9/11 TWENTY YEARS ON: Boris Johnson tells the nation ‘terrorism failed’

That is the message Prime Minister Boris Johnson will give to the country today, as the world recalls the nearly 3,000 human being who died as a result of the air hijackings.

The first plane hit the World Trade Centre at 8.46am, local time, and Flight 93 struck a field amid a passenger uprising at 10.03am, ending the attacks. According to CNN, US President Joe Biden “is not planning to deliver major public remarks”.

Instead he will have a “muted presence”, will lay wreaths, observe moments of silence, and appear in a White House video released today (Washington is five hours behind GMT).

It adds that “aides contemplated an address, but ultimately decided against” it.

In an address which will be played to a memorial event at the Olympic Park in east London today, the contents of which were circulated to journalists last night, Mr Johnson (inset) will say: “Twenty years ago, September 11 2001 became, in President Roosevelt’s words after Pearl Harbour, a ‘date which will live in infamy’.

“On a crystal clear morning, terrorists attacked the United States... and by inflicting such bloodshed in the world’s greatest democracy, they tried to destroy the faith of free peoples everywhere in the open societies which terrorists despise and we cherish.

“And it is precisely because of the openness and tolerance of the US that people of almost every nationality and religion were among the 2,977 murdered on that day, including 67 Britons, each of them a symbol of the eternal friendship between the UK and US.

“But while the terrorists imposed their burden of grief and suffering, and while the threat persists today, we can now say with the perspective of 20 years that they failed to shake our belief in freedom and democracy; they failed to drive our nations apart, cause us to abandon our values, or to live in permanent fear.

“The fact that we are coming together today – in sorrow but also in faith and resolve – demonstrates the failure of terrorism and the strength of the bonds between us.

“Recent events in Afghanistan only strengthen our determination to remember those who were taken from us, cherish the survivors and those who still grieve and hold fast to our belief in liberty and democracy, which will always prevail over every foe.”