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Memo Details Objections to WTC Command Center

Monday, January 28th, 2008

The New York Police Department produced a detailed analysis in 1998 opposing plans by the city to locate its emergency command center at the World Trade Center, but the Giuliani administration overrode those objections. The command center later collapsed from damage in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

“Seven World Trade Center is a poor choice for the site of a crucial command center for the top leadership of the City of New York,” a panel of police experts, which was aided by the Secret Service, concluded in a confidential Police Department memorandum.

The memorandum, which has not been previously disclosed, cited a number of “significant points of vulnerability.” Those included: the building’s public access, the center’s location on the 23rd floor, a 1,200-gallon diesel fuel supply for its generator, a large garage and delivery bays, the building’s history as a terrorist target, and its placement above and adjacent to a Consolidated Edison substation that provided much of the power for Lower Manhattan.

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the mayor then, has acknowledged some police skepticism about the site, but he has described it as resulting from a jurisdictional dispute between police officials and his emergency management director, who had played a role in selecting the site.

The eight-page memo reveals that police officials asked a variety of in-house experts in various disciplines and an outside expert to prepare a detailed analysis of the site’s vulnerabilities.

The decision to put the command center in the trade center has been a continuing source of discomfort for Mr. Giuliani, whose expertise and preparedness as a leader in a time of crisis has been the chief element in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

The site was completed in the summer of 1999 and was destroyed when the 47-story building at 7 World Trade Center collapsed on Sept. 11 after a fire there burned for much of the day.

“This group’s finding is that the security of the proposed O.E.M. Command Center cannot be reasonably guaranteed,” the commander of the intelligence division, Daniel J. Oates, wrote in the July 15, 1998, memo to the police commissioner.

The memo said the conclusions were based on analysis by police officials with expertise in infrastructure, building security, explosives, traffic and ventilation systems, who also consulted the Secret Service, including the agency’s New York special agent in charge, Chip Smith.

“Mr. Smith agrees with this assessment,” the memo says in its concluding paragraph, “even though his own office is in Seven World Trade Center. He acknowledges that the security of his office is a continuing concern because of the public nature of the building and the other reasons specified in this report.”

The memorandum was provided to The New York Times by a law enforcement official not affiliated with a rival political campaign.

Mr. Giuliani received a briefing on the Police Department’s recommendations, but it is unclear whether he received a copy of the memorandum.

Mr. Giuliani has said in the past that one of the reasons for choosing the location was that several federal agencies with which city officials needed to be in contact during emergencies, including the Secret Service, had their offices there. Other federal agencies in the building included the Defense Department and the C.I.A.

But the Police Department took the opposite position in the memo, saying the presence of those agencies made the building a more likely target.

Mr. Giuliani’s campaign declined on Friday to answer questions about the memo. But Maria Comella, a campaign spokeswoman, said the Giuliani administration had considered 50 different sites and examined a variety of factors before selecting the trade center.

“This is one memo out of a variety of memos that were presented,” she said.

Two years ago, in their book, “Grand Illusion,” Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins described the vehement objections to the choice raised by Police Commissioner Howard Safir and Chief of Department Louis R. Anemone. The memo from the Intelligence Division lays out what appears to have been the foundation for their arguments against the location.

Mr. Safir, who now operates a private security company and has supported Mr. Giuliani’s candidacy, did not a return a call seeking comment.

In response to questions about the site selection, Mr. Giuliani has typically said he relied on his emergency management director, Jerome M. Hauer, to find the best site and suggested he had little role in the process.

Mr. Hauer, however, has publicly disputed Mr. Giuliani’s assertion, saying that although he helped pick the site, he did so only after mayoral aides had told him the command center had to be within walking distance of City Hall. He has said he originally recommended a site in Brooklyn.

Mr. Hauer left the Giuliani administration in 2000 and worked as a consultant and served in the Department of Health and Human Services in the Bush administration. He later became a vocal critic of the former mayor. Mr. Hauer, however, has also praised Mr. Giuliani’s overall effort at emergency preparedness, a record that the Giuliani campaign went to some lengths to underscore on Friday.

Before Mr. Hauer left the Giuliani administration, great enmity existed between him and Mr. Safir. Mr. Safir’s critics have contended that he sought to limit the power and scope of the Office of Emergency Management once he became police commissioner in 1996. Mr. Giuliani created the office in 1996, and Mr. Hauer was its first director.

The memorandum sets out in detail the reasons why the Police Department concluded that the site was a poor choice for a command center, including its vulnerability to a biological attack and the ease with which a bomber could have damaged the building and crippled the center.

It has nine sections, the longest one headed “Explosives.” It describes a blast analysis conducted by the Police Department’s bomb squad, aided by the Secret Service, which looked at the likely impact of bombs of varying sizes, from one that could be carried in a car or a van to a large truck bomb.

The analysis, a standard practice used routinely to determine street closings when the president or another dignitary is in New York City, uses a computer system derived from the military and based on projections by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It concluded that the largest of such bombs would have led to the collapse of the building.

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New US plot against Iranian banks

Monday, January 28th, 2008

In its bid to halt Iran’s nuclear program, the US has called on Turkey to be ‘vigilant’ over financial operations with Iranian banks.

The US Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart A. Levey called on Ankara to be ‘vigilant’ over financial operations with state-run Iranian banks, AP said.

Levey said Ankara should scrutinize activities of Turkish-based branches of Mellat Bank since Washington arbitrarily blacklisted Banks - Melli, Mellat and Saderat to coerce Iran to suspend its nuclear program, which Tehran asserts is for domestic purposes only.

“Iran uses its banks for its missile programs in particular,” he claimed.

“It is essential to share information, to discuss risks …, and vigilance that is required to ensure that Turkey’s financial institutions are not abused by Iranian financial institutions and state-owned banks,” the official continued.

The US imposed sanctions against Iranian banks in October to force countries world over to stop doing business with Tehran.

Although some banks in Europe and Japan bowed to US pressure, a host of analysts and diplomats believe that the move has proved futile.

They opine that the Bush administration’s controversial policy of slapping sanctions on Iranian banks is facing a critical challenge, as financial institutions in Russia, China, and much of the Middle East have declined to cut ties with Iranian banks.

MK/FH/RA

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US warns out-of-control spy satellite is falling

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Paul Harris

A large American spy satellite is expected to fall to Earth some time in the next month, officials said yesterday.

It is unclear where the space debris might come down, but it could hit ground in late February or March. It is also not known whether the satellite could contain potentially hazardous materials, such as a nuclear-powered reactor.

Officials said they had lost control over the satellite and had informed countries around the world about the potential problem. ‘Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the threat … we are looking at potential options to mitigate any damage this satellite may cause,’ National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told the AP news agency.

Johndroe declined to say whether such measures could include shooting down the satellite with a missile.

China recently conducted such an operation by destroying one of its own satellites from Earth to test a space missile system. However, that move created a cloud of fragments and other satellites had to be manoeuvred into new orbits to avoid being hit by the debris.

Other satellites have fallen to earth harmlessly before. In 2002 parts of a science satellite rained down over the Persian Gulf. The largest re-entry took place when Skylab, a 78-ton abandoned space laboratory belonging to Nasa, fell from orbit in 1979. It came down in a fiery mass of debris that fell mainly into the Indian Ocean and onto Australia.

No one was harmed in what was a media sensation. One San Francisco newspaper offered a reward for anyone who brought a piece of Skylab to its newsroom. The $10,000 prize was collected by a young Western Australian man who found a piece of it on his roof in the small town of Esperance and travelled to America with it.

In 2000 Nasa engineers brought down a much smaller satellite into a distant part of the Pacific Ocean. That is likely to not be possible in this case as the object has lost all power and propulsion. This makes it impossible to dictate where or when the satellite will come down - or if it will just burn up in the atmosphere.

One of the most disturbing examples of space pollution occurred in a type of Soviet satellite launched from 1967 to 1988. The Rorsat-class reconnaissance satellites contained a nuclear reactor as a power source. It was later shown that 16 of 31 Rorsats had been leaking potentially radioactive coolant into space, creating a trail of droplets in orbit.

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Care for 9/11 Responders Is Piecemeal

Monday, January 28th, 2008

Plan for Processing Center On Hold, Funding Uncertain

By Robin Shulman

As President Bush gives his State of the Union speech Monday, there will be one man in the audience who plans to sit quietly and watch, his very presence a form of protest.

Joseph Libretti, 51, is sick. He has been diagnosed with chronic lung disease since volunteering after Sept. 11, 2001, to cut through steel to remove bodies from the gritty, smoking pile of detritus of the World Trade Center. Now, too weak to return to his job as an ironworker, he mostly keeps close to his Pennsylvania home.

He is among a group of responders demanding a coherent national program to provide local medical treatment for Ground Zero workers from outside New York City who answered the call to help after the terrorist attacks. An existing program was effectively halted in December, when the federal government canceled its search for a contractor to process medical reimbursements.

“The president should take care of the workers,” Libretti said during a telephone interview in which he frequently coughed and lost his breath. “If he sees me and other first responders, he’ll know we’re there.”

His protest was helped by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), who has made medical care for Ground Zero workers her cause.

“What kind of a nation are we?” Maloney said. “What kind of a message are we sending to future responders? ‘You are rushing into tragedy, and we are not going to be there.’ ”

Right now, Libretti’s son regularly drives him two hours to Manhattan to consult with a pulmonologist and a psychiatrist at Mount Sinai Medical Center, which runs a program providing comprehensive treatment to first responders who suffer from some common ailments: cough, asthma, headaches, nosebleeds, other respiratory ailments and post-traumatic stress disorder.

People came from all 50 states to help in rescue, recovery and cleanup at Ground Zero, and the federal government had been searching for a contractor to run a business center to manage their health care since then. The center would help clinics across the country treat and monitor first responders, streamline existing payment and pharmaceutical plans, and pay medical bills.

On Dec. 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention canceled a request for proposals to establish the business center. Without the center, there would be no entity to offer medical referrals to responders far from New York City, or any single scheme for the government to reimburse their doctors or to streamline pharmaceutical reimbursements.

James Melius, an occupational health specialist who is the chairman of the steering committee of the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring and Treatment Program, said the center is critical because funding to treat and monitor the health of first responders across the country is about to expire.

The Red Cross is providing limited funding to treat about 500 first responders outside the New York City area, but that will end in coming months, while another contract for monitoring about 2,000 people will run out in June, Melius said.

“These people will basically be on their own,” he said.

Bernadette Burden, a spokeswoman for the CDC, said the contractor request was canceled because its language was unclear and confusing.

“We wanted to review the requirements,” she said, “to make certain this solicitation was accurate and fair and to make a determination as to whether a new solicitation should be issued in the future.”

Funding was uncertain, and there was little interest in filling the contract, added Holly Babin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

But Congress had already appropriated $50 million for treating and monitoring first responders, and it approved another $108 million shortly after the contract was called off, Rep. Maloney said.

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Human Rights : Nico Ntumba

Monday, January 28th, 2008

“ A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess …”

Dear friend / supporter ;

Re: Nico Ntumba Inquiry : Abusive / Oppressive

Executive Orders against Innocent Mistaken for

Spy in 1988 : Secret Military Tribunal

for High Treason ( News BlackOut )

For the last 19 years , we are fighting

Against this dreadful situation created

To un-settle our Whole life by security

Services .No is willing to talk about it

openly ( Police , Security Services,

Government Officials, Human Rights

Activists, medias etc): Do Not

Ask, Do Not Tell .

We do need to intensify our campaign for

Full Inquiry by Parliament ( Home Affairs

Select Committee , Intelligence & Security

Committee).Nico Ntumba Inquiry and end to

News BlackOut .

According to some indiscretions in London,

an old legislation 1861 Act for High Treason

( Capital punishment) has been used without

any evidence against an innocent man during

a secret trial in absentia in 1988.

There has been no Parliamentary Inquiry ,no

apology for trying to hang an innocent man

on baseless accusations of High treason

(Espionnage or Redress for the last 19 years

. Instead , a large scale Cover-Up with a

witches Hunt campaign to un-settle our whole

life through daily disturbance ,

Use of No Lethal weapons of Mind Control

( Organised Gang Stalking , Remote thoughts

reading and broadcasting , Voice to Skull ),

Enforced Disappearance of Relatives and

Associates, Diffuse of Disrupt techniques

To spread malicious lies about us : Smears

Campaign , Do Not Ask Do Not Tell to keep

us in dark and denied us full access to

the case ; and ban on medias reporting about

this 19 years counter intelligence case.

Nico Ntumba Inquiry and end to

News BlackOut .

And there have been a conspiracy between

The Security services and mental health

Professionals to frame us from suffering

from mental illness in order to discredit

our campaign for Justice .

They sectioned us under mental health act

To detain us in hospitals which resulted

In further disruption of our whole .

We feel, furthermore, that this is yet

Another example of human Rights violation

as defined under the CSCE 1080-83 Madrid

conference, and as embodied in the Final Act

of Helsinki. We also wish to note that such

activities are also in contravention of

several agreements endorsed by Great Britain,

within the United Nations system, including

in particular the International Bill of

Human Rights, and articles 3, 4, 5, and 12

of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We urgently press the Home secretary John Reid

and The Premier Minister Tony Blair for

all possible assistance which they can give

to us (Judicial Review ,Parliamentary Inquiry,

Redress and the Protection of our Civil Rights

as Defined by International Bill of Rights ).

Nico Ntumba Inquiry and end to News BlackOut.

They should put an permanent end to this

Persecution and Oppression to make our

Whole life Impossible .

FOR CONTACT / SUPPORT:

[NicoNtumba_JusticeCampaign]

E-MAIL: domega8@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NicoNtumba_JusticeCampaign

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Monday, January 28th, 2008

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 at 8:51 pm and is filed under 9/11 Truth, Latest News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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