the world watched in horror as two planes flew into two trade center, killing thousands. we remember those who dies honoring the men and women who keep the nation safe, and reflecting on america's resilience. we will have live coverage from articled the country this morning. ceremonies are set to get underway in washington and here in new york, where the former world trade center once stood, a new tower which is set to be completed early next year, now watches over lower manhattan.

what is the moot like there down this there morning. >> i believe it or not, there is just as many people walking to work, along broadway, and near church street as there are heading to this ceremony, it is a somber, a lot of people taking pictures a lot of the family members are now headed toward the memorial. there is a wall where they have set up the ceremony. the optional world towers and then the new world trade tower world trade center number one, essentially is just off to the side. so kiss clay, the rebuilding continues. it will pay some am imagine to that, but you will also hear tributes to the family members. 250 family members that will read the names of the more than 2700 victims who were killed. there will also be honor guards a children's

choir, singing the national anthem, so all of the elements you may expect of a ceremony will be taking place. but more somber because it is number 12, it is no a 10 or a 5, you don't have many v. i.p.es other than the mayor and police chief, and this is almost becoming routine here in lower manhattan. what is the one memory that sticks out the most for you, because you were at the pentagon. >> yeah i was on the key bridge when the plane went down and hit the side of the pentagon. my one memory was chaos. and then trying to use my cell phone to put in calls that all cell phones were dead, and was able to convince the taxi cabdriver because the side where the office was was not hit. was able to get into the office and phone in and say yes, people here say that the building was hit, perhaps by an

airplane. it was just an unbelievable memory. nothing has to suffer on that day. >> david live from lower manhattan, thank you very much. relatives of those killed on 9/11 will also gather in pennsylvania, that's where united flight crashed after passengers on that plane fought back against the hijackers. you are looking now at a live shot of that site. a groundbreaking ceremony was held on tuesday for a new national memorial. >> 12 years ago, that's a lot of time. >> it is. but then there's moments when crow look back and the pain and the anguish of the events related of the day seem like it was yesterday. >> gordon felps is one of the driving forces behind the national memorial. he lost his brother here

when the 757 crashed upside down going more that are 500 miles per hour. >> i miss my brother. and i miss the fact that his children have grown up without a dad. and i hope that this memorial can serve to educate people, about the human loss. >> they are already exists a memorial plaza a wall of names memorial groves and a field of honor. the new plans include a visitor center, conceived of a place of learning and incite, it will be located on that hill, jeff looking the crash site. the flight 93 is being wound up, the friends of flight 93 will raise funds from here on in, not surprisingly the commissions last meeting in nearby summer set was very emotional. >> step years was not a long time at all to develop the memorial to the extent that we have, we are starting as you saw in my program from a

site that had serious environmental brocks. no sewage, no roads and now design, it took the family members a year to even come together and start talking about ideas for this memorial. >> and this is the moment the families have been waiting for, a ground breaking ceremony for the new visitors center, and learning center, everyone joined in, led by the interior secretary. >> all this is just the beginning, now the friends of flight 93 will jeff see things. >> the friends group is the support group that will continue to raise funds to help support on going needs for the park. >> so far this year 190,000 visitors have come to shanksville, 2 million people since september 2001, the friends of flight 93 hope the new construction will increase numbers significantly, as the extraordinary story of flight 93 goes on being told.

john joins us live, what is the mood like there. >> morgan, well, as you could expect, particularly after yesterday and the build up to today, the national anniversary, it is rather somber, and i think that it is not helped by the fact that today just like 12 jeers ago is a beautiful day, you can see the sun coming up and behind me here, not so much now, but early this morning the memorial was shrouded in mist. so the mood here is somber, they are preparing themes to hear the reading of the names and the tolling of the bells but they are looking forward as well to the time when that visitors center and learning center are completed in 2015. >> john, thank you so much for being with us. after then, americans have had to adjust to a very different way of life. on a national security level as well as political and international levels. ginning us now in our

studio, columnist for foreign affairs magazine, and taylor malllor, research fellow and national securities studies at the new american foundation. to start us off, can you draw a pot tom line? since 9/11, we are here 12 years now, right now is the u.s. as safe as it could be. >> i think after 9/11 we saw a series of reforms go into place, from creating the director of -- and a number of changes within the system, i think all of these over time have led us to overall be safer. we haven't seen a foreign motivated attack take place on domestic soil. we had the boston marathon bombings that came from individuals located within the united states, so i think while we are overall safer and the nature of the threat has evolved, security is never perfect. ten there's always still the chance. there's an inevidentability of intelligence failure, and there will always be that risk that an individual, or foreign group can attack the united states.

>> and speaking of that, where would you say the political and moral authority of the u.s. now stands. >> i think it is fairly clear, it stands rather low, doesn't it. you mite not have given the same answer a week ago that you would today. but it's hard to avoided a conclusion that this debate we have been having about syria, shows howdies enganged the american people are from foreign affairs. how almost distainful they are towards the world. totally putting aside what the outcome is, it is striking to me when i think about -- i have a book shelf full of books that were written at 9/11, that say that america is traditionally not only strong, but even an aggressive country, americans are from mars, americans use military solutions. now we see this propound disengangment from the world, that's i think created the question of what does the united states does in syria.

when you look at the polls people will say not only that i think it is a bad idea, to enter syria, which is a super tough call, put any form of endangerment, the idea that quite has a global role, if there is anybody that is doing to try to deal with international problems the quite has to be in the forefront of that. people think that's just wrong. they don't want to be there. >> you mentioned this distain, but then that begs the very natural question, where are the greatest weaknesses in our national security system right now? how difficult would it be for a silent well organized effort to completely cripple our defense system? >> sure, i think there are probably two weaknesses, one would be the in80 to prevent an lone actor hometown terror is from taking some sort of action, in terms of domestic terror imor a foreign actor who is already in the united states. ten a small cell would be very difficult to stop. there's not as much coordination, communication, and the second i think cyber which is the real new

area. we haven't seen an attack with kinetic effects here, but there are an infinite amount of targets, to energy infrastructure to the electrical power friday to emergency responders. so that's a real vulnerable, but also an area from the quite is putting in a lot of investment. more so than any other area, so i'd say that's the biggest sort of area, but we also have the most amount of resources doing towards it. >> staying with us to discuss that is dr. james trout, you will both be staying with us this morning as we lead up to the 9/11 ceremony. on the same day the nation pauses to remember 9/11, president obama may be embarking on a diplomatic path to resolve the situation. last night mr. obama addressed the nation, saying he had not ruled out taking military action, against the asaad regime, but the president at said he is willing to consider a plan that called for syria to give up its chemical weapons.

he urged -- saying it send as very clear message. >> i determined that it is in the nation security interest of the united states to respond to the asaad regime's use of chemical weapons to a targeted military strike. the purpose of this strike would be to deter asaad from using chemical weapons, to degrade his regime's birth to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their cruise. >> the president has asked the senate to delay his request, to authorize military force allowing diplomacy to play out. our white house correspondent is now live in washington, good morning, mike. >> good morning, morgan. there weren't a lot of surprises in lavrov night's speech, what we heard for the most part is what we had heard from the president and secretary of state officials on down the line as they have been keeping on that full court press not only trying to turn around

public preponderance, but trying to turn the tide in congress against military strikes. he layed out some of the intelligence we have heard before. where they landed some of the communications around those launches. the president repeated again, that it is in the united states core national interest to deter and degrayed bashar al-asaad's ability to deploy those weapons. on the other hand, as he is making the case for military strikes he is also holding out the possibility for a diplomatic solution, and do that end he has asked congress to put aside its deliberations on authorizations the r a strike, all the resolution that is they are considering around that in the senate right now as it is moved towards some sort of vote in the senate, but at the same time, the leadership has put aside that vote, while it looks to that solution, to see if this deal will in fact bear fruit.

they believe it was the threat that brought them to the trail to begin with. >> what's the republican reaction to the president's address. >> i think on both sides of the aisle, there's a sense of relief. not just in the last couple of weeks, but over the course of the last two years says he is very skeptical that a strike would actually do much good or he skeptical that this deal is going to go anywhere. how, he says there is no choice but to see if it does. thank you so much, mike live in washington. and france has draft add resolution, aimed at forcing syria to go public about its chemical weapons program. meanwhile, russia is coming up with its own proposal, for more on the strategy, james joins us

now from the u.s. in new york. james, just hours after president obama's address, the u.n. release add report accusing both sides in syria of human rights violations can you tell us about that. >> this report, very trim reading, detailing a catalog of appalling crimes, executions, hostage taking taking place in syria. this only covers a three hospital period, may to july. these are regular reports very drill reading showing that the brutality in syria is just getting worse every single day. >> most of the diplomacy here is on hold.

we have that draft resolution, we have the russians who we believe have their own plan, but i believe everybody is pausing here, waiting for what happens in geneva. secretary of state john kerry has known serj guy lavrov for a very long time. there is hope, just some here, that maybe they can find a way forward. >> thank you so much. >> their perversion of their religious beliefs, that's what i believe. i have a son that went to fight for this reason.

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are on guard.er pause we we won't let our guard down again. but hopefully the things that we have done that went overboard, in trying to make us safer that didn't make us safer put just made us less free were started to get rid of. when two planes crash intoed the twin towers, hundreds of heroic first responders rushed into help, dr. hillary is a

trauma surgeon who was at the word trade center on 9/11, thank you for being with us this morning. >> good morning, morgan. >> good morning, how and when did you realize the magnitude of what had happened that day. >> well, i was at a board review course, for surgery on 7th after and thirty-first street with 180 other surgeons when late in the morning around 10:20, somebody whispered into the lecturer's ear that something horrible had happened, and he couldn't go on the speakers in the room were hooked to television, and the bits of information came out that the twin towers had been hit. >> now, given that, just one moment, one scene stand out the most? >> very much so.

a few minutes later some came in and asked for volunteers at the scene. took us past the saint vincent hospital, and a new york police officer stopped the bus and said i need four trauma surgeons and they put us in north shore ambulances and took us to within a few politics and by then, both towers had fallen. the area was deserted. we ran into a fire captain and we said we are doctors taketous the command center. and he said the command center was destroyed. put after seeing that command center destroyed, given everything you just described and everything you have seen, now when you look at the current state of our nation today, what's the one thing you would want to share?

although how horrible that moment was, the homeless man came up to me and he gave me a cup of water, a man with nothing, gave comfort to me, so i would say to people that hope and faith and courage are the themes for going forward. >> comfort, and courage, thank you so much for joining us this morning. after two planes hit the world trade center on 9/11, a third plane american airlines flight 77 crashed into the pentagon causing part of the western side of the building to completely collapse, and this is a live look at the pentagon. president obama and the first lady will attend a private observance where family members to remember the lives lost there. and let's get a look at the national forecast, to see if the weather will be an issue for today's 9/11 services. meteorologist nicole mitchell joins us for that. >> the quick answer is overall we are not going do see that problem out there.

what we are going to see is that we over the next couple of days will have sunny skies into parts of the northeast, and we are going to have dry skies as well. ten that's a little bit of good news. places like albany, at 92 degrees, we are going to see as we get to the mid wet, this is where temperatures have cool add little bit, but then we get into the oath recess a 60's, that front is also in northern parts of the northeast, we could see some chances for showers and storms. that's going to be or one other area of concern. we are looking at especially from new

mexico into colorado, those are the biggest threats today for possible flash flooding. and then a quick look at the tropics. almost have a record for having that so late in the season, this disturbance headed towards the bay, could develop but will also bring moisture in that direction. >> thank you so much, nicole. >> with 9/11 means to me is a lot of our freedom in the united states has gone. >> and you do not feel safe in the united states any more. like we all did before. ç]

>> . >> 9/11 means that we were violated as a nation, by another nation, for their religious beliefs, their perversion of their religious believes. that's what i belief in. i have a son that went to fight. for this reason. >> theser men field of

honor is set to get underway, and just a reminder that al jazeera will have live extended coverage, joining us again in our studio is james. columnist for foreign affairs. research fellow in the securities. the anniversary of someone dying can is tough when you have more than 2,000 people that were killed here, and a family members will be here. one world trade center, the main tower is not yet complete, even though the

exterior is finished, there is still squabbles over the memorial and museum under ground, between the family members and the board, in term oz f what sort of artifacts and story should be told there, and then you have some pieces that are complete, put it's still very much of an incomplete project, and that seems to craig things out longer than the families have anticipated. >> thank you so much, david, and the question we have for you today is since 9/11. have we seen a fair return on our investment. >> i think we have seen a fair return on our investment in the fact that we haven't had another large scale foreign driven attack, however, again, going back we have seen cyber attacks from the electronic army. we have seen attacks emanating from china, so there's definitely attempts that are being directed at the united states, and also domestically we have seen terror plots. so we saw a then airplane

plot thwarted by the c.i. f. a few years ago, we saw our embassador attacks in benghazi and killed. and we have seen attacks throughout the region. we may be safer here at home, but americans and werners in the area where these groups operate from am ida and iraq, in pakistan, and all these groups overseas are still targeting western interests there. >> where individuals were killed tara just mentioned a bunch of problems we have seen, with syria now in the spotlight, what is our standing now given that? >> you know, it's really frustrating to americans to understand how badly they are seen in the arab world. it's fact. i was just -- i spent this past weekend in abu dhabi, i teach a class there, and i said to my students, now, abu dhabi is the most pro-american

country many the region. and they -- the government are opposed to the syrian government, strong american ally. and so i said okay, do you think obama should go ahead with these air strikes. all but one of them said no, because the united states has no right to be doing that, because the united states should not be meddling in the middle east, i thought wow, if these kids that represent the most pro-american slice of people, think that way, what does that tell you about the rest of the population. so barack obama came to office vowing to change the way the united states was seen in the middle east. and what are reason you assign to the failure, there is no question that has not happened. >> no question that hasn't happened. we know it is a sad day there, but is there any optimism? >> sure, there's a lot of optimism, simply because if you look at the number of people heading down to wall street, new york has recovered in terms of the

business, but the city has bounced back. >> thank you, david. for joining us.