The Freedom Tower

From Nigerian Curiosity: “How To Shoot Yourself in the Foot …”

“After the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the U.S., Nigeria was added to an American list of countries with ties to terrorism. This, despite the fact that then-president Olusegun Obasanjo spent a significant amount of time visiting the US and proclaiming Nigeria’s staunch support of the American counter-terrorism efforts.

As a Nigerian abroad, I was frequently asked questions, such as “Is it true that Nigeria harbors terrorists?” or “Is it safe in Nigeria, what with Al Qaeda and stuff…”. With each question, I got protective about Nigeria and explained that Nigerians are not interested in Al Qaeda or terrorism. I would have to point out that Nigerians are considered some of the happiest people on the planet and that our love of ‘owambe’ (all night) parties, ‘awoof’ (I will have to rely on my readers for a detailed definition of this Nigerian concept), weddings and the overall good life would overcome any slight risk of even dabbling in terrorism.

Then MEND began to mete out their demands for justice, while its less-ideologically inclined imitators simply demanded money and Johnny Walker. Before I knew it, the uncomfortable questions started again. I would receive phone calls from long lost friends, “Is your mother okay? FOX News says they just bombed an oil rig” or “Some Americans got kidnapped over there. Is your family okay?” All I can say in response is, “My family is fine. The kidnappers will release the victims in no time, don’t worry. That’s how they do things…” And, with every new kidnapping incident, I paid less and less attention because I trusted that the kidnappers would release their victims and all would end well.

Things started to get better. America’s economic recession grabbed headlines and people focused on other things like the battle for the American presidency and the continuing process to pick a Democratic nominee. I started to breathe easier. I even managed to read a widely circulated US government report that the Nigerian Taliban, a small group operating mainly in Kano, has no ties to Al Qaeda or other Islamist militant groups in Algeria, Afghanistan or anywhere else. Hence, all that talk tying Nigeria to terrorists was all a big bad mistake. I poured myself a glass of Riesling and made a mental note to write about it and remind Nigerians and the world of the retraction.

But then it happened. I saw the following attention grabbing headline in my Google Reader - ‘R-E-D-A-L-E-R-T: IG Warns over Al- Qaeda Plot to Bomb Nigeria’ and my mouth became sour. I went on to read that Nigeria’s inspector General (IG) of Police, Mike Okiro, told a group of senior officials that,

“The al Qaeda network has threatened to send time bombs to Nigeria . . . CPs (commissioners of police) of all the commands should be on the alert and ensure that these items (bombs) do not pass through their end,”

Why would Okiro say this? And, why would he and the Yar’Adua Administration not do everything within their power to discourage the publication of such a glaringly disadvantageous headline? The IG’s statements go completely against any progress that Nigeria is attempting to make in rebranding itself and preparing for the development it proclaims to strive for. Nigeria cannot market itself as a tourist haven if its own IG contradicts the hardwork and collaboration between Nigerian and American authorities in retracting previous claims that Nigeria has terrorist ties. Nigeria cannot calm the fears of needed global investors who are hesitant to invest capital in the economy when our own IG is telling the world that the nation is an immediate terror target. But, even more important than any of that is the fact that in a country where citizens have hardly any light, are spending more and more of their hard-earned income on ever rising food, gas and other necessities, is it really wise to make such statements publicly? It is never wise to create fear in the heart of the populace by telling them that a world-renowned terrorist group plans to set off bombs in Nigeria whether that is true or not. Nigerians do not need this, in addition to all the other ‘wahala’ (problems) they deal with on a daily basis.

Despite this, I am glad that the IG has started his damage control and is now downplaying his quoted statement by asking Nigerians to ignore published accounts of a bomb plot. The Public Relations Officer of Nigeria Police Force, Agberebi Akpoebi, even went as far as declaring that the published reports were completely false and were done simply to serve “a selfish and private interest”. I am not quite sure what that means or whether this is effective damage control, especially as these responses from the IG were delayed by almost a week, but I can only hope that in Nigeria’s journey towards a more stable and secure nation, that we take the right steps to prevent the ambitions of those that seek to cause chaos while protecting the interests of the Nigerian citizen. And by interest, I am talking about the right to a peaceful nights sleep without adding terrorism fears to the many headaches Nigerians have to deal with. We cannot continue to give ammunition to those who clearly do not have our interests at heart. Let us try to not shoot ourselves in the foot by tying our lot to the aims of terrorism either intentionally or unintentionally.

May the souls of all those lost in the recent Lagos pipeline explosion, rest in peace. I hope that the IG, the seemingly hardworking Lagos state government and the federal government have an effective plan to prevent these explosions, which are beginning to occur too frequently.”

Kimberly Ripley of New Hampshire, writing at www.gather.com:

“I walked as far around the perimeter (of Ground Zero) as the public was allowed. I just knew I’d find something to commemorate the lives lost here. I know plans for a memorial are in the making, but in the meantime I felt certain some type of makeshift tribute would be in place.
I found nothing. Aside from an American flag flying gently in the warm New York City evening breeze, there was nothing but construction equipment in the giant void that once served as a grave of sorts for the people who lost their lives on 9/11.
Why were there no flowers? Why wasn’t there at least a sign? “Rest In Peace.”
New Yorkers flowed by and around the area. Life seems a lot different than it was the last time I visited this city. It was just four weeks after 9/11. When I stepped off the train in Penn Station I was instantly heartbroken as I viewed hundreds and hundreds of signs with photographs on them.
“Have you seen this woman?”

”Has anyone seen my husband?”
Yet here it is just a few years later and nothing honors the void where the Twin Towers once stood.
In addition to the lack of respect and honor for those lives lost and their loved ones who remain, I think about the brave American men and women fighting terror in the Middle East. To not commemorate the tragedy of 9/11 negates (at least in my mind) what these soldiers stand for.
I know that one day a wondrous memorial will grace Ground Zero. But in the meantime I truly believe there needs to be something to remind us of the day that forever changed us as Americans. Our soldiers, our veterans, our 9/11 heroes, our dead, and their loved ones all deserve far better than what I observed there this evening.

Press reports say more secret World Trade Center papers have turned up in the trash, just days after a homeless man said he found blueprints to Freedom Tower in a New York trash can.

The New York Post reported Sunday that a pair of self-described “salvage experts” said they have twice found piles of sensitive blueprints, schematics and e-mails detailing plans for buildings intended to replace the World Trade Center.

The plans include details of the temporary PATH train station and a proposed Port Authority Police headquarters, the newspaper said.

The men’s first find was about a year and a half ago, and the second was March 13, the newspaper said.

“We knew what we had. I thought the information was important and potentially dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands, and we weren’t going to let that happen,” one of the men said. “We were protecting the trade center. We were protecting the country.”

Port Authority spokeswoman Candace McAdams said the $16 billion project “produces literally tons of building plans and documents that are not privileged and confidential.”

But the newspaper reported that the documents found read, “SECURE DOCUMENT — CONFIDENTIAL FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY,” on every page.

A drifter living in New York city says he found a blueprint set for the new World Trade Center’s ‘Freedom Tower’. According to press reports, Mike Fleming says he found the plans discarded in a public trash can earlier this month, according to a story in the New York Post.
The plans were supposedly kept under lock and key and were the confidential building plans for the main tower of the new World Trade Center. They were found in a trash can in New York’s SoHo district. Fleming discovered two different sets of the 150-page blueprints in the trash can while he was searching for cardboard, the newspaper reported on Friday.  “
Experts said they contained detailed floor-by-floor schematics of the new Freedom Tower — a 1,776-foot skyscraper that will be the centerpiece of the new World Trade Center.

On the front of each set of blueprints are the words, “Secure document - confidential” — and a warning to destroy the architectural plans if they are discarded.

The plans’ discovery raised serious alarm among the security community, with many experts concerned that particularly vital information was carelessly and literally thrown out.

“Any time a sensitive document is unintentionally left behind, it’s a treasure trove for a potential adversary,” security expert Robert Strang told the Post.  “It enables them to look for vulnerabilities in design that they can target — an age-old military tactic.”

Perhaps even more alarming is the fact that one of the trashed blueprint sets was missing its first 14-pages.

Though the plans are several versions old — they were dated Oct. 5, 2007 — authorities worry that they still carry enough information for a terrorist to exploit.  For instance, the blueprints included the plans for each floor, the thickness of the concrete-core wall and the location of air ducts and elevators.
The 1,776-foot Freedom Tower is part of the new World Trade Center complex in downtown New York City. It is expected to open in 2012. (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)
The 1,776-foot Freedom Tower is part of the new World Trade Center complex in downtown New York City. It is expected to open in 2012. (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill)

Even the transient who found the plans in the trash was concerned about his discovery.

“They were right on top, and the garbage truck came along ten minutes later,” Mike Fleming told the Post.  “I was outraged because this is priceless and it could get into the wrong hands.”

Authorities are trying to determine how the blueprints ended up in the trash, but are nearly certain they were put there by an insider.  Those particular plans were only distributed to Port Authority officials, architects and contractors — and were never intended to be made public.

“We don’t tolerate carelessness and stupidity,” Port Authority spokesperson Candace McAdams said.

Construction on the Freedom Tower began about two years ago and is expected to open in 2012.  The new complex will feature the Freedom Tower and several smaller buildings, in addition to a permanent memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The new World Trade Center is supposed to include far more built-in security than the old complex, which was bombed in 1993 and then toppled by terrorists eight years later.  But even some relatives of 9/11 victims say this security lapse doesn’t come as a surprise.

“This whole thing is kind of frightening, but at the same time totally expected,” Bill Doyle told the Post, whose son died in the old World Trade Center.

“I would certainly be pretty leary going to work in [the Freedom Tower] knowing that security on the plans was so lax that even a vagabond could find them,” he added.

A column in New York Magazine called “Grub Street” reports that “the chance to put a restaurant at the top of the Freedom Tower seems like a peerless opportunity all right — at least, that’s what the Port Authority hoped when it invited restaurateurs to propose plans for the new space, set to open in 2013, earlier this week.
But we only know one person who has created a major restaurant atop the city’s highest skyscraper: Michael Whiteman, who with his partner Joe Baum created Windows on the World (which the Freedom Tower’s restaurant will be the de facto replacement for). Whiteman is something of an expert on skyscraper restaurants: He also created the modern version of the Rainbow Room, along with top-floor restaurants in Singapore and Taipei. We asked him how hard it was going to be for whoever won the contract.

“It could cost about $30 million to build,” Whiteman says, “or maybe more. It’s a big gulp in any case. But anybody who went after it would be expecting a very big tenant allowance [a kind of operating subsidy] from the Port Authority.” Whiteman says that while the location makes the build-out more timely and expensive, it doesn’t really present any special challenges: “It’s like swimming — once you start it doesn’t matter how deep the water is beneath you.” The restaurant will succeed, he thinks, as long as its operator keeps his eyes on the prize culinarily. “The place should function on its own even if the building were fogged in and you could see nothing on the outside. Which happened quite often at Windows on the World.” Whiteman thinks the bigger financial challenge might be the insurance, which could be prohibitively high. The reasons for that are fairly obvious — though we doubt you’ll be reading much about that in 2013’s neuro-dispatches.

The New York Sun reports:

“The city would foot the cost of health care for city workers suffering illnesses related to toxin exposure at ground zero until they can receive disability payments, if a bill by a City Council member, Michael McMahon of Staten Island, passes.

“I was shocked when I learned that our heroes of 9/11 were not receiving the health care they needed after becoming ill as a result of their work at ground zero,” Mr. McMahon said yesterday in a statement. “The city has an obligation to these men and women to ensure that they receive the best health care possible in their time of need. These are the people who served the city in our time of need without regard to their own health and safety.”

Mr. McMahon will announce the introduction of the bill today at City Hall along with the head of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, Patrick Lynch, and representatives from the firefighters and emergency workers unions.”

Preschoolers who saw the collapse of the World Trade Center or other high-intensity events on Sept. 11, 2001 were at increased risk of behavioral problems long afterwards, especially if they’d experienced other traumatic events, researchers found.
The study was done by Claude Chemtob, Ph.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, and his colleagues.

The language of this report is dense but worth reading.
Those who directly witnessed the collapse of the towers, injured people, dead bodies, or people jumping out of the buildings and had a history of other trauma were 21 times more likely to be emotionally reactive (adjusted odds ratio 21.8, P=0.003), than area preschoolers with neither exposure, said Claude Chemtob, Ph.D., of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine here, and colleagues.

They were also 26 times more likely to be anxious or depressed (AOR 26.8, P=0.006), and 18 times more likely to have attention problems (AOR 18.6, P=0.01), the researchers reported in the February issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The results are consistent with the McEwen allostatic load hypothesis, which states that the effects of trauma exposure are amplified by the presence of other traumatic events, the researchers said.

“These data suggest that preschool children are a vulnerable group and argue for more vigorous post-disaster outreach to very young children, especially those with exposure to other trauma,” they wrote.

Little is known about the effects of terrorism on young children, the researchers said, so they retrospectively analyzed a cohort of 116 children who lived or attended preschool or day care in lower Manhattan and were five or younger on Sept. 11, 2001.

Almost half (49.1%) were female and the mean age was 3.9.

The study was conducted from March 1, 2003 through Dec. 31, 2005, a mean of 35 months (range 18 to 54) from the attacks.

Parents or caregivers filled out questionnaires detailing their child’s exposure to the attacks or other traumatic events and emotional and behavioral information.

All participants were exposed to the attacks and were divided into two groups — high- or low-intensity — depending on level of exposure. Nearly a quarter of the children (24.1%) were classified as having experienced high-intensity exposure.

More than half the participants (53.4%) had exposure to at least one other traumatic event, as assessed by the Traumatic Events Screening Inventory. Those included natural disasters, interpersonal losses, serious accidents, severe illnesses or injuries, animal attacks, and exposure to war or terrorism, suicide, or attempted suicide.

Items on the inventory asking about physical and sexual abuse and domestic violence were excluded because they were deemed to be highly intrusive and distressing to the families.

Behavioral symptoms were categorized in seven clusters: emotionally reactive, anxious/depressed, somatic complaints, withdrawn behavior, sleep problems, attention problems, and aggressive behavior.

When compared with children who were exposed only to low-intensity attack-related events, those exposed to high-intensity events were nearly three times more likely to be depressed/anxious (odds ratio 2.5, 95% confidence interval 1.7 to 20.5, P=0.002) and nearly five times more likely to have sleep problems (OR 4.9, 95% CI 1.6 to 15.3, P=0.003).

When compared with children who experienced only high-intensity attack-related events, those with such an exposure and a history of other trauma were at increased risk for emotional reactivity (OR 3.8), withdrawn behavior (OR 6.3), sleep problems (OR 5.9), and being anxious/depressed (OR 8.3).

In children with a history of other trauma, the risk of clinically significant behavioral problems for the emotionally reactive (adjusted OR 4.7, P=0.06), anxious/depressed (adjusted OR 7.5, P=0.02), withdrawn behavior (adjusted OR 7.0, P=0.05), and sleep problem (adjusted OR 10.2, P<0.001) clusters was higher for those who experienced a high-intensity attack-related event compared with those who did not, after adjusting for age and time between the attacks and assessment.

The study was limited by the fact that the cohort cannot be assumed to be representative of lower Manhattan preschool children and that the researchers did not extensively survey the use of services to help the children cope with the attacks.

Additionally, the researchers said, leaving out information on domestic violence likely made the estimates of exposure to other trauma conservative.

Finally, they said, causality cannot be established because of the cross-sectional and retrospective nature of the analysis.

Dr. Chemtob and colleagues suggested that pediatricians could be used to assess a child’s behavior following a disaster. “The likelihood that pediatricians may be key resources in early identification of very young children at greater developmental risk by virtue of terrorism and trauma exposure adds support to calls for additional investment to increase the capacity of pediatric practices to participate in national terrorism and disaster preparedness,” they concluded.

The study was partially supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, New York Times Foundation’s September 11th Children’s Fund, United Philanthropic Trust/Sept. 11th Children’s Fund, United Jewish Communities, UJA Federation of New York, UBS September 11 Fund, Robin Hood Foundation, Picower Foundation, an anonymous donor, the American Red Cross, Andor Capital Management, and Strook, Strook, and Lavan LLP.

The authors reported no financial disclosures.

Resdents of lower Manhattan call them by various names and some people in New York have decided to clean up the streets around Ground Zero of these activists.

A story in the New York newspapers by Steve Cuozzo prompted heated debate over the removal of the vendors around the site. Cuozzo’s story said their presence was “Pure Obscenity.
“As a lower Manhattan resident living near Ground Zero for over 16 years,” writes Elizabeth Williams, “I completely agree with the removal of illegal and non-permitted vendors around Ground Zero and other areas
But Williams said the bigger issue is the $50 fine and community-service penalty imposed for illegal vending. She said the illegal vendors consider the fine to be the price of doing business. So, the laws have little deterrent effect. If the city commits to enforcing illegal-vendor laws that have minimal penalties and minimal effect, will it have enough resources elsewhere?”

An increase in the penalty might be the way to go. Now, if that’s really what residents want, I know a former mayor who is currently unemployed (a presidential dropout)
Michael Burke calls the vendors the 9/11 “truth lunatics but says there are bigger issues at stake at the downtown site. He says the memorial planned by Mayor Bloomberg, dedicated solely to our “healing,” will remake the site so that it does not acknowledge the attacks. “As per the handful of oblivious intellectuals and government appointees who dictated the concept, all history of 9/11 must be banished from the site “in order to preserve the integrity of the memorial. None of the authentic artifacts of 9/11 may be returned to the site. Who is the real lunatic?”

Very  good question Michael

Blogger Steve Cuozzo says we might be in for a miserable future when it comes to finishing the construction at Ground Zero.
Cuozzo, writing on 911Blogger.com, is suggesting that there are so many things going wrong on the streets surrounding the pit at Ground Zero and in the pit itself that the future is looking quite grim.
‘ll look at what’s gone wrong inside the pit in the coming weeks,” the blogger says, “but for now, consider the sickening conditions the PA and City Hall let fester all around the perimeter of the 16-acre “sacred ground.”
“Ground Zero’s borders deserve a patina of dignity for anyone wishing to recall the World Trade Center that was, to mourn the victims of 9/11 or to contemplate the site’s future.

It’s bad enough the view remains bracketed by the blackened hulks of 130 Liberty St. and Fiterman Hall. But at least there’s a theoretical, contamination-related excuse for the eyesores’ continued presence.

But not the flimsiest justification exists for the rowdy, open-air bazaar of illegal junk-peddlers and in-your-face conspiracy-mongers along Church, Vesey and Liberty streets - an indefensible rupture of civic order in a city that’s managed to shut down squeegee men and three-card-monte games.

No one can object to the First Amendment right to display or sell 9/11-con- spiracy nonsense (or plain junk). But that doesn’t absolve the city and the PA of enforcing their own rules - and making sure visitors can watch what’s going on without being hassled as if they’re in a Third World flea market.

The conditions have long dismayed Downtown residents, businesses and commuters - yet neither the city nor the PA has responded to their complaints except sporadically.”

A Star is born. Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.