Posted on 10/27/2005 4:57:03 AM PDT by JohnLongIsland
A Manhattan jury said yesterday that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was negligent in safeguarding the World Trade Center before the first terror attack on the twin towers, the 1993 bombing that killed six people and injured 1,000. In a verdict that could prove costly for the Port Authority, the six-member jury in State Supreme Court unanimously found that the agency did not heed warnings that the underground garage was vulnerable to terrorist attack and should be closed to public parking. This failure, the jury said, was "a substantial factor" in allowing the bombing to occur. It was in the basement garage below the trade center that Islamic terrorists detonated a van packed with explosives on Feb. 26, 1993, foreshadowing the attack that brought down the towers and killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If Hitler was brought in for trail today, the worst they could probably convict him on would be loitering.
W can just add them to the list of Katrina victims. Give them a debit card, a new house, and a new pony!
"the six-member jury in State Supreme Court unanimously found that the agency did not heed warnings that the underground garage was vulnerable to terrorist attack and should be closed to public parking."
Using this reasoning, every public parking garage in the country is vulnerable to terrorist attack and should be closed.
In a verdict that could prove costly for the taxpayers that support the Port Authority...
Sorry, just being truthful.
Even the most elementary reasoning, would point out that not every public parking garage in the country sits under a building 100 stories tall......sheesh.
During the four weeks of testimony, the trial focused on a 1985 report by the Office of Special Planning, an antiterrorist task force convened by Peter Goldmark, who was the executive director of the Port Authority from 1977 to 1985.
Mr. Goldmark created the office in 1984, after becoming concerned that, given terrorist activities in other parts of the world, the trade center, as a symbol of American capitalism and strength, could be a target. After a visit to Scotland Yard in London that year, he wrote a memo saying that Scotland Yard was "appalled" that there would be public transient parking beneath a facility like the World Trade Center.
The report concluded: "A time-bomb-laden vehicle could be driven into the W.T.C. and parked in the public parking area. The driver would then exit via elevator into the W.T.C. and proceed with his business unnoticed. At a predetermined time, the bomb could be exploded in the basement. The amount of explosives used will determine the severity of damage to that area."
Among the report's recommendations was: "Eliminate all public parking in the World Trade Center." It also recommended a series of compromise steps, including guarded entrances to the parking lots, random searches of vehicles and restrictions on pedestrian access.
The report came out about four months after Mr. Goldmark left the Port Authority, and his successors decided not to close the public lot, citing the potential loss of revenue and inconvenience to tenants, according to evidence at the trial. They also decided against most of the compromise measures.
My first thought when hearing this was how many lawsuits will be filed by the families of 9/11 victims claiming the structural design of the towers made someone other than osama 70% negligent?
It will happen.
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