Advocates React with Fury to ‘Discovery’ of 68 Boxes of September 11 Documents
“This is starting to feel a little bit like the Epstein files,” said Kimberly Flynn, director of the nonprofit advocacy group 9/11 Environmental Action. She was reacting to new revelations about documents that detail what New York City government officials knew about environmental health risks in the weeks and months following the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Until recently, the City denied these documents existed.
Lawyers representing the City acknowledged in November that they have found at least 68 boxes full of such documents. Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests dating back to the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio, filed by Benjamin Chevat, executive director of 911 Health Watch (a nonprofit that seeks to ensure the Federal government’s long-term commitment to the health of September 11 responders, survivors and their families) were answered multiple times by denials from City agencies that any such records existed.
A Broadsheet request for comment to the City’s Law Department was referred to City Hall. A spokesman for the Mayor said, “as one of the many first responders at Ground Zero on September 11 and in the weeks that followed, Mayor Adams has been unwavering in his commitment to ensuring victims, their families, first responders, and survivors receive the care and services they deserve. While we cannot comment on the specifics of pending litigation, the City has begun turning over documents to plaintiff’s counsel, and both parties are working out a schedule to continue this process. We remain dedicated to getting September 11 victims and their families the answers they need.”
At a November 24 press conference held adjacent to the World Trade Center, Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of New York, a union that has now lost more members to September 11-related illness than died on the day of the attacks themselves, said, “I am beyond outraged to learn that after decades of claiming no records existed, the City of New York and the DEP were actually sitting on 68 boxes of documents about the poisons we were breathing. They had real testing done, and when that testing was done, it was suppressed, and everyone was told the air was safe. They should have used that evidence and those tests to prepare for the long-term health care of the people that were down there. The decision they made was to just hide it.”
“This isn’t just missing paperwork,” Mr. Ansbro continued. “This is a betrayal of the men and women who risked everything on September 11 and have been dying ever since. For years, life-and-death medical decisions were made based on the City’s repeated assurances that the air was safe and there were ‘no records.’ Now we learn there were tens of thousands of pages locked away – pages that could have changed treatment plans, sped up diagnoses and maybe even saved lives.”
“That wasn’t the only betrayal,” he added. “Years later, we had to go down to Washington to fight for the World Trade Center Health Program. Had these documents been available, it could have helped prove our case. It would have been less of a fight. It would have also helped the doctors to help diagnose people.”
“We need to know who lied,” he said. “We need to know who kept this lie alive by hiding all the information we’ve been asking for. Everyone that was exposed, they need to know. Their families need to know who lied to them. They need to be held accountable.”
Mr. Chevat said, “the outrage that was expressed by the firefighters stems from the City going from zero to 68 and the fact that these boxes were found only after Council member Brewer had the City Council order the Department of Investigation to investigate what the City knew and when did they know it regarding the dangers of the toxins at Ground Zero.”
This was a reference to a City Council resolution introduced by Gale Brewer earlier this year that compelled the City’s Department of Investigation (DOI) to open a probe into what the administration of Rudolph Giuliani, who was Mayor in the autumn of 2001, knew about environmental health risks in Lower Manhattan after the September 11 attacks brought down the World Trade Center towers.
“Ultimately it will be up to Mayor-elect Mamdani whether his administration will cooperate with the DOI and more importantly will the Mayor-elect make sure DOI has the resources it needs to do its work and complete a full and detailed report,” Mr. Chevat said.
Ms. Flynn said, “imagine if the City had insisted the Ground Zero-cleanup operate under the federal health and safety plan designed to protect workers from hazardous waste. Imagine if doctors had the records to create health screenings and inform care years earlier. Imagine if the City had done battle with the federal Environmental Protection Agency, so that they designed a science-based cleanup, instead of the partial, cosmetic, and barely publicized program we got. Bad things happen when government lies to the public about toxic exposures. The fact that we still don’t have answers, even now, has added more insult to injury for all responders and survivors. It is long overdue for the City to release all its September 11 records.”
Mariama James (photograph at top), a member of Community Board 1 who has led the charge for accountability, transparency, and support for survivors for almost two decades, said, “this isn’t a ‘discovery,’ it’s an outrageous admission of a two-decades-long cover-up. As an advocate who lost both parents to September 11th cancers, and who has testified countless times demanding these very documents, I knew they existed. For 24 years, the City denied the truth, forcing our community to fight for every dollar of healthcare, every acknowledgement of illness. Every page in those 60-plus boxes is a paper trail of betrayal that cost my parents and thousands of others their lives. The question now is simple: Who specifically made the decision to hide this evidence, and why are they not being held accountable today?”
“When the City certified ‘no responsive records were found,’” she continued, “they were lying to the faces of the sick and the dying, including my own parents. They were essentially signing a death warrant for people who could have been saved or treated more effectively. The data in those boxes – toxicology reports, air samples – was critical medical intelligence. Its willful concealment stalled research, prolonged our agony, and made our decades-long fight for the World Trade Center Health Program far more difficult. We were fighting the illnesses and fighting the City simultaneously. This betrayal is unforgivable, and those responsible must be brought to light immediately.”