Eleven years after the September 11 terror attacks leveled the World Trade Center, work on a museum at the site, which was to open on the anniversary this year, has stopped - because of financial and power disputes. At the same time, family members of some of the victims are fighting the museum’s plan to preserve unidentified human remains in an underground repository. The National September 11 Memorial in New York has been open since last year - drawing more than four million visitors. But work stopped months ago on the attached museum - because of financial disagreements between the Port Authority, which owned the destroyed Twin Towers, and the foundation that is building the museum. Monica Iken's husband, Michael, died in the attacks. “It’s an embarrassment for the world to see," said Monica Iken. "They come there, and I’ve been there several times where people come up to me and say, ‘Where’s the museum, why is it not open?’ How do you explain that: ‘Oh, because we’re fighting over some money?’” The museum's exhibits will tell the stories of the attacks and of the people who died. There will also be displays about al Qaida and the 9/11 plotters - although some family members, like Jim Riches, who lost his son Jimmy, think those should be limited to side-displays. “If you want to see their pictures, let them go into the kiosk and look at their picture, but I think you’ve made it more like a Hall of Fame for the terrorists, and that’s the way I feel, by putting their pictures up there," said Jim Riches. |