Posted on 06/26/2004 4:51:54 PM PDT by veronica
Among the activist leaders of 9/11 families' groups it is safe to say that Debra Burlingame - whose brother, Charles, was the pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon - is not a uniformly popular figure.
Ms Burlingame, a staunch Democrat, has become the first public 9/11 "dissident" - a vocal critic of the "blame game" being played over the al-Qaeda attacks - and an unlikely defender of George W Bush. For good measure, the outspoken former lawyer describes some of the bereaved 9/11 families as America's "rock stars of grief".
"I've practically been thrown out of meetings," she says. "They've gotten very angry with me. But I've decided it's very important that another voice is heard in the September 11 debate."
Charles "Chic" Burlingame piloted the doomed American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon minutes after the twin towers of the World Trade Centre were struck. Since suffering the loss of her brother, Debra Burlingame has undergone an extraordinary and traumatic political education.
A year and a half ago, the grieving sister passionately supported efforts, championed by a now-famous group of four New Jersey women, to force a highly visible inquiry into the events that led to her brother's death. Like the so-called "Jersey girls", led by Kristin Breitweiser, Ms Burlingame believed that grievous mistakes must have been made for such a catastrophe to occur. She carried a home-made placard to one rally that angrily pointed out: "The men who murdered my brother were listed in the San Diego phone book."
With anger mounting among the relatives of victims, the 9/11 Commission, made up of both Republican and Democratic Congressmen, was formed; it will report next month. After hearing evidence given in the commission's recent hearings, the four New Jersey women have made countless appearances in the national media, accusing various federal agencies, agents and the White House of hopeless incompetence.
Ms Burlingame, though, begs to differ. In blistering attacks last week on the 9/11 Commission and those who lobbied for it, she described the high-level hearings as a "Beltway soap opera - awash in politics and finger-pointing". Even more provocatively, in an article published in the Wall Street Journal, Ms Burlingame accuses prominent 9/11 activists of holding an unjustified "contempt for all the people whom they feel contributed to a loss of life on the day their loved ones didn't come home".
For good measure, she also states that the 9/11 families "are not a monolithic group that speaks with one voice". The activist organisations, she says, have been indulged too much. Standing by a memorial in Manhattan to the September 11 victims, with her back to Ground Zero, Ms Burlingame says: "I first felt the need to speak out when 'The Families of September 11' group protested against the use of images of Ground Zero in Bush campaign advertisements. The idea that relatives of victims 'own' September 11 and its images, and can give or withhold permission to use them, is frankly ridiculous.
"People held back from criticising the relatives because of who they were. But what's happening is that this prominent group of activists have become the rock stars of grief in this country. I think people are getting sick of them because they are being so demanding. I can say it because I'm a relative too."
Her views have certainly hit home. On the day Ms Burlingame's article was published, it was the most frequently read piece on the Wall Street Journal's website.
Most of all, Ms Burlingame is angry on behalf of those who made valiant, improvised efforts to avert the tragedy of September 11 and who are now, as part of a political agenda, "being told that their hard-fought but doomed efforts amounted to incompetence and poor judgment that cost lives". "The air-traffic controller in charge of my brother's flight did nothing wrong," she says. "He never went back to work and went into a deep depression.
"To me he's just as much a victim of 9/11 as my brother, as are other people like him.
"So to have a widow saying they could have done this, they should have done that is just unfair. And it is to place an intolerable burden of guilt on their shoulders."
Not all the bereaved relatives, she suggests, are so concerned with apportioning blame and "owning" the events of September 11. "I'm getting many many messages of support from relatives of 9/11 victims," she said. "Some of what I'm saying might be considered blasphemous by some, but people are telling me, 'Thanks for saying what you said.' "
According to Ms Burlingame, discussions over future memorials to victims have been constrained by demands from 9/11 activists for "politically correct" mourning. "The Ground Zero memorial will list all the names of those who died," says Ms Burlingame. "There was a suggestion made that the firefighters who died heroically doing their job should be acknowledged by stating their unit or engine. What was the response from the 9/11 groups? They said there can be 'no hierarchy of heroes'! Why can't we acknowledge what the firefighters did in trying to save lives? It's just nutty."
Attending the commission's sometimes rowdy hearings, which have been held in both Washington and New York, Ms Burlingame says it also became clear that the 9/11 Steering Committee, an umbrella organisation for the various relatives' groups, had a specific, partisan agenda.
The groups, she says, had been given valuable assistance and advice on lobbying by Left-wing organisations such as MoveOn.org, the wealthy website that backed Howard Dean, the former anti-war Democratic presidential runner. Its motive, she suggests, is political rather than humanitarian.
"The groups wanted to dictate how the commission was constituted, who the witnesses would be and what questions should be asked," she says. "They won't say it in public but I can tell you that in private, it is all about bashing Bush. They want to get Bush out of office and they are using 9/11 and the commission to try to ensure that happens.
"At the beginning, I would receive e-mails from the groups which were all about emotional support and solidarity. Then they started getting political, along the lines of 'Can you believe what these bastards in the government are doing?' "Yet the 9/11 Family Steering Committee is made up of 12 unelected, self-nominated representatives. It's like 12 people sitting around someone's kitchen table with a bottle of wine, but they've managed to establish themselves as the voices of the 9/11 family members. The media never go anywhere else for an opinion."
By the time Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser, agreed to appear before the commission in April she was, says Ms Burlingame, entering a bearpit. "It was a circus atmosphere, and I mean that in the Roman sense; there was a sense of menace."
However, Kristen Breitweiser said: "People are entitled to their opinion but I think it's sad that Debra keeps singling out me and the other three women from New Jersey in particular for criticism. What we are trying to do is make sure that much-needed reforms in important areas are made. It's our conscience that's driving us. This is not political. I voted for George W Bush. My husband voted for him. But because I voted for him I hold him to a higher standard than I would otherwise."
Next month, Ms Burlingame expects the "Jersey girls" and others to use the 9/11 Commission's final report to savage further the Bush administration. She will be mounting her own campaign, with a quite different message.
"I would like to act as a reminder to people of where we should focus our energy: that is on the people who are trying to hurt us. We need to concentrate on defeating them, not on beating up on each other. I know that is what my brother, Chic, would be thinking."
our side should use her in an political commercial someplace. and let's see if any talk radio or FNC interviews her.
Must be something in the water in Jersey that causes such a complex(i.e the Jersey widows and bon jovi)
bearpit bump
Bull***t.
I have no more pity for these people.
Islamic terrorists caused the death of their loved ones,no one else.
Bears repeating.
In my book that places them in the AlQaida North American Ground Support Team.
Debra Burlingame is to be commended.
The "Jersey Girls" have dishonored their loved ones. They deserve no more than contempt for using their blood to further a political agenda.
"There was a suggestion made that the firefighters who died heroically doing their job should be acknowledged by stating their unit or engine. What was the response from the 9/11 groups? They said there can be 'no hierarchy of heroes'!
Good grief. The first responders and the passengers/crew of the one jet were heroes. Most of the rest were just victims.
"Yes, keep repeating that. We don't need no stinking evidence."
The "evidence" looks like stuff that Alex Jones et al put out from time to time.
Joined FreeRepublic on 6-5-04, did you?
A bump for Chic.
What have the 911 families done for this guy? Sounds like the Jersey Girls have forgotten who was behind all this.
Your evidence includes:
# The hijacked flights all flew long routes taking them far from their targets exposing them to certain interception given standard operating procedures. - there were no SOPs for shooting down airliners in the US.
# The towering infernos were said to burn with the heat of nuclear power plants, despite sooty black smoke and few flames. - you don't need flame for heat.
# The building collapses were presented as inevitable, even though such behavior was unheard of in steel structures. - it wasn't inevitable, it was a surprise...but are you denying they DID collapse, or that the planes caused it?
# Cellphones were said to have been used to make numerous calls from Flight 93, even though cell phones don't work from aircraft in normal flight. - yes they do. They tell you NOT to use them to prevent interference with navigation systems. They wouldn't have to tell you if they just didn't work...
# Flight 93 was confidently portrayed as a crash due to a struggle, despite the strong evidence it was shot down. - the 'evedence' suggested is consistent with a low impact angle crash.
# An extensive paper trail of the hijackers was found within hours of the attack. even though the same people had supposedly eluded authorities for years. - Hindsight is an amazing thing.
# The same hijackers who pulled off aerobatic maneuvers with large jets were flight school flunkies who had never flown jets. - there were no aerobatic maneuvers - it was straight & level into a huge building - and one almost missed.
I recommend Costco for their tin foil sale. Buy in bulk & save!
FMCDH(BITS)
Thank you Ms. Burlingame for saying what needed to be said.
Oh Puleeze.............
He's still around?
Lets not forget that paragon of mumbling, Springsteen.
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