NYT Article on WTC Memorial Design Finalists, 2003

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Needed: A Breath of Fresh Air on Edits of EPA f I ^herc are lies, damned have suffered respiratory problems since the at- not the White House. No names of those involved I lies and strategic switch- tacks. Noteven the EPA’s inspector general. in the rewrites. A claim that “no lists are kept" of JL ing of the subject. The problem isn’t with the professionals. It’s such things. And EPA insistence that there are no This last is the strong suit with the politicians who meddle with them. documents that shed light on the political editing. of the current administration, The inspector general’s recent critical report fin- So this is the Dick Cheney energy task force, whose maxim is turning out to gerstheWhiteHouse,nottheEPA,fordoctoringkey redux. Somehow, a broad energy policy emerged be: When caught, create a di­ press releases in the days after the 9/11 attack. ’The from the vice president’s office. It coincidentally version. ’ investigators said the White House Council on Envi- favored the oil, mining and utilily industries that The Environmental Protec­ ronmental Quality, a redoubt ofpolitical appointees, had sent lobbyists to private meetings. But the tion Agency now argues that cut out cautions that EPA professionals had written White House has blocked the public from know- the valiant effort its employ- Marie and inserted what the politicians wanted; Every- ing which lobbyists were there, what they recom- ees made to protect public r*nAf>fi thing is hunky-dory. Get back to work. mended and how it so happens that their ap- health after the terrorist at- **°*^'” How did Horinko turn a dispute over political proaches made it into legislation. tack on New York City some- interference into a fantasy about an alleged at- “People need' to feel that .................................. they’re getting . the how is being besmirched. “The actions taken by tack on her employees' performance? straight story," Clinton said in an interview about EPA personnel were nothing less than heroic,” ’ThesamewaytheWhiteHouse.havingwamedof the EPA controversy, “We’re mature enough to be acting EPA Administrator Marianne Horinko a potential “mushroom doud” from Saddam Hus- told the truth," She intends to block confirmation wroteina letter to Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton sein’s nuclear arsenal, later dismissed as “a bunch of ofUtah Gov. Mike Leavitt as EPA administrator (D-N.y.i and .Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.t. bull” the furor overwhether the president peddled a until she gets better answers. No question. EPA employees, evacuated from discredited story about Iraqi uranium-shopping to No one now knows the nature or severity of the theirdowntownofficesonSept.ll,2001,retumedto underpin the n^ for war. Same way the rationale long-term health effects to expect from the toxic the hot. pit of the World Trade Center and the for war switched from the “grave and growing dan- stew of pulverized building materials, molten plas- dust-coatedstreetssurroundingittimeandagainto ger’’ posed by Hussein’s still-missing weapons of tic.burningjetfuelandothersubstancesthatblan- collectairanddustsamplesforanalysis. mass destruction to an argument that the dictator keted the New York metropolitan region for months. There is. in fact, only one problem with was an all-around bad guy. The same way tax cuts Weknowonlytherewasnosdentificbasiswhatever Horinko’s righteousness. No one ever accused EPA experts of doing anything but their best. Not Clinton and Lieberman, whositontheSenate panel that oversees the agency. Not the enraged — and often ill — residents of lower Manhattan, who once promoted as a refund ofbudget surpluses now are pitched as a jobs-creation program. When cau^t, create diversion. Clinton and Lieberman never questioned the per- formanceofEPA employees. They wrote to the presi- for the government’s claim so soon after the attack —while fires smoldered—that the air was safe. We cannot know if, or when, or what form an- other terrorist attack might take. But there may one day be a toxic spill or a release of fumes from I fS ________________________________________ dent, asking who at the White House exercised “edi- a chemical factory or an untoward event atanu- S Marie Cocen is a nationally syndicated columnist and member of Newsday’s editorial board. Her e-mail address is coccc®newsday.com. torial control” over the EPA’s crudal press releases, They asked why the upbeat changes were made. They wanted to know the basis for them. Here is what they got A letter from fee EPA, clear power plant. And the people will turn to the Environmental Protection Agency for straight talk. And if the EPA turns to fee White House, it seems there is little chance fee public will get it. I I

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