THE MORNING LOOP: 09.12.11

America mourns Sept. 11 dead x Serena Williams lashes out at ref x Jackson family clarifies plan to save MJ in 2005

Yesterday, America mourned the many lives lost during the Sept. 11 attacks. The name of every person killed in al Qaeda's hijacked plane attacks was read on Sunday in the nearly five-hour-long ceremony where the World Trade Center twin towers stood. President Obama visited the North Memorial Pool with first lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush and his wife, Laura.

A former F.B.I. agent describes in a new memoir missed opportunities to defuse the 2001 plot. Ali H. Soufan, who tracked Al Qaeda before and after the Sept. 11 attacks, argues that other attacks overseas might have been prevented, and Osama bin Laden found earlier, if interrogations had not been mismanaged.

After telling the London Times that the Jackson family planned to save Michael Jackson in 2005 if he was convicted of child molestation, brother Jermaine Jackson's rep clarified to E! News just exactly what he meant by "plan." Jermaine's rep explains: "It wasn't an actual plan, because if he was convicted, he would be handcuffed and put in jail." Adding, "It was an idea Michael was unaware of. It was supposed to be demonstrative of how desperate Jermaine was. He felt the justice system was so against Michael...He was determined to get him out, he was determined to save him from persecution [if convicted]."

A teenage basketball star was found fatally shot Sunday inside her Manhattan apartment building. Tayshana Murphy, 18, was ranked on an ESPN website as the nation’s 16th-best point guard in her class. There have not been any arrests and the investigation is ongoing.

Serena Williams lashed out at a referee at the U.S. Open on Sunday saying: “If you ever see me walking down the hall, look the other way, because you’re out of control… You’re totally out of control, you’re a hater, and you’re unattractive inside. Who would do such a thing? And I never complain. Wow… We’re in America last I checked. Can I get a water or am I gonna get violated for a water? Really, don’t even look at me! I promise you, don’t look at me, ’cause I am not the one. Don’t look my way.”

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Video of the Day

President Barack Obama said Sunday that the decade since the Sept. 11 attacks shows that America does not give in to fear, and never succumbed to suspicion and mistrust. He spoke at a memorial concert at the Kennedy Center.
 

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