After the first World Trade Center tower is hit, Barry Jennings, a City Housing Authority worker, and Michael Hess, New York’s corporation counsel, head up to the emergency command center of the Mayor’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which is on the 23rd floor of WTC 7. Testimony from Barry Jennings and Michael Hess has rarely been confirmed, until now. This video was just released via a FOIA (freedom of information act request) and New World Order Report has obtained and released it on the internet.
Take a look for yourself. Michael Hess, clearly visible, is stuck in the building. This corroborates the story they told that on the way down trying to evacuate the building, an explosion occurred inside of the building which trapped them. The stairway, where the explosion occurred, blew out the last floors in the stairwell. Barry Jennings gave an exclusive interview with Loose Change creator Dylan Avery where Barry stated that when he was finally found by firefighters, they stepped over dead bodies in the lobby on their way out. After the video publicly aired, Barry Jennings mysteriously died just before the BBC aired a piece about World Trade Center Building 7...
The furor over the mosque near Ground Zero may be good for one thing: It's fueling New York legislators' push to pass the 9/11 health bill.
Lawmakers and sources told the Daily News they are starting a push to get balky Republicans on board.
A lobbying campaign will play off the GOP's recent embrace of 9/11 victims in the mosque fight. The measure also will be tweaked to satisfy GOP complaints on how it's paid for.
"The mosque is going to guarantee we pass this bill," a Democratic aide predicted.
If GOPers want to block it, they could add a poison pill to the bill. Just 12 Republicans backed the measure to care and compensate for 9/11 victims when it failed earlier this month under a procedure meant to outmaneuver GOP opponents.
But the mosque fight changes the equation, creating a bind for Republicans who lambaste the Park Place Islamic center plan as an insult to 9/11 families - but who have fought legislation to help ailing heroes.
"This whole controversy over the mosque and community center ... certainly ratchets up the pressure on the Republicans," said Rep. Jerry Nadler. "It is going to be harder for them ... to vote against actually helping the survivors as opposed to just talking about the survivors' feelings."
"That's the argument that Mike Bloomberg and I will be making," said King. "You're going to find more Republicans likely to vote for the bill because of the controversy over the mosque."
President Obama already had such a conversion. The White House had favored a more limited health program, having doubled funding for sick responders to $150million. But that's far less than the bill.
After responders lashed out at Obama for speaking up for the rights of the Islamic center's developers while keeping silent on the Zadroga bill, the White House said he looked forward to signing the 9/11 bill.
Democrats think Republicans will feel a similar pinch, and if Dems offer a way to pay for the legislation the GOP can live with, it would win enough backing.
King and Democratic sources said legislators think they are close to that goal.
We Are Change Idaho will host the first annual "Freedom Fest" on 9/11/2010 to honor the first responders from 9/11. Please join us at Ann Morrison Park at the "Old Timers Shelter" from 5-9 pm. The Old Timers shelter is located off of Royal Blvd. We will have music, a potluck, speakers and free information and dvds on topics such as the plight of the 9/11 first responders, vaccines, fluoride, Oath Keepers and our monetary system. All donations raised will go to the Fealgood Foundation, a fabulous organization that has been working tirelessly over the past 9 years to assist sick and dying 9/11 first responders. As of today there are over 52,000 first responders who are affected by the toxic elements they were exposed to at Ground Zero. These heroes were there for America in our country's time of need, now it's time to let them know we haven't forgotten them. Please join us and invite all you know, let's show these heroes that Idaho will NEVER FORGET! You can read more about the Fealgood Foundation at their website: www.fealgoodfoundation.com.
WASHINGTON - The leader of the U.S. Senate is weighing whether to bring up the key 9/11 health bill for a full vote after Congress returns from vacation, the Daily News has learned.
The bill failed in the House in a spectacular display last month when Democrats tried to pass it in a procedure that needed a two-thirds vote - and barred the GOP from changing the legislation.
The measure won a majority, but with only 12 Republicans, leaving it short of the higher bar. Angry outbursts erupted on the floor, and a rift among New Yorkers followed.
The state's delegation patched up their differences this week and have vowed to bring the $7.4 billion bill back for a regular vote next month. But the Senate has been an even bigger sticking point, and if Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) can get the more deliberative body to act, it would all but assure 9/11's first responders and victims finally get aid and compensation after nine years.
"I can only hope the Senate does act quickly and doesn't play political games with this," said 9/11 responder and advocate John Feal. "They could show the House how it should be done."
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who has sponsored the Senate bill, wrote to Reid yesterday to push him along. "More than 900 heroes have died from health complications attributed to exposure at Ground Zero since 2001, with thousands more experiencing physical and mental health conditions," Gillibrand wrote in a letter obtained by The News.
"This legislation has languished for far too long, and these heroes cannot wait any longer," Gillibrand wrote, noting that 14,000 World Trade Center responders live outside the New York metro area, including 126 in Reid's home state of Nevada.
A spokesman for Reid confirmed he is focusing on the measure and trying to figure out how to pass it.
The big problems are how it is paid for, and whether or not one Republican can be found to back it and ensure it cannot be blocked by a filibuster.
The House version shuts a tax loophole for foreign subsidiaries doing business here to raise the cash needed for 10 years, but sources have told The News that Senate Republicans do not like that maneuver.
Gillibrand is one of those hunting for a Republican backer.
"My boss is optimistic a Republican will support this," spokesman Matt Canter said.
Congress turned thumbs down tonight on a bill to help the heroes and victims of 9/11, raising doubts it will ever pass.
Most Republicans refused to back the measure, calling it a “slush fund,” and saying it was another example of Democratic overreach and an “insatiable” appetite for taxpayers’ money.
The bill would spend $3.2 billion on health care over the next 10 years for people sickened from their exposure to the toxic smoke and debris of the shattered World Trade Center. It would spend another $4.2 billion to compensate victims over that span, and make another $4.2 billion in compensation available for the next 11 years.
“This legislation as written creates a huge $8.4 billion slush fund paid by taxpayers that is open to abuse, fraud and waste,” said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), arguing that it would be raided by undeserving scammers with tenuous links to 9/11.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) cast it as a money grab for New York because the bill would pay for care at higher rates than Medicare. “What this is is politics,” Shimkus said. “What this is is enfranchising a bunch of New York City hospitals.”
“This fund is bloated,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
Texas Republican Joe Barton, leading debate for his side, said the GOP would back a smaller program, such as the $150 million a year the White House would like to spend. But he said the rest of the country should not bear the brunt of helping New Yorkers cope with the aftermath of the terror attacks.
“We support it, without raising taxes on the rest of the American people,” said Barton (R-Texas), who recently won infamy by apologizing to BP.
The measure is paid for by closing tax loopholes on foreign subsidiaries that do business in the United States, which the GOP also opposed, saying it was a tax hike on foreign companies that hire Americans.
Democrats would have been able to pass the bill if they used the normal procedure, but they brought it up as a “suspension bill,” which needs a two-thirds vote to pass because it can’t be amended. Democrats feared the GOP would attach poison pills to the bill.
It failed 255 to 159, with just 12 Republicans backing it.
The procedural move infuriated the few Republicans who voted yes, with Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) calling it “a cruel hoax and a charade,” suggesting Democrats want to use the failure to hammer the GOP in November. “This bill should be more important than a campaign talking point,” he fumed.
Mayor Bloomberg slammed the failure, calling it “outrageous,” and blaming both sides.
“It was wrong for the overwhelming majority of Republicans to vote against the bill, and it was wrong for Democrats to bring the bill to the floor under rules that made passage so much more difficult,” he said.
Democrats savaged the other side, saying they were turning their backs on heroes to protect foreign tax cheats, and said it really shouldn’t matter how the country pays to take care of people who answered the call from all over the nation, and are sick now.
“Many of these people are losing their lives,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “They certainly have lost their health. And we owe them.”
Democrats vowed they would try again, after Congress’ summer vacation.
“The 255 votes in favor of the Zadroga Act tonight show that we can and should pass this bill under normal rules when Congress reconvenes,” said Rep. Carolyn Maloney.
Still, 9/11 advocates fear there simply will not be enough time, and it could be even harder to pass the bill next year if Democrats lose seats, as expected. The Senate has not begun to finish its version.
“If we can’t do this now, I don’t know if we ever will,” said the Rev. Bill Minson, of the TUDAY Ministries.
Democrats are immoral cowards for trying to pass the 9/11 health and compensation act as a bill that requires a two-thirds vote and doesn’t allow the GOP a chance to alter it, Rep. Pete King charged today.
King, a Long Island Republican, is furious because he believes the measure would pass easily as a regular bill needing a simple majority — but Democrats fear the GOP might attach toxic provisions if they get the chance.
“The Democrats are guilty of moral cowardice and a failure of leadership,” King told the Daily News this morning.
“They put this up on the suspension calendar knowing it’s not going to get a two-thirds vote,” he fumed. “It’s really morally disgraceful… They are letting cops and firefighters die because their members don’t have the guts to take a vote.”
King acknowledged that the GOP — like the Democrats when they were in the minority — regularly tries to influence legislation and even kill it when they get the chance, as they are allowed under the regular legislative rules in the House.
The out-of-power party does that by offering a “motion to recommit” on the House floor which can send a bill back to the drawing board, often with instructions on how it should be redone. Lately, the GOP as attached language on abortion, immigration and other hot-button issues that divide the Democratic Party.
The 9/11 bill, with its emphasis on health, potentially could offer a vehicle to attack the recent health care reform law, though no one has said publicly that Republicans would attempt such a ploy. Republicans already tried to attach immigration and abortion restrictions to the bill when it was being written, and could again.
But King argues Democrats have had the votes to pass whatever they think is important — such as health care and the stimuls bill — and the 9/11 bill would attract at least some GOP support. Many in the party oppose it because of the $10.5 billion cost, and the plan to pay for it by closing tax loopholes of foreign companies.
He blames the House leaders, but also his New York colleagues for going along.
“Too many members in the New York delegation are covering up for them,” King charged. “This is the ultimate in moral cowardice. It’s morally indefensible.
“There are motions to recommit on every bill,” he added. “Why are they applying this standard to this one bill?”
King said he was especially disappointed in his Democratic partners because they had made the bill a top priority four years ago when Republicans lost their grip on power, and he said he doesn’t understand why they’ve failed to deliver.
“It’s poor leadership, it’s morally deficient leadership, and it’s just the ultimate in cowardice,” he said.
The measure was supposed to have come up this afternoon, but late last night was delayed until Thursday.
Delegation Democrats know the suspension bill route is tougher, but insist it still has a chance to pass. And they argue that if it doesn’t, at least the vote will show the bill has majority support, and it will build momentum to pass it the normal way in September.
The Obama administration has been reluctant to back the measure because it mandates the spending, rather than leaving it up to the annual appropriations process. And while the White House has doubled spending for ailing 9/11 responders to $150 million, the bill would more than double that, and make it very difficult to cut.
Update: City Hall reporter Kate Lucadamo finds they are not pleased, either.
Fearing the suspension bill is doomed to fail, Mayor Bloomberg’s top political advisers including Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson, have been furiously calling the New York delegation over the last 24 hours for help.
“Our position is simple. We want to put a bill on the floor that is going to pass,” said a City Hall official.
Nearly nine years after working in the toxic air that floated above the destroyed World Trade Center, filling their lungs and blood with poisons that they say have caused myriad health problems, 9/11 rescue and recovery workers are touting an expected vote in the U.S House on the first piece of legislation that would provide long term health care and compensation.
The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act is expected to be passed by the House of Representatives before its August recess, named after the NYPD detective and Little Egg Harbor Township resident whom a New Jersey coroner said died from 9/11-related health problems, a finding disputed by a New York City medical examiner.
The 32ft-long ship hull is believed to have been buried in the 18th Century.
Workers at the World Trade Center site are excavating a 32ft-long ship (9.8m) hull believed to have been buried in the 18th Century.
Archaeologists believe the ship was used as filler material to extend lower Manhattan into the Hudson River.
NEW YORK (AP) - A federal judge who held up an effort to settle thousands of lawsuits filed by 9/11 responders exposed to World Trade Center dust dropped his opposition Thursday after the deal was redrafted to give more money to sick workers and less to their lawyers.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein gave his enthusiastic endorsement to a new settlement that could pay as much as $713 million to about 10,000 police, firefighters and construction workers.
He implored them to take the money, saying it was time to end an ugly and complicated case that has pitted New York City officials against thousands of men and women hailed as heroes for their service at the trade center.
"This is a very good deal. I am very excited about this deal," Hellerstein said during a court hearing in which he signed off on the pact.
Just three months ago, the judge sternly rejected an earlier plan that was worth about $125 million less, saying it did too little for ground zero workers who got sick after breathing toxic ash.
Plaintiffs in the case have complained of breathing and digestive problems, chronic cough, and hundreds of other common and rare ailments.
Among other things, the new proposal would boost payments for people diagnosed with cancer, an illness that hasn't yet been linked to the dust but is perhaps the most feared among the workers.
The settlement's success is still in doubt.
Under the terms of the agreement, 95 percent of the workers involved in the case must opt in for it take effect.
They must chose quickly. The agreement gives them only until Sept. 30 to make up their minds.
Some 9/11 responders had complained the original agreement contained far too little money, and said they would rather go to court, or hope Congress would intervene with a richer compensation bill, including one that could be considered this summer in the House.
That bill would contain as much as $8.2 billion in compensation for sick workers, plus $5.1 billion in free health care, but its prospects for passage are uncertain. As currently written, responders who participate in the settlement would be barred from getting compensation from the federal fund, although they would still qualify for free medical treatment.
John Feal, of the Long Island-based 9/11 victims' group, the FealGood Foundation, praised the improved compensation in the legal settlement but said it still does too little for the sickest responders.
"There isn't enough money to give to the people who are seriously sick," he said. "This should have been in the billions, not in the millions. But it is better than the first one."
Hellerstein warned potential holdouts that they were risking prolonging the case for years, and might wind up with nothing if they couldn't prove that their illnesses were linked to trade center dust.
"There is no better deal. This is the deal on the table," he said. "People can think, maybe Congress will do something. It's possible. But the old saw applies: The bird in the hand is better than two in the bush."
Lawyers on both sides of the case exhorted responders to vote yes.
Margaret Warner, a lawyer for the insurance fund defending the city, called the settlement "fair, transparent, clear," and "certain."
Nicholas Papain, whose firm represents about 640 firefighters, said "what is being offered in this settlement is their best option, and, for all intents and purposes, their only option."
In March, Hellerstein rejected the initial version of the settlement, partly because he said it was too stingy for the most seriously ill and too rich for their lawyers. That deal would have paid between $575 million to $657 million, depending on how many people opted in, with about a third of the total going to legal fees.
The new proposal would pay at least $625 million and as much as $712.5 million if nearly every worker joins the pact, and the lawyers would get less. Attorneys representing the responders agreed to cut their fees to 25 percent of the award. That change was worth about $50 million.
The special insurance fund set up by Congress to defend the city and compensate victims also agreed to kick in an addition $50 million to $55 million. Workers' compensation insurers also agreed to waive certain claims to recover some of the money they have already paid out to trade center responders — a move worth additional millions to the workers.
Individual payments under the settlement would range from a minimum of $3,250, for people who aren't sick but worry they could fall ill in the future, to as much as $1.5 million to people who have died.
Nonsmokers disabled by severe asthma might get between $800,000 and $1 million.
People disappointed with their award would be able to appeal to a neutral administrator, and the court appointed Kenneth Feinberg, the former special master of the federal 9/11 victim compensation fund, to serve in that role.
Speaking in the courtroom, Feinberg urged responders to join the settlement.
"What is the alternative? To wait? You're waiting for Godot. You've waited enough," he said.
Three main Congressional backers of the federal health bill, U.S. Reps. Carolyn Maloney, Jerrold Handler and Peter King, praised the settlement as a good first step. But they noted that it covered only about one-fifth of the people who spent time at ground zero and would do little for people who aren't sick now but become so in the future. They said federal aid was still needed.
"We don't yet know the full extent of the health problems that will emerge as a result of the attacks, and people are still getting sick," Maloney said.
Workers who take the settlement would give up their rights to sue the city and its contractors. In the lawsuits, they have blamed the city and its debris removal contractors for sending them into the trade center's dusty ruins without masks or other protections that might have kept the particles out of their lungs and digestive system.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg issued a statement calling the deal "a fair settlement of a difficult and complex case that will allow first responders and workers to be fairly compensated for injuries suffered following their work at ground zero."
Associated Press Writer Tom Hays contributed to this report.
Another 9/11 responder's death prompted her family to plead Monday for federal funding to treat rescuers sickened by their work at Ground Zero.
Paula Rodriguez, 44, an FDNY emergency medical technician, died Sunday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Relatives contend Rodriguez's fatal disease was linked to the many days she spent working in the toxic cloud over lower Manhattan in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"If this government really cared, they would have done something years ago," said Rodriguez's niece Stacy Asencio-Sutphen.
Rodriguez, of Lindenhurst, L.I., the mother of two young boys, is among nearly 900 first responders to have died from an array of ailments traced to their service at the smoldering World Trade Center.
She had battled cancer since December 2009 and died waiting for Congress and the White House to pass a $5.1 billion program to provide health care for ill 9/11 first responders.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved the so-called Zadroga bill last week by a 33-to-12 vote.
The bill - named after NYPD Detective James Zadroga, who died in 2006 from respiratory disease contracted at Ground Zero - now moves to the full House.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens), reopens the federal victim compensation fund that closed at the end of 2003.
"This is no longer a coincidence. We're no longer crying wolf," said John Feal, head of the FealGood Foundation, a support group for ill responders.
Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) said passage of the measure is long overdue.
"It's only going to get worse," said King. "These people were literally at war. They were warriors."
WASHINGTON Congress took another slow, painful step toward passing a bill to treat people ailing from the 9/11 attacks, but not without angering the very responders it aims to help.
The outrage stemmed from bill opponents and amendments offered by Republicans, who suggested the country couldn't afford the health care and compensation bill, estimated to cost close to $11 billion.
"Are you going to raise somebody's taxes when they're barely able to make their house payment?" Rogers said.
"I can't believe for one minute that you're willing to jeopardize the financial health of every single American," he said, speaking directly to responders, who were outraged.
"To tell us that people won't be able to pay their mortgages and their bills because of us - that hurt," said Kenny Specht, 41, a retired firefighter who survived thyroid cancer.
"I am offended on so many levels," said Jill Fenwick, a Staten Islander who worked in Tribeca - and kept working until lung ailments made it impossible.
Republicans also tried unsuccessfully to add amendments to bar illegal immigrants from the treatment program, to ban abortions among the ailing rescue workers and to end the treatment program when national health reform takes effect.
And in a move that passed - but sparked stunned laughter among the responders - Florida GOPRep. Cliff Stearns offered an amendment to prevent terrorists from getting 9/11 treatment - suggesting there might be terrorists among the responders.
"Isn't it laughable? We're not the terrorists - the terrorists attacked us," said Kimberly Flynn of Manhattan, who chuckled in disbelief.
The bill would spend $4.59 billion over 10 years for treatment, rather than the unlimited program responders had hoped for. The time period was shortened at the request of Republicans. The city would have to pay 10%.
A measure to also spend $6 billion to compensate victims has already passed.
Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama's latest nominee to the Supreme Court, helped protect the Saudi royal family from lawsuits that sought to hold al Qaeda financiers responsible in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
The suits were filed by thousands family members and others affected by the Sept. 11 attacks. In court papers, they provided evidence that members of the Saudi royal family had channeled millions to al Qaeda prior to the bombings, often in contravention of direct guidance from the United States.
But Kagan, acting as President Obama's Solicitor General, argued that the case should not be heard even if evidence proved that the Saudis helped underwrite al Qaeda, because it would interfere with US foreign policy with the oil-rich nation. She posited “that the princes are immune from petitioners’ claims” because of “the potentially significant foreign relations consequences of subjecting another sovereign state to suit.”
In an interview with the Philadelphia Inquirer published Tuesday, the mother of a man who was killed on United Flight 93 in Pennsylvania said he didn't know why Kagan argued that the case not even be heard. By keeping the case off the dockets, the Saudis were spared scrutiny of their finances.
"We had hoped she would be with us so that we could have our day in court," Beverly Burnett said.
"I find this reprehensible,” said Kristen Breitweiser, another family member whose husband was killed in the 9/11 attacks, said at the time. “One would have hoped that the Obama administration would have taken a different stance than the Bush administration, and you wonder what message this sends to victims of terrorism around the world.”
The Obama Administration's decision to intervene in the Saudi-al Qaeda case so irritated two Republican senators that they introduced legislation aiming to ensure that Americans have the ability to sue foreign governments.
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) offered a proposal to amend the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which Kagan cited as one reason the Saudi case should not be heard. Both senators said that US citizens should be able to sue foreign governments if they are found to be supporting terrorist activity.
Specter, who has since become a Democrat, was unusually blunt.
Sept. 11 first responder Jim Ryan did not make it through Christmas.
The former firefighter who spent months in the toxic rubble of Ground Zero succumbed to pancreatic cancer two hours into Christmas Day, his family said.
"He was just really really great," his widow, Magda, said last night.
The 48-year-old father of three, from Kings Park, L.I., was diagnosed with the disease in April 2006 and relapsed over a year ago.
In August 2004, 911Truth.org commissioned Zogby International for a poll that concluded "half (49.3%) of New York City residents and 41% of New York citizens overall say that some of our leaders "knew in advance that attacks were planned on or around September 11, 2001, and that they consciously failed to act."
This tale begins during and shortly after 9/11/2001, when a writer named Randy Lavello published a story at Prison Planet, Bombs in the Building: World Trade Center ‘Conspiracy Theory’ is a Conspiracy Fact. Among the many tales in this article, a number of which were picked up in Mike Rivero’s web site, what really happened, is a conversation between Lavello and Lieutenant Fireman and former Auxiliary Police Officer, Paul Isaac Jr. It’s a head-spinner…
“[Lieutenant Fireman and former Auxiliary Police Officer, Paul Isaac Jr.] explained to me [Lavello] that, ‘many other firemen know there were bombs in the buildings, but they’re afraid for their jobs to admit it because the ‘higher-ups’ forbid discussion of this fact.” Paul further elaborated that former CIA director Robert Woolsey, as the Fire Department’s Anti-terrorism Consultant, is sending a gag order down the ranks. ‘There were definitely bombs in those buildings,’ he told me.”
New York's emergency services were among the first on the scene of the 9/11 disaster but put their personal safety in jeopardy. Those involved in the rescue and clean-up operation quickly became national heroes.
But now 85 percent of them are suffering from lung diseases which they say were caused by the huge clouds of dust. Those people are now calling on the state for medical support.
So far the US government has refused to help.
NYC firefighter hero
John McNamara is the most recent ground zero first responder to die from cancer. He battled to save lives that day but lost his own battle aged just 44 – a victim of his own bravery.
His courage was commemorated at St. Patrick’s cathedral, where McNamara’s funeral took place.
Today his son Jack McNamara is still too young to understand his father’s actions that day. All he knows is that dad was a firefighter.
“I and the other families of the victims are so devastated that so many of these valiant firefighters who struggled to find my son and to save others are now paying the price,” says Sally Reigenhardt whose son died in the 9/11 attacks.
City, state and federal officials have not acknowledged a direct link between the cancer cases and ground zero toxins. Congress has yet to approve 9/11 health legislation calling for federal financial coverage of health costs for rescue workers.
John McNamara spent about 500 hours at ground zero aiding in rescue and recovery. Nearly eight years later, the scene here is all about rebuilding. But as the hole in the ground grows smaller the list of 9/11 related deaths is growing longer and longer.
“The government pays for these and I pay for these”
Retired police officer Mike Valentin has had four biopsies for a precancerous tumor in his throat and has to take 15 pills a day. He calls 9/11 America's Chernobyl.
“The people that will die from illnesses will surpass the number of people that were killed on 9/11. I am talking about thousands, tens of thousands of people that will come down with cancers,” forecasts 9/11 first responder Valentin.
Valentin says he spent four months digging through debris at ground zero, after US officials announced the air was safe.
Valentin, the father of three, says he spends $15,000 a year on medication the government won’t cover and that the US leaders have turned their backs on the heroes they promised never to forget.
“Our families are not looking to put Mercedes Benz on the front yard. We’re not looking to take European trips,” says Valentin, “We’re looking to take care of our families when we die.”
With the time he has left, Mike Valentin vows to continue fighting for the compensation he believes 9/11 first responders deserve.
Valentin founded a 9/11 police foundation to help retired first responders in need of medical assistance – among them Patrick Triola who spent months searching the ground zero and then became a victim of kidney cancer.
During those days, Stephen Grossman’s son Robert was also aiding in rescue and recovery. He was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer in 2006, at just 39 years old. Today, he remains in a coma.
The official dissembling and excuse-making about the true causes and prior mistakes that gave rise to and allowed the terrorist attacks to happen, almost immediately ushered in the Bush-Cheney Administration’s egregious and lawless, post 9-11 “war on terror” agenda which bore no connection to the original causes and no connection to the goal of reducing terrorism and making the world safer. When I got a chance, about 8 ½ months after 9-11 to tell what I knew, I did so and my disclosures led to further inves
The Obama administration has effectively ended the efforts of families of victims of the September 11th attacks to bring lawsuits against members of the Saudi Royal family for financial links to the conspiracy.
The Supreme Court today ruled that it will not allow any lawsuits to go ahead, just a few weeks after the government filed a court brief asking that the case be quashed.
Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama's latest nominee to the Supreme Court, helped protect the Saudi royal family from lawsuits that sought to hold al Qaeda financiers responsible in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.