Former EPA Chief Refuses to Testify on Post-9/11 Air Quality
EmailChristine Todd Whitman, the former administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, has refused to testify before a congressional subcommittee, regarding the government’s handling of the air quality at the World Trade Center site following the 9/11 attacks. In refusing to testify, Whitman’s attorney cited that the former New Jersey governor is named as a defendant in two lawsuits involving her statements on air quality following the attacks. Her attorney, Joel Kobert, also said in a letter to the subcommittee that Whitman "would be unlikely to assist the Subcommittee on this subject" because she is not a lawyer. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, said today he will continue to "strongly urge her to cooperate" and to appear at the hearing. He added he hoped he would not have to resort to the "compulsory process." "I would strongly urge the Administration to encourage her appearance, given her absolutely central role in these matters, so that the American people may finally hear her direct answers to lingering, unanswered questions about the federal government’s failed response to the environmental aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks," said Rep. Nadler. Click Here for Full Blotter Coverage. On Sept. 18, 2001, then-EPA head Whitman released a statement declaring the results from air monitoring tests in New York showed "their air is safe to breathe." Almost two years later, the EPA’s inspector general released a report concluding the EPA’s assurances were based on preliminary test results. The report also said that EPA press releases were softened under pressure from the White House. Since then, multiple studies have documented health problems amongst 9/11 emergency responders and workers. One study released last year by Mount Sinai Hospital in New York showed more than 70 percent of Ground Zero workers suffered health ailments or severe respiratory problems. An appeals court ruled last month that one of the lawsuit’s against Whitman, brought by a small number of government employees, could not go forward because the EPA chief could not be held constitutionally liable for her statements in the wake of the disaster. "Officials might default to silence in the face of the public’s urgent need for information," warned Judge Dennis Jacobs. That recent ruling may also affect a class-action suit that has been brought against Whitman by residents of lower Manhattan.
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Subpoena her. Clearly an admission, if not of guilt, than of unreleased reports of dangerous air, that this incompetent Administration chose not to divulge to the public for its safety.
Posted by: Alec Emerson | May 16, 2007, 2:26 pm 2:26 pm
Here we go again. This is not the first time she has been reluctant to testify.
Posted by: lovey | May 16, 2007, 2:45 pm 2:45 pm
The Bush administration in another one of its coverups. Most of Bush’s cabinet were mouthpieces for his policies and the Congress was a rubberstamping body. Too bad NY’s finest have to pay for this bull.
Posted by: Bob | May 16, 2007, 3:02 pm 3:02 pm
Yet another House Democratic witch hunt — just read Nadler’s comment — for purely political purposes. Mrs Whitman is absolutely correct to decline to dignify such nonsense. The Democrats should blame al Qaida for 9/11, not Christine Todd Whitman.
Posted by: Philip Terzian | May 16, 2007, 3:15 pm 3:15 pm
Sorry Phil but she has no right to refuse if they subpeona her. She may hate it but that’s how it goes when you lose elections.
Posted by: Dan | May 16, 2007, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
I have long admired Ms. Whitman. As in so many other instances, she was probably required to put forth a misleading statement for the Administration. For this, she should be held accountable. Democrats do not blame her for anything other than not offering the most candid and truthful account of the events. This President, who claims so much personal moral authority has led one of the most dishonest and corrupt administrations in recent history. His policies and deceptions have deeply harmed Americans and many others around the world.
Posted by: Randy Sprabary | May 16, 2007, 4:00 pm 4:00 pm
“Required to put forth a misleading statement!” Everybody has the choice: do the right thing or leave! No excuses for lying. She has to take responsibility for her actions and explain them.
What was the hurry for the “clean-up?” It was a crime scene that should have been carefully sifted through after the few survivors were pulled out.
Posted by: babaloo | May 16, 2007, 4:50 pm 4:50 pm
Whitman was an enabler of this criminal administration. She should go to jail with the rest of the scum.
Posted by: Tom | May 16, 2007, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm
People should quit covering up the lies the Administration told after 9/11 with the events of 9/11 itself. If she told a lie, she should explain herself.
Posted by: Terry Green | May 16, 2007, 5:47 pm 5:47 pm
Hey Phil, nice try.
She’s not being blamed for 911, just for the incompetence thereafter.
All you Bushies are alike, don’t address the actual issue, just spin it as a Democratic witch hunt.
To Jail, without the Bail.
Posted by: Dom | May 16, 2007, 5:49 pm 5:49 pm
Subpoena power! Don’t be afraid to use it! This was the health of Americans that the Bush administration–in concert with the Giuliani administration–conspired to damage. It was a staffer in Whitman’s EPA who redlined the official report to remove mention of asbestos in the air.
Come on, elected officials–get serious!
Posted by: Kevin J-M | May 16, 2007, 7:15 pm 7:15 pm
Let us ask ourselves WHY Christie Whitman would have lied about the saftey of the air in the vicinity of the WTC following the demolition of the buildings. Might the Bush administration have gotten her to lie about the quality of the air because they needed workers to cart off the evidence as fast as possible before too many people could come along with their own gas masks and take a few samples of thermate-riddled steel out of the rubble?
Posted by: Fred Fraudspotter | May 16, 2007, 8:13 pm 8:13 pm
Don’t know if this is true but heard her husband was an excutive with a company that had a large stake in insuring the towers and if it was declared a hazardous waste site the company would have been on the hook for far more.
Posted by: fiduciaryatlarge | May 16, 2007, 8:57 pm 8:57 pm
“An appeals court ruled last month that one of the lawsuit’s against Whitman, brought by a small number of government employees, could not go forward because the EPA chief could not be held constitutionally liable for her statements in the wake of the disaster.”
So does this ruling mean she could’ve said anything, ANYTHING at all about the conditions at WTC after 9-11 and have no accountability for the concequences her words might have? Sorta like Rumsfeld currently can’t be held accountable for anything that happened at Abu Ghraib or in Guantanamo.
Posted by: darling blather | May 17, 2007, 11:27 am 11:27 am
Let me see if I understand this: She won’t testify to the truth of the matter before Congress because she is both (1) not a lawyer and (2) getting sued for her actions and statements?
Aren’t actions and statements by public officials which are likely to result in suit those very same things Congress should be checking out in this way?
Posted by: Fred | May 18, 2007, 12:48 pm 12:48 pm
Get real. She didn’t do anything wrong. Of course there are going to be many respiratory problems for people that were in the vicinity when the buildings collapsed.
Posted by: TL | May 18, 2007, 1:36 pm 1:36 pm
Get real, TL. If the air was “safe to breathe” why would they have these respiratory problems, again? I think we all know what safe to breathe means, don’t we?
Posted by: brantl | May 23, 2007, 9:28 am 9:28 am
Just all part of the overall coverup. Fred Fraudspotter is right. Be sure and see ABC’s program “The View” on May 24th. They are having producer of “Loose Change” on as well as William Rodriquez, who was the Head Janitor in the Twin Towers and experienced the hugh explosions in the basement just before the so-called Domestic Passenger Jet hit the first tower. Isn’t it strange that we have had no further bombings of any buildings let alone malls, airports, or shipping containers since 911. Makes one wonder why they haven’t hit us again, doesn’t it? Makes you wonder if the Neoconservatives who authored the “Project for the New American Century” (Google that for an eye opener if you haven’t all ready) decided they got their “Pearl Harbor” on 911 and justification for invading Iraq and conducting all these illegal operations in the name of this bogus “war on Terror”. The 911 Commission Report is a sham – a puppet of the Neoconservatives. We are in deep trouble here and abroad and unless we watch them closely, the Neoconservatives will steal the 2008 Election as they did in 2000 and 2004. They will do anything for Power and Oil. Watch Jeb Bush. He is in the wings and ready to take over the helm.
Posted by: Dennis | May 23, 2007, 12:00 pm 12:00 pm
As an industrial hygienist, I know exactly what was in the air at the wtc cleanup site:
Asbestos.
Free Crystalline Silica Dust.
PCB’s.
Americium 241 (radioactive dust).
Hydrocarbon fuels (diesel fuel and aviation jet fuel).
Metal dusts (iron, aluminum, manganese, lead, copper, and others).
Incomplete combustion byproducts containing thousands of carcinogens.
This is the short list. Anyone not wearing a rubber framed respirator (not a face fitted device, what they call dust masks) was exposed to enormous quantities of these contaminants right after the collapse of the structures. Slightly less after the collapse. We don’t need her to tell them what was in the air, they only want her to admit what she did was wrong. She will not.
This is why she needs to fry. She lied. Even if she was told to lie, that made it a choice, which she chose to lie to people about something she blatantly knew was hazardous. Hey, I am a peon. If I work EPA as a peon and know this, she is a top ranked executive, with even more education and training in the area of toxicity and human exposure then I am.
Screw her.
Posted by: bltudor | May 25, 2007, 10:45 am 10:45 am