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‘Justice Has Been Done’

New York – Today is a cloudy, almost foggy day here, a little too cool for early May. But based on the news last night in a speech from President Barack Obama, concerning the death of terrorist Osama Bin Laden by U.S. forces in Pakistan, the mood here in New York, and the rest of the country, is a lot brighter than the weather.

As I wrote almost nine years and eight months ago, forgive us if we take a pause from our usual coverage of the trade to mark this day. We at TWICE need to because the tragic events of September 11, 2001 were personal to us – we saw the attack upon the World Trade Center with our own eyes from our old office windows on West 17th Street.

Much has changed since that sunny, warm day in Manhattan almost 10 years ago. Within a year TWICE moved up to Park Avenue South and East 26th Street, and later to our current office on East 28th Street, without that view of downtown Manhattan to remind us of what we saw.

Many Americans have to have bittersweet feelings today, especially if you were related to the nearly 3,000 people murdered on that day, or related to the many first responders who were injured or died due to the toxic chemicals they inhaled as they tried to find survivors or remains of those at Ground Zero. One must think of all the civilians who have been killed and wounded since that day. And one must think of how the thousands of family members of those in our armed services and allies who in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan made the ultimate sacrifice or were seriously injured due to the wars and violence that day of terror spawned.

The death of Osama Bin Laden does not end the threat of terrorism here and abroad. It doesn’t immediately end the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan. And it doesn’t bring back those killed or injured in the past decade.

Still, everyone has to feel a sense of satisfaction that the American military and CIA operatives heroically achieved a successful mission.

And we have to again be thankful for those men and women in the U.S. armed services, our intelligence community, federal, state and local police and first-responders who protect us every day.

As President Obama put it last night, “Justice has been done.” In an imperfect world we can be thankful for that.

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