A Fallen Hero - Video Inside

[Gold9472]

DOJ: Don't Blame Whitman for 9/11 Speech

http://www.fool.com/news/associated-...11-speech.aspx

By Associated Press December 10, 2007

A government lawyer urged a federal appeals panel Monday to find that former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman cannot be held liable for telling residents near the World Trade Center site that the air was safe to breathe after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Department of Justice attorney Alisa Klein said that holding Whitman liable will set a dangerous precedent in future disasters: "The consequence would be a default to silence. If you speak, you will be potentially held liable. Then the clear message for government officials is to say nothing."

Residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn filed the lawsuit, saying they were exposed to hazardous dust and debris from the fallen twin towers after Sept. 11. They say Whitman should be forced to pay damages to properly clean homes, schools and businesses and be forced to create a fund for medical monitoring of victims, some of whom claim they suffer from asthma, lung disease and other ailments.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts in Manhattan refused to dismiss Whitman as a defendant, calling the actions of the former New Jersey governor "conscience-shocking."

"No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws," Batts wrote.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard the case Monday.

The EPA's Office of the Inspector General said the agency did not have data and information to support statements made in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks that the air was safe to breathe.

The EPA's internal watchdog concluded that the agency, at the urging of White House officials, gave misleading assurances that there was no health risk from the dust in the air after the towers' collapse.

The lawyers and judges on the panel agreed that holding a member of the president's cabinet personally liable was unprecedented.

Still, Judge Jon Newman said there was a question of accountability.

"There's an important government interest in a false reassurance (to the public) _ seems to be what you are saying," he told Klein.

The appeals court declined to immediately rule.

[Gold9472]

Can we at least blame Condoleezza Rice for the killings caused by her dangerous conduct, and her obvious lack of concern for human life?

[AuGmENTor]

Ex-Giant George Martin takes 9/11 walk

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_w..._911_walk.html

BY OWEN MORITZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, December 10th 2007, 4:00 AM

Former Giant George Martin at the beginning of his 3,200-mile 'Journey for 9/11' on the George Washington Bridge last September. Albans/News

Former Giant George Martin at the beginning of his 3,200-mile 'Journey for 9/11' on the George Washington Bridge last September.

Ex-Giant lineman George Martin is tackling some unexpected danger in the back hills of Virginia and Tennessee on his coast-to-coast walk to raise millions for ailing 9/11 first responders: Dogs - and lots of them.

The Giants' retired co-captain said he came across "an inherent canine danger" as he approached the Tennessee border.

"Dogs are everywhere, and apparently leash laws here are as scarce as dental coverage," he joked.

No number of vicious dogs will deter him from his goal of raising $10 million for 9/11 heroic first responders, however.

"There are thousands of true national heroes of 9/11 who are now suffering medically," he said. "And I believe we owe them our support for helping our nation survive and heal after such a horrific tragedy."

Martin, 54, is walking up to 30 miles a day on his 3,200-mile journey. The trip began in September at the George Washington Bridge and will end at the Golden Gate Bridge by early March.

And while Martin says most of the locals along the way treat him kindly, some at first look at the 6-foot-5, 260-pound former defensive end with suspicion.

"Despite the pleasant warnings that we might be viewed as an oddity in this region of the country," Martin said, "we have actually grown accustomed to being stared at by the locals as though we were escapees from Roswell's Area 51."

He estimates his walk has raised $1.5 million so far. The figures are promised to be matched by medical institutions and corporate supporters.

Martin's route can be tracked online at www.ajourneyfor911.info.

Have you met this guy, Jon? Seems like you would have, bein as how this guy seems to be in the same corner as us...

[Gold9472]

No.

[simuvac]

Can we at least blame Condoleezza Rice for the killings caused by her dangerous conduct, and her obvious lack of concern for human life?

This is the Teflon White House, Jon. Nothing sticks to them. Nothing.

[dMole]

This is the Teflon White House, Jon. Nothing sticks to them. Nothing.

Didn't Jon recently explain this same thing to me on a "Hillary's camp" thread? Are we at the nexus of the vortex yet, or what?

Time... space... reality... truth... you have entered a shadowy world-- known simply as... the Twilight Zone...

[Gold9472]

Christie Whitman lied about Ground Zero air quality, 9/11 victims' lawyers say

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007...und_zero_.html

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, December 11th 2007, 4:00 AM

Christie Whitman lied about air quality after the 9/11 attacks and should have to pay for medical monitoring and a cleanup, lawyers for lower Manhattan residents told an appeals court Monday.

The lawyers urged a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a lower court decision declaring the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency can be held personally responsible for her deceptive comments.

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."

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."

Manhattan Federal Court Judge Deborah Batts suggested in a February 2006 ruling that Whitman's comments were irresponsible.

A Justice Department lawyer warned the appeals panel that if Whitman can be held personally responsible, public officials will remain mum after future disasters.

"The consequence would be a default to silence," lawyer Alisa Klein said. "If you speak, you will be potentially held liable. Then the clear message for government officials is to say nothing."

[Gold9472]

WHITMAN: CUT ME OUT OF 9/11 SUIT

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12112007...uit_966302.htm

By KATI CORNELL

December 11, 2007 -- Former EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman is asking a federal appeals court to give her a pass for downplaying post-9/11 dangers from toxic dust near the World Trade Center site - and to remove her name from a lawsuit by downtown residents and workers.

Lawyers for Whitman yesterday argued that holding her personally liable for misleading the public about the air quality in the wake of the terror attacks in an attempt to prevent panic would gag public officials in times of crisis.

It would send the message that "if you speak, you will be potentially held liable. Then the clear message for government officials is to say nothing," lawyer Alisa Klein said at a hearing in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

But lawyers for lower Manhattan residents, their children and workers said silence would have been far better than Whitman's false assurances.

Last year, Manhattan federal Judge Deborah Batts ruled Whitman is a rightful defendant in the suit, calling her 9/11 response "conscience-shocking."

[Gold9472]

Government's Post-9/11 Actions Questioned

http://www.nysun.com/article/67846

By SARAH PORTLOCK
Special to the Sun
December 11, 2007

A federal appellate judge questioned the government's accountability with respect to air quality in Lower Manhattan in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, during oral arguments yesterday in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

The arguments before a panel of federal judges focused on whether a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christine Todd Whitman, should be held liable for saying the air was safe in Lower Manhattan.

An attorney for the federal government, Alisa Klein, said holding Ms. Whitman liable would encourage other officials to be silent in the wake of future emergencies.

"If government officials could be made personally liable, the consequence would be a default to silence," Ms. Klein said. "If you speak, you will be potentially held liable. Then the clear message for government officials is to say nothing."

That point did not seem to impress one of the judges on the panel, Jon Newman.

"There's an important government interest in a false reassurance, seems to be what you are saying," Judge Newman said.

"There may be," Ms. Klein responded.

In the weeks following September 11, Ms. Whitman maintained the air was not safe at ground zero, but was fine in surrounding areas. Scientists with the EPA have said they still do not have conclusive data to support those statements. Rep. Jarold Nadler, a Democrat of Manhattan whose congressional district includes Lower Manhattan, attended the oral arguments and said later that given a choice of lies or silence from the federal government, he would prefer silence.

"If Christine Todd Whitman had said nothing, people would have used their own sense of self-preservation to make decisions for themselves to keep free from harm," Mr. Nadler said. "People trusted the government, and by extension may have made decisions that put themselves in harms' way."

In April, a separate panel of judges dismissed a similar lawsuit brought by first-responders who cleaned up the site in the months after the attacks. An attorney for the residents, Sherrie Savett, argued that this case was different because the clean-up workers inherently knew of their dangerous job conditions.

The appeals court did not immediately issue a ruling yesterday.

[Gold9472]

Court weighs 9/11 lawsuit

http://ny.metro.us/metro/local/artic...uit/11048.html

By Amy Zimmer / metro new york
DEC 11, 2007

Lower manhattan. A federal appeals court heard arguments yesterday on whether former Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman can be sued for allegedly false statements about air quality after 9/11.

Last year, Judge Deborah Batts said Whitman’s actions rose to the level of “shocking the conscience,” and ruled that the case filed by a group of Lower Manhattan residents, students and office workers should move forward.

The plaintiffs claim Whitman and the EPA failed to follow federal laws mandating they take responsibility for the cleanup of hazardous substances in buildings and homes by delegating that to the city, which was ill-equipped for such a project. They want Whitman to pony up for the area’s cleanup and fund a medical monitoring program for those exposed to 9/11-related toxic dust — a move that would bankrupt her.

Whitman’s statements were made with “reckless indifference to the truth,” the plaintiffs’ lawyer Sherrie Savett told the judges. “The EPA evacuated and professionally cleaned their own office at 290 Broadway, but knowingly led residents, students and office workers into the snake pit.”

Savett acknowledged that the remedy being sought was without precedent, but so were the circumstances, she said.

Dept. of Justice attorney Alisa Klein said holding Whitman liable will set a dangerous precedent: “The consequence would be a default to silence. If you speak, you will be potentially held liable. Then the clear message for government officials is to say nothing.”

A different federal judge granted Whitman immunity in a lawsuit filed by Ground Zero recovery workers (who are appealing).

U.S Rep. Jerrold Nadler said after the hearing the legal issues were different in that case where the government had a “competing consideration” to get the cleanup completed.

A decision is expected in a few weeks.