal.\"
Fine says he has a strong interest in working with companies that promote energy independence, improve the environment, increase safety for healthcare workers and bring jobs back to the U.S.";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Rudolph Giuliani
(Mayor of New York City)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_guiliani_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Robert F. Bukaty", "Pool via AP", "209", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
By the later summer of 2001, Rudy Giuliani, then 57, was generally viewed as a lame duck. First, there was the plain fact that his office was covered by term limits, which meant he had only a few months remaining as New York City’s chief executive. Then there was the perception, seven years after bursting on the national scene with a reputation for making the city’s streets safer, that he had worn out his welcome.
Most visibly, there were the almost daily headlines and stories in the city’s voracious tabloids detailing the ugly split from his second wife, Donna Hanover. And then there was a widely held belief that the crime-fighting zeal that had made him famous -- and ensured his 1997 reelection -- was divisive.
That, of course, was all to change in the space of a few hours. Within minutes of the strikes, Giuliani -- who happened to be downtown at the time of the attacks -- took charge in a way that brought strength both to the city and to the nation.
His sense of shock, sadness, anger and determination to rebuild mirrored and validated New Yorkers’ emotions. At the same time, his poise, calm and ability to effectively coordinate city, state and federal rescue and recovery efforts reassured the shaken city.
“Tomorrow New York is going to be here,\" he said. \"And we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before. ... I want the people of New York to be an example to the rest of the country, and the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us.\"
His efforts transformed his image. From a local politician largely seen to be on a decline, he became a national figure, a status confirmed when he was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2001.
NOW
The attacks of 9/11 fell on the same day as the primary election for Democrat and Republican candidates to succeed Giuliani. The voting was immediately postponed for two weeks; meanwhile, Giuliani appealed for an unprecedented three-month extension of his term in order to help coordinate the city’s recovery from the terror attacks.
Giuliani’s critics immediately cried foul and accused him of trying to profit politically from the situation, with supporters of the extension arguing that his leadership was key to ensure the city’s recovery from the attacks. In the end, the State Assembly and Senate decided that the extension was not necessary, and Michael Bloomberg, who won both the Republican primary and the November general election, was sworn in as the next mayor in January 2002.
After leaving office, Giuliani created a consulting and investment business, Giuliani Partners, of which he remains chairman and CEO. The firm is made up largely of key members of his former administration -- such as Peter J. Powers, a deputy mayor under Giuliani, and Anthony V. Carbonetti, Giuliani’s chief of staff from 1999 to 2001 -- and large companies hire the firm to advise them on logistics, security and disaster preparedness.
The former mayor has also traveled widely as a speaker-for-hire, reportedly commanding up to $100,000 per speech.
In May 2003, about a year after his stormy divorce from Donna Hanover became final, Giuliani married Judith Nathan, a former nurse and sales manager for a pharmaceutical company. Nathan was first reported as being romantically linked with Giuliani in May 2000. It was a third marriage for both.
After considerable discussion that Giuliani would run for president, he announced in November 2006 that he was forming an exploratory committee. This was followed in February 2007 with the filing of a statement of candidacy for the Republican nomination.
After much anticipation about his candidacy, his strategy of concentrating on later, bigger primaries backfired, and having finished third in the Florida primary, Giuliani dropped out of the GOP race. He is now backing Republican rival and longtime friend John McCain.";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Lisa Beamer
(Widow of Flight 93 victim)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911wherethey_beamer_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Linda Spillers", "AP", "298", "237", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
In the aftermath of 9/11, it seemed she was everywhere -- a 32-year-old blond woman whose calm, articulateness and grace belied the fact that she had just lost her husband on Flight 93, the only one of the four hijacked planes that did not reach its target.
The reason, of course, that Flight 93 did not crash into the U.S. Capitol or another site in Washington, D.C., was due to the heroic acts of many of its passengers, among them Lisa Beamer’s husband, Todd, whose words “Let’s roll” to a telephone operator just before the plane went down near Shanksville, Pa., summed up the can-do bravery of the ordinary men and women who fought back against the terrorists.
This spirit -- and the strength shown by the many widows of 9/11 -- became embodied in Lisa Beamer, who was five months pregnant at the time of the attacks. President Bush spotlighted her during his address to Congress on Sept. 20 and she appeared in just about every corner of the media, from the “Today” show to “Larry King Live” to People magazine.
Beamer, who grew up in Shrub Oak, N.Y., graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in economics. It was at Wheaton that she met her husband; they were married in 1994.
NOW
After giving birth to a daughter, Morgan, Beamer went on to write a book, “Let’s Roll!: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Courage,” about her husband and her struggle to deal with her grief after his death. In addition, Beamer, also the mother of two sons, David and Drew, helped create the Todd M. Beamer Foundation, a New Jersey-based charity with the goal of helping children deal with trauma.
In February 2007, an article in The NonProfit Times, a publication covering the not-for-profit industry, reported that Heroic Choices was facing a decision about its future in light of dwindling contributions.
William Beatty, a former Goldman Sachs executive who was chairman of the board, told the paper he expected the organization to make a decision by the end of March 2007 from among three choices: continue as is, merge with a similar organization or shut down entirely.
\"The farther you get away from a charity created on a specific day ... the harder it is for charities to create funds as a result of an event, as opposed to constantly delivering services,\" Beatty was quoted as saying.
It appears that Heroic Choices is now shut. All phone numbers for it have been disconnected and its Web site is no longer operational. Efforts to reach Beatty for comment were unsuccessful.
As for Beamer, she too has pretty much dropped out of sight -- perhaps because she has found herself the subject of controversy. Some accused her of profiting from the tragedy with the publication of her book and frequent media appearances. She was also criticized for the foundation’s successful attempt to trademark for the phrase “Let’s Roll,” which was subsequently licensed to Wal-Mart, the Florida State Football team and others.
In October 2006, Beamer was listed as a participant in the 34th Annual Long Beach Island Commemorative Run, an 18-mile event held in coastal New Jersey that is dedicated to the 11 Israeli athletes slain by terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics and to those who lost their lives in the Sept. 11 attacks. She recorded a time of 2 hours, 47 minutes and 57 seconds.
A publicist listed for Heroic Choices in 2007 declined repeated requests for further information and several calls to a number listed under Beamer’s name in Cranbury, N.J., were not returned. When it was operational, the Heroic Choices Web site said that after serving as chairman of the charity’s board, Beamer became one of its trustees and that “a large portion of proceeds” of her book were directed to its work (more than $900,000, according to the nonprofit’s records). The site also stated that she continued to live in New Jersey, where she and her children were active members of their church.
In October 2007, Beamer was listed in local real-estate records as being the buyer of a property in Harvey Cedars, N.J., a community on the Jersey Shore, with a price of $1,996,954.
";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Bob Beckwith
(NYC fireman embraced by President Bush)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_beckwith_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Paul Richards", "AFP", "210", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
When retired New York firefighter Bob Beckwith stood at President Bush’s side at the still smoldering Ground Zero just days after 9/11, he quickly became an iconic image of the nation’s strength and resilience in the wake of the attacks.
Beckwith was inspired to help in the rescue efforts at Ground Zero after he learned that one of a former colleague’s sons was among the hundreds of missing firefighters. He donned his old helmet, made his way downtown and convinced authorities at the heavily guarded perimeter to let him join the efforts.
And when, a few days later, Beckwith heard Bush was coming to the site to see the devastation first-hand, he scrambled up on top of a burned-out out fire truck to get a better look at the president.
Next thing he knew, Beckwith was helping Bush onto the back of the truck as the crowd chanted “U.S.A., U.S.A.” As the cheers died down, Bush pulled the 69-year-old Beckwith near and began speaking.
Someone from the crowd yelled that they couldn’t hear him. Bush, with his arm draped around Beckwith, shouted into his bullhorn: \"I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.”
The president’s words were met with wild cheers from the crowd. The whooping and the hollering -- and the sight of a elderly fireman doing his best in the face of tragedy -- reassured people across the country that the spirit of the nation was bruised, but not crushed.
NOW
Beckwith is back to his retirement, having left the Ladder 164 firehouse in Queens in 1994 after 29 years on the job. But it hasn’t been shuffleboard and senior centers for the father of six and grandfather of ten.
Beckwith stays in touch with President Bush -- he last visited the White House for a Christmas party in December 2007 and recently received a letter when the president learned that Beckwith’s daughter had cancer.
“He wrote a nice letter to her and to us when he found out about it,” he said in a recent phone interview with msnbc.com. “He’s a nice regular guy, President Bush, he’s a nice person.”
Beckwith also travels the world speaking and raising money for the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation. He helps the foundation get contributions “to help all the people that get burned, help out with the research and help relieve the pain.” To this end, Beckwith has spoken at St. Paul’s Chapel, a landmark church near Ground Zero, and on Irish and German TV programs, he said.
Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, Beckwith still thinks about that day. “It is part of my life and I do think about it all the time,” he told msnbc.com. He also thinks about the people who worked at Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks and have since suffered numerous illnesses. “These guys are getting sick and are dying and nobody is taking care of their families,” he said.
";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Andrew Card
(Whispered news of attacks to Bush)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_card_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Win McNamee", "Reuters file", "253", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
White House chief of staff Andrew Card, then 54, was the man who broke the news of the enormity of the attacks to President Bush. A much-published photo showed the president reacting with much surprise as Card whispered in his ear.
During Bush’s visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., news had reached him that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in what appeared to be an accident involving be a single-engine aircraft.
When the second tower was struck, Card approached the president and whispered, “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” Card then stepped away and waited for the president to excuse himself, which he did after several minutes of listening to second-graders reading a book.
NOW
As the Bush administration dipped in popularity as the war in Iraq dragged on, Card -- one of the longest serving chiefs of staff of all time and key to those wanting to get the attention of the president -- announced he would leave office in March 2006. Card had served in the first Bush administration as White House deputy chief of staff and later as transportation secretary. His resignation took effect April 14, 2006, after six years in a notoriously tough job.
In his book \"State of Denial: Bush at War, Part III,\" author Bob Woodward reported that Card resigned because he was concerned that the war in Iraq would be seen as another Vietnam War, after twice failing to persuade President Bush to dismiss Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
A former executive at General Motors, Card returned to the private sector on July 27, 2006, when railroad operator Union Pacific elected him to its board of directors.
In 2007, Card received an honorary degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. However, the decision was met with boos at the school's May 25 commencement ceremony.
In an interview with The Harvard Crimson in October 2007, Card stated that he had resigned from his post in the Bush administration because both the president and the administration needed for him to leave, emphasizing that it was not his choice to do so. “I think they needed to demonstrate change, and I don’t think you can have a change without it being personified,” he said. According to The Crimson, these statements contradicted President Bush’s official explanation of the facts -- that Card had initiated his departure and that it was not driven by politics.
In April and June of this year, Card gave MSNBC two interviews. In the first one, he spoke about Barack Obama’s response to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s comments earlier that month and, asked which Democrat he thought the Republican Party would prefer running against, he chose Obama. In the second interview, Card discussed the White House’s anti-terror tactics and whether or not Americans have the right to be informed on them.
";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Howard Lutnick
(Cantor Fitzgerald CEO) ","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_lutnick_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Bebeto Matthews", "AP file", "196", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
When Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick, then 40, decided to take his son to his first day of kindergarten, it saved his life. No one who was in the company’s offices on floors 101-105 of the North Tower of the World Trade Center before 9 a.m. on Sept. 11 survived.
The bond-trading company lost 658 out of 960 employees, the biggest single group in the attacks, among them Lutnick’s brother and almost all of Cantor’s traders, accountants, lawyers and human resources personnel.
In the immediate aftermath of the attacks, the notoriously tough corporate titan wept on TV and promised to take on a new mission in life: to take care of the families of his dead employees. His compassionate side appeared to be short-lived, though, when on Sept. 15 he stopped the paychecks of all the employees who had died. The victims’ families were outraged.
Lutnick stood by his decision, saying it was necessary to show the company’s competition and the banks that they intended to stay in business. But it was a public relations disaster, and by Sept. 19 Lutnick had announced a plan to help the victims’ families -- a promise to share 25 percent of profits with families for the next five years plus 10 years of health insurance.
NOW
By all accounts, Lutnick has made good on his promise.
Quickly relocated to Midtown Manhattan, Cantor Fitzgerald soon became profitable again and the company continued its expansion into online trading. And through its relief fund, the firm distributed 25 percent of its profits every quarter after 9/11 until the end of 2006 -- more than $180 million to the families and loved ones of the 658 Cantor Fitzgerald employees killed in the 9/11 attacks.
The 25 percent contribution of Cantor’s quarterly profits to the victim’s families ceased at the end of 2006, but the relief fund will continue to provide health insurance until October 19, 2011, as well as provide legal, economic and emotional support to the victims’ families.
More recently, according to a company spokesperson, the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund has expanded its scope to include natural disasters such as the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.
Cantor Fitzgerald employs about 1,000 people in New York and approximately 1,400 worldwide. ";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Three firemen with flag
at Ground Zero ","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_flag_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Thomas E. Franklin", "The Bergen Record file", "298", "208", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
It is one of the most enduring images from 9/11: three New York firefighters -- Daniel McWilliams, George Johnson and William “Billy” Eisengrein -- hoisting an American flag in the midst of chaos and ruins of the destroyed World Trade Center late on the afternoon of Sept. 11.
The photo, captured by Thomas E. Franklin, a staff photographer for The Record in Bergen County, N.J., was quickly picked up by newspapers, magazines and television networks. Reminiscent of Joe Rosenthal’s iconic image of U.S. troops raising a flag on Iwo Jima during World War II it struck a chord with editors and readers everywhere.
The photo, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and won numerous national photojournalism awards, was used for a special U.S. Postal Service stamp released in March 2002 to raise funds for families of emergency workers killed or permanently disabled as a result of the 9/11 attacks.
NOW
All three of the firefighters featured in the iconic image are still working for the New York Fire Department, according to officials.
Daniel McWilliams, 42, a longtime veteran of the department, is now a lieutenant with Battalion 37 in Brooklyn. On April 15, 2007, according to an online report by Robert Glynn, chief of Battalion 43, he was awarded the Dr. John F. Connell Medal for his “leadership and tenacity” in a “highly successful lifesaving operation.” McWilliams and his family live in Massapequa Park, Long Island.
George Johnson, 43, is a captain with the NYFD and works out of Division 13 in Queens, where he also lives. Bill Eisengrein, 44, is a firefighter at the Rescue 2 unit in Brooklyn. He has been with the NYFD for more than 20 years. The department said it could provide no further information other than the fact of their continued service.
";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Coleen Rowley
(FBI whistleblower)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_rowley_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Carlo Allegri", "Getty Images file", "250", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
The FBI’s chief legal adviser in its Minneapolis office for more than a decade, Coleen Rowley, then 46, was involved in the investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, who was already considered a potential terrorist threat because of flight training he had received in the U.S. Rowley pushed for a search warrant for Moussaoui’s laptop computer, a request repeatedly denied by FBI headquarters.
Eventually, Moussaoui, who would be known as “the 20th hijacker” after 9/11, was arrested for an immigration violation on Aug. 15, 2001, and his ties to radical fundamentalist Islamic groups were soon confirmed by the French intelligence service. Rowley would later call Moussaoui’s arrest a “missed opportunity” for American investigators to unravel and possibly prevent the 9/11 plot. (Moussaoui was later convicted for his role in 9/11.)
In 2002, Rowley testified before the 9/11 Commission and the Senate Judiciary Committee about what she considered critical lapses by the FBI. In a 13-page memo to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Rowley wrote: “I feel that certain facts, including the following, have, up to now, been omitted, downplayed, glossed over and/or mischaracterized in an effort to avoid or minimize personal and/or institutional embarrassment on the part of the FBI and/or perhaps even for improper political reasons.”
As a result of her public testimony, Rowley was among the three whistleblowers named Time magazine’s “Persons of the Year” (along with Sherron Watkins of Enron and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom).
NOW
Stepping down as chief legal adviser in the FBI’s Minneapolis office to become a special agent once again in 2003, Rowley retired a year later after 24 years with the agency.
In 2004, Rowley wrote a chapter about civil liberties and effective investigation in the book “Patriotism, Democracy and Common Sense: Restoring America's Promise at Home and Abroad,” which was edited by Alan Curtis and published by the Eisenhower Foundation.
In 2006, Rowley ran unsuccessfully for Congress as a Democrat, losing to Republican incumbent John Kline in Minnesota’s 2nd District.
Since September 2006 she has blogged on breaking news, politics and civil liberties for the Huffington Post. According to the Web site, she now “writes and speaks on ethical decision-making and balancing civil liberties with the need for effective investigation.”";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Bernard Kerik
(New York police chief)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_kerik_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "Beth A. Keiser", "AP file", "213", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
Though somewhat in the shadow of Mayor Giuliani, New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik was central to coordinating the city’s response to the 9/11 attacks at the World Trade Center.
Kerik, then 46 and already an experienced, highly decorated law enforcement officer before being tapped to head the largest police force in the United States, was widely praised for his handling of the crisis, as well as continuing to cut crime in New York and improving police relations with minority communities.
However, Kerik, who testified before a Senate subcommittee and pushed for legislation that would help the FBI share information with local officials, announced a month later that he would not remain in his position when Giuliani left office in January 2002.
“'I have to look at what I have done throughout my life,” Kerik said in a November 2001 news conference, “and what I have been through in the last eight years, most importantly the last year, and then the last eight weeks. I think you have to set priorities in your life, and my priorities right now are focused toward my family and the future.”
NOW
It was a future that appeared bright. Immediately after leaving office, Kerik became a senior vice president at Giuliani Partners -- the consulting firm founded by his former boss -- and was selected to oversee reconstruction efforts in post-invasion Iraq.
Then in 2004 President Bush nominated Kerik to lead the Homeland Security Department, praising him as a \"dedicated, innovative reformer who insists on getting results.\"
That's when things started to unravel. Very soon after, several issues came to light that ultimately doomed the nomination, including tax and immigration violations regarding a former nanny, questionable timing in the sale of stocks, rumors of an extramarital affair, allegations of misusing police property for personal gain and improper reporting of gifts. While Kerik pleaded guilty in state court to accepting gifts from a construction firm with alleged ties to the mafia, he denied a 16-count federal indictment brought against him months after.
“It is an extremely difficult time for me and my family,” Kerik is quoted as saying in an ABCNews.com article. “This is a battle. I’m going to fight.”
As a result of the disclosures, Kerik withdrew his nomination and resigned from Giuliani Partners. He now heads The Kerik Group, a New York-based consulting firm focusing on crisis and risk management and security.
If convicted, the former New York Police commissioner could face up to 142 years in jail and millions of dollars in penalties. ";
SEPT11_watn_2008[i++] = new Array("","Osama bin Laden
(Terrorism mastermind)","","http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/060829/060829_911whererthey_osama_new.standard.jpg","","", "", "", "", "", "left", "", "AP FILE", "221", "298", "#000000", "", "", "", "");
SEPT11_watn_2008[i-1].body = "
THEN
Head of the al-Qaida terrorist organization, Osama bin Laden was soon named the prime suspect in the 9/11 attacks and President Bush quickly vowed he would be captured “dead or alive.”
Already wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 coordinated bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the 2000 suicide attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, bin Laden was the subject of a $25 million bounty offered by the United States.
NOW
Despite repeated speculation that bin Laden might have perished while on the run, al-Qaida's leader has continued to issue audio and video tapes referring to current events. CIA analyses of the tapes verify they have been made by bin Laden. Various theories have speculated he might be hiding in a variety of locations, including Pakistan, Afghanistan, Sudan or Saudi Arabia.
In July 2006, National Public Radio and The New York Times reported that a decade-old CIA unit named Alec Station -- whose mission was to hunt bin Laden and his top lieutenants -- was disbanded in late 2005. While a former official in charge of the unit, Michael Scheuer, called the move a mistake, a CIA spokeswoman said \"the efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever.\"
In September 2007, the Binladin Group -- a giant construction firm with close ties to the Saudi royal family founded by bin Laden’s father -- responded to lawsuits filed over 9/11, arguing that it should not be held liable for the terrorist attacks because it had forced bin Laden to surrender his stake in the company 14 years earlier.
Bin Laden’s most recent video, the first in three years, was released the same month, a few days before the sixth anniversary of Sept. 11. In it, he criticized the Democratic Party for failing to put an end to the conflict in Iraq and for and the Bush administration for initiating it. No specific threat was made.
In an audiotape released in March 2008, bin Laden accused Pope Benedict XVI of leading a “new crusade” against Islam, a claim dismissed by the Vatican.
NATO troops continue to look for al-Qaida’s chief and other Taliban forces in the rugged region that lies between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In a recent discussion with televangelist the Rev. Rick Warren, John McCain said that, if he became president of the U.S., he would follow bin Laden “to the gates of hell” and “bring him to justice.”
Salim Hamdan, bin Laden’s former driver and a Guantanamo Bay detainee for more than five years, was recently the subject of the first U.S. war-crimes trial in 50 years. The judge called him a “small player” in al-Qaida and gave him an additional 66 months in prison. Hamdan admitted to having driven bin Laden in Afghanistan but said that he did not know that the al-Qaida leader was a terrorist when he was hired.
";
// END editorial data