any military -- >> that it is in the national security interests of the united states to respond to the assad regimes use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike. the purpose of this strike would be to deter assad from using chemical weapons. to degrade his regime's ability to use them, and to make clear to the world that we will not tolerate their use. >> randall pinkston has been following the story on capitol hill. and what have you heard? >> secretary of state john kerry will be meeting in geneva with the person who is saying he is going to work out a deal with syria to take control of those chemical weapons. according to a report from moscow, he is presenting or will present secretary kerry with the

plan for gaining control of those chemical weapons. the matter is also supposed to go before the united nations. the french reportedly are working on a resolution, along with china. russia and china here to for have not permitted any retaliation against syria. the skeptics are still wondering whether russia is serious, or whether it is just helping its ally syria buy time. and that is the reason, as you have pointed out that president obama is keeping the possibility of the use of military force and military strike against syria on the table in retaliation for the use of those chemical weapons that killed more than 1200 people. >> we saw an interesting image coming out of washington, that being all of the members of the house and senate coming down the steps to observe september 11th,

'12 years ago. it seems like washington is welcoming the pause is well. is that a safe assessment? >> well, certainly today everyone is taking a pause to remember the tragedy back in 2001. whether that moment of unity will carry over to syria and other domestic issues is a very open question. we know that the senate is not going to be calling up the resolution for a vote. the resolution on the use of military force. we know senators are working on some amendments to the resolution that was approved by the senate foreign relations committee last week. in response to president obama's speech last night where he said he was asking lawmakers to take a pause, some senators are saying that the president's speech didn't go far enough, didn't spell out enough details on how he would force assad to

hand over the chemical weapons. senators graham and mccain both republicans, both who have been wanting more active engagement, are saying they wanted to see more details as well, specifically details about how the u.s. is going to support anti-assad actions. but we can hope, dell. >> randall pinkston, thank you very much. and as we watch those images that randall was talk about, the moment of unity, it didn't last long last night, this is john mccain, a frequent critic of the white house talk about how he is concerned, worried about any

diplomatic deal with the russians. >> the russians have sent plane load after plane load of convention weapons into syria, that has helped assad, and hezbollah and others, and has tipped the balance from a favorable situation for the syrian army is in, to save forable to assad. >> as was the case some 12 years ago on the day of september 11th, this day 12 years later, the world is debating who it should get involved in the middle east. on this day many are days a day off to remember what happened. they continue to read the names at the world trade center site where they began this morning around 8:30, and they will continue for another 26 minutes until all of the names are read. our david shuster is at the

world trade center memorial site. david it has been quite the emotional day. >> reporter: yeah, a lot of emotions for family members, police, firefighters, and dell it's worth pointing out that this is perhaps the last of the memorial ceremony of its kind, in that next year they will not be doing it next to a construction zone. after 12 years it appears they are finally closing in on the finishing congress on the iconic building that is to be the heart of this. they have finished the reflecting pools and are working on a museum. the fact it has dragged on this long as caused some angst to the family members and firefighters. where do things stand? here is a closer look. >> reporter: 12 years after 9/11, much of the site known as

ground zero remains under construction, but progress is being made. the 9/11 reflecking pools are open, there are water falls with the names of the 2,753 victims etched in the granite. nearby and underneath the plaza, workers are still building the 9/11 museum. it will be filled with sobering images of the original structures and pictures and stories. and one world trade center is nearly complete. this sky scraper marks the year of independence by design. from the start officials refused to consider rebuilding the twin

towers in any fashion. the project and skyline many victim's families prefer. instead they decided to hold coon test to come up with a new design. fibls selected a design by a man, an architect who never built anything higher than four towers. but building engineers pointed out the sky scraper violated fundamental laws of physics. and the police added the plan was unsafe and would be vulnerable to terror attacks. larry silversteen complained about the limits in office space that could be rented. officials tasked this architect with revising the project. in 2005 childs unveiled a new freedom tower plan. the first steel beam was

installed in 2006, and by 2008, the concrete core began to rise and construction reached street level. in 2009 as part of a new marketing effort, officials changed the name from freedom tower to one world trade center. three years ago, by 2010 the tower reached the halfway point and the spire on top was put in place. they signed leases with a chinese company, non-dy nast, and offices belonging to new york state. but about half of the offices are still unrented. still to come the adjacent sky scraper is nearly ready to open. three world trade is also under

construction. and there is one more waiting to be built when the business economy of manhattan improves. this is one world trade center. and adjacent to one world trade center are the footprints, the memorials and eventually the museum underneath. the cost has been astronomical by all accounts, for the iconic tower, the final cost is estimated to be $4 billion, b, billion dollars. it will make it the most expensive building ever constructed and because of the incredible cost for security to reinforce the building to make sure if a plane were to hit this one, it would not collapse, because it is so expensive, the rent is extremely high. 15% higher than the average for skyscrapers in new york. it remains controversial and will be controversial for years

to come. dell? >> david shuster thank you very much. throughout the day we have tried to bring you a different perspective as we look back 12 years later. we have been to afghanistan, iraq, turkey, you saw david shuster in new york, mike viqueira in washington, and now we turn to john terrett, in shanksville, pennsylvania. john? >> dell, i wanted to make the point how ironic that david shuster was talk about construction coming to an end, because here in shanksville it is really just getting going, because they have raised money to extend this to a visitor center and a learning center.

take a look. 12 years john gone that's a lot of time, isn't it? >> it is, but then there's moments when you look back at the pain and anguish of the events seem like it was yesterday. >> reporter: gordon felts lost his brother here when the 757 crashed upside down going more than 500 miles per hour. >> i miss my brother, and i -- i -- i miss the fact that his children have grown up without a dad. and i hope that -- that this memorial can serve to ed indicated people about the human loss. >> reporter: there already exists a memorial plaza, a wall of names, memorial groves, and feel of honor. the new plans include a visitor center conceived as a place of

learning and incite, and it will be located on that hill overlooking the flight 93 crash site. the federal advisory commission is being wrapped up. the commission's last meeting was very emotional. >> ten years was not a long time at all to develop the memorial to the extent we have. from a site that had serious environmental problems, no suage, no water, no roads, and no design. it took the family members a year to come together and start talking about ideas for this memorial. >> reporter: and this is the moment the families have been waiting for. everyone joined in, lead by the interior secretary, sally jewell. now the friends of flight 93

will oversee things. >> we'll continue to raise funds to help support ongoing needs for the park. >> reporter: 2 million people have visited since 2001. the friends of flight 93 hope the new construction will increase visitor numbers extraordinari extraordinarily. they hope when we're all back here in 2015, we'll be looking at the brand new visitor and learning senator. i would like to show you something that our camera can show you. we're going to take you down the flight line of flight 93. the white wall represents where the jet passed over, and the rock at the end is where it crashed. and earlier a very emotional scene here with the family members gathered around the

rock. they have three sealed coffins, and in those coffins the remains that have been excavated from the field of honor. dell, back to you. >> it was 12 years ago that the nation caused to look back on how many things had changed. 12 years later we look back and see that so much has changed in our every day lives, and i was thinking as i was watching john's package there, that 12 years ago we would run to the airport at the last minute expecting to catch our flight. these days cameras are everywhere, and the nsa has become a household name. tara maller has spent her career since 9/11 studying national security, cyber security. how much has changed since that day? >> a lot has changed. i remember coming up on capitol

hill pre9/11, where you could just walk in an airport and not have your bags checked. so i think a lot as changed. i think we see this in terms of security in terms of our infrastructure, in terms of cyber security and in airports since 9/11 as well. >> is it a good thing that we're seeing this change? are we safer? >> we have definitely put a lot of resources into protecting these sites. it seems like we have been rewarded for the investments we have made. but as we saw in the boston bombings it only takes one person with bad intentions and in that case what was a homemade device. but there have been a lot of other materials to warrant, you

know, stores looking for us ispy house behavior. but you are never going to be 100% safe. all it takes is one person with one crude device that can wreak a lot of havoc. >> and perhaps of more concern to today's generation, one person with a laptop. on september 11th, there was a debate that one of reasons the united states was struck is because it was looking in the rearview mirror. have we hardened our cyber defenses as a nation? >> i think we have definitely put the focus on it a lot, so even though we haven't caught up on all of the defenses in that area, it was listed as a number 1 threat to our security right now. i just came back from a conference in china talking about cyber diplomacy, and also

with groups like the syrian electronic army. but again the amount of targets are infinite, so people and individuals need to take their own steps and measures as well. the private sector is also vulnerable. it's also about banks and financial institutions, and media outlets. >> what are the soft targets now with regards to a cyber strike? what are the targets that america and the rest of the world are ignoring? >> i don't know about ignoring, but the soft targets would be the banking and financial institutions. >> meaning what? the bank goes down and then we come back on tuesday and get our money back. >> that would be unexample. but like with the hacking incident with the syrian electronic army, that caused the

dow to plunge. you can imagine something more serious where false information is responded to. or in another case the stealing of financial information. there has been a lot of discussion about the stealing of intellectual property. >> from a cyber security standpoint, is it time to walk back the information age to which now seems to be going ahead of lawmakers and regulators or has that horse already left the barn? >> i think the horse has left the barn. from 9/11 until now, i think it has been a rapid proliferation in terms of cyber vulnerabilities, post 9/11, i remember working and given an assignment to research cyber attacks. at the time it didn't mean

anything to me, nor did it to most people. this will be the threat to us in the upcoming years and decades. >> tara thing you very much. >> thank you. >> as we look at the live images that continue to pour in from the world trade center site, they continue reading the names. they began doing so at 8:46. that is when the first plane crashed into the north tower of the world trade center. and they will continue to do so for another 11 minutes until 12:30. as for us here at al jazeera, we continue to follow all of the day's news, including the fact that some missouri lawmakers are taking on the feds. it seems the show me state wants to show the federal government the door when it comes to gun laws. ♪

>> the missouri legislature says it might take the first shot at a potential legal battle with the federal government. lawmakers are set to vote on the governor's votto of a bill that would make it illegal to enforce federal gun laws. supporters say those laws infringe on the second amendment rights and the right to keep and bare arms. several police chiefs are speaking out against this bill. what has been their main concern? >> reporter: their main concern is safety. we talked to the st. louis city police chief earlier, he said if

the state legislature moves forward, we could see a dangerous indication, because he says criminals who normally would be prosecuted on the federal level would not have that same consequence now. so we could see a situation where criminals who may get the longer sentence may no longer have that. and this goes to the extreme, some people feel by putting up federal prosecution. it would allow fbi agents to be arrested and charged with a misdemeanor if they tried to enforce these gun laws. >> jonathan somehow i get the feeling it will not be long before we see a legal challenge. any idea when that will happen. >> reporter: in the state when they override a veto, the law

takes effect 30 days from then. so it likely that would happen within the first couple of weeks. we spoke to a couple of groups who are saying they do plan to file legislation, so it depends on what happens today with this vote that is happening this afternoon. >> the state attorney general has said the bill is unconstitutional, so what does he plan to do, i guess if the override happens. >> yeah, and dell, it is an ironic situation that the attorney general is in, because their job is to defend the laws of the state, but this one the tone general says i really don't agree with. so he plans to distance himself from this law if it is passed today. exactly what that means, we don't know. but he has spoken out saying that lawmakers need to go back and reread the law before they try to override this veto today.

>> john than thank you very much. in colorado two state lawmakers there have been kicked out of office for backing tighter gun control laws. they voted for tougher gun laws following last year's mass shootings. both are democrats. the nra saying it now seconds a clear message to lawmakers to protect gun rights. senator morse says he would not soften his stance. >> it was absolutely worth it. i said at the time if it costs me my political career, that's a small price to pay. we did the right thing. to richmond, california now, where that city's mayor has her controversial mortgage plan is now moving forward. it could be the first city in the nation to use imminent

domain to buy private mortgages from banks. residents with upside down mortgages will be able to refinance and then gain equity in their homes. the mayor says she is doing it to save her city. russia has put forth a plan to place syrian chemical weapons under international control. barnaby already big differences between russia and france, what is the latest from moscow? >> the russians are not telling us what is in their proposal, but i think we can safely assume where they and the americans are going to have differences at crucial talks which will begin in geneva on thursday, between john kerry and the russian foreign minister.

the russians do not want the finger of blame pointed at assad. they are concerned about any resolution backed up by the threat of force, and they are unhappy with the earlier french idea that those found guilty of the chemical attack on august 21st go before the international criminal court. what the russians are saying is we have produced a diplomatic break threw, the syrias are admitting they have chemical weapons, they are agreeing to hand over those weapons, so let each -- let's not ruin the progress we have made. >> and yet the white house says it will not take its finger off of the trigger, has moscow given any indication how it would respond if u.s. strikes go ahead?

>> well, the russians have said they would be extremely unhappy. they have stressed, and i think it's important to say this, that they have no desire whatsoever to get involved in any military configuration that might result, they fear as a consequence of an american attack. there has been speculation here of russia supplying more military support to the syrians. we know they have been giving them a lot of support over the past years, that i suspect would not stop. >> we spend so much time talking about what the diplomatic leaders have to say, and i know you satellite window is ending, so we will have to take this up at a later time. barnaby thing you very much. we're going to take you back live to new york where the window still exists. that's where we continue to look back 12 years after the 9/11 attacks that changed the way the

world looks at national security for so many for so long. this is what we heard from those who look back on their lives then and now. >> my father, we love and miss you always. >> and my beloved nephew, you were an inspiration to all who knew you. ♪