Last week, a judge eviscerated former Environmental Protection Agency Director Christie Whitman for telling less than the truth when responding that all was environmentally okay in the 9/11 area of Manhattan.
From the Associated Press:
(AP) A judge attacked former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Christine Todd Whitman for reassuring Manhattan residents soon after the 2001 terrorist attacks that the environment was safe to return to homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood.
“No reasonable person would have thought that telling thousands of people that it was safe to return to lower Manhattan, while knowing that such return could pose long-term health risks and other dire consequences, was conduct sanctioned by our laws,” U.S. District Judge Deborah A. Batts wrote, calling Whitman’s actions “conscience-shocking.”
To make matters worse and deflating Whitman’s protestations that her announcement were based on the evidence her agency possessed, the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General issued a post 9-11 finding that criticized the EPA (Whitman’s) statements, stating there was no data to support the contention that the air around the 9/11 Twin Towers site was safe to breathe.
But there is also a forgotten Condi Rice element here (but not her usual bleating about the disaster du jour of the Bush Administration ‘who could have thought, forseen, predicted…’)
Look at the following timeline in Graydon Carter’s “THE AIR AT GROUND ZERO” in the September, 2004 issue of Vanity Fair:
* September 12.
The day after the attacks, the office of the EPA’s deputy administrator told senior EPA officials that “all statements to the media should be cleared through the [National Security Council, headed by Condoleeza Rice,] before they are released.”
* September 13.
EPA head Christie Whitman issued a press release saying, “EPA is greatly relieved to have learned that there appears to be no signifigant levels of asbestos dust in the air in New York City.” A section in the original draft of the release had stated that “even at low levels, EPA considers asbestos hazardous in this situation.” It was deleted by the White House and the NSC.
* September 16.
The agency issued a further notice, saying, “The new samples confirm previous reports that ambient air quality meets [Occupational Safety and Health Administration] standards and consequently is not a cause for public concern.” The White House and the NSC removed the following from the original draft of the statement: “Recent samples of dust gathered by OSHA on Water Street [almost a half-mile from the Trade Center] show higher levels of asbestos in EPA tests.”
* September 18.
Whitman pronounced that the air at Ground Zero was “safe to breathe.”
A definition of traitor is one who betrays one’s country or a trust. It sure looks like those shoes fit shameless Condi, for whom life means less than commerce.
Kristen Lombardi had an important feature on this very subject in the September 6th, 2005 issue of the Village Voice:
http://villagevoice.com/news/0536,lombardi,67520,5.html
Larry McShane of the Associated Press has a current feature on the post 9/11 death of a New York City police officer, his wife’s death and the child they left behind–all environmentally related:
http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_3478168
