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UPDATED: 16 Jan 2008 GMT
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Speeches 2007

Commemoration of the 6th Anniversary of the September 11, 2001, Attacks in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania

VENUE: Flagpole, U.S. Mission, Dar es Salaam

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Remarks by Ambassador Mark Green

Good afternoon. I want to thank everyone for joining me for this brief ceremony. Six years ago today, as we all remember, terrorists attacked America. I think most of us can recall where we were when we heard the terrible news . . . I certainly can. I was on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.

It was a terrible day, in so many ways. I remember fielding phone calls from people desperately looking for word of their loved ones who may have been working in the Pentagon or in the World Trade Center. I remember looking in horror at the television screens showing images of the twin towers burning.

But I also remember standing on the steps of the Capitol later that day with a group of congressmen and senators from all parts of the country and all parts of the political spectrum. We stood shoulder to shoulder to show the world that we were united, and unafraid. At one point, we spontaneously broke into singing, "God Bless America."

As we gather here today, thousands of miles from the Pentagon, New York’s financial district, and the fields of Pennsylvania, we also remember that the tragedy of that Tuesday morning six years ago was not merely an American one. There were innocent victims from all over the world.

While no Tanzanians were killed in the 9/11 attacks, there were victims from African countries including Cote d'Ivoire...Ethiopia...The Gambia...Ghana...Kenya... Liberia...Malawi...Nigeria...South Africa...Togo...and Zambia. The victims of 9/11 were Christians...Moslems... Jews. They were believers and non-believers. They were loved ones, family members and friends, partners and colleagues.

The loss is a sad reminder of both the inhumanity of their terrorist mass murderers and the shared challenges we face against an ideology of hate, destruction, and death. Terrorism has no justification. The intentional killing of innocent civilians is a perversion of everyone’s spiritual values and accomplishes nothing but despair, suffering and hatred.

Of course, 9/11 was not the first terrorist murder of peace loving people. Just a few weeks ago, we marked the ninth anniversary of another terrible day – the day that extremists used terrorism to strike at innocent people right here in Dar es Salaam and also in Nairobi. Again, the victims were innocent going about their normal daily life.

Just as we stood on the Capitol steps on 9/11 to sing “God Bless America” as a way of showing that we would not back down or surrender to terrorists, let’s use today, and our work here in this Embassy to show that we’re united – Americans and Tanzanians – against extremists in the world today.

There is no greater calling.

I believe that the struggle against ideology-driven terrorism is the great challenge of this generation. We are fighting it with soldiers and military strength. Our young men and women in uniform are the finest in the world.

But we also know that to prevail, we must attack the conditions that all too often seem to give terrorists an opening. Terrorism breeds among those who fear the future. It breeds among men who fear equal rights for women. It breeds among those who fear the rule of law and anyone who questions their tyranny. Terrorism is fed by despair, a lack of freedom, and a lack of hope. On the other hand, extremism cannot survive where seeds of hope have been sown. Terrorists will find no place to hide where those seeds are cared for and cultivated.

This Embassy, this mission community, is a place where we work closely with our Tanzanian friends to sow those seeds of hope and opportunity. The members of the embassy team, each of you here today, and those that can’t be here with us at this remembrance, each of you plays a vital role in this cause. Your work is a tribute to the victims of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the fields of Pennsylvania, the embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and other sites of terrorist violence.

Now I would ask that you join me, and let us pause for a moment of silence, to pray for those whose lives were lost and for those family members whose lives forever changed six years ago today.

Asanteni sana. Thank you.