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9/11 Victims' Lawyers Blast Ground Zero Toxic Air Lies
In Court
Appeals court hears that EPA and Christie Whitman intentionally
lied to residents, students and workers
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Lawyers representing lower Manhattan residents told an appeals
court Monday that the former head of the Environmental Protection
Agency, Christie Whitman, knowingly lied about air quality after
the 9/11 attacks and should be personally responsible for medical
monitoring and a cleanup.
The plaintiffs' lawyer Sherrie Savett said Whitman
"made false statements to the public, inducing them, seducing
them to go back to their homes and to send their kids back to
school."
Five days after the attacks, Whitman told reporters,
"The good news continues to be that air samples we have taken
have all been at levels that cause no concern."
This, The EPA's own Office of the Inspector General
later revealed, was an outright lie.
The New
York Daily News Reports:
In their class-action suit, residents, workers and students
living around Ground Zero say they relied on Whitman's comments
in deciding whether to return to an area coated with dust from
the twin towers' collapse.
"If she had not said this, they probably would have made
their own decision," Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan)
said after the hearing. "She was telling people it was
safe when she knew damn well it wasn't."
(Article continues below)
The government's lawyer responded by arguing that
if Whitman is held responsible then it would set a "dangerous"
precedent that would open up public officials to liability.
Yes, that's right, God forbid that public officials
should be liable for the decisions they make and the actions they
take, they should be above the law and be able to lie whenever
they want to, even when people's lives are at stake.
Whitman had originally refused
to testify for the hearing, so it was left to District
judges to subpoena Whitman at the request of New York Congressman
Jerry Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes the World Trade
Center site. In doing so one judge referred to Whitman's actions
as "conscience-shocking."
In August 2003 it was revealed that the
Government
ordered the EPA to give the public misleading information,
telling New Yorkers on September 12 it was safe to breathe
when reliable information on air quality was not available
and Asbestos levels were known to be three times higher
than national standards.
Further
documents were obtained by CBS news last
September, revealing that Lower Manhattan was reopened
a few weeks following the attack even though the air
was not safe.
The two devastating memos, written by the U.S. and
local governments, show they knew. They knew the toxic
soup created at Ground Zero was a deadly health hazard.
Yet they sent workers into the pit and people back into
their homes.
"Not only did they know it was unsafe, they didn't
heed the words of more experienced people that worked
for the city and E.P.A.," said Joel Kupferman,
with the group Environmental Justice Project.
An
EPA whistleblower, Dr. Cate Jenkins then wrote a letter
to Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and other members
of the New York congressional delegation blasting the
EPA for hiding dangerous toxins from Ground Zero workers
in the aftermath of 9/11.
The Letter claimed that EPA-funded research on the
toxicity of breathable alkaline dust at the site “falsified
pH results” to make the substance appear benign,
when it was, in reality, corrosive enough to cause first
responders and other workers in lower Manhattan to later
lose pulmonary functions and, in some cases, to die.
In an even more shocking development it was revealed
that Whitman apparently had financial interests in reassuring
the public that all was well and that lower Manhattan
could safely be reoccupied.
In a New York Post piece which has since been memory
holed, but that was reported by
Infowars.net, these facts became clearly
evident:
Meanwhile, Whitman's newly released financial-disclosure
forms show that she said seven months before 9/11
that she would not get involved in any issue related
to the finances of the Port Authority - which owns
the WTC site - because she or her family owned PA
bonds. Its finances could be impacted by lawsuits
growing of the cleanup.
"I understand the following interests that
belong to me, my spouse or my children present a conflict
of interest," Whitman wrote at the time. She
then listed various investments, including the bistate
agency.
But Whitman was involved at Ground Zero despite
that refusal, although she or her family also owned
shares of Citigroup, whose insurance-company subsidiary,
The Travelers, paid out hundred of millions of dollars
in claims to downtown residents displaced by the attacks.
Not surprising then that Whitman did not want to testify.
She is totally compromised and clearly in very deep
trouble. Congressman Nadler himself blasted Whitman
when this was revealed stating:
"She conspired [with the White House] to
convince people to go into an unsafe environment . .
. For that, she ought to be prosecuted," Nadler
said. "People are dead because of her."
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However, it must be remembered that Whitman and the EPA are accountable
to the White House and act under the direct authority of the Bush
Administration.
It was the 2003 EPA Inspector General's investigation that revealed
that it was the White House that had pressured EPA into changing
its press releases to add more "reassuring" language.
The further memos revealed that Whitman conspired with
the White House to falsely reassure New Yorkers that
the air was safe.
The New York Post also reported on the fact that the internal
documents show it was Condoleezza
Rice's office that gave final approval to the infamous
Environmental Protection Agency press releases days after 9/11
claiming the air around Ground Zero was "safe to breathe,".
Now Secretary of State, Rice was then head of the National Security
Council - "the final decision maker" on EPA statements
about lower Manhattan air quality, the documents say.
And it cannot be forgotten that Rudolph
Guiliani, who was mayor at the time, also said repeatedly
that the air was safe. Giuliani has gone on to make millions from
speaking on 9/11 and has made it the cornerstone of his presidential
campaign, much to the disgust of many first responders and firefighters
who continue to campaign to expose Giuliani's culpability on 9/11.
Furthermore it has been the Bush Administration that has PURPOSEFULLY
blocked millions in health compensation programs
for ground zero workers and continuously attempted to stonewall
the issue because to do otherwise would be an admission of responsibility
for exposure to harmful substances after the government had already
given the all clear. It has been the Bush administration that
has allowed 9/11 heroes to die while at the same time disgracefully
using the event as a cart blanche excuse for their own criminal
actions at home and abroad.
It seems Whitman knew immediately that she was being fingered
as the ultimate scapegoat. When the new information broke in September
2006, she was quick
to blame the city for not forcing Ground Zero workers
to wear respirators.
In a "60 Minutes" interview, Whitman maintained that
the nation's leading environmental agency did not have authority
to enforce rules at the site, though the agency did warn the city
about dangers in the air at Ground Zero.
"We didn't have the authority to do that enforcement, but
we communicated to the people who did," Whitman stressed.
Whitman stuck to this story during her testimony
last June.
However, a 2004
report by the Sierra Club detailed gross malfeasance
by EPA, FEMA, and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration
(OSHA) and then suggested a cover-up of the public health hazards
of Ground Zero ensued.
The report found that the EPA and FEMA, in concert with New York
City's own health department, told families that they could clean
up the contaminated dust themselves with wet rags. In fact, they
actually discouraged area residents from wearing safety masks.
Some preliminary scientific studies have indicated that as many
as 400,000 people were exposed to toxic ground zero dust. Hundreds
and perhaps thousands of people have fallen ill, and several have
died from lung ailments blamed on inhaled Trade Center ash.
Any probe into this issue that cannot establish
these basic conclusions and pinpoint those at fault AT ALL LEVELS
WITHIN THE GOVERNMENT will be highly suspicious. It is blatantly
clear that not only Whitman and her EPA counterparts were complicit
in a conspiracy and cover up the environmental hazards at ground
zero, but also that high ranking officials with the Bush administration
are also complicit.
It is also apparent from reports that Whitman had
significant financial interests in the ground zero site, which
should also be investigated in addition to the financial interests
other officials complicit in this diabolical case also had before
and after 9/11.
We have postulated that the left arm of the Washington power
elite will be unlikely to fully expose the reality of the monumental
criminal culpability of the Bush Administration on this particular
issue, but will instead seek to once again close
off the issue. Indeed it seems that Whitman is in the frame to
take the fall and once cover the behinds of the ever increasingly
unaccountable Neocon crime syndicate in the White House.
The hearing continues.
Hillary
Clinton To Investigate 9/11 Environmental Cleanup
Ground
Zero Toxic Death Fumes Covered Up From Day One
Firefighters
Urge "Peeling Of Guilliani's 9/11 Onion"
Rice
Ok'd Claim Of 'Safe Air' After 9/11
Whitman:
9/11 health woes are city's fault
More
allegations from EPA whistleblower
Court
Ruling May Stop 9/11 Air Quality Lawsuits
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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