LAND DEAL CLEARS WAY FOR FLIGHT #93 "CRESCENT OF EMBRACE" MEMORIAL - A HIDDEN PAEAN TO ISLAM AND THE TERRORISTS

The National Park Service and an organization representing victims’ families have reached a deal to buy the most critical piece of land needed for the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pa.

On Sept. 11, 2008, a man visited a temporary memorial in Shanksville, Pa., to United Flight 93.

Driven by a goal of getting a deal done before President Bush leaves office on Tuesday, the park service and the organization, Families of Flight 93, reached an accord late Friday with Svonavec Inc., the quarry company that owns the 274-acre parcel at the heart of the site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed after terrorists took over the plane on Sept. 11, 2001. Forty passengers and crew members were killed.

Under the agreement, a condemnation suit will be filed in federal court to determine the value of the land, about 60 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, but the park service will take ownership as soon as the case is filed in a few weeks.

“For us, and I believe for the president and the first lady, it is a sense of closure and a degree of healing to get this done,” said Patrick White, a member of the Families of Flight 93 and a lawyer who helped work out the deal. Mr. White’s cousin Louis J. Nacke II died on Flight 93.

The park service said the deal would allow construction of the memorial to begin on schedule later this year. The goal is to have the first part of the $56 million initial phase of the memorial completed by 2011. The Svonavec family, the owners of the quarry, agreed with that goal.

Mike Svonavec said he was glad to have a deal.

"The agreement allows the parties to cooperatively move forward on a methodology by which the evaluation will be determined," he said in a statement.

Negotiations had been contentious. Families of Flight 93 last month asked the Bush administration to seize the land after negotiations to buy the parcel stalled.

Mike Svonavec had been accused of refusing to sell for a reasonable amount, but he has repeatedly denied looking for a windfall.

By agreeing to proceed to court, "what the landowner is saying is, 'You can have title and possession of my property, and we will agree or not when the court makes a decision.' If they don't agree, then they have a right of appeal," White said. "In a sense, what the landowner is saying is, 'We can get a better value in court than any other way.' They may. They may not."

Under the agreement, Svonavec will donate six acres that encompass the impact site. He has said he did not want any money for that parcel.