Senator Hillary Clinton announced today that, along with
New York Congressman Jerry Nadler, D-NY, she will chair
a probe looking into the federal government's response
and environmental clean-up efforts in the wake of the
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, reports
Raw Story.
"We need to examine what went wrong
and assess whether the federal government is better prepared
to respond to environmental hazards in future disasters,"
Clinton said in a news release. "I also remain concerned
about potential indoor contamination resulting from the
collapse of the World Trade Center and want to take a
close look at the EPA's inadequate program to test and
clean residential areas in Manhattan."
The first hearing on the post-9/11 cleanup
will convene next Tuesday, according to the press release,
a full transcript of which is below.
It remains unlikely however that the left
arm of the Washington power elite will fully expose the
reality of the monumental
criminal culpability of the Bush Administration on this
particular issue.
Not only did the government know on the
day itself that rescuers were being exposed to harmful
dust, they also ordered misleading information to be given
to the public, they ordered scientific research results
on the air to be falsified, they allowed residents to
return to their homes in the immediate vicinity knowing
the air was corrosive and lethal and, to top it all off,
they have since embarked on a collective program to block
compensation and funding of health programs because that
would be an admission of guilt.
Any probe into this issue that cannot establish
these basic conclusions and pinpoint those at fault will
be highly suspicious. It is blatantly clear for example
that it was
Rudy Guiliani along with officials in his office who
OK 'd the release of false EPA information about the toxicity
of the air at ground zero.
Guiliani is also personally responsible
for the fact that to this day the remains of hundreds
of innocent victims of the September 11 attacks are still
sickeningly buried in the world's largest rubbish dump,
on Staten Island, where it has been declared by New York
officials that they will stay for ever.
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Full transcript of press release
follows:
#
Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY),
Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee
on Superfund and Environmental Health, and Congressman
Jerrold Nadler (NY-08), Chairman of the House Judiciary
Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil
Liberties, announced today that they will conduct companion
hearings into the failures of the Federal government in
responding to the environmental crisis that resulted from
the September 11, 2001 World Trade Center attacks. For
over five years, Clinton and Nadler have staunchly criticized
the Administration's misleading public statements about
post-9/11 air quality, as well as its continued failure
to provide a proper testing and cleaning of indoor spaces
contaminated by WTC toxins and its lack of provision of
health care for the thousands of people who are ill as
a result of exposure to the pollutants.
These hearings represent the first comprehensive Congressional
oversight investigations into these environmental matters
since the immediate aftermath of the attacks. While in
the Majority, Republican House leadership steadfastly
refused to hold a single hearing on this matter, or even
respond to a written request made in September 2003 by
Nadler, then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and then-Ranking
Members John Conyers, John Dingell, George Miller, and
Henry Waxman. (See http://www.house.gov/nadler/archive108/EPA_091703.htm
).
"We need to examine what went wrong and assess whether
the federal government is better prepared to respond to
environmental hazards in future disasters," said
Senator Clinton. "I also remain concerned about potential
indoor contamination resulting from the collapse of the
World Trade Center and want to take a close look at the
EPA's inadequate program to test and clean residential
areas in Manhattan."
"Finally, we have an opportunity to hear, on the
record and first hand, who in the federal government was
really responsible for key decisions about the handling
of post-9/11 air quality. And from there we can finally
learn why those decisions were made -- decisions that
are still having an impact on 9/11 victims today,"
said Nadler. "The lack of thorough Congressional
oversight thus far has allowed for years finger-pointing
and evading of responsibility on the part of the Federal
government, but now is time for the truth. We must, at
long last, get to the bottom of these matters, so we can
do what is right for the heroes of 9/11, and ensure that
we prevent anything like this from ever happening again."
he added.
The House hearing is scheduled to take place on Tuesday,
May 22, 2007, at 10:00 A.M, in Room 2141 of the Rayburn
House Office Building, and will examine the federal post-9/11
environmental response and related possible violations
of the "substantive due process rights" of individuals
living and working in the vicinity of the World Trade
Center on, or after, September 11, 2001. In a recent decision,
the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New
York found that former EPA Administrator Christine Todd
Whitman's falsely reassuring and misleading statements
of safety after the September 11, 2001 attacks were "without
question conscience-shocking." The court also found
the facts "support an allegation of a violation of
the substantive due process right to be free from official
government policies that increase the risk of bodily harm"
by Whitman's misstatements regarding the air quality of
the affected area. An EPA Inspector General review reached
similar conclusions. Invited to testify are:
Christine Todd Whitman, Former Administrator, Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) [invited];
John Henshaw, Former Administrator, Occupational Safety
and Health Administration (OHSA) [invited];
Samuel Thernstrum, Former Member, White House Council
on Environmental Quality (CEQ) [confirmed];
Tina Kreisher, Former Associate Administrator for Communications,
Education and Media Relations, Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) [invited];
Suzanne Mattei, Former New York City Executive of the
Sierra Club and Author of Pollution and Deception at Ground
Zero [confirmed];
David Newman, New York Committee for Occupational Safety
and Health and Former Member, World Trade Center Technical
Review Panel [confirmed];
Paul Harris, Shook, Hardy & Bacon [confirmed] (minority
witness);
Other minority witness to be determined
The Senate hearing is tentatively scheduled for June
20th, 2007 and will examine the federal response to 9-11,
including risk communication and U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency programs to test and clean indoor spaces in lower
Manhattan. The hearing will also examine lessons learned
from 9-11 and federal readiness to respond to releases
of hazardous substances in future emergencies. The hearing
is expected to include testimony from EPA and CEQ officials,
as well as affected New Yorkers and scientific experts.
