Never Forget

“I think Christine Todd Whitman should be in jail – Her lies caused many people to get sick and many to die before their time.” (Glen Klein, retired NYC police officer)

Whitman testifies before House Judiciary Committee on her post 9/11 remarks

[Update: 9/27/10: more shamefulness: Mike Miller of The Atlantic City Press writes about Whitman as a shill for the nuclear industry:  Former N.J. Gov. Christie Whitman “comfortable” as a nuclear advocate -  a sociopath has no conscience, so of course Whitman is “comfortable” in her role. 

After wronging hundreds of people killed and posioned by asbestos in Libby Montana, I don’t know how some people sleep at night – and still become a lobbyists for BP on Gulf oil blowout, a shill for the nuclear industry, actively mislead Congress, and a friend of DEP Commissioner Bob Martin to boot!.

Some of the 9/11 recall must be on US officials, Ms. Whitman in particular, whose lies were so egregeous that a federal Judge found they “shocked the conscience”. 

And let’s not forget that or the thousands dead and still suffering because of those Whitman lies.

As I wrote last year, “here are the words of one hero, a Jersey Guy named Joe Picurro, from Toms River. Joe  worked on the pile and as a result has a fatal lung disease and not long to live:”

I mean, we were there for them when they needed us. And, you know, they told us—Christine Whitman stood there, and I don’t care what she says about it. She said the pile was different. She’s a liar. I was standing there. She did not say that the air was different on the pile. She stood on the pile with her mask below her neck and talked to us and told us we were heroes and said the air was fine, and she put the mask back on, and she got back in her car, and she left, you know, and went back to New Jersey where it was safe. So she’s a liar, and that’s all she is. [full transcript of interview here]

And this year, here is main stream journalism coverage:

On 9/11 anniversary, vivid memories, infamy recalled

….. According to government figures, as many as 20,000 people, the bulk of them first responders, have suffered since the event, either from exposure to the toxic dust of pulverized buildings and combusted chemicals, or injuries, or post-traumatic stress, or all three.

U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY, has said that workers at Ground Zero, and the public in general, were misled by “an overly optimistic assessment by members of the Bush administration of the risk of long-term exposure to that environment.”

The government’s assessment “cost many of those cleanup workers their health” and some of them “their lives,” she said.

Five days following the 9/11 attacks, Christie Whitman, the Bush administration’s head of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced at Ground Zero that the air was safe.

“The good news continues to be that air samples we have taken have all been at levels that cause us no concern,” Whitman said.

A month later, when the EPA’s own data was made public, it was shown that Whitman had not told the truth.

Researchers have since said that the air at Ground Zero remained toxic for at least six months.

“I think Christine Todd Whitman should be in jail,” Klein said. “Her lies caused many people to get sick and many to die before their time.”

Klein has asthma, gastro-intestinal disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder and has had precancerous polyps removed. Flammia has similar disorders. They both attribute these conditions to working on the pile.

DiTillio has had a portion of his lung removed and one of his workers, who also assisted the rescue workers, died recently of illnesses he and DiTillio believe he contracted at Ground Zero.

“I was trained in hazmat,” Klein said. “They could have done it right. The cleanup would have taken twice as long or longer. That’s why they lied about the air quality. They wanted the place cleaned up and back to normal as quickly as possible so Wall Street could come back. They put profit over people’s lives.”