09/17/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10135

FOREIGN VICTIMS OF 9-11

On September 11^th, 2001, al-Qaida terrorists attacked the United States, destroying the World Trade Center in New York City and damaging the Pentagon outside Washington. Most of the more than three-thousand men, women, and children killed in those attacks were Americans. But citizens of more than ninety countries were also murdered.

Sixty-seven of the victims were British citizens. As Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair told a special session of Parliament, "Murder of British people in New York is no different in nature from their murder here in the heart of Britain itself."

Among the non-U.S. citizens killed on September 11^th were people of many races, religious faiths, and walks of life. Zuhtu Ibis [zoo-too i-bish], a young computer engineer from Turkey, left behind a wife and small child. Ruth McCourt, an Irish businesswoman, died with her four-year-old daughter Juliana when their United Airlines flight 175 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center. Other passengers on flight 175 included Alona Avraham, a manufacturing engineer from Israel; Heinrich Kimmig, a German business executive; and Ana Pocasangre de Barrera, an exporter from El Salvador.

Jan Prakash [jun pruh-kash], an Indian computer software expert, ran down seventy floors to escape the collapse of a World Trade Center tower. But over two hundred of his fellow Indians did not escape. Mohammad Salman Hamdani [hahm-dahn-ee] was an American citizen born in Karachi, Pakistan. He was proud of his Muslim heritage. A researcher at Rockefeller University, he was a part-time police cadet and ambulance driver. Like many emergency services personnel, he died on September 11^th trying to save others. Nigerian immigrant Godwin Ajala [god-win ah-jah-lah] was among the first to go to the aid of the wounded after the first tower was hit. He was pulled from the rubble three days later. The next day, he died.

Americans honor the memory of those of other nations who died with U.S. citizens in the September 11^th attacks. "Time is passing," said President George W. Bush. "Yet for the United States of America there will be no forgetting September the 11^th. We will remember every rescuer that died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief." As for the terrorists responsible for these savage attacks, "there is no immunity, and there can be no neutrality."