WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (AFP) - The threat of a major terror attack looms large over the first US presidential election since the horrific September 11, 2001, attacks as US voters must choose in less than two months between President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry.
Three years after the attacks, victims' families have been financially compensated for their loss, the tourism industry has rebounded from the economic fallout and work has begun on a new the Freedom Tower, which will rise atop the World Trade Center site by 2008 or 2009.
But the memory of the devastating strikes, and the nearly 3,000 lives they took, has not dissipated as families, politicians and the media have kept September 11 in the national consciousness.
The victims' families have formed their own lobbying group to keep their concerns part of the public debate.
The much-anticipated report from the independent commission that investigated the attacks was released in July, becoming an instant best-seller in book stores.
And filmmaker Michael Moore's fiery documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," which slammed Bush's response to September 11, drew record audiences in US theaters.
As Kerry and Bush battle for the White House, September 11 has taken a central place in the election's foreign policy debate.
"We know that September the 11th requires our country to think differently. We must take threats seriously before they fully materialize," Bush, who will face Kerry in the November 2 election, said Saturday as he campaigned Kirtland, Ohio.
The Democratic camp, however, has not made terrorism a central part of its campaign, since opinion polls give Bush an advantage over Kerry on this topic.
Still, September 11 is nearly an unavoidable subject on the campaign trail.
"None of us will ever forget where we were on September 11," Kerry's vice presidential running mate, John Edwards, said recently in Wilmington, North Carolina, before attacking Bush's war on terrorism, including the failure to arrest Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
"We share the same terrible images: the (World Trade Center) towers falling, the Pentagon in flames, and the smoldering field in Pennsylvania," Edwards said. "And we share the profound sadness for the nearly 3.000 lives lost."
While the memory of September 11 perdures, Americans will cast their ballots amid fears of new attacks. In July, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned that Al-Qaeda planned major strikes to disrupt the US election.
In the last month of the campaign, Americans will also observe "National Preparedness Month," which the Bush administration established to raise Americans' awareness of a possible attack.
The Bush administration has fended off accusations that it is using terror warnings to manipulate the election.
Meanwhile, discreet ceremonies are planned to commemorate the September 11 attacks, and neither Kerry nor Bush have indicated yet how they will observe the three-year anniversary.
At Ground Zero in New York, where 2,749 people were killed, moments of silence will be observed precisely at the times the hijacked airplanes hit the twin towers. Parents and grandparents of victims will read their relatives' names in a somber ceremony.