Posted on 05/18/2004 2:17:21 PM PDT by Brilliant
NEW YORK - The former police and fire chiefs who were lionized after the World Trade Center attack came under harsh criticism Tuesday from the Sept. 11 commission, with one member saying the departments' lack of cooperation was scandalous and "not worthy of the Boy Scouts."
Former fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen and former police chief Bernard Kerik shot back with infuriated responses to John Lehman's questions, the strongest of a series of pointed statements from the panel.
"I couldn't disagree with you more strongly," Von Essen replied. "I think it's outrageous that you make a statement like that." Outside the hearing, he called the questioning "despicable."
Families of Sept. 11 victims applauded the tough questioning and shook their heads sadly as the panel enumerated a litany of communication breakdowns between the fire and police departments. Some wept as they watched videotape of the buildings collapsing.
As Von Essen testified, Sally Regenhard — who lost her firefighter son — held up a piece of paper reading: "LIES."
The heated exchanges occurred at the start of a two-day hearing held 1 1/2 miles from ground zero. The 10-member bipartisan panel has been holding hearings over the last year, including high-profile meetings in Washington last month about intelligence failures, to examine what led to the attacks and determine ways to avoid future attacks. The panel will issue its final report July 26.
While the New York hearings were meant to examine problems in the city's emergency response system, officials also were asked about what they knew about terrorism threats in the months before the attacks.
The former director of the World Trade Center told the commission that he knew nothing of Osama bin Laden's terror network until the summer before the attacks, and was never privy to FBI intelligence that Islamic terrorists might hijack U.S. planes.
Alan Reiss said he first heard about bin Laden's al-Qaida network when ex-FBI agent John O'Neill was hired in the summer of 2001 as head of security at the trade center. O'Neill, who had hunted bin Laden for years, was one of the 2,749 people killed in the attack.
"I was aware of the plot against some of the other Port Authority tunnels and the U.N.," Reiss testified. "But we were never briefed" by the FBI.
Reiss also said he was more focused on fending off possible bioterrorism attacks such as anthrax, spending more than $100,000 to protect the building from such an assault.
"We felt this (anthrax) was the next coming wave," he said. "We had developed plans on how to isolate the air conditioning system and shut it down but never did we have a thought of what happened on 9-11."
Reiss bristled under questioning from commission member Bob Kerrey, who asked him if he is angry that "things might have been different had they (FBI) trusted you enough" to deliver important intelligence.
Reiss said he was not angry at the FBI, but rather at "19 people in an airplane," referring to the hijackers.
Kerrey said he shared Reiss' anger. "These 19 people ... defeated the INS, they defeated the Customs (Department), they defeated the FBI, they defeated the CIA," the former Nebraska senator said as family members of the victims chimed in with the loudest applause of the morning.
But Kerrey said he was more concerned that "we may not be delivering the key intelligence, the facts, the information" to the first responders.
Later, family members cheered when commission member Slade Gorton launched an aggressive line of questioning about the city's 911 emergency system to Kerik, Von Essen and Richard Sheirer, former Office of Emergency Management commissioner.
When the agency heads tried to defer to their successors, Gorton refused to let them. "I'm asking ... what was going on Sept. 11," Gorton said to applause from the families.
For some family members, it was a day for reflection rather than protest. Terry McGovern, whose mother died in the south tower, said she came away with an understanding of what happened that day.
"For me, it was reliving what my mother heard, what she saw, what her last moments were," McGovern said.
The hearing began with a commission report recounting how city officials were forced to make life-and-death decisions based on incomplete communications, leading to some of the deaths in the twin 110-story buildings.
The communication problems resulted in incidents such as the deaths of Port Authority workers told to wait for help on the 64th floor of one tower. Many of them died when the building collapsed.
Communications breakdowns also prevented announcements to evacuate from reaching civilians in one of the buildings. One survivor recounted calling 911 from the 44th floor of the south tower, only to be placed on hold twice.
That was not a surprise, since emergency operators had a "lack of awareness" about what was happening at the twin towers and were overwhelmed by the sheer volume of calls, said commission staffer Sam Casperson.
Is GoreLick still on the commission?
It seems to me some of these guys are just laying the groundwork for a run for office.
There's something very creepy about the family members cheering like a Jerry Springer audience whenever someone on the comission launches "an aggressive line of questioning..."
Personally, I would vote against anyone who was on this commission.
The GET BUSH report due out July 26, interesting ain't it?
I thought they were to gather info and report to the nation.Not act like the Spanish Inquisition.
This is sickening. I didn't see any of these cowardly commission slugs, rushing into buildings to try to save people. Some things 9-11 slugs, Kerry, media, have just reached a point where they are stomach churning to even listen to.
I agree,time to pull the plug on this dog-and-pony show.
Creepy and unseemly.
I agree. The conduct of some of these families is beneath contempt. What ever happened to grieving in private and using a little decorum in public? I realize this is a small minority of the victims' families.
The term I would use to describe this commission is the same term Clint Eastwood used in "Heartbreak Ridge."
Seems like the commission wants to blame everyone exept the 19 retards who hijacked the planes.
It's not just the family members that are creepy - the commission itself is a bunch of Jerry Springers and Phil Donahues....
I don't think there should be cameras in there anymore.
Isn't the 26th the first day of the Dems. convention? Will this report give them their opening hit on Bush?
This 911 commission panel is a farce and a dog and poney show...shameful
HOW DARE THEY USE THOSE IMAGES.
Seems like everybody on this "commission" is a slimy, preening slug. Especially Keane and BenVeniste. As for GoreLick, well she's just a common hack, pining for her days under Uncle Janet's desk....
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