| MAY
23, 2004 --
EDITOR'S
NOTE: This special edition of Lonely
Pamphleteer Review is devoted entirely to the
May 18-19, 911 Commission Public Hearing in New York City. Regular
LPR features, including stock index and poll, will resume next
week.
For Broadway Show League results, standings, schedule, etc. please
click: www.broadwayshowleague.com.
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September
18, 2001 Union Square Park Memorial. This memorial was
removed on September 25, 2001 by City Hall, under
Mayor Giuliani.
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Union
Square Park taken May 19, 2004.
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The National
Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States held public
hearings in Manhattan, about two miles from
Ground Zero, May 18-19. The hearings focussed on the emergency response
to the September 11 attack, and ways to improve
on that response.
The hearings were held at New School University, whose president
is Bob Kerrey, a member of the 911 Commission.
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The
Commission Emblem.
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The hearings were held in an auditorium on 12th Street, just a few
blocks from Union Square Park which had become a place of memorial
tributes to the fallen, and remained so for two weeks, until this
place of condolence, grief, solidarity was ordered cleared by city
authorities.
One of the accompanying photos was taken by this writer
on September 18, 2001. The photo of the park, now, was taken on May
19. There is no recognition at the park, as far as LPR could tell,
that from September 11 to 25, 2001, this site was a major place of
conscience in response to the attack on
the World Trade Center.
LPR got to the hearings, May 18, in time to hear Richard Sheirer acknowledge
that he had disagreed with
the decision to place the city's Office of Emergency Management on
the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center. He was director of this office
on September 11, 2001.
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The
Panel.
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Chair
Thomas Kean.
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Vice
Chair Lee H. Hamilton
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Commissioner
Timothy Roemer.
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Commissioner
Timothy Roemer.
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Commissioner
Richard Ben-Veniste.
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Commissioner
James R. Thompson.
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Commissioner
Bob Kerrey, President of New School University, where
the hearings were held.
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Commissioner
John F. Lehman. This photo was taken just after he said
NYC handling of emergencies was a "scandal."
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Commissioner
Jamie S. Gorelick, standing next to Rudy Giuliani, showing
him a statement.
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Commissioners
Jamie S. Gorelick, Slade Gorton, and Fred F. Fielding (partially
obscured).
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His witness
biography points out that the OEM offices at 7 World Trade Center
were lost on 9/11.
Mr. Sheirer appeared on a panel with former fire commissioner
Thomas Von Essen and former police commissioner Bernard Kerik.
Mr. Sheirer and Mr. Von Essen are
now with Giuliani Partners. Mr. Kerik is CEO of Giuliani-Kerik LLC, "an
international risk
management firm" according to the witness biography provided by the Commission.
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Former
Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik and former Fire
Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, taken shortly after Lehman
made his "scandal" charge.
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Von
Essen and Richard Sheirer, former OEM Director.
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Current
Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta.
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OEM
Commissioner Joseph F. Bruno and Police Commissioner
Raymond W. Kelly.
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FDNY
Strategic Plan. (Left behind?)
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LPR had expected
that the Commission would ask former mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani
about the decision to put
the Office of Emergency Management in 7 World Trade Center.
The matter was not mentioned after the former mayor's hour-long presentation
to the panel, May 19 -- delivered
without text or notes, as far as LPR could tell. Near the conclusion of Mr.
Giuliani's appearance, comments
were shouted from the audience, including: "I want to know why 300 firemen
died?" and "You didn't ask about OEM."
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Police
Chief Joseph J. Esposito, mentioned a few times by witnesses,
with Fire Chief Frank Cruthers.
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Former Mayor Giuliani raising one finger.
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Giuliani
on 12th Street with the Media.
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Current
Mayor Bloomberg addressing the Commission -- and photographers.
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Homeland
Security Secretary (HoSecSec?) Thomas J. Ridge.
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Homeland
Security SecretaryThomas J. Ridge smiling broadly.
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Ben-Veniste
huddling with Lehman, during the outcry as the Giuliain
appearance was wrapping up.
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LPR
caught Commission members Lehman and Ben-Veniste chatting during
the audience uproar. The day before, LPR was sitting
just below
Commissioner Lehman when he
termed aspects of emergency
response in New York City "a scandal."
LPR was also in front of Mr. Von Essen when he derided the
Lehman comment as "outrageous."
At issue was "the battle of the badges" -- alleged
rivalry between New York City police and firefighters.
LPR noticed that
during testimony from
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta
and Joseph F. Bruno, Commissioner of the city's Office
of Emergency Management, the
top uniformed members of the police and fire departments, Chiefs Joseph
J. Esposito and Frank Cruthers were sitting next to each
other, in the first row.
Commissioner Bruno suggested that rivalry between the departments
was nothing
more than "low-level people
arguing about who should rescue who." LPR heard no follow-up from
the panel to this interesting admission. Perhaps none was needed.
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 Commission
Chair Kean remarked that this panel had not mentioned the
Department of Homeland Security.
Next day, Homeland Security Secretary Thomas J. Ridge was pressed, a bit, by
the Commission to support more counter-terrorism funding for New York City. The
Commission also indicated concern that Secretary Ridge and his staff had to spend
too much time at congressional hearings and meetings, taking them away from operational
responsibilities.
Chairman
Kean announced, before New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg
spoke,
that he would not be
questioned. Commissioner Roemer was seen to be shaking his head at that announcement
and, after Mr. Bloomberg completed his remarks, told LPR that the mayor could
have been asked why the city has not followed
procedures for seeking additional federal funding.
Although the focus on this public hearing was the city's response to the World
Trade Center attack, and the lessons to be learned, Mr. Roemer seemed to offer
Mr. Giuliani a peg to comment on the performance of the Bush administration,
raising the matter of an August 6, White House document that referred three times
to New York City and the World Trade Center.
Mr. Giuliani pointed out that no one ever thought in terms of an aerial attack
on the World Trade Center.
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Sign
posted on a No Parking Sign on an 11th Street tree.
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Sign
in the hearing room held by a person in the audience.
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Photo
on a seat in the audience at the hearing of firefighting
9/11 victim George Cain.
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Silent
protest in the audience as Mayor Giuliani spoke.
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Another
audience protest at the hearing.
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Sign
outside the hearing.
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Mr. Roemer, instrumental, when in Congress, in creating
this Commission, was approachable to members of the audience,
one of whom, Charles Wolf, whose wife
was killed 9/11, was concerned that the press is not paying enough
attention to the issue of
broadband problems in radio communication between police and fire departments.
Mr. Giuliani suggested that state of the art is one reason for any ongoing
communication problems. He also commented that the police and fire departments
have different
missions -- the police responsible for going after criminals and the firefighters
doing other
things.
If the former mayor elaborated on this explanation, LPR missed it.
It is apparent that the families of the 9/11 victims continue to have questions,
which indicates that thus far, the Commission has not produced all answers
sought.
Discontent with some of the Commission's work was indicated by signs held
in the audience during the
hearings and outside the New School University building.
Secretary Ridge, in his prepared remarks, noted: "Homeland security
is about the integration of a nation, the integration of people and technology
to
make us smarter, more sophisticated, and better protected."
LPR here recommends that the 911 Commission endorse the language of Federalist
57 and call for leadership
that seeks "the common good of the society" and holds "communion
of interests and sympathy of sentiments"
with the people, including the first responders. With such leadership, alleged
bureaucratic obstacles to
efficient interoperable communication would likely disappear, LPR believes.
LPR included the photo of the broadly smiling Secretary Ridge to indicate
that even at times of great moment and
sadness, the irrepressible human spirit will emerge to ease the tension.
And in that spirit, LPR includes a photo of New York City's senior broadcast
journalist Gabe
Pressman, of WNBC, looking curiously at LPR while interviewing a citizen.
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Veteran
newsman Gabe Pressman looking at the LPR camera
while interviewing another person on 12th Street,
outside the hearing.
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