On the morning of the September 11 attacks in 2001, Burlingame was living in Los Angeles, where she planned to establish her own production company. Her brother, Charles Burlingame, was the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, with First Officer David Charlebois, when it was hijacked and flown into the Pentagon. On the second anniversary of the attack, Burlingame launched a nonprofit foundation to provide college scholarships for young men and women wishing to pursue careers as officers in the United States armed services. "We are targeting young people who have demonstrated a wish to be a part of something bigger than themselves," she said.
Activism
Burlingame inspired blogger Robert Shurbet to start Take Back The Memorial, a nonprofit group that opposed the International Freedom Center being located at the World Trade Center site. Burlingame is a columnist, political activist, and board member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. Due to the efforts of Burlingame and others, New York GovernorGeorge Pataki barred the IFC from being located at the World Trade Center site, causing it to be abandoned by its sponsors. Relatives of 9-11 victims were invited to submit their names for a lottery for invitations to attend the hearings and trials of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the four other most senior captors. Burlingame's name was one of six families chosen. The Wall Street Journal has published numerous opinion columns by Burlingame. Her columns have also appeared in the New York Daily News. In October 2009, Burlingame co-founded, with Liz Cheney, a non-profit 5014 organization called Keep America Safe. It drew strong criticism from conservative lawyers, many of whom worked for the Bush administration, and information about the organization was removed from Internet shortly thereafter. Burlingame then founded 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America with Tim Sumner, an organization about 9/11 family members who consider national security the country’s top priority.
Political positions
Burlingame is a critic of radical Islam. In 2010, she issued a press release denouncing President Barack Obama’s support of the Ground Zero Mosque. She wrote: "Demolishing a building that was damaged by wreckage from one of the hijacked planes in order to build a mosque and Islamic Center will further energize those who regard it as a ratification of their violent and divinely ordered mission: the spread of shariah law and its subjugation of all free people, including secular Muslims who come to this country fleeing that medieval ideology, which destroys lives and crushes the human spirit." Burlingame also wrote a letter attacking the Liam Neeson film Non-Stop, which portrays a 9/11 family member and military combat veteran as a vengeful murderer—and, in Burlingame's words: “Worse, the flight’s quiet hero who comes to the aid of the protagonist, thereby saving the day, is a Muslim doctor.” She said that this was "ironic" given the fact that the Al Qaeda's leader, Ayman Al Zawahiri, was a doctor, a "complete of the roles victim and victimizer 9/11". When the Council on American Islamic Relations' called for Ms. Burlingame to be removed from the board of The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, its foundation issued a statement:
