The Freedom Tower

The Freedom Tower design has passed an important test of durability, authorities say.

Over the past few months, two full-size mockups of a few floors of the tower’s facade were tested to see if it could withstand attacks and natural disasters, according to press reports.

One mockup in a remote area in central New Mexico was subjected to a blast test.

The other mockup outside of Los Angeles was tested by severe weather conditions and earthquakes.

The Port Authority and the building’s designer both say the mockups performed very well.

The 1,368-foot tall Freedom Tower is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says there will be a new version of the observation deck at the top of the Freedom Tower.

The Port Authority says it is seeking a world-class operator to design, build and manage the indoor deck on the 102nd floor of the 1,776-foot icon at Ground Zero.

The New York Daily News reports that the deck will offer tourists an “eye-popping, heart-stopping, 360-degree panoramic views that stretches forever - or at least 50 miles on a clear day - the deck will be perched 1,300 feet above West St. on the tower’s highest occupied floor.

The rebirth of New York’s signature rooftop was announced as another key element of post-9/11 rebuilding fell into place: The Sept. 11 Memorial & Museum said yesterday it had reached its goal of raising $350million in funds from private donors.

A record $10 million corporate gift from Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial services firm that lost 658 workers in the terror attacks, put the museum over the top. It’s now flush with donations from 60,000 people in all 50 states and 31 nations.

“We reached our fund-raising goal because of support from people across the country and around the world,” said Mayor Bloomberg, who doubles as museum chairman.

The project, which will cost a total of $610 million, will also receive state and federal grants.

The twin announcements provided fresh momentum for a rebuilding drive that has been haunted by years of delays, funding shortfalls and interagency squabbling. Officials now say the museum will open in 2011 and the Freedom Tower in 2012.

Occupying 18,000 square feet, the tower’snew observation deck will be smaller than the 44,000-square-foot original on the 107th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. Along with an open-air deck on the 110th floor, it drew 2 million visitors a year.

“It was a can’t-miss stop,” said PA Chairman Anthony Coscia. “We intend to recreate the same experience for future generations.”

The George Washington’s Blog reports that
14 Structural Engineers Now Publicly Challenge Government’s Explanation for Destruction of the World Trade Center:

A prominent engineer with 55 years experience, in charge of the design of hundreds of major building projects including high rise offices, former member of the California Seismic Safety Commission and former member of the National Institute of Sciences Building Safety Council (Marx Ayres) believes that the World Trade Centers were brought down by controlled demolition.

Two professors of structural engineering at a prestigious Swiss university (Dr. Joerg Schneider and Dr. Hugo Bachmann) said that, on 9/11, World Trade Center 7 was brought down by controlled demolition.
Kamal S. Obeid, structural engineer, with a masters degree in Engineering from UC Berkeley, of Fremont, California, says:

“Photos of the steel, evidence about how the buildings collapsed, the unexplainable collapse of WTC 7, evidence of thermite in the debris as well as several other red flags, are quite troubling indications of well planned and controlled demolition”

Ronald H. Brookman, structural engineer, with a masters degree in Engineering from UC Davis, of Novato California, writes:

“Why would all 110 stories drop straight down to the ground in about 10 seconds, pulverizing the contents into dust and ash - twice. Why would all 47 stories of WTC 7 fall straight down to the ground in about seven seconds the same day? It was not struck by any aircraft or engulfed in any fire. An independent investigation is justified for all three collapses including the surviving steel samples and the composition of the dust.”

Graham John Inman, structural engineer, of London, England, points out:

“WTC 7 Building could not have collapsed as a result of internal fire and external debris. NO plane hit this building. This is the only case of a steel frame building collapsing through fire in the world. The fire on this building was small & localized therefore what is the cause?”

Paul W. Mason, structural engineer, of Melbourne, Australia, argues:

“In my view, the chances of the three buildings collapsing symmetrically into their own footprint, at freefall speed, by any other means than by controlled demolition, are so remote that there is no other plausible explanation!”

Mills M. Kay Mackey, structural engineer, of Denver, Colorado, points out:

“The force from the jets and the burning fuel could not have been sufficient to make the building collapse. Why doesn’t the media mention that the 11th floor was completely immolated on February 13th, 1975? It had the weight of nearly 100 stories on top of it but it did not collapse?
The full details are available at: http://georgewashington.blogspot.com

My old employer, United Press International is now saying the number of deaths related to the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks could grow into the thousands.

“The list of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks will swell by hundreds or even thousands in the coming years, say experts, as more die from diseases resulting from their exposure to the huge plume of toxic dust thrown up by the collapsing towers of the World Trade Center.

The New York City medical examiner’s office, which maintains the official list of victims, is looking at two cases to determine whether they should be added — and will look into any case they are asked to — spokeswoman Ellen Borakove told United Press International.

“If the family asks us to, we will look at any case,” she said.

The office has already added one name to the list — that of Felicia Dunn-Jones, a 42-year-old attorney for the U.S. Department of Education who died of the rare lung disease sarcoidosis in February 2002. Her name was added last May, and Tuesday it was read out with the other 2,749 at the Ground Zero anniversary ceremony for the first time.”

UPI says it is not unreasonable to expect this list to grow by the hundreds, maybe even thousands in the coming years.

Secret anti-terror plans would turn Ground Zero into Fort WTC, the New York Daily News reportsl, calling it  “a bulked-up, battened-down, barricaded ring of steel.”
The newspaper says there will be at least 25 impregnable barriers and 13 guard booths around the new World Trade Center footprint under consideration by the New York city police department.  A draft plan was circulated in late February.
“At least 24 blocks on eight major streets would be closed or restricted to traffic under the proposal, which has been reviewed in City Hall and at 1 Police Plaza and is still being revised.
“Deputy Police Commissioner Paule Browne wouldn’t address any specifics in the draft plan.
“No decision has been made on staffing or other security arrangements,” he said.
He called the number of checkpoints and guard booths “outdated,” saying they “provide an exaggerated picture of security plans.
“The NYPD is working closely with the Port Authority to provide for a safe, inviting and commercially viable World Trade Center site, not the fortress-like environment you describe,” Browne said.
The draft plan is modeled after London’s Ring of Steel, a maze of narrowed roads in the city’s financial district with limited entry points that force vehicles into chokepoints that cops can easily cordon off.
It represents a breathtaking about-face from the work of post-9/11 planners, who called for restoring the original street grid on the site, reconnecting Greenwich and Fulton streets, and breaking up the superblock where the Trade Center once stood.
If the plan goes through, getting into the Trade Center won’t be easy: Tenants, chauffeurs, livery cabbies and tour-bus drivers who need regular access to the complex would have to register with cops and win approval as “trusted drivers,” sources familiar with the plan say.
Electronic transponders would be attached to their vehicles to allow constant monitoring - and they’d have access to “trusted vehicle lanes” on Church St. separated from other traffic by “raised island dividers,” the draft shows.
Even then, screeners would examine the trunk, interior and undercarriage of all northbound vehicles on Church St. in a bomb-detection effort as surveillance cameras that scan license plates rake the scene, say officials briefed on the plan.”

The remains of four more people from the World Trade Center site have been identified, according to NY1.

The Medical Examiner’s office says the remains of three men and one woman were found during a new recovery effort that took place between October 2006 and December 2007.

The office is releasing the names of two of the victims: 35-year-old Alejandro Castano, whose remains were recovered from the Liberty Street section, and 54-year-old Keith Milstein whose remains were recovered from Haul Road.

In all 2,750 people have been reported missing, with about 60 percent of those people being identified so far.

MSNBC investigative reporter Lisa Myers is looking into the $1 billion in funds set aside by the federal government after 9/11.
She reports the money was earmarked from insurance funds to protect New York City, and to compensate workers who became ill or injured after working at Ground Zero. Today, Myers says, thousands of workers say they are sick, and they can’t understand why so few of them have gotten any payments.

“Before working for two months at Ground Zero, Valentin, a New York City Police Officer, says he was in perfect health. Today, he has lung disease and an inoperable tumor on his windpipe, conditions he blames on the toxic air at Ground Zero.
“My doctor says that this is something I’m going to live with for the rest of my life,” Valentin said.
There’s no compensation fund for him, like there was for families after 9/11. But Valentin and 10,000 former workers want New York City to pay, claiming they weren’t adequately protected on the smoky “pile.”
“I wore an American bandana around my face for the first few weeks, then eventually we got a paper mask,” said Valentin, who is now suing the city and who is represented by the Napoli Bern Ripka law firm.
The federal government created a $1 billion insurance company almost four years ago to pay legitimate claims, and to protect New York City. But Valentin’s case, and thousands more, have not been heard.
“I just need my family taken care of, that’s all I want. I’m not looking to drive a Mercedes Benz, you know? I just want my family taken care of,” Valentin added.
So far, the World Trade Center insurance fund has paid out only $300,000 in benefits, to six workers with bone injuries. And yet it’s spent $100 million on legal fees–mostly to challenge workers’ claims in court.
New York City officials say they did adequately protect workers, with masks and other equipment. And, they say, since Congress set up an insurance fund, the city must carefully weigh each claim, which takes time, lawyers and money.”

A California Congressman says the planes that struck and toppled the World Trade Center were not weapons.
This stance by Rep. Darrell Issa was made in an effort to block approval of funds to help New York city take care of a growing number of Ground Zero workers who are getting sick with illnesses related to the attacks.
The New York Daily News says Issa is a powerful Republican.

“It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft, and residue from the materials used to build this building,” Issa said during a hearing into whether a new 9/11 victims’ compensation fund should be launched.

An astounded Michael Cardozo, Mayor Bloomberg’s corporation counsel, who was testifying before the panel said: “This was an attack, I believe, on the United States of America.”

“It was located at Ground Zero, but it was an attack on America,” Cardozo repeated.

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn/Queens) rushed to note that Issa backed original 9/11 funding.

“The gentleman voted for it because we had the national sense that this was not an attack on New York City, this was an attack on our country,” Weiner barked.”

New York Times reporter Anthony DePalma is taking a much-needed look at attorney Paul Napoli and his Napoli Bern law firm, which is now representing thousands of plaintiffs claiming injury from 9/11 dust inhalation. This blog has reported claims made by Napoli and his law firm.
Napoli and the firm have been involved in controversies in the past. In an earlier, post-9/11 period, the firm has been charged with taking larger than normal fees. A website called Overlawyered has also taken a closer look at Napoli and his firm’s practices.

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In 2005, The New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency had initiated wiretaps and other forms of surveillance without court orders. It was a story the Bush administration hoped to keep under wraps. Eric Lichtblau, one of the two reporters who pushed for the publication of the story, says this in his new book, Bush’s Law: The Remaking of American Justice, details how the administration used the “war on terror” to push for controversial surveillance programs. Lichtblau is a Washington correspondent for The New York Times. In 2006, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of domestic spying.

In part, it reads: “Even before the last legs had given out on the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers on that horrific day, the FBI had begun the monumental task of piecing together what had happened. Who were the jihadists who had carried out the audacious attacks? How had they operated so invisibly, and with such impunity, on American soil? Who had helped them? And, most urgently, what other plots were already underway? There was no better law enforcement agency in the world than the FBI at solving a crime, and this investigation-code-named Penttbom-would be the biggest in its history. Thousands of agents, working more mundane tasks like drug seizures and white-collar crime on September 10, were now dispatched to the case as newly deputized counterterrorism sleuths. Investigators would be helped by a few early breaks: a piece of Mohamed Atta’s luggage that didn’t make it onto Flight 11 held a treasure trove of detailed preparations for the hijackings, and a search of a rental car parked at Logan Airport produced flight manuals and other potentially important bits of evidence.”

Read excerpts of Lichtblau’s book on NPR.org.