Rudy’s Smoldering Ruins of Bullshit

(worthwhile essay… – promoted by pfiore8)

Since 9/11 there have been many theories as to what really brought those buildings down – from the “official” reports – to the fringe, tin-foil hattery of the paranoid, conspiracy theorists. But there was (and is) a cover-up that has nothing to do with what caused those towers to fall – A coverup in which our government was and is absolutely complicit: The alledged safety of the air around Ground Zero in the aftermath of the attacks in what has been dubbed “The World Plague Center”. More below the imaginary crease…

Aerial View, World Trade Center, After 9/11 Attacks. Safe?!? What were they thinking?

We’re used to hearing the tales of the brave men and women who rushed towards the danger after those towers fell – the rescue workers who valiantly tried to find life in the burning rubble. Many of those first-responders are succumbing to illnesses directly attributable to the unsafe air that lingered – a toxic blend of some truly horrendous chemicals and substances that were pulverized into such fine particles that entering the deepest recesses of the lungs was easy.

But now, another list of victims is starting to appear: potentially tens of thousands of ordinary citizens of New York who lived and worked nearby. These same citizens were told lies by our government — that they had nothing to fear; and now, six years later, many of them are coughing, wheezing and dieing. There are even some who feel OK …for now. They’ll likely begin to show symptoms later.

In a story in the October issue of Discover Magazine, Nina L., a Tribeca resident who asked not to be further identified, tells the tale of the aftermath:

The sky was glittering with glass… She ran to her window and saw a shower of flaming jet fuel cascading from one of the towers.”This can’t be a good thing to have my windows open,” she immediately thought to herself. Nina closed her windows and shut her air conditioner flues. As a former jeweler, she’d worked around dangerous chemicals before and understood the hazards of toxic fumes. From her apartment seven blocks north of the World Trade Center, she sat transfixed until a second explosion jolted her into action. Nina tore up an old pillowcase, fashioned a makeshift bandanna over her face, packed her cats into cages, and trekked northward. “The whole neighborhood was blanketed in a gray snow,” she recalls. “Some people were walking by in moon suits.” Although Nina could not have known it at the time, she had just entered one of the most dangerous atmospheric conditions ever to occur on American soil, and she suffers the consequences. She had chronic bronchitis until 2003 and still has esophagitis and sinusitis. Many health professionals believe others like her won’t experience the harsher, suffocating symptoms for several more years.

It’s estimated that nearly 70 percent (Flash Animation and long-load time warning!) of the first-responders are suffering from the US Government-deemed “safe” air that hung over Ground Zero for weeks. And while there’s zero excuse for LIEING to them, telling them it’s “safe”, many brave emergency workers signed up to respond to possible disastrous scenarios like 9/11.

Ordinary citizens like Nina L. didn’t.

In an interview with Dr. Philp Landrigan – the doctor charged with monitoring the hard-to-track effects of pollution from the WTC collapse, cuts right to the point:

Q: Your department is monitoring the health effects from the collapse of the World Trade Center. When the towers collapsed, two million tons of dust containing cement, asbestos, glass, lead, and carcinogens rained down on lower Manhattan. Yet less than a week later, the EPA said it was safe to go there and breathe the air. Now we know that erroneous assessment may have put thousands of people at risk for serious chronic health problems, and even death.

A: [EPA Director] Christine Todd Whitman’s statement that the air in Manhattan was safe to breathe was stupid and ill-considered because she was making a very strong assertion with almost no data. I wondered how she could say this-it’s like a doctor telling a patient that the patient is healthy before he’s done any tests.

In fact, here is what Ms. Whitman said one week after 9/11:

“I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington D.C. that the air is safe to breate and their water is safe to drink.”

And our republican “pal” Rudy Giuliani’s hands, like Lady Macbeth’s, cannot be washed clean of the guilt, either. Just two days after the attacks, Rudy said “The air is safe as far as we can tell, with respect to chemical and biological agents.”

The Discover article goes on to say this about the likely-to-be top, republican presidential candidate:

“Once praised for his heroic response, Giuliani has now made New York City vulnerable to a billion-dollar lawsuit that addresses many haphazard health violations that occurred under his watch. Fewer than 30 percent of Ground Zero workers, for example, wore respirators. After repeated phone calls and e-mails, Giuliani would not return calls or send comments.” (Emphasis mine)

This, from the man, many have dubbed a “hero” – a presidential candidate who can’t complete a sentence without using the words “Nine Eleven”, “Al Qaida” and “War on Terror” repeated ad nauseum. To most New Yorkers, Rudy’s no “hero”.

Just what was in that toxic cloud of burning jet fuel and debris? Well just think about this one component: Computers. How many personal computers were in those two buildings the day of the attacks? Conservatively (excuse the phrase) at least tens of thousands. Each one typically houses up to four pounds of lead. Think about all those fluorescent lights containing mercury.

And then think about this: There was the initial dust cloud and then there was the smoldering pile of debris that burned for what seemed like forever.

According to Thomas Cahill, a physics professor at The University of California at Davis, the latter, smoldering pile was much, much worse. He states that “The fuming World Trade Center debris pile was a chemical factory that exhaled toxins in a particularly dangerous form that could penetrate deep into the lungs of rescue workers and local residents”. (Emphasis mine)

There is also a “false sense of well-being” that this toxic mess has been cleaned up. Many believe the dangers are still all around.

The Bush Administration has committed so many abominations at home and abroad that it’s impossible to calculate the damage that’s already been done and the damages – and deaths – that will continue for decades to come.

And one of Dubya’s biggest cheerleaders – Rudy – never fails to remind voters of his “heroics” that day and even goes so far as to question the patriotism of those who disagree. The least we can do for those who have died – and will continue to die – from republican negligence is to call him on his bullshit.