Likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/02/1622/

Giuliani: Worse Than Bush
He’s Cashing in on 9/11, Working with Karl Rove’s Henchmen and in Cahoots With a Swift Boat-Style Attack on Hillary. Will Rudy Giuliani Be Bush III?

by Matt Taibbi

.....

Although respiratory-mask use was mandatory, the city allowed a macho culture to develop on the site: Even the mayor himself showed up without a mask. By October, it was estimated, masks were being worn on site as little as twenty-nine percent of the time. Rudy proclaimed that there were “no significant problems” with the air at the World Trade Center. But there was something wrong with the air: It was one of the most dangerous toxic-waste sites in human history, full of everything from benzene to asbestos and PCBs to dioxin (the active ingredient in Agent Orange). Since the cleanup ended, police and firefighters have reported a host of serious illnesses — respiratory ailments like sarcoidosis; leukemia and lymphoma and other cancers; and immune-system problems.

“The likelihood is that more people will eventually die from the cleanup than from the original accident,” says David Worby, an attorney representing thousands of cleanup workers in a class-action lawsuit against the city. “Giuliani wears 9/11 like a badge of honor, but he screwed up so badly.”

When I first spoke to Worby, he was on his way home from the funeral of a cop. “One thing about Giuliani,” he told me. “He’s never been to a funeral of a cleanup worker.”

Indeed, Rudy has had little at all to say about the issue. About the only move he’s made to address the problem was to write a letter urging Congress to pass a law capping the city’s liability at $350 million.

Did Giuliani know the air at the World Trade Center was poison? Who knows — but we do know he took over the cleanup, refusing to let more experienced federal agencies run the show. He stood on a few brick piles on the day of the bombing, then spent the next ten months making damn sure everyone worked the night shift on-site while he bonked his mistress and negotiated his gazillion-dollar move to the private sector. Meanwhile, the people who actually cleaned up the rubble got used to checking their stool for blood every morning.

Now Giuliani is running for president — as the hero of 9/11. George Bush has balls, too, but even he has to bow to this motherfucker.


.....

Anybody who writes: "Now Giuliani is running for president — as the hero of 9/11. George Bush has balls, too, but even he has to bow to this motherfucker." is someone I'd like to spend some time with.

K&R

NYFD and NYPD are macho cultures, as are about every other FD and PD in the country.

These men and women went in risking their lives to save people as they do every day. After there was little hope of finding people alive, volunteers went in as a matter of civic pride and IMO it's entirely possible that potential risks were unknown. This doesn't happen every day.

Guiliani is certainly no hero of 9/11, but this reeks of unethical lawyers chasing deep pockets.

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/02/1622/

While the mayor himself flew out of New York on a magic carpet, thousands of cash-strapped cops, firemen and city workers involved with the cleanup at the World Trade Center were developing cancers and infections and mysterious respiratory ailments like the “WTC cough.” This is the dirty little secret lurking underneath Rudy’s 9/11 hero image — the most egregious example of his willingness to shape public policy to suit his donors. While the cleanup effort at the Pentagon was turned over to federal agencies like OSHA, which quickly sealed off the site and required relief workers to wear hazmat suits, the World Trade Center cleanup was handed over to Giuliani. The city’s Department of Design and Construction (DDC) promptly farmed out the waste-clearing effort to a smattering of politically connected companies, including Bechtel, Bovis and AMEC construction.

There is a ton of evidence already on the record that says cleanup workers were unnecessarily put at risk. Giuliani and Kristy Whitman both appear to be responsible for that. and the deaths and chronic illnesses of many.

Where's this "unethical lawyers" idea coming from?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x2698070




http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/07/28/more-bush-cover-up-on-hazards-at-ground-zero-clean-up /

Today’s New York Daily News reveals the White House gave then-EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman the power to bury embarrassing documents by classifying them “secret” after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“I hereby designate the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency to classify information originally as ‘Secret,’” states the executive order, which was signed by President Bush on May 6, 2002.


Joel Kupferman of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project told the Daily News:

I think the rationale behind this was to not let people know what they were potentially exposed to. They’re using the secrecy thing to cover up their malfeasance and past deceptions.

Immediately after the attacks, Whitman assured the public the site was safe, according to Democracy Now. A little more than a year ago, President George W. Bush vetoed a bill that included $90 million to monitor the health of rescue and cleanup workers who were at ground zero.

In 2003, it was revealed that just days after the Sept. 11 tragedy, the Bush White House pressured the EPA to tone down reports about the potential health hazards resulting from the buildings’ collapse.




Over five thousand tons of asbestos were used in just insulation for the structural steel.

At the edge of ruin - steeped in the Asbestos quagmire
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=928662&mesg_id=931457

Why did the White House prevent EPA from telling Americans about asbestos?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=928662&mesg_id=931391

duplicity of some companies, by the negligence of our own government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=928662&mesg_id=931364

they might find residue from the explosives used to bring down the towers?

if people knew what was in the air around the WTC, no one would have gone there to assist in the cleanup.

"But his political strength — and he knows it — comes from America’s unrelenting passion for never bothering to take that extra step to figure shit out."

Isn't that the number one reason we are in such DEEP shit? Instant gratification - INSTANT answers -- don't bother me with facts boy - just tell me what to say and do! :eyes:

I know that's in a quote from the article -- but are we going to let this slip into the "it happened by ACCIDENT" category by careless misuse ?