Virtually all other world news, including the royal wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton, was displaced this week by the dramatic announcement by President Barack Obama on late Sunday night that American Special Forces – widely speculated to be Navy SEALs – had stormed a mansion in Abottabad, Pakistan and killed Osama bin Laden: leader of the terrorist organization al Qaeda; mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon that killed more than 3,000 people, and the world’s public enemy #1.
Four days after the news of bin Laden’s death, President Obama visited Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, where he met with family members of 9/11 victims and laid a wreath of red, white and blue flowers at the 9/11 memorial.
National Underwriter was in the crowd, among the thousands of New Yorkers who turned out to see the President and to share in a unique event where what is often termed “the saddest part of New York” turned, if only briefly, into the happiest.
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1. Security
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- Security was tight with a noticeable police presence. In addition to a small army of NYPD and Port Authority uniformed officers, numerous plainclothes officers mingled with the crowd. The Secret Service was also out in force. Sharpshooters were stationed on rooftops, but were not visible from ground level.
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- As President Obama’s arrival grew near, the Secret Service appeared in force, scanning the crowds and on high alert. Even when photographed from a distance, the Secret Service agents had an almost supernatural ability to sense they were being observed and homed in on anyone paying special attention to them.
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2. The media
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- National Underwriter associate editor Michael K. Stanley interviewed a number of bystanders on how 9/11 changed their views on the need for preparedness. Several people noted that immediately after the 9/11 attacks, they reviewed – and usually upgraded – their personal life insurance. One man said that it took 9/11 to make him realize that the group life he got from work simply was not sufficient for his planning needs.
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3. Opinion
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- This international relations student told the Associated Press that she felt Osama bin Laden should have been captured and tried, rather than killed. “It bothered me when people cheered that the Towers fell,” she said, “and it bothered me when people in this country cheered that bin Laden was dead.”
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4. We will rebuild
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5. The maddening crowd
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