2004 Ms. Women Of The Year
2004 Ms. Women of the Year
http://www.msmagazine.com/winter2004/womenoftheyear.asp
by Jessica Seigel
8/27/2008
In TV murder mysteries, the detective always begins the investigation by piecing together a timeline of the crime. And that’s how four 9/11 widows from New Jersey began their journey from grieving housewives to unstoppable Nancy Drews.
They sleuthed, lobbied, protested and ultimately shamed a stonewalling Bush administration into creating the independent commission that exposed the incompetence and cover-up surrounding the September 11, 2001 , terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Now called the “Jersey Girls” (thanks to a Bruce Springsteen cover song), they helped force a reckoning of what really happened that clear September day when their husbands went to work in the Twin Towers and never came home.
Nearly 3,000 people died that day, but government officials insisted that nothing could have prevented terrorists who just “got lucky” hijacking airplanes. Left with seven children among them, the four moms from the Garden State weren’t convinced, and vowed to find out the truth.
Joining forces through survivor networks, there was Mindy Kleinberg, a 42-year-old former accountant, who organized and inspired with her stubborn streak; Lorie Van Auken, 49, a part-time graphic designer who researched and strategized; Kristen Breitweiser, 33, who polished onetime lawyer’s skills to become “The Hammer”; and Patty Casazza, 43, who gave them heart — the “pain and suffering” ticket, according to their easy, in-the-trenches humor.
Sleepless nights spurred them on, as Van Auken and the others logged onto the Internet hunting for clues from news and government sources to contradict the official story.
“From watching Perry Mason we knew they always ask, ‘Where were you at the time of the crime?’” says Van Auken. “Then they try to reconcile the answers.”
Indeed. As the Jersey Girls pieced together a picture of widespread bungling, Congress stalled legislation to probe the attack.
“We said, OK, we have to rally,” says Van Auken. “How do you throw a rally?”
They figured it out, appearing with 300 relatives of 9/11 victims near the U.S. Capitol’s steps, heading out before dawn to return in time to say goodnight to the children. It was just one of countless trips they would make to Washington, D.C.
With the White House blocking demands for an independent investigation, the Jersey Girls staged lobbying visits from the office of their U.S. congressman, Chris Smith. They queried senior FBI agents. They strategized with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and Sen. John McCain, snooping around the Capitol to find and waylay them.
They tag-teamed in pairs to net politicians who were trying to avoid them, catching Republican congressman Porter Goss hiding behind his office door. A turning point came when Breitweiser testified before the joint congressional intelligence committee, her prosecutorial brilliance transforming the moral suasion of the widow into a mighty cudgel.
Opening with a story about her 3-year-old daughter placing flowers on her husband Ronald’s grave, she held up her right hand to show that she wore his charred wedding ring — returned to her with his only remains, an arm. Then she shredded the government’s lucky-terrorist theory by laying out facts and questions that would become a road map for future investigation.
Two days later, the White House dropped its public opposition to a probe (even while continuing to stall efforts behind the scenes).
When the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States — the 9/11 Commission — finally held its first hearings in the spring of 2003, the four moms became watchdogs urging tougher questioning, then guardians agitating against White House foot-dragging and sabotage tactics.
“The country owes a deep debt of gratitude to the Jersey Girls and other courageous [9/11] families,” says Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., a leader of intelligence-reform efforts. “They turned their personal grief into a powerful force for change. They are a mighty moral force.”
History will remember that the bestselling 9/11 Commission Report, published this summer, found no link between al-Qaeda terrorists and Iraq. Yet the Republican presidential campaign still beat the drums for the American war in Iraq.
Outraged, the Jersey Girls abandoned their nonpartisan stance and endorsed Democratic challenger John Kerry, although two of them had voted for Bush in 2000. Greeted as heroines on the Democratic campaign trail, they have been asked to autograph copies of the 9/11 Report.
What’s the lesson in it all? Democracy, the Jersey Girls say, is hard work.
