The United States Secret Service issued a now-deleted social media post Wednesday, accidentally honoring all 2,996 lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, a number that included the 19 hijackers.
“The flag hanging in our headquarters is a solemn reminder of 9/11 and our mission’s purpose. A testament to freedom and sacrifice, it honors all 2,996 lives lost, including our own Master Special Officer Craig T. Miller & Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Friend,” the organization wrote in a Wednesday morning post on X.
The Secret Service appears to have taken the post down shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.
A Secret Service social media post which appears to honor all 2,996 lives lost on 9/11, a number that includes the 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. Screenshot/X/SecretService
The 2,996 figure includes the 19 al-Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four planes and perpetrated the attacks. (RELATED: 9/11 Widow Slams Biden Admin’s ‘Outrageous’ Attempted Plea Deals For Gitmo Terrorists)
The attack killed 2,977 people, according to 911 memorial.org. The total number of victims added to the 19 hijackers adds up to 2,996.
Yikes. Secret Service includes the 19 hijackers in the 9/11 death tally. There were 2,977 victims, not 2,996 https://t.co/rLxymYGDSy pic.twitter.com/7MprACsNDb
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) September 11, 2024
The Secret Service issued a new version of the tweet at 3:30 p.m. with the 2,977 figure in place of the 2,996 number.
“This is a correction of an earlier version of this post. In the original post, we erroneously included the total number of deceased from the Sept 11 attacks, which included the hijackers. Our intent was to only honor the victims of that tragic day and we deeply apologize for the error,” the organization wrote.
This is a correction of an earlier version of this post. In the original post, we erroneously included the total number of deceased from the Sept 11 attacks, which included the hijackers. Our intent was to only honor the victims of that tragic day and we deeply apologize for the…
— U.S. Secret Service (@SecretService) September 11, 2024
The original post included a video honoring the Secret Service‘s Master Special Officer Craig T. Miller & Special Agent in Charge Charles L. Friend, who both lost their lives in the attack.
MSO Miller was in New York City on temporary assignment, preparing for the upcoming United Nations General Assembly at the Secret Service Field Office in the World Trade Center’s Tower 7, though his specific location at the time of the attack was unknown, according to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation.
During the attacks, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial planes. They crashed two of the planes into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, according to 911memorial.org.
A fourth plane, United Flight 93, was headed for Washington D.C.. Passengers overtook the plane, however, and it crashed outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, according to Flight 93 Friends.
The slip-up is the latest in a series of snafus for the Secret Service. In late July, the agency’s director Kimberly Cheatle stepped down ten days after a man shot former President Trump in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Later in the month, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report outlining a number of the agency’s failures during the Capitol riot January 6, 2021.
RealClearPolitics’ Susan Crabtree reported in mid-August that a Secret Service Agent abandoned her post guarding Trump to breastfeed her baby, barely a month after a shooter nearly took his life.
Shortly after, RealClearPolitics also reported that Cheatle was still being offered Secret Service protection.
This story has been updated to include the Secret Service’s new, corrected X post.