Whitman defends Ground Zero statements

[XtremeJibber2001]

Disgusting that no one wants to take responsibility for those that became ill as a result of their negligence.

Whitman defends Ground Zero statements
by J. Scott Orr
Monday June 25, 2007, 1:54 PM

WASHINGTON - Former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman relied on sound scientific data when she told residents of Lower Manhattan that the air around Ground Zero was safe to breath after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the former New Jersey governor told Congress this afternoon.

Testifying before a House Judiciary subcommittee, Whitman denied that the administration pressured her to present rosy air quality assessments, even though she knew the collapse of the twin towers after the attacks had released tons of hazardous chemicals into the air.

"I am disappointed at the misstatements, innuendo and outright falsehoods that have characterized the public discussion" over the EPA's post-9/11 behavior with regard to air quality assessment, Whitman said.

She defended the work of EPA and other federal agencies, saying they did everything possible to get accurate information to the public, even posting the results of air quality tests on a Web site.

"There are people to blame: They are the terrorists who attacked this nation," she said.


Recently Whitman has attempted to make a distinction between her statements regarding the smoldering rubble piles at Ground Zero and the residential neighborhoods nearby. Tests, she said, showed the air in the neighborhoods was relatively clean, but the air at Ground Zero was not and she lacked the power to force recovery workers to wear respirators.

"It is utterly false, then, for EPA critics to assert that I... set about to mislead New Yorkers or rescue workers," Whitman said.

But the committee's chairman, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who represents Lower Manhattan, suggested the White House pushed Whitman and the EPA away from sounding alarms about the air quality.

He said the administration continues in its "desire to cover up its misstatements and misdeeds in the days after the attack."

"We have accumulated a mountain of evidence that tens of thousand of people are suffering" because of exposure to the pollutants. "The deaths of at least two individuals," Nadler said, "have been linked unquestionably to World Trade Center dust."

Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) recounted some of Whitman's many statements about the safety of the air in Lower Manhattan: "Those quotes were dead wrong, they were literally 'dead' wrong," he said.

Weiner dismissed Whitman's recent statements that she urged city officials to provide workers with respirators: "It looks very honestly like what it is an unseemly attempt to rewrite the public record."

Tina Kreisher, the EPA communication director at the time now director of communications at the Department of the Interior, confirmed Whitman's statement that the agency relied on appropriate air quality tests in communicating with the public.

"As a political appointee, I was not, and others were not, scientists. We relied on the professionals to guide us through the testing procedures and processes. When we were told the tests showed air quality within normal range, we accepted those findings," Kreisher said.

She added that, while the White House Office of Environmental Quality did "edit" some of her press releases on the topic of air quality, none were rendered false.

"While editing changes were made based on recommendations by the Council on Environmental Quality, I believed those changes to be upsetting in some cases, but not false. I still believe that to be true," she said.

Whitman served as Bush's EPA administrator for about two-and-one-half years ending in 2003. During that time she was frequently at odds with the White House and came under harsh criticism from environmentalists who had hoped she would be a more potent protector of the environment.

She was sharply criticized by the federal judge in a lawsuit brought by residents of Lower Manhattan, who charged that her pronouncements that the air was safe needlessly exposed them to dangerous airborne pollutants. A federal appeals court judge ruled that Whitman is immune from suit over her post-9/11 remarks.

[St. Jerry]

No - Osamma took responsibility.