FLIGHT 93 MEMORIAL Rep. asks Interior office to reconsider design

Some people could think it honors the hijackers, Tom Tancredo said.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Colorado congressman is asking the Interior Department to reconsider the crescent-shaped design of the memorial to those aboard a plane hijacked Sept. 11, 2001, because some may think it honors the terrorists.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., says the design, called "Crescent of Embrace," could invite "controversy and criticism." In a letter sent Tuesday to National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, Tancredo said many have questioned the shape "because of the crescent's prominent use as a symbol in Islam -- and the fact that the hijackers were radical Islamists."
Flight 93 crashed into a field in southwestern Pennsylvania near Shanksville as its passengers tried to take control of the plane. Forty passengers and crew died during the struggle.
The memorial design was approved last week at a meeting of the Flight 93 Advisory Commission. It still must gain the approval of the director of the National Park Service and the secretary of the Interior Department.
The park service and family members of crash victims said that the memorial's shape -- a circle broken by the flight pattern of the plane -- simply follows the topography of the crash site.
What it will look like
The memorial consists of a chapel with 40 metallic wind chimes, one for each of the victims. It is designed to spread across 2,000 acres and would include pedestrian trails and a road to a visitor center and the actual crash site. At the site would be a crescent-shaped cluster of maple trees and a white marble wall inscribed with the victims' names.
Regardless of whether "the invocation of a Muslim symbol" was intentional, "it seems that such a symbol is unsuitable for paying appropriate tribute to the heroes of Flight 93 or the ensuing American struggle against radical Islam," Tancredo wrote.
Earlier this summer, Tancredo angered Muslims and others by suggesting on a Florida radio program that the United States could "take out" Muslim holy sites if Islamic terrorists attacked the U.S. with nuclear bombs.
Joanne Hanley, superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial, said the design team led by Paul Murdoch Architects followed what the memorial mission statement requested: It honors the plane's passengers and crew and touches very lightly on the land.
"Crescent of Embrace" is the name of the design, not the memorial, and can be changed, she said.
"The name is irrelevant, really," she said. "There's a lot of misinformation out there and conjecture and hidden meaning that just isn't there."
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