http://www.opednews.com/articles/Who-Will-Rescue-Us-From-Po-by-Curt-Day-...

Who Will Rescue Us From Post 9-11 Thinking?

By Curt Day (about the author)

opednews.com

What is Post 9-11 thinking? What preceded it? Do inquiring minds really want to know?

Well, in case they do, we will start with pre 9-11 thinking. With pre 9-11 thinking, we treated terrorism like crime in that we didn't react to it until it occurred. And because we didn't pre-emptively act against terrorism, we didn't act against American citizens with today's surveillance. Thus, pre 9-11 thinking granted American citizens a few more rights and privacy than post 9-11 thinking did. However, pure pre 9-11 thinking really didn't exist. For example, our government had acted pre-emptively to stop "millenium" terrorist attacks in 1999. Regardless of how the would-be attacks were discovered, the Clinton Administration acted pre-emptively.

Then, tragically, the 9-11 atrocities occurred and we were asked to think in a new way, which was not really new to some in the Bush Administration or the rest of the country. The "new" way of thinking included more than just pre-emption, it meant that America could assume this dominating position over the rest of the world so that no rival would emerge. And a side benefit was that we would have more access to important resources and our products would have more access to markets around the world.

This new 9-11 thinking was based on then President Bush's analysis of the attacks. He claimed we were attacked because those who want our destruction were jealous of our freedoms thus implying that future attacks were a fixed cost. But Chalmers Johnson and others pointed out that our foreign policies, including our history of covert actions, gave more than adequate motivation to many groups, let alone Al-Qaida, for attacking us. In addition, interviews with Bin Laden pointed to policies like the Iraq sanctions, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children, along with our unbalanced support for Israel in its brutal occupation and taking of Palestinian land as reasons for the attack.

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/05/q-a-ali-soufan.html

May 17, 2012
Q. & A.: Ali Soufan

Posted by Amy Davidson

In the past couple of weeks, Ali Soufan, the former F.B.I. agent who led the investigation into the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and into events surrounding 9/11—and was the subject of a 2006 New Yorker piece by Lawrence Wright and is the author of “The Black Banners: The Inside Story of 9/11 and the War Against al Qaeda”—has been drawn back into the debate about torture and the war on terror by the publication of “Hard Measures: How Aggressive C.I.A. Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives,” by Jose Rodriguez, Jr. Rodriguez, in his book and in a “60 Minutes” interview, argued that techniques like waterboarding are necessary tools; Soufan has a different view. Below, he answers questions about post-9/11 interrogations, the roles of the C.I.A. and F.B.I., and whether torture works.

Who is Jose Rodriguez? What does he know about the waterboarding of detainees after 9/11, and what we did or didn’t learn from it?

Jose was a C.I.A. officer whose area of expertise was in Latin America, but after September 11, 2001, he was put in charge of the C.I.A.’s Counterterrorism Center, and now he’s claiming responsibility for introducing the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” (E.I.T.s). In 2005, he ordered the destruction of tapes that showed the harsh techniques being used, apparently contrary to orders. He was later reprimanded by the C.I.A.’s inspector general’s office.

The claims he’s recently been making about the success of the harsh techniques are the same false claims that have appeared in now declassified C.I.A. memos, and which have been thoroughly discredited by the likes of the Department of Justice, the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the C.I.A.’s Inspector General.

The person making those claims isn’t the same Jose that I knew. I don’t know what he really knows, whether he was fed false information, or if he’s trying to defend his legacy, but what he says is at odds with the facts.

http://www.nature.com/news/speaking-science-to-power-1.10647

NATURE | NEWS: Q&A

Speaking science to power
EPA researcher gets her job back ― for the second time.

Jeff Tollefson
17 May 2012

People working in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers were exposed to more corrosive dust than the EPA let on, according to Cate Jenkins.
D. TURNLEY/CORBIS

Last week a federal appeals board sent Cate Jenkins back to work at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), marking another victory in the rabble-rousing chemist's colourful career. The agency had fired the 65-year-old scientist in December 2010, alleging that she threatened a supervisor, but the US Merit Systems Protection Board ruled that the EPA failed to inform Jenkins of all of the charges against her.

Jenkins maintains that she was fired in retaliation for her work exposing pollution dangers at the World Trade Center site in New York after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. In parallel with her formal work at the EPA, Jenkins has alleged, among other things, that EPA used a falsified health standard that remains in place today to downplay the dangers of corrosive dust at the site. In the months and years following the attacks, Jenkins reported her findings to the EPA Inspector General, Congress and the FBI. Although she has now been cleared to return to work, the whistle-blower case continues in a separate process at the US Department of Labor. The EPA could also choose to dismiss her again, this time following the proper procedures.

Jenkins says that she was fulfilling her obligations as a federal employee, responding to individuals and organizations that seek her expertise in reviewing technical data. She won an earlier whistle-blower case in 1996 involving Vietnam War veterans’ exposure to Agent Orange. She talks to Nature about her work, her advocacy and the manipulation of scientific data.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2012/05/why_real_id_program_offers...

Why Real ID program offers a false sense of security: A Q&A
Published: Monday, May 14, 2012, 8:08 AM
By Star-Ledger Staff

Mitsu Yasukawa/The Star-Ledger
A driver license and insurance card are pictured in this file photo. Jim Harper of the Cato Institute discusses by the Real ID program offers a false sense of security in this Q&A.
Last week, the American Civil Liberties Union won an injunction against New Jersey’s TRU-ID program, the state’s version of the federal Real ID secure driver’s license program. Created in the aftermath of 9/11, the law is an attempt to close loopholes that allowed the 9/11 hijackers to acquire U.S. driver’s licenses.
Security and privacy experts say Real ID does little for security, but places personal privacy at risk.
Jim Harper is director of policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, where he is an expert in security and privacy. He spoke last week with Star-Ledger editorial writer Jim Namiotka.
Q. How will Real ID improve our national security?
A. It won’t.
Q. Please explain.
A. The driver’s license isn’t a security tool, and the things that Real ID does would be trivially easy for terrorists or other attackers to avoid. There isn’t a real security value in Real ID.
Q. Why the focus on driver’s licenses?
A. The proponents of Real ID talked about terrorism as the reason for passing the law. Actually, their goal is immigration control. They want a national ID in place that would be used to do a background check on everybody when they start employment. In the future, it could be used to control access to financial services, to control access to health care, or housing, or pharmaceuticals, for example.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/05/10/in-congress-citys-lawmakers-t...

May 10, 2012, 1:20 PM ET
In Congress, City’s Lawmakers Tackle NYPD Surveillance

Associated Press
A protest in November against the New York Police Department’s alleged surveillance of Muslim communities.
Most of New York City’s House delegation backed a failed measure to rebuke the New York Police Department’s intelligence-gathering efforts focused on Muslim groups.

Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat, introduced an amendment to a Justice Department appropriations bill that would have blocked spending on police programs found to violate the U.S. Constitution or federal antidiscrimination laws. The measure, Holt made clear, was part of his broader push to stop the NYPD’s counterterrorism and surveillance efforts focused on Muslims.

“My amendment would ensure that no federal funds are flowing to any law-enforcement entity that the [Justice] Department has identified as engaging in racial, ethnic, and religious profiling,” he said in introducing the measure.

It failed Wednesday night in a largely party-line vote, 232 to 193. Almost all of New York City overwhelmingly Democratic House delegation voted in favor of the amendment.

Only Staten Island Rep. Michael Grimm and Queens Rep. Robert Turner, the city’s two Republicans, voted against it. Two Long Island lawmakers, Republican Rep. Peter King and Democrat Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, also opposed the amendment.

The NYPD’s counterterrorism tactics have come under scrutiny as the result of an Associated Press probe into efforts targeting Muslim groups in the city and across the region, including in New Jersey. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly have defended the department’s approach as necessary and legal.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-breitweiser/heights-of-hypocrisy-t...

Kristen Breitweiser9/11 widow and activist
GET UPDATES FROM KRISTEN BREITWEISER

Heights of Hypocrisy: The Universal Use of 9/11 in Politics
Posted: 05/ 3/2012 9:32 am

A year ago, I wrote a blog about the death of Osama bin Laden, "Today is Not a Day of Celebration for Me."

I wrote the blog after witnessing so many Americans celebrating, fist-pumping, dancing, and reveling in the streets about the death of bin Laden.

Seeing so many Americans acting like that was too much of an uncomfortable reminder of those who celebrated in the streets during the attacks of 9/11 while men like my husband either burned alive, were crushed alive, or horrifically jumped to their deaths.

A year ago, what drove me to write was my sadness in bearing the sight of Americans celebrating the death of anyone -- even the man largely responsible for the murder of my husband.

Now one year later, I am once again driven to write due to witnessing President Obama resort to the same campaign tactics as George W. Bush.

Frankly, for what it's worth, it sickens me; and it saddens me.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/244354.php

Defence Against Bioterrorism

21 Apr 2012

Researchers may have found a way to protect us against otherwise deadly chemical attacks, such as the subway sarin incident in Tokyo that left thirteen people dead and thousands more injured or with temporary vision problems. The method is based on a new and improved version of a detoxifying enzyme produced naturally by our livers, according to the report in the April 2012 issue of Chemistry & Biology, a Cell Press publication.

"The sarin attack in Tokyo in 1995 demonstrated that both the raw materials and know-how of producing deadly nerve agents are available to people outside government or military institutions," said Moshe Goldsmith of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. "We hope that our work would provide a prophylactic drug that will effectively protect the medical, police, and other teams that will have to act in a contaminated area following such an attack and would also provide these teams with a drug that could be administered on-site to intoxicated individuals to greatly improve their chances of survival."

Today, protection against nerve agents relies primarily on physical barriers such as gas masks and protective suits that can easily be breached, Goldsmith explained. Following exposure, people are treated with drugs that help with the symptoms but don't eliminate the nerve agent.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/homeland-security-college-campus...

Homeland Security Goes to College
How college campuses became a Homeland Security battleground.
By Michael Gould-Wartofsky | Thu Mar. 22, 2012 1:24 PM PDT

This story [1] first appeared on the TomDispatch [2] website.

Campus spies. Pepper spray. SWAT teams. Twitter trackers. Biometrics. Student security consultants. Professors of homeland security studies. Welcome to Repress U, class of 2012.

Since 9/11, the homeland security state has come to campus just as it has come to America's towns and cities, its places of work and its houses of worship, its public space and its cyberspace. But the age of (in)security had announced its arrival on campus with considerably less fanfare than elsewhere—until, that is, the "less lethal [3]" weapons were unleashed in the fall of 2011.

[4]Today, from the City University of New York [5] to the University of California [6], students increasingly find themselves on the frontlines, not of a war on terror, but of a war on "radicalism" and "extremism [7]." Just about everyone from college administrators and educators to law enforcement personnel and corporate executives seems to have enlisted in this war effort. Increasingly, American students are in their sights.

In 2008, I laid out seven steps [8] the Bush administration had taken to create a homeland security campus. Four years and a president later, Repress U has come a long way. In the Obama years, it has taken seven more steps to make the university safe for plutocracy. Here is a step-by-step guide to how they did it.

http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2012/04/profiling_as_in_nypd_muslim_pr...

Profiling, as in NYPD Muslim probe, does not improve security
Published: Friday, April 20, 2012, 8:26 AM Updated: Wednesday, April 25, 2012, 1:45 AM
By Star-Ledger Guest Columnist

Getty Images
Despite the uproar by politicians, most New Jersey voters believe the NYPD was doing "what is necessary to combat terrorism" when officers documented the activity of Muslim residents in the Garden State, a new poll has found.
By Engy Abdelkader
In 2002, our federal government implemented the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System, which required males 17 and older to register with U.S. immigration authorities. The requirement applied only to natives of predominantly Muslim countries.
After reporting to registration, many of the men and boys never returned home. Rather, they were detained and deported, often without any notice to remaining family members in the United States, who were left wondering about their whereabouts.
In response, I organized a human rights monitoring campaign outside of the Immigration and Naturalization Service offices in Manhattan. About 90 Americans volunteered to work three-hour shifts beginning as early as 5 a.m. and ending as late as midnight.
Donning bright yellow shirts with the words "Human Rights Monitor," the volunteers tracked the compliant men who entered and exited the building. In the event someone did not leave, we contacted their family and provided legal and other resources.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/04/18/45749.htm

Wednesday, April 18, 2012Last Update: 2:27 PM PT
Hearing Strains to Revive Addled Privacy Watchdog
By ADAM KLASFELD
ShareThis
(CN) - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee met Wednesday to grill five nominees for a watchdog group that has not been staffed in four years.
The 9/11 Commission Report recommended establishing the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) in 2004 to check against abuses of power in the name of fighting terrorism.
Beset by claims of interference from the Bush administration and neglect in Obama's first term, however, the board has foundered.
The only Democratic member of the first board, Lanny Davis, resigned in protest of the more than 200 revisions the Bush administration made to its first report in 2007, according to the Washington Post.
The board has been vacant and inactive since 2008.
Three years into his term, Obama made his first five nominations: James Dempsey, an executive with the Center for Democracy & Technology; Elisebeth Collins Cook, a former Department of Justice lawyer; Rachel Brand, an attorney for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Patricia Wald, a former federal judge for the D.C. Circuit; and David Medine, a WilmerHale partner tapped to chair the board.
Dempsey, Wald and Medine are Democrats. Cook and Brand are Republicans.
All of the candidates seemed reluctant Wednesday to comment on Obama administration policies that most trouble civil libertarians.
All five ducked questions from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, about the CIA's controversial targeted-killing program. The senator blasted the program's secrecy before the hearing and demanded to see the top-secret government memo justifying drone strikes.
Several candidates reserved comment until they could see that memo and other classified data and opinions.
"I'm going to approach that with an open mind and listen to the current thinking that has evolved," Dempsey said.
Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., grew impatient with the nominees' evasive answers.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/documents-provide-...

Documents provide rare insight into FBI’s terrorism stings

By Peter Finn, Published: April 13

Days before his arrest in Pittsburgh last month, Khalifa Ali al-Akili posted a remarkable message on his Facebook page: A mysterious man who spoke often of jihad had tried to interest Akili in buying a gun, then later introduced him to a second man, whom Akili was assured was “all about the struggle.”
It smelled, Akili wrote on Facebook, like a setup.
“I had a feeling that I had just played out a part in some Hollywood movie where I had just been introduced to the leader of a ‘terrorist’ sleeper cell,” Akili wrote.
When he googled a phone number provided by the second man, it turned out to be to Shahed Hussain, one of the FBI’s most prolific and controversial informants for terrorism cases. Soon the sting was off; Akili was subsequently arrested on gun — not terrorism — charges, which he has denied.
It was a rare miss for Hussain, 55, who has played a wealthy, dapper member of a Pakistani terrorist group in several FBI operations over nearly a decade.
This role has inflamed Muslim and civil rights activists, who describe Hussain as an “agent provocateur,” and prompted harsh comments from the presiding judge in a 2010 case, who questioned his honesty and the aggressiveness of the FBI’s tactics.
“I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that there would have been no crime here except the government instigated it, planned it and brought it to fruition,” said U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon at the sentencing of four men from Newburgh, N.Y., convicted on terrorism charges. She added, “That does not mean there was no crime.”
Hussain declined to speak about his work for the FBI, saying in a brief phone interview, “I can’t say anything for security reasons.” The FBI declined to discuss Hussain or McMahon’s comments.

http://www.globest.com/news/12_309/newyork/office/Silverstein-To-Refinan...

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Last Updated: March 19, 2012 11:26am ET
Silverstein To Refinance $577M in Bonds at 7 WTC
By Jacqueline Hlavenka

CMBS and Liberty Bonds
secured by 7 WTC will be
refinanced.

NEW YORK CITY-After reaching 100% occupancy late last year, Silverstein Properties will be refinancing the liberty bonds and a commercial mortgage-backed security secured by Seven World Trade Center, according to a report from Fitch Ratings.

The total loan includes $577.8 million of liberty bonds and a CMBS loan secured by a mortgage backed by two cross-defaulted loans on 7 WTC. The senior loan is a $452.8 million tax-exempt liberty bond financing designated loan and the junior loan is a $125 million CMBS loan, according to Fitch.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march172012/wtc_7_blueprints.php

Mar-17-2012 13:23
WTC 7 Blueprints Exposed Via FOIA Request: Building Plans Allow for Deeper Analysis of Skyscraper's Destruction

Ron Brookman, Structural Engineer Special to Salem-News.com
Structural Drawings / Shop Drawings Available for Download.

WTC-7 sequence

(SAN FRANCISCO) - Editor’s note: The release of detailed construction documents and shop drawings for WTC Building 7 is the latest in a series of FOIA successes by AE911Truth supporters. Recent efforts have also led to the acquisition of revealing video recordings of the WTC catastrophe, and forced the NYC Department of Buildings to claim that the release of WTC renovation plans for the years leading up to 9/11 would “endanger the life or safety of any person.” If you are interested in helping us examine these important construction drawings, please consider joining our Volunteer Team.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Office at NIST recently released over 2,600 electronic files pertaining to the NIST NCSTAR 1A: Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7, and NCSTAR 1-9: Structural Fire Response and Probable Collapse Sequence of World Trade Center Building 7. These files include original structural design drawings, shop fabrication drawings and steel erection drawings of the third skyscraper to fall on 9/11, and are ready for architectural and engineering professionals and students to analyze.

Anyone can file a FOIA request. FOIA #11-209, shown below, was a simple and specific request:

Catherine S. Fletcher, FOIA & Privacy Act Officer
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, STOP 1710
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1710

Sent via email to: foia@nist.gov
Re: Freedom of Information Act Request, 5 U.S.C. Sec. 552

Dear Ms. Fletcher:
I respectfully request complete copies of the following documents pertaining to the NIST NCSTAR 1A ''Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7'', November 2008.

• Irwin G. Cantor P.C., Structural Engineers (1985). Structural Design Drawings, 7 World Trade Center

• Irwin G. Cantor P.C., Structural Engineers (1985). Structural Calculations, 7 World Trade Center

I am a licensed civil and structural engineer in California (licenses C44654 and S3653, expiration date 3/31/2012). This request is made for a scholarly purpose; it is not for any commercial use.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,
Ronald H. Brookman, S.E.

Message: "A Maryland attorney is preparing a lawsuit against the TSA for failure to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) regarding the TSA's current enhanced procedures supposedly justified by 9-11. The suit will focus on the radiation issues, and also possible deaths due to person switching to less-safe modes of transportation than air travel because they want to avoid the TSA. To withstand any standing challenges, he is looking for a number of plaintiffs who travel and use or don't use airports in a variety of ways because of the TSA's procedures. The suit would be filed on a contingency basis, and would likely last at least a year. The suit will not directly take on 9-11 issues, but will not shy away from then either. A MD or DC citizen is preferred, but interested citizens in other states may be able to take part as a plaintiff. If you are genuinely and seriously interested and upset about the TSA to be involved in an EIS suit, you may contact the attorney, Michael C. Worsham, Esq., at mcw at worshamlaw dot com. Thank you."

Thanks.

Michael C. Worsham
1916 Cosner Road
Forest Hill, MD 21050
(410) 557-6192
marylandmichael@yahoo.com

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/us/airports-with-new-law-are-freer-to-...

March 15, 2012
New Law Clears the Way for Airports to Drop T.S.A. Screeners
By RON NIXON
WASHINGTON — A new law makes it easier for airports to replace federal screeners with private contractors, and several airports, after years of passenger complaints, are lining up to make the change.

The law was welcome news to Larry Dale, president and chief executive of Orlando Sanford International Airport, who said his airport’s request to opt out of using Transportation Security Administration officers last year was denied by the federal government.

Mr. Dale said his desire to use private screeners in place of T.S.A. personnel was motivated by hundreds of complaints from passengers, and added that he had his own problems with the agency’s screeners.

“We’ve visited a number of airports who have opted out of the T.S.A. screenings, and no one wants to go back,” Mr. Dale said. “We think this will be more efficient and customer-friendly for us.”

Since 2001, a little-known law has let airports seek permission to stop using federal screeners. But airport officials said that the T.S.A had been slow in allowing the switch, and last year the agency said it would stop accepting additional requests.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/agencies-poorly-tra...

Agencies poorly track FOIA requests, report says
By Ed O'Keefe

Obama made government transparency concerns a top priority of his early days as president. (J. Scott Applewhite - AP) Eleven of 17 Cabinet-level agencies fail to fully comply with federal law requiring complete inventories of public records requests, and most large agencies earn a subpar grade for records management, according to a new congressional report.

The report, set for release Thursday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is meant to draw attention to government transparency issues during this year’s Sunshine Week, an annual event designed to raise awareness about access to public records.

The report does not probe how often agencies grant or deny Freedom of Information Act requests, but instead focuses on a key facet of FOIA law requiring agencies to track every request made by people or organizations for public information. The committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), asked 100 large and small federal agencies to provide information on their FOIA tracking systems. Each agency received a letter grade based on a seven-point criteria, including whether agencies produced digitized records that included the date of a request, the name of the requester and a description of the information requested.

“A number of agencies demonstrated that they are able to track basic information about requests, while others either would not or could not provide such information as requested,” the report said. The fact that several agencies “struggle to demonstrate transparency about very basic information is troubling and necessitates greater scrutiny.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/16/us/politics/democratic-senators-warn-a...

March 16, 2012
Democratic Senators Issue Strong Warning About Use of the Patriot Act
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
WASHINGTON — For more than two years, a handful of Democrats on the Senate intelligence committee have warned that the government is secretly interpreting its surveillance powers under the Patriot Act in a way that would be alarming if the public — or even others in Congress — knew about it.

On Thursday, two of those senators — Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado — went further. They said a top-secret intelligence operation that is based on that secret legal theory is not as crucial to national security as executive branch officials have maintained.

The senators, who also said that Americans would be “stunned” to know what the government thought the Patriot Act allowed it to do, made their remarks in a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. after a Justice Department official last month told a judge that disclosing anything about the program “could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”

Wall St Journal 2/28/12

BY MELANIE GRAYCE WEST

Teaching the history and events of Sept. 11, 2001, requires a special touch. To honor those who do it best, the Tribute WTC Visitor Center will present awards on Tuesday to 10 teachers who have created special projects to help young people understand 9/11.

The Tribute WTC Visitor Center, located next to the World Trade Center site, opened its visitor galleries in 2006 and has made both memorial and education cornerstones of its programming. The center hosts field trips for school groups, and the teacher awards are now in their fifth year.

This year's ...

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/evidence-mounting-9-11-first-responde...
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Tuesday, February 21, 2012, 4:00 AM
WARGA, CRAIG/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Joseph Zadroga fought for the bill that bears his son’s name. But will it cover first responders who fell ill with cancer?

The director of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s World Trade Center health program is preparing to publish a study that will show elevated risks of cancer among 9/11 rescue and recovery workers.

A leading authority on the illnesses suffered by Ground Zero responders, Dr. Philip Landrigan says that an analysis of 20,000 medical case histories revealed an incidence of cancer that is 14% higher than expected for a population of the same profile. The most common elevations were in prostate, thyroid and blood cancers.

Landrigan’s findings add to the evidence that the toll from service on or around The Pile, bad as that toll has been, will significantly worsen with time. Research by fire department doctors previously had found a 19% higher cancer rate among FDNY members who’d been at Ground Zero than among those who hadn’t.

It has been well-established that exposure to airborne toxins in the smoke and dust that shrouded Ground Zero produced respiratory, heart and gastrointestinal damage. And medical experts have feared from the start that cancers, which develop slowly, would emerge.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/real-id-implementation-2012-02-21

PRESS RELEASE
Feb. 21, 2012, 6:00 a.m. EST
REAL ID Implementation

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Annual Report Finds Major Progress in Securing Driver's License Issuance Against Identity Theft and Fraud

The Center for Immigration Studies has released its second comprehensive assessment of the status of secure driver's license standards. The report fills a void left by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been silent on the implementation of state license standards in the REAL ID Act of 2005.

The report concludes that by the deadline of January 13, 2013, 36 of the 56 jurisdictions (50 states, Washington D.C., and the five island territories) will be substantially or materially or fully compliant with REAL ID, even if there remains a wide gap between the strongest of state systems and the weakest.

The report is online at: http://cis.org/real-id-implementation-report

This assessment is by Janice Kephart, former 9/11 Commission counsel and National Security Policy Director at the Center. It covers state driver's license improvements in line with the REAL ID Act, including: overall compliance, production of tamper-resistant cards, verifying and protecting identity before and after issuance, secure card production, and federal funding.

The data is compiled in a chart that forms the heart of the report. Chart analysis shows that (1) states see value in pursuing REAL ID standards because the improvements reduce identity theft and fraud, increase efficiencies, improve customer service, and support law enforcement; (2) states are paying for those improvements with their own budgets outside of federal grant monies; and (3) states are often exceeding REAL ID minimum standards in order to achieve more complete credentialing security.

Specifically, this study finds that:

http://www.northjersey.com/news/021712_Assembly_committee_seeks_supboena...

Assembly committee seeks supboena power over Port Authority

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 17, 2012, 10:18 PM
BY SHAWN BOBURG
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
PRINT | E-MAIL
A panel of state lawmakers is seeking subpoena power over the Port Authority, two weeks after the agency’s officials skipped an invitation to testify in Trenton.

The special committee would have the rare power to compel Port Authority officials to appear and to hand over agency documents if a proposed resolution is passed by a majority of the Democratic-controlled Assembly.

“There seems to be a call on both sides of the river for fundamental reform at the Port Authority,” said Assemblyman John Wisniewski, D-Middlesex, chairman of the Transportation Committee, which is considering several bills related to the agency and would have the subpoena power. “We need to understand how it works, how decisions are made, and in order to do that, we need questions answered.”

“So far, the track record is not good,” he added.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/ny_metro/Muslim_groups_demand_investigat...

Muslim groups demand investigation of NYPD surveillance

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2012, 7:24 PM
BY HANNAN ADELY
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD

Muslim and civil rights organizations are calling for Governor Christie to investigate secret surveillance of Muslim communities by the New York Police Department in New Jersey.

The 16 New Jersey-based groups, including the Paterson-based Arab American Forum and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, sent a letter to the governor asking for a “prompt investigation” into the extent of NYPD spying activity in New Jersey and the involvement, if any, of New Jersey police.

The call for an investigation follows a series of press accounts that reveal the NYPD was closely watching Muslim neighborhoods, including ones in New Jersey, and infiltrating mosques and Muslim student groups. The wide scope and secrecy of the surveillance has left Muslim communities unsettled and has strained trust with law enforcement, community leaders said.

In the letter sent to the governor Friday, the groups allege the NYPD violated civil rights by spying on people based on their ethnicity or religion.

“It’s unauthorized and unconstitutional and they are employing racial profiling. There’s not sufficient reason for them to be spying on certain individuals,” said Aref Assaf, president of the Arab American Forum.

The NYPD and the governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon. NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg have said that police only follow legitimate leads and do not do surveillance based solely on religion.

But local activists feared that was not the case. They pointed to a recent news report that the NYPD had recommended surveillance at Shiite mosques and organizations with no reported link to terrorism, and in Palestinian communities. The reason given by police in a 2006 document was to counter any threat linked to Iran, where Shiite Muslims are the majority of the population.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/de_blasio_give_me_data_b9erF82Vcc8KuT...

Updated: Tue., Feb. 14, 2012, 10:04 AM
De Blasio: Give me 9/11 data
By SALLY GOLDENBERG Last Updated: 10:04 AM, February 14, 2012 Posted: 1:44 AM, February 14, 2012
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio is using his charter-granted power to demand the city provide him with its research on the rate of cancer among cops who worked at Ground Zero, The Post has learned.
De Blasio sent Mayor Bloomberg and NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly a letter yesterday insisting they identify the officers who worked at Ground Zero on and after 9/11 and later filed for disability pension benefits.
He also wants a list of all cancer cases reported to the NYPD’s doctors in the past decade, specifically those involving cops who responded to the terror attacks.
The move was his latest salvo in a bid to pressure the city into releasing its data to the federal government so officers’ medical expenses can be covered.
Bloomberg spokeswoman Samantha Levine said the city is working “to share data in a manner that protects individual privacy under the law.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/9-11-woman-remains-1-633rd-identificatio...

9/11 woman's remains become 1,633rd identification
Karol Ann Keasler lived in Brooklyn Heights but traveled the world

BY DOUGLAS FEIDEN / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Friday, February 10, 2012, 10:35 PM

THE REMAINS of a globe-trotting Brooklyn Heights woman whose journeys took her to Tuscany, Asia and Africa have finally been identified.

Karol Ann Keasler, 42, a bride-to-be who volunteered in a soup kitchen and read novels to the elderly, was finally identified by the city’s chief medical examiner on Friday.

“It’s been almost 11 years,” her younger sister Susan told the Daily News from her home near Las Vegas. “And after all this time, I had come to believe that things like this only happen on ‘CSI.’ ”

Keasler worked as an event planner for investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods on the 89th floor of the south tower of the World Trade Center. She was identified in part through a breakthrough technology, developed years after 9/11, that can extract a full DNA profile from a small bone fragment.

“I didn’t even realize they were still trying to identify her until the Nevada police came to my mother’s door and told us what they had found in New York,” her sister said.

All they had in the big white ME’s tent off FDR Drive was a bone in Karol Keasler’s foot that had been discovered in the months after 9/11. That turned out to be enough to make a positive ID.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jtZ7-Q_iUeY4cvsTBfz69...

'Extremely Loud' director calls for more 9/11 films
By Deborah Cole (AFP) – 20 hours ago
BERLIN — The director of Oscar-nominated 9/11 drama "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," Stephen Daldry, told the Berlin film festival Friday he was stunned by the scarcity of movies about the attacks.
The 50-year-old British film-maker said a decade on, cinema still had little to say about the suicide hijackings in New York and Washington in which some 3,000 people were killed, as well as the ensuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It sort of amazes me really that more films aren't made about 9/11. My personal opinion is that there are millions of stories that should be told, personal stories and I don't just mean the stories in New York, I mean stories from around the world," he told reporters after a screening of his film.
After Hollywood disaster fare such as Oliver Stone's "World Trade Center" and Paul Greengrass's "Flight 93", "Extremely Close" is less about the attacks themselves than the shock and sorrow left in their wake.
The film, which is based on the bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer and has been nominated for an Academy Award as best picture, tells the story of Oskar, whose father is trapped in the World Trade Center that September morning.
When the boy finds a key left by his late father, played by Tom Hanks, he goes on a search of New York's five boroughs trying to find the matching lock.
The odyssey brings him closer to his widowed mother (Sandra Bullock) and a mysterious stranger, played by Max von Sydow, who has been nominated for a best supporting actor Oscar.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/cops_cancer_woe_Mv6FHbnSzyAyIYtlqNcHk...

9/11 cops’ cancer woe
Average age just 44: PBA
By SALLY GOLDENBERG
Last Updated: 12:57 PM, February 6, 2012
Posted: 1:12 AM, February 6, 2012

More Print
EXCLUSIVE
A startling number of healthy, young cops who responded to the 9/11 attacks have since been diagnosed with cancer, according to new data obtained by The Post.
The statistics — which show nearly a tripling in the number of cops applying for cancer-related disability pensions post-9/11 — are the first of their kind to become public and confirm the fears of at least 12,000 police officers who toiled amid the rubble at the toxic World Trade Center site.
There are 297 cops who have been diagnosed with cancer since working at Ground Zero — and the average age is a shocking 44 at the time of diagnosis, according to the data from the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2012/02/03/silversteins-911-lawsuit-agai...

FEBRUARY 3, 2012
Silverstein’s 9/11 Lawsuit Against Airline Continues
By Jacqueline Palank

One World Trade Center, 90 floors up so far and scheduled for completion in 2013.
Under a new agreement, the bankruptcy of American Airlines’ parent company won’t completely halt pending litigation from the World Trade Center’s developer over claims the carrier failed to prevent the hijacking of Flight 11 during the Sept. 11th terrorist attack.

In a long-running legal battle, World Trade Center developer Larry Silverstein has accused AMR Corp. and its American Airlines subsidiary of failure to put into place safeguards — such as securing the cockpit — to prevent terrorists from seizing control of its airplane. Flight 11 crashed into the site’s North Tower with 81 passengers and 11 crew members on board.

AMR’s Chapter 11 filing last November automatically put a stop to all pending litigation against the company, including the World Trade Center suit. But under the deal AMR filed in bankruptcy court Thursday, plaintiffs may continue pursuing injury and damage claims “solely to the extent of available and collectible [insurance] coverage.”

Court papers show the agreement, which isn’t subject to court approval, precludes plaintiffs from trying to recover for “intentional conduct or punitive damages.”

Silverstein’s company, which leased the Twin Towers and two other World Trade Center buildings from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, is seeking billions of dollars in damages for alleged negligence by the airline, according to the lawsuit. It is also seeking compensation for the lost rental income; the developer had signed 99-year leases for the space just two months before the attack.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/questions-for-the-...

By Walter Pincus, Published: January 30

Here are some questions that members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence should ask the heads of the intelligence community when the panel meets Tuesday morning for Congress’ first public assessment in 2012 of worldwide threats.

Afghanistan

Afghanistan is the only country where substantial numbers of U.S. forces are fighting. President Obama and the NATO coalition have set 2014 as the date for all foreign combat forces to withdraw and the Afghan army and police to take over security responsibilities.

In the December 2011 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan, the community opinion was that gains from the 2009 troop surge have been mitigated by continuing government incompetence and corruption and insurgents’ ability to be resupplied from Pakistan sanctuaries. The apparent stalemate, if continued, endangers future stability as U.S. combat troops continue to depart, says the NIE.

The Afghan coalition commander, Marine Corps Gen. John Allen, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker signed a dissent to the NIE’s judgments, questioning the intelligence community assumptions about Taliban intentions, the capability of Afghan security forces and the speed of the U.S. withdrawal.

February 1, 2012
Pakistan Says Prime Minister Was Mailed Anthrax Spores
By SALMAN MASOOD
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s prime minister, Yousaf Raza Gilani, received a postal package containing anthrax spores four months ago, his spokesman said Wednesday, adding a new dimension to the security threats faced by the country’s political and military leadership.

The package was intercepted by the prime minister’s security staff in October, according to the spokesman, Akram Shaheedi. The Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, a government laboratory, established that the suspicious white powder it contained was anthrax spores, he said. A criminal case was filed on Tuesday, according to an Islamabad police officer, The Associated Press reported.

Government officials gave contradictory accounts of the identity of the sender, and they offered little sense of motive. While Islamist militants have repeatedly targeted senior government officials in suicide and bomb attacks, an assassination attempt using biological weapons would be an anomaly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/tj-gilmartin-denied-parad_n_123...

TJ Gilmartin Denied Parade Honoring 9/11 First Responders

First Posted: 01/25/2012 5:04 pm Updated: 01/25/2012 5:04 pm

The city has denied a request from a disabled Ground Zero worker to organize a ticker-tape parade honoring 9/11 first responders.

51-year old TJ Gilmartin from Queens said that despite filing all the necessary paperwork and receiving support from community members, the city's lack of financial resources ultimately killed his chance at a permit.

Gilmartin went even further to say that first responders have never been properly thanked:

When everybody 10 years ago were running out of Manhattan, including probably most of the politicians, we went in and nobody has ever said thank you. I don't know what kind of game is being played, I'm sure police want the parade. It's called the 'Canyon of Heroes;' they've called us all heroes, so why can't we walk down that 'Canyon' just like the Giants are going to do.