Mistakes were made. The U.S. Secret Service caught some flak on the 23rd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The government organization accidentally honored the 9/11 terrorists among a tribute to those who died on that fateful day.
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On Wednesday, the Secret Service shared a memorial post for all those who died. However, the organization accidentally included the 19 hijackers and terrorists among a tally of those who passed away in the attack.
While technically correct, it's very easy to see why this is a blunder. The terrorists chose to die while the thousands of innocent people did not.
"The flag hanging in our headquarters is a solemn reminder of 9/11 and our mission's purpose. A testament to freedom and sacrifice, it honors all 2,996 lives lost, including our own Master Special Officer Craig T. Miller & Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Friend," the organization wrote in a post on X.
In actually, the 9/11 terrorists killed 2,977 innocent Americans. People passed away in a coordinated strike that happened at World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
Hijackers took over four planes on 9/11 in 2001. The Secret Service made a mistake of including the 19 terrorists in the tally of people who died. As you can imagine, people were not pleased. The organization quickly deleted the initial post and shared an updated post.
9/11 Post Updated
"This is a correction of an earlier version of this post. In the original post, we erroneously included the total number of deceased from the Sept 11 attacks, which included the hijackers. Our intent was to only honor the victims of that tragic day and we deeply apologize for the error," the Secret Service posted.
Fast forward 23 years later, and nearly half of all the 9/11 victims remain unidentified.
"This is not only the largest forensic investigation in the history of the United States. But it's also the most difficult," stated Mark Desire, the OCME's Assistant Director. "Some of these fragments, you only get so many chances. So, we do know that instead of going and trying over and over again using the same modern techniques ... When you're dealing with smaller and smaller families, you know you may only have one shot left at this particular fragment, it gets very stressful."
