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CNN Live Event/Special

Remembrance Ceremony Held at Bagram Air Base

Aired September 11, 2002 - 08:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Christiane Amanpour is standing by in Bagram to give us a better sense of what's going to happen there as commemorations are just about ready to get under way -- Christiane, good morning.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Paula.

And that's exactly right. In about 10 minutes from now, a remembrance ceremony here will be held for those who were killed in that attack in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania one year ago today.

You know, there are 7,000 or more U.S. men and women in the military who are continuing this war on terror. It is not quite over yet, although they do have al Qaeda and the Taliban in disarray and on the run. These have been capable of mounting small attacks. There was one in Kabul last week and it killed and wounded scores of people.

There was, of course, that assassination attempt, as well, on the life of the president that failed, the president, Hamid Karzai.

Now, here they will be remembering the victims of al Qaeda and Taliban. Behind me, they are already gathered in formation. The general in command of all U.S. forces here will address the men and women here and there will be a message from President Bush read out. There will be "Taps." There will be a moment of silence at the exact moment that the first plane went into those World Trade Center towers a year ago. And then this ceremony will be over.

In Kabul earlier today, the U.S. Embassy held a small ceremony, a solemn ceremony, in which they unveiled a plaque. It was a plaque that covers a piece of the World Trade Center building that had been buried there many months ago. And on that plaque, a very simple inscription: "Here lie the remains of the World Trade Center and those who perished. We serve the cause that they cannot."

So all over Afghanistan, wherever U.S. forces are and coalition forces, remembrances today and a determination and a knowledge that at least here in Afghanistan this war against terrorism continues with an operation under way right now called Champion Strike.

Back to you.

ZAHN: Thanks so much, Christiane.

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