Summary: On a day of mourning for nearly 3,000 Sept. 11 victims on the ninth anniversary of the terrorist attack of 9/11, President Barack Obama called for national unity as the ‘ground zero mosque’ and Quran-burning controversies threatened to overshadow memorial events. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on September 11, 2009, Aubrey Immelman commemorated the 8th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, noting that with the timetable set for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and the fighting in Afghanistan nearing its ninth year, war coverage had waned, often pushed off the front page by the economic recession, health care reform, and celebrity deaths.