Category Archives: 9/11

First Responder Deaths Demand Response

Ground Zero in Ruins. Courtesy CBS News

Ground Zero in Ruins. Courtesy CBS News

Adan Gonzalez, 69, died of throat cancer in April, 2015. Mr. Gonzalez had been a photographer and a volunteer at the World Trade Center site, working for two years as a photographer documenting the event and serving other volunteers.

Mr. Gonzalez is one of 1,712 First Responders who died due to the Sept. 11 attacks, 412 who died the day of the attacks (wikipedia) and 1,300 who died from medical complications arising from their search and rescue work. Over 40% of the 4,053 people who died in or resulting from the attack, not counting soldiers killed in Afghanistan or Iraq, or who died after returning home were first responders engaged in search and rescue or cleanup operations, a humanitarian mission.

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Bush, Gore, Al Queda, and Sept. 11

Damadged sculpture that stands in Battery Park in New York City

The Sphere, by Fritz Koenig, in Battery Park. Image by L. Furman

Should the President have been able to foil the attacks of September 11?

Throughout the 1990’s we sustained:

  • The 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane in New York City,
  • The 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center,
  • The 1998 bombings of the Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
  • The 2000 bombing of the U. S. S. Cole,
  • And in 1999 we foiled Al Queda’s Millennium plot.

President Clinton and Vice President Gore knew that Osama bin Laden was a threat. They knew he had been trained by the CIA in the war in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. They also knew that he financed and or masterminded the simultaneous attacks on U. S. embassies in Dar Es Salam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya on August 7, 1998, and the October, 2000 attack on the U. S. S. Cole. And President Clinton told us that after his January 2001 inauguration he briefed President Bush on bin Laden.

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"US court case reveals CIA rendition details" – BBC

The BBC reports that litigation between a charter company and an aviation company involving a fee dispute has led to new details of rendition flights. US court case reveals CIA rendition details summarizes the new details and previous disclosures from other sources, including leaked documents and reports from human rights organizations.

Some of the details noted by the BBC:

  • Airport invoices and other commercial records provide a paper trail for the movements of some terrorism suspects allegedly held in secret CIA prisons, along with government operatives who flew to the scenes of their detention.
  • The records include flight itineraries coordinated with the arrest of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed and the suspected transport of other detainees.
  • The private jets were given US state department transit letters providing diplomatic cover for their flights.
  • The private business jets sometimes landed several times during a single mission, and in at least one case cost the US government as much as $300,000 for one flight.
  • The crew of one of the jets involved made expenses claims for items such as $20 sandwiches and $40 wine bottles, court documents published by the Guardian show.

There’s more in this excellent piece; we haven’t yet seen any coverage in other English-language outlets, but hope to. Any readers having seen other relevant reports are encouraged to share them in comments.

September 11, and the Future of Energy

Combined Cycle Power Plant

Combined Cycle Power Plant

The Combined Cycle Power Plant, “Kombikraftwerk” can harness wind, sunlight, water, and biofuels to meet ALL Germany’s electric power needs, 365 days per year, regardless of weather conditions.  And if it “werks” in Germany, it will work here.

Professor Jurgen Schmid and his colleagues at the Institute for Solar Energy Supply Systems of the University of Kassel, in Germany, with funding from Enercon GmbH, SolarWorld AG and Schmack Biogas AG, have developed the Combined Cycle Power Plant, or “Kombikraftwerk” and proven that they can use wind, solar, biomass and hydro to meet ALL Germany’s electricity needs around the clock regardless of weather conditions. Schmid says.“If renewables continue to grow as they have done in the past, they’ll provide around 40% of Germany’s electricity needs by 2020. We could therefore achieve 100% by the middle of the century.” Information on the Combined Cycle Power Plant is here, and here, at “Germany’s Renewable Energy Information Platform. Continue reading →

WTC developer seeks arbitration

In another disturbing sign of our collective inability to rebuild – that, in effect, we’ve maximized the damage of the September 11th, 2001 attacks on New York City – the developer, Larry Silverstein, is seeking arbitration to resolve ongoing financial issues.

We offer no opinion as to the virtues of any argument by any part – only the conclusion that the best proof of our determination and resilience would have been rapid rebuilding, whether or not we returned to the original design, whose weaknesses are, sadly, now more relevant.

From “Eight Years Later,” an editorial in The New York Times

of September 10, 2009:

The horrors of Sept. 11, 2001, are still vivid for many Americans, especially the families of the victims. So it is tragic that on this Sept. 11, when family members, politicians and visitors go to the ceremonies at ground zero, they will be gathering at an unfinished place.

Instead of the two memorial pools designed by the architect Michael Arad, visitors will see their barest outlines. Instead of a circle of skyscrapers, the steel for the tallest tower stretches only five stories high. There are just the first skeletal signs of Santiago Calatrava’s magnificent transportation hub.

Why is it taking so long? That is a question that has been asked every Sept. 11. For the first few years, there were too many feuds — the architects Daniel Libeskind versus David Childs, the families versus the designers and builders, the community versus the demolition squads, the developer Larry Silverstein versus the insurance companies. Even now, Mr. Silverstein is locked in arbitration with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner of the site, because he wants more of the authority’s money to build more office towers.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who now supports Mr. Silverstein’s excessive demands for public funds, once recognized the hazards of overbuilding office space in the area. In December 2002, a year after the attack, he bluntly acknowledged that “the twin towers’ voracious appetite for tenants weakened the entire downtown real estate market” — a possibility that today’s real estate experts fear if Mr. Silverstein builds too precipitously.

All this infighting — and confusion over necessities like a subway line and bus terminals and walls to keep out the Hudson River — has obscured the original promise to make use of this vital and iconic space beyond simply replacing 10 million square feet of commercial space.

The centerpiece of the project properly remains the memorial, its park and, eventually, the underground museum. But around that somber space, there should be more than skyscrapers that grow dark at night. There should be a vibrant, 24-hour community of people who live, work, play and thrive in Lower Manhattan.

For those that can bear the details of the dispute, the Times’ coverage is excellent. One wonders if, in their target selection, the attackers knew that our political system would be incapable of proceeding to rebuild and avoid profiteering. Some of the Times’ coverage:

Developer at Ground Zero Seeks Arbitration

Start there – and – if you can manage – a search of the Times’ website will yield these articles from the paper, so to speak, plus the blogs.

WNYC – The Leonard Lopate Show: The Writing on the Wall (September 11, 2009)

Critical interview with John Farmer on the Leonard Lopate Show – on WNYC.

John Farmer, 9/11 Commission senior counsel, explains how the truth of 9/11 was obfuscated by a false version of events that the government presented to Congress, the 9/11 Commission, and the media. Drawing on newly released records, Farmer gives a comprehensive account of the events of that day in The Ground Truth: The Untold Story of an America Under Attack on 9/11.

via WNYC – The Leonard Lopate Show: The Writing on the Wall (September 11, 2009).

"First Responders For Rudy" to manifest corporeally

From Greg Sargent’s August 29th piece on TPM’s Election Central:

ou may recall that some time ago Rudy Giuliani unveiled a group called “Firefighters for Rudy” in response to some heat he was taking from firefighters over the deficiencies they saw in his 9/11 performance. At the time, this blog noted that the group’s leader was merely a Rudy campaign aide and wouldn’t say how many firefighters were in this new “group.” Not much has been heard about the group since.

Now Rudy, who’s again under fire from recovery workers over his exaggerations about his Masterfully Churchillian Performance on 9/11, is pulling the same trick from his hat once again. Today his campaign plans to unveil “First Responders for Rudy” at a firehouse in South Carolina.

Giuliani To Unveil “First Responders For Rudy” at TPM  Election Central.

Via The Giuliani Papers.