‘Tribute of Light’ Will Mark WTC
— -- A temporary "Tribute of Light" will fill the sky over the World Trade Center site. Hundreds of New York firefighters are battling stress-related ailments since the terrorist strikes. U.S. officials are studying the ties between American extremists and foreign terror groups.
Temporary ‘Tribute of Light’ at WTC
N E W Y O R K, Feb. 28 — A temporary memorial for the victims of the World Trade Center attacks will soon shine.
The "Tribute of Light" will consist of two diffused, vertical beams of light, rising from 50-foot bases in a vacant parking lot near the trade center site, said Marian Fontana, president of the Sept. 11 Widows' and Victims' Families Association.
Fontana discussed plans for the memorial after meeting with Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Wednesday. The mayor says he supports the idea.
The memorial will run from March 11 to April 13, and the beams will be illuminated nightly until 11 p.m.
The project would be shut down in cloudy conditions so light doesn't spill into surrounding apartments, Bloomberg said.
The families who met with Bloomberg also asked him to help slow the pace of the trade center site redevelopment and to secure a private, indoor viewing space for families wanting to observe recovery of human remains from the site. Group representatives said the mayor was receptive to both requests.
Bloomberg had said Tuesday that the rebuilding process should be slowed rather than expedited.
—The Associated Press
Stress-Related Ailments Plague Firefighters
N E W Y O R K, Feb. 28 — Hundreds of firefighters and emergency medicalworkers who responded to the World Trade Center attack havereported nightmares, sudden anger and other psychological symptomsso severe that they were taken off active duty.
The 14,000-member Fire Department said it has put about 350people with stress-related problems on light duty or medical leavesince Sept. 11.
Nearly 2,000 more firefighters, fire officers and workers in thedepartment's Emergency Medical Service unit have seen a counselorsince Sept. 11 through the FDNY's counseling services unit.
The number is unexpectedly large for an institution thattraditionally prefers to handle problems within the close-knitfirehouse fraternity.
"Few people would have predicted as many firefighters wouldcome forward looking for help," said Terence Keane, a counselingunit consultant who heads the National Center for Post-TraumaticStress Disorder in Boston.
Firefighters say the staggering losses of Sept. 11 changedperceptions of the counseling unit, once seen as only for thosewith drug or alcohol problems. The department lost 343 members whenthe twin towers collapsed.
"Before this, guys would not even dream of going tocounseling," said 10-year firefighter Vinny Picciano, who sees acounselor once a week. "Now, the guys that are coming down, theyrealize something is wrong. Guys are hurting."
Of the 350 placed on light duty or medical leave, about 100remained off the active roster as of Wednesday. Many others haveretired or returned to work.
An additional 650 fire personnel are on light duty or medicalleave because of physical injuries, from respiratory ailments tobroken bones. Some of them are also said to have symptoms ofextreme stress.
The department is working firefighters overtime because of thelost manpower. The department expects to spend as much as $170million on overtime this fiscal year, roughly double its previousamount, spokesman Frank Gribbon said.
The counseling unit saw approximately 600 people in 2000. Itsstaff, which had 11 counselors and clinicians, is now five timeslarger.
About one-fifth of those in counseling suffer frompost-traumatic stress disorder, a severe reaction that can requireintensive counseling and medication, counseling services unitdirector Malachy Corrigan said.
The remaining 80 percent are experiencing acute stress disorder,a milder reaction that can improve after as little as a month oftreatment.
The Police Department required every member to attend a half-daystress management education class after Sept. 11. The FireDepartment took a different tack — providing one-on-one counseling,but leaving the choice of whether to seek help to the individual.
Those who chose counseling have benefited from the individualattention, said Tom Manley, health and safety officer for thefirefighters union. "Doing it in a group setting, you're notreally going to get what you need out of it," he said.
The counseling unit soon will try to gauge the depth and breadthof the department's psychological needs with the largest-eversurvey of an emergency department's response to trauma.
Every Fire Department member will be asked every three to sixmonths to fill out a pages-long survey. The survey, developed bythe counseling unit and academic and government experts, isexpected to continue for years.—The Associated Press
U.S. Examines Contacts Between Domestic, Foreign Extremists
W A S H I N G T O N, Feb. 27 — U.S. authorities are monitoring a growingnumber of contacts between American extremists and foreignterrorist groups to make sure the two don't begin collaborating onattacks, government officials say.
The officials caution there is no evidence to date that Americanextremists have been collaborating on any specific operations withEuropean, Mideast or Asian terrorists.
But they said they have evidence that neo-Nazis, whitesupremacists and Black Muslim factions have reached out to foreignterrorists whose similar hatred for Israel and the U.S. governmentmight make them natural allies.
"On the international terrorism front, we see people here andoverseas communicating mainly via the Internet and talking back andforth and communicating that way," Dale Watson, the FBI'sassistant director for counterterrorism, said recently.
U.S. concerns about collaboration follows evidence from Europedetailing how al Qaeda, the terror group headed by Osama bin Laden,and terrorists in the Middle East have been able to recruitlike-minded citizens from France, Germany, Spain and Italy,officials said.
Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is aware there are contactsbetween American extremists and foreigners and backs the FBI'sstepped up efforts, a spokesman said Wednesday.
"It certainly is an area he is concerned about, and he iscontinuing to monitor these contacts," spokesman Gordon Johndroesaid.
The FBI is "going to investigate and follow any informationthat we have on any individuals or groups that may wish to causeharm to the United States, regardless of whether they are domesticor international," he said.
For years, U.S. authorities have monitored efforts by neo-Nazisto stay in touch with like-minded groups in Germany and WesternEurope. The FBI says the contacts are expanding beyond thatuniverse.
"We do see some interaction and communications betweengroups," Watson told the Senate Intelligence Committee earlierthis month. "With the explosion of the Internet we certainly seewhite supremacist groups in contact with people in Europe,particularly in Germany."
The FBI official also raised concerns that Americans andforeigners might be beginning to use code words to disguisecommunications. "There are a lot of indicators and key things welook at, as well as the intelligence community, about codes, etcetera," Watson said.
Officials and outside experts also are watching overtures byU.S. extremists to befriend Arab and Asian groups such as Hezbollahin Lebanon, al Qaeda in the Mideast and Europe or abu Sayyaf in thePhilippines.
For instance, several anti-Israel Americans planned to meet inLebanon last year for a major gathering of people who believe theWorld War II Holocaust did not occur. The Lebanese governmentforced the organizers, including a California group, to abandon theplans.
A smaller but similar gathering was held later last year inAmman, Jordan.
Such meetings allow Americans to befriend Arab extremists byfocusing on a common hatred of Jews, one expert said.
In the aftermath of Sept. 11, some American white supremacistshave written pieces aimed at Middle Eastern or Muslim audiencesthat blame the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon onU.S. politicians and Israel.
"The real reason we have suffered the terrorism of the WTCattack is shockingly simple," former Klu Klux Klan leader DavidDuke wrote in one such piece. "Too many American politicians havetreasonously betrayed the American people by blindly supporting theleading terrorist nation on earth: Israel."
Duke's articles on his Web site are now translated into Arabicand have appeared in Mideast and Muslim publications since Sept.11.
U.S. authorities also are watching to ensure extremist blackMuslims, some of whom surfaced in earlier terrorism cases, don'tbecome more activist.
One Muslim from New York, Clement Rodney Hampton-el, is servinga lengthy prison sentence for his involvement in a failed plot toblow up the United Nations and other New York landmarks in the1990s. He previously fought with Muslim rebels in Afghanistan.
One of the groups being watched in the United States isal-Fuqra, a splinter sect of black Muslims that authorities havelinked to several crimes over the past decade from Colorado to NewYork.
A week after the Sept. 11 attacks, authorities charged threealleged al-Fuqra members living in a secluded trailer park nearRoanoke, Va., with weapons and ammunition violations.
Al-Fuqra was founded in New York city 20 years ago by aPakistani cleric. The group "seeks to purify Islam throughviolence," according to a 1998 State Department report.—The Associated Press