Obama Meets With 9/11 Families

President Obama met yesterday with families of victims of the 9/11 attacks, trying to allay some of their fears related to his first major decision as president to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center and halt trials for four months. The president listened to them speak for forty minutes and told the group, "This is not a goodbye—it's a hello...This is just the start of our dialogue." Jim Riches, an FDNY fire chief who lost a son in the attacks, wrote an op-ed in the Post about the experience saying, "He didn't dodge any questions. He came across as a likable guy, a regular guy. He's a very good speaker. I just hope he means what he says." Also at the meeting were relatives of 17 Navy sailors slain in the October 2000 Al Qaeda attack on the destroyer Cole in Yemen. One 9/11 victim's mother told the press said that yesterday was an opportunity many relatives had not had before saying that the Cole attack was "swept under the rug...Bush tried to sweep 9/11 under the rug, too."

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By Billy Parker in News on February 7, 2009 1:35 PM

Comments [rss]

Think2wice

"He didn't dodge any questions. He came across as a likable guy, a regular guy. He's a very good speaker. I just hope he means what he says."

The attack dogs of the Right have been talked off the ledge. The neocons are apoplectic.

adeez

Imagine how pissed they'll be when they discover it was an inside job.

chickblao

god i hate these 9-11 families.

they have no right to meet with the president about this more than anyone else.

longacre

god i hate these 9-11 families.

Sons of bitches whose parents and children got smashed into little bits. They have some nerve having opinions!

they have no right to meet with the president about this more than anyone else.

Actually if the President invites you the White House to meet with him, that gives you the right to meet with the President.

Smitty025

I don't believe anyone is saying they can't have opinions, the problem is that they are trying to make their opinions national policy simply by leveraging the emotional impact on the nation of a tragedy.

I think that every citizen has the right to meet with their leader, but unfortunately it simply isn't feasible when you have 300 million people wanting to meet one man. So I don't believe simply becuase the Obama wanted to see them, or was forced to see them because of political pressure, that they have any more right to see him than I do.

nicemarmot

Yeah they are seriously disgusting. Oh, your relative died tragically? So did tons of other peoples. And all those other people weren't entitled to big cash payouts. So shut the hell up and go home. Obama can't say it because of political repercussions but the rest of us New Yorkers certainly can.