Aaron Brown interviewed Jimmy Breslin last night, it was pathetic, and an outrage. he
spent the whole interview defending the Bush administration lying about the air quality
in New York after 9-11. I watched the whole interview, it made me sick to my stomache
to see a so-called journalist defending the EPA cover up. Go to the link below and read
the whole interview, you would believe it.
--------
BROWN: And now to another firestorm, this one having to do with a report from the EPA's inspector general, the
man
or woman who basically patrols, polices, the EPA. It concerns the air people were breathing at
ground zero in the
hours, the days, the months following the 9/11 attack.
How safe was it? Or wasn't it? What were people told about its safety, and why?
<snip>
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: The EPA did not have the data. They had not
conducted the
tests. And they lacked the samples to tell workers, parents, residents, business owners, and first
responders that
they need not worry.
OKWU: But that's exactly what the EPA did. Then-EPA chief Christie Todd Whitman.
CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR, ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY: But
from a
real health problem and health concerns, we don't have to worry...
OKWU: According to the report, senior officials at the EPA circulated a memo one day after the
attacks, specifying that
all statements to the media should be cleared by the National Security Council. At some point, the
report says, the
White House convinced the agency to, quote, "add reassuring statements and delete cautionary
ones."
The acting EPA chief says at no time did the agency mislead the public.
<snip>
BROWN: More now on the air at ground zero and that EPA report.
Jimmy Breslin writes for "New York Newsday." He has developed over the years a nose for the
occasional ill wind.
We're pleased to have him back on the program and we're glad to see him looking well.
Let me lay out an argument here for a second. You wrote a very harsh column, OK.
JIMMY BRESLIN, "NEW YORK NEWSDAY": Why?
BROWN: I don't know why. I can't answer why. You wrote it.
You're sitting in Washington on the 12th of September. The country has been grievously wounded
and is -- I think
edgy would be understating it and panic overstating it, but somewhere in between. And do you
understand at least
why someone in the White House would say to the EPA, can you just tone it down a little bit?
BRESLIN: No.
BROWN: No?
BRESLIN: I can't understand a lie to me at a time like that.
I'm in the street with the smoke and they're going to tell me a lie: It's all right? On the 16th of
September, the
government, the EPA issued a release in which they said it is perfectly healthy and all right for New
Yorkers working
in the financial district to go back.
BROWN: Right.
BRESLIN: That's competing interests. They wanted the stock market open. And it's too bad if you
can't breathe right
10 years later.
BROWN: But maybe the question is, they wanted the stock market open, they wanted people to get
back to life,
because they, in their view -- I'm presuming -- saw this as an extraordinary moment in time, where
normalcy had to
prevail. Do you at least -- do you accept that it wasn't malevolent as much as it was misguided?
BRESLIN: Oh, no. A lie at a time like that is malevolent. It's unforgivable. And there can be no
excuse that they saw a
great opportunity in our time on Earth, that they could handle it with a lie, the same as they did in
Iraq. There are no
weapons of mass destruction. They told you there were, and we're going in there, we have to get
them.
They lied. They lied about the air you breathe. And they lied about the war you're in and getting
people killed over.
When are they going to tell the truth, just for a change of pace?
BROWN: Well, let's step back again. I told you I want to talk a bit about lying in government. Do
you ever -- is it ever
appropriate for the government, the federal government, any government, but the federal
government in this case, to
lie?
BRESLIN: I don't see where it's ever appropriate. I really don't.
More Here:
http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0308/27/asb.00.html Contact Aaron -
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/ Now read this:
Dust and Deception
Last week a quietly scathing report by the inspector general of the Environmental Protection Agency
confirmed what some have long suspected: in the aftermath of the World Trade Center's collapse, the
agency systematically misled New Yorkers about the risks the resulting air pollution posed to their health.
And it did so under pressure from the White House.
The Bush administration has misled the public on many issues, from the budget outlook to the Iraqi threat.
But this particular deception seems, at first sight, not just callous but gratuitous. It's only when you look
back at budget politics in 2001 that you see the method in the administration's mendacity.
A draft E.P.A. report released last December conceded that 9/11 had led to huge emissions of pollutants.
In particular, releases of dioxins — which are carcinogens and can also damage the nervous system and
cause birth defects — created "likely the highest ambient concentrations that have ever been reported," up
to 1,500 times normal levels. But the report concluded that because the outdoor air cleared after a couple
of months, little harm had been done.
In fact, the main danger comes from toxic dust that seeped into buildings and remains in carpets, furniture
and air ducts. According to a recent report in Salon, businesses that did environmental assessments of their
own premises found alarming levels not just of dioxins but also of asbestos and other dangerous pollutants.
So the most shocking revelation from the new report is that under White House direction, the E.P.A.
suppressed warnings about indoor pollution. Scattered evidence suggests that as a result, hundreds of
cleaning workers and thousands of residents may be suffering chronic health problems.
More Here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/opinion/26KRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position= 
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