The Air Around Ground Zero

Let's do the time warp together.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced today that results from the Agency's air and drinking water monitoring near the World Trade Center and Pentagon disaster sites indicate that these vital resources are safe.

Flash forward to September 18, 2006. Rep. Clay Shaw (R) announced a program to test Florida first responders, who worked at ground zero, to have free screenings. Shaw cited a study by Sinai Medical Center that found 70 percent of the first responders that worked at ground zero now have lung problems. The Office of the Inspector General found that the Bush administration ordered the EPA to "soften" the reports.

"When the EPA made a September 18 announcement that the air was 'safe' to breathe, it did not have sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement," the report says. "Furthermore, the White House Council on Environmental Quality influenced . . . the information that EPA communicated to the public through its early press releases when it convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."

Christie Whitman ordered that all reports be cleared through the National Security Council. Many reports were rewritten to sugarcoat the serious health hazards. The question is why would the Bush administration lie about this? Al Qaeda knocked down the World Trade Center. Not the White House. They could have asked for the funding for an immediate clean up and have gotten bipartisan support. They could have even used the situation to win support for no-bid contracts for Haliburton and Fluor. Instead, they chose to lie and ignore the problem. I'm constantly amazed by the stupid decisions these people make.