http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0831-05.htm
Published on Sunday,
August 31, 2003 by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Promises Turn to Toxic Dust
by Tom Brazaitis
Let's start with a word association test.
What do you think of
when you hear the word "protection"?
How about the word
"security"?
If these words give
you a warm, fuzzy feeling recalling the
innocence of childhood, that would be a normal reaction.
But in the wrong hands these words can stand for anything
but their intended meaning.
In the aftermath of
the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001,
the American people - especially those people in close proximity
to Ground Zero - hungered for protection and security. Instead,
what they got were dangerously deceptive assurances from the
Environmental Protection Agency, aided and abetted by the
National Security Council.
A report released by
the Office of the Inspector General
of the EPA says the agency gave the public misleading
information about the airborne health hazards in and around
buildings near the World Trade Center. The EPA was reassuring
people before it had even finished testing the particle-laden
air.
"When 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."
The day after the terrorist
attacks, an e-mail distributed
to senior EPA officials warned, "All statements to the media
should be cleared through the National Security Council before
they are released." The White House Council on Environmental
Quality gave the public false assurances at the direction of
the NSC.
Later, an EPA official
would tell investigators that the
agency could not claim ownership of early press releases
on the World Trade Center disaster because "the ownership
was joint ownership between EPA and the White House."
Alert readers will
recall that National Security Council
operatives played a similar role in an earlier scandal
involving the false assertion in President George W. Bush's
State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein had tried to
acquire uranium in Africa for weapons of mass destruction.
In exposing the latest
example of bamboozling the public,
the report repeatedly mentions "the desire to reopen Wall
Street" as playing a big role in the decision to soft-pedal
the danger posed by pollutants in the air.
How's that for compassionate
conservatism?
Investigators said
the extent of White House influence on
the EPA's press releases was "most clearly illustrated"
by changes made to a press release issued on Sept. 16,
five days after the attacks on the World Trade Center.
The edited release
deleted this statement: "The concern
raised by these samples would be for the workers at the
cleanup site and for those workers who might be returning
to their offices on or near Water Street on Monday, Sept. 17."
Inserted was this reassuring
quote from Assistant Labor
Secretary John L. Henshaw: "Our tests show that it is safe
for New Yorkers to go back to work in New York's financial
district."
Commenting on the NSC-doctored
Sept. 16 press release,
an EPA official said, "I did not feel like it was my press
release."
Today, almost two years
after the terrorist attacks in
New York, many New Yorkers continue to complain about
their "World Trade Center cough." Rep. Jerrold Nadler,
whose district surrounds Ground Zero, says tens of thousands
of people still live and work in contaminated buildings
and that many likely will contract asbestos-related lung
cancers 15 or 20 years from now.
"White House and
EPA officials have blood on their hands
because of their continuing failure - to this day - to
implement a proper clean-up for toxic contaminants,"
Nadler said.
For the rest of us,
the latest example of lying by this
White House is just another nail in the coffin of government
trust.
Brazaitis, formerly
a Plain Dealer senior editor, is a
Washington columnist.
© 2003 The Plain
Dealer.
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