9/11 Victims' Kin Seek Release Of Secret Documents

[Gold9472]

9/11 victims’ kin seek release of secret documents

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/re...&position=also

3/25/2009

Three families who lost loved ones in the 9/11 terrorist attacks head to court today to plead with a federal judge to release a million pages of documents detailing the mass murder of nearly 3,000 Americans.

Those secret papers, one Bay State family member told the Herald, are “so bad you won’t believe it.”

“It was out control,” Paul Keating, 45, said of security on Sept. 11, 2001, including at Logan International Airport in Boston where two ill-fated jets left on a collision course with infamy.

“My mother went through the most public murder you could imagine . . . and I’ve been putting up with this crap for seven years,” Keating said of his refusal to settle his case out of court.

Keating’s 72-year-old mother, Barbara, a Framingham native, died aboard American Airlines [AMR] Flight 11.

Keating is making legal history today, along with the families of Mark Bavis, 31, and Sara Low, 28, by asking Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Federal District Court in Manhattan to lift the order keeping all the evidence hidden.

Low was a Boston-based flight attendant on Flight 11; Bavis of West Newton, a passenger on United Airlines Flight 175. Both jets left Logan with hijackers on board and were slammed into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers.

“Sept. 11 should not have happened,” said attorney Donald A. Migliori, whose firm represents all three families.

He said the secret papers include depositions of former Massport Executive Director Virginia Buckingham and former Logan security chief Joe Lawless.

If the documents are released, plans are in the works to make a public archive.

As for the three families, they vow to hold out for public trials next year - refusing any share of $7 billion in secret settlements to expose how 19 terrorists brought a nation to its knees.

[Gold9472]

Judge defends pretrial secrecy of 9/11 documents

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...ZeBywD975CCD01

By LARRY NEUMEISTER – 11 hours ago

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge said Wednesday he favors keeping Sept. 11-related documents and interviews secret until the trials for several families of victims suing the airline industry, an opinion that upset several victims' family members.

Donald Migliori, a lawyer for families of three people who died on hijacked planes in the 2001 attacks, asked U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein to make nearly a million pages of evidence and 200 depositions public, saying there was no reason for secrecy.
Hellerstein did not rule, but he said he favored not publically disclosing evidence that had been gathered and shared with lawyers for the victims under a confidentiality agreement until a trial occurs. No trial has yet been scheduled.

He said the confidentiality agreement speeded a pretrial process that enabled more than 90 families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to settle their cases. Only three families have not settled.

Michael Rowe Feagley, a lawyer for the aviation defendants, said it would not be fair to make all of the pretrial evidence public now, especially since defendants had turned over so much with the understanding that it would remain confidential before trial. He said it would take "extraordinary circumstances and an extreme need for it" to force its public release.

Mike Low, the father of a flight attendant who died on one of the hijacked planes, said afterwards that he was disappointed but not surprised by Hellerstein's position.

Low sued in spring 2003 on behalf of his daughter, Sara Low, 28, a Boston-based flight attendant who died when American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center.

"A few days after 9/11, a veil of secrecy came down. It's still there," he said.

He said his main reason for not settling the case was because he wanted to make sure the public learned everything it could from the investigation of flaws in security that allowed 19 hijackers to board four planes. Two were flown into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and a fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

"I would go away if all the discovery and depositions that will tell us about the terrible failures and ineptitudes that led up to that day" were made public, he said.

He said he wanted to hold accountable "these people who allowed these 19 thugs on these airlines to murder my Sara and all the others."

Migliori said he will continue to try to force the public disclosure of the depositions and documents, though he would not say what step he would take next.

"I don't know what the defendants are trying so hard to hide," he said.

Migliori said the public will be interested in the findings because the lawyers interviewed people no one else had spoken to and concentrated solely on how the 19 hijackers got on the planes.

He noted that Low had learned as a result of information gathered in response to his lawsuit that his daughter had acted heroically on her plane, passing along to another crew member with a phone the seat numbers of the hijackers, how they busted into the cabin and how one had claimed to be wired with a bomb.

"That's not hero. That's beyond hero," he said.

[Gold9472]

Kin lose bid for release of 9/11 info

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009..._911_info.html

BY THOMAS ZAMBITO 
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, March 26th 2009, 4:00 AM

A Manhattan judge on Wednesday dealt a blow to families of 9/11 victims seeking the release of documents they say will reveal how the 19 terrorists slipped past airport security.

Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected three families' request to create a public trove of documents turned over by airlines and security companies during the course of litigation.

Hellerstein said forcing the turnover of the documents would bog down efforts to bring to trial suits filed by the families who've refused to accept a monetary settlement of their claims.

"Right now, I want to move these cases to trial," Hellerstein said. "That's my goal."

There remain just three holdout families out of nearly 100 who chose to pursue litigation rather than accept a settlement from the Sept. 11th Victim Compensation Fund.

Hellerstein did not issue a ruling but indicated to the families' lawyer Donald Migliori that he likely would rule against them.

Hellerstein's decision stung Mike Low, 66, whose flight attendant daughter Sara died aboard American Airlines Flight 11.

He hopes the documents will help others learn more about their loved ones' final moments.

Two months ago, Low learned that his daughter relayed the seat numbers of the hijackers to the ground so that federal agents could identify them.