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Dedication of September 11 Memorial Garden

On September 11, 2006, the U.S. Embassy in Abu Dhabi held a special event to dedicate a Memorial Garden for those killed in the terrorist attacks on 9/11 and for all victims of terrorist attacks around the world. Ambassador Michele J. Sison, H.E. Eminence Al Sayyed Ali Al Hashimi, Religious Affairs Advisor to the President and Chaplain Juan M. Diphe spoke at the dedication ceremony. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, Dr. John Hillen, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, Daniel Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Ahmed Saeed and a number of guests from the local Diplomatic Corp and community attended the event. H.E. Eminence Al Sayyed Ali Al Hashimi expressed his condolences to relatives of the innocent victims that died on that day and called on all to “assume the responsibility of building a better world.” Chaplain Juan Diphe asked that we trust in God “to give us healing hearts, the wisdom, the patience, and the know-how to have and bring peace among all people.”

Ambassador Michele J. Sison: Honored Guests, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning.

We are honored by your presence here at our Embassy.

I warmly welcome you to a dedication ceremony for a memorial garden which will mark the 5th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 – a day on which some 3,000 innocent persons from more than 90 nations lost their lives in tragic circumstances.

This ceremony is intended to honor and remember those who lost their lives in this event and indeed, to remember all who have lost their lives as a result of the scourge of terrorism in so many places around the globe: in Karachi, in Bali, in Istanbul, in Madrid and Sharm al Sheikh, in London, and in Amman and elsewhere.

That date, that event, 9/11, was such a turning point that none of us will ever forget what we were doing when we first heard the seemingly unbelievable news of two airplanes full of passengers crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York, followed by another airliner’s suicide attack on the Pentagon and a fourth plane’s crashing into the Pennsylvania countryside with all lives lost. It was a day of enormous pain and suffering for the entire world and a time of immense grief for the families, friends and colleagues of those who perished.

But friends, that September morning five years ago was also a day on which we discovered that much more unites us as citizens of this world than divides us. Across all borders, we share a common humanity. While the languages we speak or the way we worship the Almighty may be different, people everywhere aspire to speak their minds, worship freely, live in peace and security, and pursue education, employment, and opportunities for their families, their children and their future.

The War on Terror in which we are now engaged is a fight for values and principles that are universal. While all major religions, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and other world faiths, share a commitment to social justice, compassion and concern for the welfare of the community, the hateful Ideology of Extremism uses a perverted religiosity to promote an agenda of murder, terror, and violence that is abhorrent to all of us, that is always wrong, and that contradicts the teachings of the world's great religions.

So while we look back at the events of September 11, 2001, we also want to look forward in a spirit of enduring global partnership with a pledge to work together to create a more peaceful and prosperous world.

At this time I would like to ask our five special guests who have joined alongside me to assist in dedicating the memorial garden…
First, Chaplain Juan Diphe, I would like to invite you, Father Juan, to place a shovelful of soil in the first of 5 Flame of the Wood shrubs in the memorial garden that we dedicate today in memory of the lives lost on 9/11.
Father Juan is a U.S. Air Force reservist, born in the Republic of Panama.

Truly a citizen of the world, Father Juan’s father was a Swiss diplomat and his mother from Martinique.

Father Juan has been a priest for 32 years and has served been in the US Air Force for 20 years; he has a PhD in Psychology and is from the State of Montana.

This bush marks not only 9/11 2001, but remembers also the victims of terror in 2002- victims such as Daniel Pearl in Karachi in January 2002, the victims at the church bombing in Islamabad in March 2002, and of course the 202 individuals killed in Bali, Indonesia, on October 12, 2002.

Next, to place the second plant, I would like to call upon Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Dr. John Hillen to do the honors. Dr. Hillen, the distinguished author of several books on international security and a decorated former Army officer, is in charge of the State Department’s international security policy.

John was actually working in Manhattan two blocks from the World Trade Center on the day of the 9/11 attacks and thus witnessed the terrible event and its aftermath first hand.

This bush represents those lives lost due to terror in 2003- the truck bombs in Riyadh in May that killed 35, the suicide bombers in Casablanca, Morocco in May who killed 43, the car bomb outside the Marriott in Jakarta that killed 10, and of course the attacks in Istanbul in November that killed 25 outside of synagogues and on November 20, the truck bombs that killed 27 at the British Consulate and HSBC bank in Istanbul.

To assist with the third planting I would like to invite Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Dan Sullivan, who was in town for the Iraq Compact Meetings.

Assistant Secretary Sullivan has responsibility at the State Department for international trade and investment policy and international finance policy. Dan comes to the State Department from the National Security Council. A Marine Corps infantryman, he was called from the reserves to active duty in 2005 and 2006 as a strategic advisor to the Commander of US Central Command, and in fact visited Abu Dhabi last in that capacity.

This tree reminds us of those who perished in 2004, in the Madrid commuter train bombing of March 11, in which more than 190 were killed and 1,900 injured; the car bombs at three Egyptian Red Sea resorts that killed 34 on October 7, 2004 and the December 6 attack in Jeddah at the US Consulate that killed 5 of our colleagues.

Next, I would like to ask Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Ahmed Saeed, who through his work with the Broader Middle East and North Africa initiative is creating economic growth and jobs and thus helping to combat the underlying causes of despair in many parts of the world. Ahmed will place the fourth plant.

This shrub memorializes those who lost their lives in 2005, those who perished on July 7 in London in the bus and subway attacks, in which 56 were killed. We also remember those who died at Sharm al Sheikh in Egypt… 88 dead, and those who perished in Amman, Jordan at the hotel wedding attack… where some 60 lives were lost.

And, finally, we are indeed especially honored to have with us again this morning, as he was for last year’s memorial ceremony, His Excellency, Eminence Al Sayyed Ali Al Hashimi, the esteemed Religious Advisor to His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE.

Your Eminence, we are reminded that His Highness the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan, the founding father of the UAE, personally called President George Bush just after 9/11 to express his heartfelt sympathy for the loss of life. It was Sheikh Zayed's well-known conviction that "the most precious wealth of a country resides in its human beings" for whom all necessary care, welfare and security should be provided and protected. He is greatly missed, but his spirit remains with us. Your Eminence, we would be pleased if you will assist us with the 5th memorial plant.

This tree is planted in the memory of those who have died this year, 2006 - Those who perished in March at the US Consulate in Karachi, Pakistan and in Dahab, Egypt on April 24.

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you.

Your Eminence, we look forward to your words of wisdom to formally close this morning's Ceremony of Remembrance and Dedication.