by Lionel Bascom — June 21st, 2007 — 1 comment
It can’t be done. Any fool or history buff knows this.
The plot surrounding 9/11 and the aftermath thickens. As the kinks and problems with reconstructing Ground Zero and building the Freedom Tower are ironed out, the way the feds and the city dealt with the public becomes “worser and worser,” as a comedian of my youth once said.
The Government Accountability Office, one of my favorite bureaucracies because it works, says federal environmental officials lied to New Yorkers and misled residents of Lower Manhattan after the Twin Towers collapsed on 9/11.
In a new report, the GAO said the EPA lied about the extent of contamination in thousands of downtown condos and apartments, according to a preliminary report released just yesterday.
This news, no surprise to anyone who has been watching this drama unfold in recent months, was introduced during a Senate subcommittee hearing. The report says the EPA failed to accurately report results of a cleanup program in 2002 and 2003.
According to a story today’s New York Times, the agency failed to explain that findings that suggested that contamination of more than 4,000 residents was minimal was misleading. That statement was based on samples taken after 80 percent of the apartments had been cleaned. This led residents to believe contamination of their homes had been minimal all along.
John Stephenson, head of the natural resources and environmental division of the GAO said this was misleading. Stephenson said the misinformation left downtown residents believing their risks of health related problems were minimal. The EPA finding resulted in just 295 residents opting to take part in a new residential cleanup program. Enrollment in that program ended in March. At least 20,000 apartments had been eligible to participate in a program.
Sen. Hilary Clinton sounded off after the hearings, saying “residents are understandably reluctant to participate in what they consider to be a waste of time,” the New York Senator and presidential candidate said. She said the data in the GAO report presented “a very different picture from what the White House would like us to believe.”
Who would’ve thought?
9:37 PM in Uncategorized, World Trade Center, Ground Zero, Related Stories, Freedom Tower News
Once again, ol’ Hilary sounds off ‘too little too late’ to be cliché. God help us if she becomes the president of our country.
Many of those involved in the clean up effort have distorted the truth, reducing the integrity of governmental agencies who really do wish to help. Fools? Maybe we all are. We seem to believe anything anyone spews forth with conviction, and that is a mightily frightening attribute. Time for some enlightenment to take control here.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Jeanne · June 21st, 2007 at 11:20 pm