Ghoulish Business Promotion at WTC site
by Robert Lederman

robert.lederman@worldnet.att.net
http://baltech.org/lederman/

Happy Hour on holy ground? Terror-based tourism? Dining out alongside a mass 
grave? That's the new advertising campaign a coalition of business groups 
led by the Alliance for Downtown NY are hoping will lure millions of gawking 
tourists to the World Trade Center [WTC] disaster site.

Not only is using one of the greatest tragedies in U.S. history as a magnet 
for tourism tasteless but it's hazardous for human health. 

Police and fire unions, environmentalists, neighborhood resident groups, 
medical experts and the EPA have all issued repeated warnings about toxic 
air, poison gasses, asbestos dust, heavy metals and other dangerous 
substances floating around ground zero and lower Manhattan. Many of the 
groups have criticized former Mayor Giuliani for consistently hiding the 
health risks from the public and for failing to provide rescue workers with 
proper protective equipment.

The main business group behind the new ad campaign is the Alliance for 
Downtown NY, founded by David Rockefeller around the same time he created 
the WTC. Despite months of non-stop coverage of the attack there has been a 
complete media blackout on Rockefeller's crucial part in creating the WTC. 
The towers were nicknamed David and Nelson, for David Rockefeller and his 
brother Nelson, who was at the time NY State Governor. Originally, the 
Rockefellers wanted them to officially be named for them.

For decades Rockefeller's Alliance for Downtown NY has been in the forefront 
of privatizing public space, attacking the rights of disabled veteran 
vendors and restricting First Amendment rights on public property. It has 
long been one of Mayor Giuliani most fervent supporters. 

The think tank Giuliani claims to have gotten all of his policy ideas from, 
The Manhattan Institute (MI), is primarily funded by David Rockefeller's 
Chase Manhattan Bank, now renamed JP Morgan Chase. MI was founded by 
Reagan's CIA director William Casey in the 1970's, around the same time the 
WTC and Alliance for Downtown NY were created. 

For three months Mayor Giuliani kept the WTC site completely off-limits to 
local residents and the media, claiming it was sacred ground. He even had 
police confiscate cameras from people taking photos at the closest 
accessible location to the site, two block away. 

Nevertheless, during this same period of time he personally led daily tours 
of the site for movie stars, sports figures, Senators and Congressmen many 
of whom are now using photos of them touring the disaster site with Giuliani 
in their re-election campaign literature and ads. Members of the FDNY and 
engineers assigned by the Federal government to investigate the causes of 
the WTC collapse are accusing Giuliani of obstructing the investigation, 
destroying thousands of tons of crucial evidence and preventing City 
officials from being interviewed about the disaster.

After repeatedly promising the families of police and firemen who lost loved 
ones that he would guarantee a meticulous effort in which every single body 
would be respectfully recovered no matter how long it took, Giuliani 
abruptly dismissed most of the FDNY observers on the site and speeded up the 
removal process. Angry FDNY members complained that bodies were being 
scooped and dumped at the Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island and 
organized a massive protest against the Mayor. 

Numerous arrests of FDNY union officials followed. As in eight previous 
years of Giuliani's falsely arresting his critics, all the charges were 
eventually dropped by the City.

Claiming that tourists have a right to see it for themselves, Giuliani 
abruptly opened the site to tourism a few days before leaving office after 
having a huge viewing stand constructed there. There are still almost 2,500 
missing bodies at the site now that much of the visible wreckage has been 
carted away. Most of what remains there to see is a vast empty lot where the 
Twin Towers once stood. 

In his farewell address at a historic church next to the site - during which 
he attempted to compare himself to George Washington - Giuliani proposed 
that a huge memorial be built on the site, presumably featuring a statue of 
him as NYC's civic-saint. 

Throughout his administration Giuliani has been accused of favoring the 
rights of tourists over actual New Yorkers. Most of his oppressive quality 
of life policies and falsification of crime statistics were aimed at 
convincing tourists that a squeegee-free NYC was America's safe destination 
to visit.

In 1995 the Downtown Alliance joined with the 5th Ave. Association, Madison 
Ave BID, Grand Central Partnership and SoHo Alliance by filing an amicus 
brief with the 2nd circuit Federal appeals court in Lederman et al v City of 
NY/Bery et al v City of NY. Filed in support of Mayor Giuliani's eight year 
war against free expression, the brief sought to convince the Federal and 
later the U.S. Supreme Court to completely eliminate First Amendment rights 
for all visual art in order to prevent NYC street artists from displaying 
paintings and photographs on public property. 

Among the ironies behind the brief's bizarre notion that visual art does 
not express ideas was that David Rockefeller is the owner of the Museum of 
Modern Art and that 90% of the City's art galleries were located within the 
territory of the business groups signing the brief.

Fortunately for American artists, museums and galleries, Giuliani and the 
business groups lost. The brief was covered in the Christian Science Monitor 
2/14/96, pg. 11 and Art In America, March 96 pg 128, "New Allies for Street 
Artists". 

For the entire history of this issue and detailed exposes on Giuliani, Bush, 
the WTC etc. see:

http://www.openair.org/lederman/ and http://baltech.org/lederman/ 

News clippings documenting the article above follow.

-----------------------------------------

NY Post

WALL STREET BIZ GROUP'S MISSION: RESCUE DOWNTRODDEN DOWNTOWN 

By SUSAN EDELMAN 

January 6, 2002 -- Downtown business groups are grappling with the thorny 
issue of how to get tourists and New Yorkers to spend money in the area 
after they spill off the viewing stands around ground zero. 

Merchants are using discount cards, dinner deals and patriotic pitches to 
get gawkers to patronize the stores, restaurants and museums around the area 
devastated by the terrorist attack. 

Wall Street Rising, a new nonprofit business group that formed after Sept. 
11, hopes to drum up downtown shopping, dining and tourism - as visitors 
stream into the area to mourn and pay their respects. 

"Patronizing downtown businesses is not about celebration. It's trying to 
support a community that has been devastated," said Julie Menin, president 
of the group, which is made up of major finance and law firms. 

"It's saying a community is in need, and itself has been victimized by these 
attacks." 

The group is launching a Wall Street Rising discount card offering price 
reductions at local shops and restaurants. 

It's also planning a Wall Street Weeknights dinner program, with restaurants 
offering $30 "I love New York" menus. 

Baker Billy Baldwin, whose shop is at the base of one of the viewing stands 
opened last week, is one of the few merchants doing well. 

"They're walking down the viewing platform in shock," said Baldwin, whose 
Cookie Island shop on Broadway opened recently after its Sept. 12 debut was 
delayed. 

"I can't tell you how many people come in and say, I just needed a smile.'" 

The tourists want a pick-me-up from the warm, gooey cookies. But many, 
Baldwin said, also declare they want to spend money to help downtown rebuild. 

One of the business groups, the Alliance for Downtown, is displaying subway 
posters that appeal to that desire. 

"Happy Hour Special! Drink all you want downtown, wake up feeling great!" 
says one. 

"Buy 1 dinner downtown, Get 1 free warm, fuzzy feeling," says another. 

Valerie Lewis, spokeswoman for the seven-year-old alliance, said ground zero 
tourists should make more of their trip downtown by exploring the city's 
history. 

"New York has proven it can triumph over hardship again and again, and by 
visiting these sites, people can learn more about it," she said.

Elizabeth Freedman, an attorney speaking on behalf of the N.Y.C. 
Corporation Counsel's office [Mayor Giuliani's lawyers], explained the 
City's anti-art position. "Visual art...does not express ideas", Ms. 
Friedman said, "and as such is not entitled to First Amendment protection." 
2/24/97 radio interview WNYC's syndicated business news show, "Marketplace"



"An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech, literature or 
live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional interest is thus 
minimal." -Giuliani appeal brief against street artists having First 
Amendment protection, Giuliani v Lederman et al and Giuliani v Bery et al, 
filed with the U.S. Supreme Court 2/24/97.

Excerpt from the 30 page brief signed by The Alliance For Downtown NY, 
Madison Ave. BID, Grand Central Partnership and SoHo Alliance: "The sale of 
artwork does not involve communication of thoughts or ideas....the 
dangers...of allowing visual art full First Amendment protection...An 
artists' freedom of expression is not compromised by regulating his ability 
to merchandise his artwork...the sale of paintings and other artwork does 
not reach this high level of expression (guaranteeing First Amendment 
protection)..." 

"Because we are a City that loves and supports artistic expression so 
generously, New Yorkers have a unique understanding that the First Amendment 
protects the right of artists to express their diverse and sometimes 
controversial views." -4/20/2001 Weekly column by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani



An exhibit of the mayor's photographs opened today at a downtown Manhattan 
gallery, displaying 23 of his color and black-and-white pictures taken over 
the last two years. Panning the exhibit altogether were the sidewalk 
protesters, who are fighting a city requirement that they need permits to 
sell artwork in parks and in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Since 
his first day in office, Giuliani has been waging a war on artists and 
artists' rights," said painter and printmaker Robert Lederman. "He's doing 
this show purely to change his image, posing as an artist in the arts 
capital of the world." 5/9/98 Washington Post

NY Daily News 1/4/2002 Firefighter Mag Raps 9/11 Probe 

By JOE CALDERONE Daily News Chief of Investigations

"A respected firefighting trade magazine with ties to the city Fire 
Department is calling for a "full-throttle, fully resourced" investigation 
into the collapse of the World Trade Center. A signed editorial in the 
January issue of Fire Engineering magazine says the current investigation is 
"a half-baked farce." The piece by Bill Manning, editor of the 125-year-old 
monthly that frequently publishes technical studies of major fires, also 
says the steel from the site should be preserved so investigators can 
examine what caused the collapse. "Did they throw away the locked doors from 
the Triangle Shirtwaist fire? Did they throw away the gas can used at the 
Happy Land social club fire? .. That's what they're doing at the World Trade 
Center," the editorial says. 

"The destruction and removal of evidence must 
stop immediately." Fire Engineering counted FDNY Deputy Chief Raymond 
Downey, the department's chief structural expert, among its senior advisers. 
Downey was killed in the Sept. 11 attack. John Jay College's fire 
engineering expert, Prof. Glenn Corbett, serves as the magazine's technical 
editor. A group of engineers from the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
with backing from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been studying 
some aspects of the collapse. But Manning and others say that probe has not 
looked at all aspects of the disaster and has had limited access to 
documents and other evidence. 

A growing number of fire protection engineers 
have theorized that "the structural damage from the planes and the explosive 
ignition of jet fuel in themselves were not enough to bring down the 
towers," the editorial stated. A FEMA spokesman, John Czwartacki, said 
agency officials had not yet seen the editorial and declined to comment. 
Norida Torriente, a spokeswoman for the American Society of Civil Engineers, 
described her group's study as a "beginning" and "not a definitive work." 
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has joined a group of relatives of firefighters 
who died in the attack in calling for a blue-ribbon panel to study the 
collapse. "We have to learn from incidents through investigation to 
determine what types of codes should be in place and what are the best 
practices for high-rise construction," Manning told the Daily News. "The 
World Trade Center is not the only lightweight, core construction high-rise 
in the U.S. It's a typical method of construction."

NY TIMES -City Had Been Warned of Fuel Tank at 7 World Trade Center-December 
20, 2001 

"Fire Department officials warned the city and the Port Authority of New 
York and New Jersey in 1998 and 1999 that a giant diesel fuel tank for the 
mayor's $13 million command bunker in 7 World Trade Center, a 47-story 
high-rise that burned and collapsed on Sept. 11, posed a hazard and was not 
consistent with city fire codes. The 6,000-gallon tank was positioned about 
15 feet above the ground floor and near several lobby elevators and was 
meant to fuel generators that would supply electricity to the 23rd-floor 
bunker in the event of a power failure. Although the city made some design 
changes to address the concerns - moving a fuel pipe that would have run 
from the tank up an elevator shaft, for example - it left the tank in place. 
But the Fire Department repeatedly warned that a tank in that position could 
spread fumes throughout the building if it leaked, or, if it caught fire, 
could produce what one Fire Department memorandum called "disaster." 

NY TIMES

December 25, 2001 THE TOWERS

Experts Urging Broader Inquiry in Towers' Fall "In calling for a new 
investigation, some structural engineers have said that one serious mistake 
has already been made in the chaotic aftermath of the collapses: the 
decision to rapidly recycle the steel columns, beams and trusses that held 
up the buildings. That may have cost investigators some of their most direct 
physical evidence with which to try to piece together an answer. 

Officials 
in the mayor's office declined to reply to written and oral requests for 
comment over a three- day period about who decided to recycle the steel and 
the concern that the decision might be handicapping the 
investigation...Interviews with a handful of members of the team, which 
includes some of the nation's most respected engineers, also uncovered 
complaints that they had at various times been shackled with bureaucratic 
restrictions that prevented them from interviewing witnesses, examining the 
disaster site and requesting crucial information like recorded distress 
calls to the police and fire departments...

"This is almost the dream team of 
engineers in the country working on this, and our hands are tied," said one 
team member who asked not to be identified. Members have been threatened 
with dismissal for speaking to the press. "FEMA is controlling everything," 
the team member said...Dr. Frederick W. Mowrer, an associate professor in 
the fire protection engineering department at the University of Maryland, 
said he believed the decision could ultimately compromise any investigation 
of the collapses. "I find the speed with which potentially important 
evidence has been removed and recycled to be appalling," Dr. Mowrer said. "

NY TIMES November 5, 2001 THE FIREFIGHTERS

Second Union Leader Is Charged With Trespassing in Demonstration at Ground Zero

"This comes right from the top," Capt. Peter L. Gorman, head of the 
2,500-member Uniformed Fire Officers Association, said after surrendering 
under the threat of forcible arrest, his lawyer said at a police station 
in Manhattan to be booked on the misdemeanor charge. Kevin E. Gallagher, 
president of the 9,000-member Uniformed Firefighters Association, also 
blamed the mayor after his arrest Saturday night. "The message the city is 
sending is that if you don't agree with what a union says, you simply arrest 
its president," Tom Butler, Mr. Gallagher's spokesman, said..."The mayor 
fails to realize that New York City is not a dictatorship, where if you 
don't like what a union is doing you can just go and lock up a union's 
president," the firefighters' union said. "The message being sent from City 
Hall is that if you don't agree with this administration, we will get you." 
Captain Gorman, a firefighter for 28 years, called his arrest an outrage. 
"They're putting me through the system like I'm a thug," he said. He called 
the mayor a "fascist" and referred to Mr. Kerik and Mr. Von Essen as 
"Giuliani's goons."

NY Post 11/5/2001 KERIK BLASTS BRAVEST IN MELEE 

Union lawyer Steven Rabinowitz said Gorman was arrested because he had the 
courage to publicly attack Giuliani for allowing the other firefighters to 
be busted. "In the mayor's view, these men are heroes as long as they shut 
up and do what they're told," Rabinowitz said. City union leaders backed up 
the firefighters and demand an immediate apology from Giuliani. Brian 
McLaughlin of the Central Labor Council, said the mayor "treats these people 
like they're bums - with no respect." Union officials said they may sue the 
city for false arrest and malicious prosecution. 

Daily News 11/5/2001 Nab 2nd Fire Union Chief 

Yesterday, the heads of the two fire unions, joined by other labor leaders 
outside Manhattan Criminal Court, charged that Giuliani was unfairly 
retaliating against unions. "The families are suffering, the firefighters 
are suffering, and the mayor refuses to sit down and discuss this with 
them," said Randi Weingarten, president of the United Federation of 
Teachers. "Because these folks have the temerity to say, 'We don't agree 
with you, Mr. Mayor,' they are thrown in jail. That is a violation of 
anybody's basic right to speak and represent people."

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