Jenna Orkin, who chairs the World Trade Center Environmental
Organization, is one of five New York City citizens who signed a
complaint and petition Thursday demanding that the New York State
Attorney General open a criminal inquiry and/or a grand jury
investigation into unsolved crimes of September 11, 2001 over which
he has jurisdiction.
In the Office of the Attorney General at 120 Broadway, Chief
Investigator William Casey Thursday accepted the complaint and
petition on behalf of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.
The sun streams through the dust cloud over the wreckage of the
World Trade Center. New York, NY, September 13, 2001.(Photo
by Andrea Booher courtesy FEMA)
At a
press conference Thursday to explain the reasoning behind their
complaint and petition, Orkin predicted that those who will die of
exposure to toxic dust from the destroyed World Trade Center towers
will ultimately "far exceed" the 2,626 people who died in New York
City on the day of the attacks.
Orkin said there is "strong evidence" suggesting that the
Executive Office of the President was responsible for last minute
changes to a press issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) that confirmed the safety of the air in lower
Manhattan, clearing the way for the re-opening of Wall Street. "Here
it appears that the government was willing to sacrifice the lives of
Americans for purely economics ends," she said.
To support their demand for a new investigation, the complainants
cite the findings of an August 30 Zogby poll that found 49 percent
of New York City residents and 41 percent of New Yorkers overall
believe "there was official foreknowledge and conscious acceptance
of the 9/11 attacks." Sixty-six percent of city residents and 56
percent overall want a new investigation, the pollsters found.
"These findings are stunning," the complaint states, "and provide
conclusive evidence that the People of New York are not satisfied
that official investigations and news media have adequately
addressed the truth of the events of that fateful day."
President George W. Bush greets rescue workers at the site of
the collapsed World Trade Center. New York, NY, September 14, 2001.
(Photo by SFC Thomas R. Roberts NGB-PASE courtesy FEMA)
"Nearly half of New
Yorkers believe that serving U.S. leaders deliberately permitted the
killing of thousands of Americans by foreign enemies. If that is the
case, the responsible officials would be guilty of both mass murder
and treason, as well as conspiring to inflict untold suffering upon
the people of New York and violating a host of New York State laws,
in addition to federal terrorist, treason and other laws. However,
no independent official investigation into these alarming, recurring
and evidentially plausible allegations has ever been held or is now
contemplated," the complaint states.
The complainants are looking to Spitzer for "a fearless
independent inquiry" and, "where fault and liability is found,
recovery of the billions of dollars of resulting damages that have
been sustained and continue to accrue."
The lead complainants include Bob McIlvaine, who lost his son
Robert in the World Trade Center collapse; Patricia Perry, who lost
her son John, a New York City Police officer; and Dr. Faiz Khan,
Ground Zero triage physician, and ambulance first responder.
Megan Bartlett, founder of Ground Zero for Peace, who was
recently hospitalized with malignant reactions to toxic World Trade
Center dust and unable to attend, is the fourth complainant.
The fifth is William Rodriguez, a World Trade Center maintenance
worker who single-handedly rescued 15 people on September 11, 2001,
according to his attorney, Philip Berg, a former deputy attorney
general of Pennsylvania.
On October 22, Rodriguez, represented by Berg, filed a lawsuit in
U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against President George W.
Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and others under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act for their actions in connection with September 11,
2001.
The Rodriguez lawsuit is parallel to the New York complaint in
that it alleges that the defendants and others were "complicit in
the 9-11 attacks, and either planned the attacks, or had
foreknowledge of the attacks and permitted them to succeed," in
order to exploit a "New Pearl Harbor" to launch wars against
Afghanistan and Iraq.
The American flag hangs over the debris of the World Trade
Center. September 14, 2004. (Photo courtesy
FEMA)
Berg explains that the phrase "New Pearl Harbor"
comes from a declaration of principles by the neo-conservative
Project for the New American Century, in which it is proposed as an
event needed to steel American public opinion to support the
overthrow of Saddam Hussein and U.S. military domination of the
Middle East.
Berg acknowledges that these legal actions will shock and offend
many Americans. He urges people to read the detailed complaint
posted on the Internet at: www911forthetruth.com,
before forming any conclusions.
Rodriguez said he felt that he must learn the truth of what
happened on September 11 because he survived when so many others did
not. "If what the government has told us about 9-11 is a lie," he
says, "somebody has to take action to reveal the truth. Since that
plane hit the North Tower on 9-11, like it or not, my life's meaning
has become to reduce the number of victims, and the amount of
suffering from those attacks. If suing President Bush is what I have
to do to accomplish that, so be it."
With respect to the citizens complaint accepted by Casey in New
York, it is signed by five complainants now, but more are expected
to sign on in the future, the complainants' attorneys said.
Attorney Carolyn Betts, legal consultant for the complaint,
observed that this is the first citizens' complaint filed with a
state's attorney general that would become what she called a "living
document," an evolving compilation of argument and evidence posted
on the Internet in full public view.
The complainant group vowed to press their case regardless of
upcoming election results, insisting that the search for 9/11 truth,
justice and accountability is hardly a partisan concern, as shown by
the Tuesday release of the 9/11 Truth Statement, available online
at: http://tinyurl.com/3jg4x.
The 9/11 Truth Statement also demands deeper new investigations
and is signed by 100 prominent Americans spanning every faith and
party, including former Republican officials, military officers, and
three presidential candidates.
The Justice for 9/11 Steering Committee includes representatives
from 9/11 CitizensWatch, at http://www.911citizenwatch.org,
911truth.org at: http://www.911truth.org, and the World
Trade Center Environmental Organization, http://www.wtceo.org. It was organized this
month in New York City.
