The Freedom Tower

A group of physicians are seriously tracking illnesses related to the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
The AP says the head of the largest program tracking the health of World Trade Center site workers has some bad news. Seveal site workers have developed rare blood cell cancers. This raises fears that cancer will become a “third wave” of illnesses among those exposed to toxic dust after Sept. 11.

Dr. Robin Herbert, co-director of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program at Mount Sinai Medical Center, said researchers who have screened 20,000 of the estimated 40,000 ground zero workers are concerned about lymphatic and blood cancer cases.
“We’re worried about a third wave, which is the possibility of cancer down the road,” Herbert said in an audiotaped interview posted on the New England Journal of Medicine’s Web site.
“The kind of thing that worries us is that we know we have a handful of cases of multiple myeloma in very young individuals, and multiple myeloma is a condition that … almost always presents later in life,” she added. “That’s the kind of odd, unusual and troubling finding that we’re seeing already.”
City health officials say there was no evidence of a link to cancers and trade center dust exposure.
“While we are concerned about the possibility of cancer cases in people exposed to trade center dust, cancer cases haven’t increased, Commissioner Thomas Frieden told the AP. The AP said state data show no changes in leukemia and myeloma cases in New York City, according to the latest data available, he said.

This is a tired, old story. Other builders in another city besides New York are one step closer to building the nation’s tallest building. The Chicago City Council approved plans for a 150-story lakefront tower that would be the nation’s tallest building.

The Chicago City Council has approved a zoning change, clearing the way for construction on the 2,000-foot, twisting spire in Chicago.

The completed structure would unseat the city’s 1,451-foot Sears Tower as the tallest building in the United States. The spire would also be taller than New York’s 1,776-foot Freedom Tower, currently under construction at the World Trade Center or Ground Zero.

The Chicago tower, which will be located near the intersection of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, will feature a four-story transparent glass lobby.

Clarion Ledger in Mississippi ran this piece today by US Sen. Trent Lott:

When a Mississippian is killed in the War on Terror, my heart sinks. I’m saddened and angered, and, like many of you, I question our current policy.

Without question I know our soldiers’ cause - America’s cause - is just. As an American, I’m comforted by the fact that our soldiers have always fought and died for what is right: our freedom. And on this Memorial Day, I honor them.

In the War on Terror, the right side is easy to see. In fact, it’s more clearly defined than any conflict since World War II. The current fight is a confrontation between those who value democracy, religious freedom and human rights, and those who don’t. Without provocation, they have killed Americans in our own homeland to demonstrate this demented view.

With right and wrong so clearly defined, with the images of a collapsing World Trade Center and burning Pentagon just a few years removed, some Americans now question whether our troops fight for what is right in Iraq and in the broader War on Terror.

They mistakenly and dangerously view terrorism as the unfortunate byproduct of American strength, of our troops’ footprints abroad. They advocate weakness and withdrawal as the right course.

To them I ask: Is it right to blow up busses filled with innocent civilians? Is it right to kidnap people and decapitate them on video? Is it right to oppose self-government, the rule of law, and freedom of religion as terrorists so openly do?

There is renewed pressure on the city of New York to compensate Ground Zero workers due to air borne toxins in the wreckage inhaled at the site.
Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton joined other activists who are pressing the city to reconsider paying compensation in the wake of the first confirmed death of a civilian from inhaling the dust of the World Trade Center wreckage.
The city medical examiner ruled last week that the death of a lawyer who ran  through thick dust as she ran away from the Twin Towers as they collapsed on 9/11 was caused by toxins in the dust. Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch said the death Felicia Dunn-Jones was linked to her exposure to the dust. Her death is now included amongthe victims of September 11. The death toll has now reached 2,750.
Clinton has joined victim’s rights groups in advocating that Ground Zero workers may be victims of the attacks along with those who perished in the collapse of the Twin Towers. Dunn-Jones is the only victim to receive death benefits from the Victim Compensation Fund for an illness caused by the toxins in the air at Ground Zero.
“Your recent decision to include Felicia Dunn-Jones in the official list of 9/11 victims is an important step toward acknowledging and coming to terms with the devastating and growing health impact,” Clinton said in a letter to Hirsch.

U.S. Reps. Vito Fossella, a Republican, and Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat, also urged Hirsch to review other cases of people who had fallen ill since the September 11 attacks.

“If the toxins at Ground Zero could be responsible for the death of Felicia Dunn-Jones, who was trapped in the dust cloud for one day, think about the impact the toxins must have had on rescue and recovery workers who toiled at the site for months,” Maloney said in a statement.

Expect to see the already vigorous reconstruction at Ground Zero speed up now that most of the insurers of the World Trade Center have agreed to pay up.

The largest insurance payout in known memory — $4.55 billion – further clears the way for developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to finance construction of the $9 billion complex.
The path isn’t completely clear.

Plans for construction and leasing of the Freedom Tower is still uncertain.

Still, the agreement to pay the claim assures Silverstein the ability proceed at a more rapid pace.
The construction site attracts a thousand tourist a day to Ground Zero. They come to watch workers and cranes preparing to pitch new steel beams that will be the framework for the Freedom Tower.

One observer who has watched this process with great interest from afar believes the tenants of the new buildings will not be just anyone with the ability to pay the high rent to occupy the Freedom Tower. She says anyone who ventures to reoccupy Ground Zero is someone who will participate in the rebirth of this sacred ground.

I don’t have much faith in this prediction, but I’ve been wrong before and I would gladly admit I was wrong again if she is right.

Construction of the new World Trade Center transit hub is no less spectacular than the steel work everyone is waiting to rise at the site when steel girders that will frame the Freedom Tower begins to go up.
Right now, the magic is happening underground.
Below, engineers coordinating construction of the $2.2 billion transit center have to defy conventional methods almost daily to excavate and build the new hub in a demanding urban environment without interrupting existing subway and interstate rail service under the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey.
New YorkConstruction.com is keeping a close eye on the project and says “The project faces exacting space constraints; complicated logistics that include keeping subway service in operation; intense public scrutiny of its design and progress; and one of the world’s busiest construction sites, with work on the 2.6-million-sq-ft Freedom Tower, a chiller plant, and the Sept. 11 memorial - as well as three new office towers on the way.
‘ “We have to work closely with all of the stakeholders on a day-to-day basis to reach a consensus on a range of construction issues,” says Steve Plate, director of the Priority Capital Programs Department for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the World Trade Center site and will operate the hub.
“The new facility, designed by Santiago Calatrava, a Spanish architect, will offer passengers from the Port Authority’s PATH transit system an easy transfer point via underground passageways to the subway system operated by New York City Transit. The PATH, which ferries passengers 24 hours a day between various stations in New Jersey and Manhattan, currently uses a temporary station that opened at the World Trade Center in 2003 after the original station was destroyed in the terrorist attacks.”

It was news all week – the Rosie O’Donnell-Elisabeth Hasselbeck on-air argument. The two squared off on The View where Rosie has made more than a spectacle of her own views of late. I defended her right to speak her mind but it seems that mind doesn’t always let the facts get in the way of a good tirade about 9/11, the World Trade Center and related stories.
Accuracy in Media takes issue with Rosie and the media’s responsibility to get the facts straight.
Accuracy in Media says “On May 17, Rosie implied that U.S. Government officials — and U.S. soldiers in Iraq — were terrorists, saying, “I just want to say something. 655,000 Iraqi civilians are dead. Who are the terrorists?” When Hasselbeck incredulously repeated Rosie’s statement, “Who are the terrorists?…Who are you calling terrorists?” Rosie attempted to clarify, saying, “I’m saying that if you are in Iraq and another country, the United States, the richest in the world, invaded your country and killed 655,000 of your citizens, what would you call us?” She later attempted to distinguish between supporting the troops while opposing the government that sent them to Iraq.

But where did this figure of 655,000 come from?

It’s based on a study released last October by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for the British magazine Lancet. The figure is said to be “excess Iraqi deaths as a consequence of the war.” But this study was shown to be wildly off base, as I pointed out in a column last November.

From the political backgrounds and agendas of the authors of the study, to their methodology, to their ignoring the evidence that would suggest that in fact there has likely been a substantial saving of lives through better hospitals and medical care and a vastly increased average life span, this report was badly flawed and misrepresented in the media. Incredibly, the study gives the number of 655,000, but with a plus or minus 250,000. If such a study were accurate, it would suggest that in the 1,300 or so days between the start of the war and the release of the report, an average of over 500 “excess Iraqi deaths” were occurring every day, seven days a week. This is preposterous.

There have been some days when civilian deaths numbered in the hundreds, and these make big news. For example, after the Golden Mosque in Samarra was blown up in February, 2006, it set off what has widely been called the worst week of sectarian violence in the entire war, and the estimated figure was that 1,300 died in that week.

The figure of dead Iraqis is probably closer to 50,000 than 650,000. How many of them were terrorists? And of those civilian dead, a significant number, probably a majority, was killed by insurgents or jihadists.

Rosie makes no such distinctions, blaming the U.S. for deaths carried out by anti-American terrorists. It’s obvious that she has a visceral hatred for the American attempt to bring democracy and stability to Iraq and the Middle East. It may stem from her personal animosity toward Bush. Rosie has said publicly that she despises Bush because he opposes gay marriage.

This kind of propaganda from Rosie about the war does have an impact, especially on the millions of women watching the show. Of course, using misinformation as a weapon is what people like Rosie accuse Bush of doing. Bush is held accountable, as evidenced by the hostile questions at his Thursday news conference. But why isn’t Rosie being held accountable? Is it because she is assumed to be a know-nothing who utters nonsensical things for entertainment purposes only? Unfortunately, we can’t assume that’s the case. She may believe what she’s saying, and some who listen to her may believe it, too.”

A milestone was reached in naming the victims of the World Trade Center attacks when the name of a woman who died of lung disease five months after Sept. 11 was added to the death toll of the 9/11 victims.
The name of Felicia Dunn-Jones was added to the 9/11 victims list after being asked to by her family but it didn’t happen without a fight.
New York City Chief Medical Examiner Charles Hirsch refused, writing back that his office could not link her death to the exposure “with certainty beyond a reasonable doubt.”
That changed Wednesday, when Dunn-Jones was added to the medical examiner’s list of attack victims. It marked the first time the city has officially linked a death to the toxic dust caused by the World Trade Center’s collapse.
The 42-year-old attorney was caught in the dust cloud while fleeing the collapsing towers on Sept. 11, 2001. She died of sarcoidosis, a disease that causes inflammation and scarring in the lungs, on Feb. 10, 2002.
In explaining the reversal, Hirsch cited “accumulated scientific research” that concluded exposure to trade center dust can cause or contribute to sarcoidosis.
“Mrs. Dunn-Jones’ exposure to World Trade Center dust on 9/11/01 contributed to her death and it has been ruled a homicide,” Hirsch wrote. “Mrs. Dunn-Jones has now been added to the list of people who died as a result of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.”
The city puts the Sept. 11 death toll at the trade center at 2,750. Dunn-Jones will be listed on the Sept. 11 memorial when it opens in 2009, a spokeswoman for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation said.
A class-action lawsuit has claimed that dozens of deaths have been caused by exposure to toxic trade center dust.
A study published this month by a Fire Department of New York doctor linked sarcoidosis definitively to exposure to the toxic plume that enveloped lower Manhattan after Sept. 11. It found that firefighters contracted the disease at a much higher rate after the attacks than before.
New York lawmakers seeking federal funding for Sept. 11 health issues said more names should be added to the list.

An accord has been reached between insurers of the Twin Towers and Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein.
Silverstein oversees reconstruction of the 16-acre property but insurers have held up payments after 9/11 for nearly six years in a dispute over what the settlement figure should be.
New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer says Silverstein agreed to drop a lawsuit against the insurers in return for payments of about $2 billion so he can proceed with the reconstruction. This agreement, according to the Times of London, removes the last major stumbling block holding back reconstruction.

Johnny Yen says he didn’t like Rudy Guliani before 9/11 and likes him even less now. But Yen, who writes the Here Comes Johnny Yen Again blog, says he is puzzled by the common wisdom that Guliani handled 9/11 “brilliantly.” I’m at a loss to see what he did that was different from what any other mayor would have done, Yen says,  “walk around, looking concerned, then giving a couple of speeches. Hell, even our own excitable Mayor Daley here in Chicago would have done the same thing. Guliani did his job. Wonderful.
I remember Mayor Daley’s father Richard. He did his job too and people overlooked some of his many faults because the old man did his job too. It occurs to me that electing a politician who can at least do his job might be a refreshing change from what we have now.
I was no fan of Rudy’s either since his greatest claim to fame before 9/11 seemed to be his clean up of city street – ridding them of the squeegee boys (grown men really). But Rudy was tough on crime in a city with lots of it and frankly, we could use somebody in the White House who does more than lie with a smirk or play a mean sax. Rudy ain’t exactly my man, but the pickings are mighty slim. Rudy did take charge after 9/11 and there was no time for politics as the Twin Towers were falling.
The fools who blog and the so-called news media had nothing better to report today than how much Rudy and the others in the field are charging for speeches. Our soldiers are driving around in junk, including Stryker vehicles manufactured by some pals of the vice president. That’s right. Junk. Somebody’s child died in Iraq today for no damn good reason so anybody who can take charge and stop the madness (even Rudy) can lead me the hell out of this quagmire. I am damn sick of pretending the emperor has any clothes on at all.