The Freedom Tower

Fox News says a Muslim group, in collaboration with a Brooklyn imam once investigated as a possible co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, paid $48,000 to run Islamic advertisements on the city’s subway cars this September.

The ad campaign — known as the “Subway Project” — was designed to inform people about Islam and dispel common misconceptions about the religion, a representative for the Islamic Circle of North America told FOXNews.com. The story was first reported Monday in the New York Post and later rereported by FoxNews.

But the effort to plaster 1,000 subway cars with pro-Islamic messages has given new life to the controversy that has surrounded the radical imam, Siraj Wahhaj, who is promoting the campaign.

Wahhaj was once listed by prosecutor Andy McCarthy as an unindicted person who may have been an alleged co-conspirator in the deadly 1993 terror bombing of the World Trade Center.

Merrill Lynch & Co has ended discussions to move its headquarters to a planned office tower at the World Trade Center site, Reuters, the British news agency, and the New York Times report..

The securities company, whose lease in its downtown Manhattan office will expire in 2013, had considered moving its headquarters last year.

It had had discussions about the World Trade Center with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that owns the site, and Larry Silverstein, the developer who purchased the Twin Towers six weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The paper said Merrill’s decision was a major setback for the Port Authority and Silverstein, who had hoped to revive commercial interest in the 16-acre site by luring the company as an anchor tenant for one of the four office towers to be built there.

After bargaining for months over tens of millions of dollars in concessions and tax breaks for a 71-story tower, Merrill said that it and its negotiation partners were “too far apart to continue the process,” according to the Times.

With a dearth of private tenants at the site, the pains of the weak economy and lenders’ reluctance to finance speculative office space, some experts say that Silverstein, who is required to build three of the four towers, may find it hard to raise money for construction, the paper said.

Last month, the Port Authority said it could not rely on any of its deadlines and cost estimates for the $14 billion World Trade Center rebuilding plan because they were all unrealistic.

NY1 says Governor David Paterson sided recently with Mayor Michael Bloomberg that the September 11th Memorial should be the top priority at the World Trade Center site.

Paterson and Bloomberg want the memorial built in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Last month, the head of the Port Authority suspended all construction deadlines for the site.

But after meeting with Bloomberg, Paterson now says they will work together to get the memorial finished more quickly.

Bloomberg is the chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which has raised $350 million.

The owner of the World Trade Center will move a staircase that was used by survivor in a desperate attempt to escape with their lives that morning in 2001. The staircase, now considered a landmark, will be moved to a new location in the center of the foundation.
The New York Times says the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will move the the Vesey Street staircase used by hundreds of attack survivors who fled to safety that morning in 2001. The staircase has been on public view opposite the 7 World Trade Center plaza.
Over the weekend, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey plans to lower the 58-ton, 21-foot-high staircase to a temporary holding area deep down in the trade center foundations, the Times said.
“It will stay there until the time comes to be installed as part of a larger flight of steps in the underground memorial museum, which is currently expected to open in 2012. This means that the public is not likely to be able to get so close to the “survivor’s stairway” again for at least four years.
The steps once led down to Vesey Street from the Austin J. Tobin Plaza of the original World Trade Center. The staircase made a good escape route on Sept. 11, 2001, because they could be reached by walking alongside 6 World Trade Center, the U.S. Customs House, which had deep overhanging eaves that protected people fleeing the north tower from falling debris and bodies. “They were the path to freedom,” recalled Kayla Bergeron, one of the survivors.

NBC television says it has its eyes on new business headquarters at 7 World Trade Center, the first building to rise from the devastation of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack. The New York Observer reported (Wednesday) the company is considering leasing the top 10 floors of the 52-story building and assuming a leased currently held by ABN AMRO, whose parent, Belgian-based Fortis, has too much debt. Together, the space available for NBC would amount to 540,000 feet. The Observer says it would be hard for the network to find that much space anywhere in Manhattan.

WNYC says New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today joined the chorus of local leaders protesting last week’s firing of Washington’s point man on World Trade Center health issues.
Bloomberg praised John Howard for having a thorough knowledge of the situation - and for being an advocate for federal funding of screening and treatment programs. And Bloomberg, speaking at Staten Island’s St. George Ferry Terminal, says the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services should not have terminated Howard’s position.
BLOOMBERG: I certainly would ask Michael Leavitt re-think this and keep this guy on. He’s a breath of fresh air.
REPORTER: Howard has been the head of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the agency that oversees the administration of OSHA. His term expires this year, and the White House has not announced plans to appoint a successor.
Last year, the federal government spent $158 million for 9/11-related health programs locally and nationwide.

www.gather.com compares:

The Kennedy Assassination vs. 9-11

by John L.

Some random, unresearched observations of comparison and contrast. Feel free to comment, correct, and add your own!

SIMILARITIES:

Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination happened on a Tuesday with an 11 in the date.
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination are generally considered so shocking and unexpected as to be life-changing for those old enough to remember them.
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination followed a decade or more of relative peace and stability in America.
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination opened a period of turbulence and growing distrust of the American government.
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination spawned countless conspiracy theories with obsessive followings.
According to the official story, both 9-11 and the JFK assassination were perpetrated by young men of modest means exploiting the openness of American society to pull off acts of great significance and terror.
According to the conspiracy theorists, both 9-11 and the JFK assassination were perpetrated by a secret collusion of government agencies intent on starting a war.
According to the conspiracy theorists, both the 9-11 hijackers and Lee Harvey Oswald were patsies.
Both Lee Harvey Oswald and Mohammed Atta got in and out of America with relative ease despite obvious danger signals in their backgrounds (LHO defecting to the Soviet Union and MA receiving large amounts of cash from unspecified sources).
Both Lee Harvey Oswald and (at least some of) the 9-11 hijackers were under FBI investigation prior to their respective violent acts.
Neither LHO nor the 9-11 hijackers stood trial for their alleged crimes.
There has been only one criminal prosecution each for 9-11 (Zacharias Moussaui, convicted) and the JFK assassination (Clay Shaw, acquitted).
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination involved tall buildings, concealed weapons, and specialized training used for a sinister purpose.
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination had self-appointed heroes in the Flight 93 passengers and Jack Ruby; the conspiracy theorists call them part of the cover-up.
Both 9-11 and the JFK assassination spawned, within three years, a governmental commission to determine how it could have happened.
If you buy that the generals had Kennedy killed because they were mad that he didn’t invade Cuba, why didn’t they ever try to get Johnson to do it? And if you buy that the Project for a New American Century came up with 9-11 as an excuse to invade Iraq, why not have AT LEAST ONE hijacker from there?
DIFFERENCES:

Immediately after 9-11, we knew we were living in a different world. While the JFK assassination was shocking, it took several years to realize its full impact.
Officially the government makes no connection between the JFK assassination and the widening of the Vietnam War (1965-1968), though a growing opposition makes a direct connection between the two. Officially the government makes a direct connection between 9-11 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq as part of the War on Terror, though a growing opposition insists there was no basis for this connection.
The JFK assassination was perpetrated by an American; 9-11 was perpetrated (officially) by foreigners.
For the JFK assassination, conspiracy theorists have named many supposed low-level functionaries (Jack Ruby, David Ferrie, etc.) but no one person or group in charge of it all; for 9-11, conspiracy theorists have named the supposed ringleaders (Project for a New American Century) but none of the supposed low-level functionaries (explosives technicians, remote control pilots, etc.) that would be required for such a scheme.
The JFK assassination killed one person (three counting J. D. Tippit and LHO); 9-11 killed approximately three thousand people.
The JFK assassination came 13 months before the end of a presidential term; 9-11 came eight months after the start of a presidential term.
The JFK assassination lifted history’s perception of a president who left much of his work unfinished; 9-11 (temporarily) lifted the public’s perception of a president thitherto seen as illegitimate.
Six years after the JFK assassination, Kennedy’s dream of a manned moon landing became a reality. Six years after 9-11, the survivors’ dream of a new World Trade Center was still just that.

There’s another political controversy involving the good old state of Florida and the upcoming presidential election.
A Florida television station says there’s a controversial billboard in Orange County, Florida that has a picture of the burning World Trade Center and the message, “Please Don’t Vote for a Democrat.” The man who paid for the ad says he’s trying to help Republicans,the TV station WFTV reports but officials with both political parties are calling the billboard inappropriate.
To see what the uproar is over, go to:
www.wftv.com/slideshow/news/16879916/detail.html

NY1 reports that a judge has rejected a lawsuit by relatives of 9/11 victims who wanted residue from the Twin Towers removed from the Fresh Kills landfill in State Island.

It has been there since debris was cleared from the site.

The families say the dust may contain human remains and they want it relocated to a new cemetery across the street.

“The plantiffs in this lawsuit are not prepared to allow hundreds of human remains to remain on top of a garbage dump,” said civil rights attorney Norman Siegel.

The judge said not every wrong can be addressed through the judicial process, but that he’s open for discussion if both sides want to hash out a settlement.

The city’s Law Department released a statement saying, in part:

“This decision recognizes the City’s tremendous efforts to recover the remains and personal effects of those lost on 9/11. It is our hope that the park planned for Fresh Kills, where millions of tons of Ground Zero materials were carefully sifted and examined, will help us remember those who we lost, and forever serve as a tribute to freedom and liberty.”

A 10-month search of the debris at Fresh Kills ended in July of 2002. The city claimed that any remains still at the site are too small to be identified.

It will be at least another two months before the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey releases new timelines and budgets for projects at the World Trade Center site. Still, the new PA chief is still hoping the planned 9/11 memorial park will be completed on time.

During a special meeting of CB1’s World Trade Center Reconstruction Committee, Port Authority executive director Christopher Ward, who faced the committee along with six other key players in the redevelopment of the trade center, said he wants to see construction of the memorial park completed and open to the public on or before Sept. 11, 2011, the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

“The delivery of the memorial is the driving force, and the date of the ten-year anniversary is the date that we’re working towards,” Ward said. “We believe that there can be an appropriate location…that would allow somber recollection and a healing process on that date.”

Citing the memorial’s planned plaza with its grove of trees, along with the hollowed outlines of the twin towers and their reflecting pools, Ward said it is the Port Authority’s hope that “in large measure,” those parts of the memorial, though not the museum, will be completed.

The eight-acre Memorial Park will occupy the southwest corner of the World Trade Center site, just to the south of where the Port Authority is currently building the Freedom Tower. Ward said the park, which includes two reflecting pools in the shape of the original Twin Towers, is the only element of the Authority’s many reconstruction projects on the site that stands a chance of being completed on time. Late last month, he delivered a sobering assessment of the Port Authority’s progress on the site, saying that most, if not all of the projects – including the planned 9/11 museum that will abut the park, the Freedom Tower, the Santiago Calatrava-designed transit hub and a vehicle security station—are millions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. Ward said the Port Authority has since scrapped most of its original deadlines for the project’s completion.