Christine Todd Whitman

EPA scientist who warned of caustic dust from Ground Zero wins job back

Cate Jenkins was fired from job as chemist after accusing EPA of deliberately covering up dangers of 9/11 wreckage dust - The Guardian

twin towers 9/11
Dust from the Twin Towers caused chemical burns to the lungs of firefighters and other rescue teams. Photograph: Jose Jimenez/Getty Images

A government scientist sacked for exposing the dangers to firefighters from the caustic air at Ground Zero in the days after 9/11 got her job back on Monday.

A federal court ordered that Cate Jenkins, a chemist at the Environmental Protection Agency, be reinstated to her job with back pay.

Her lawyer said the decision, although based on matters of legal process, amounted to vindication for Jenkins's claims that the EPA had covered up the danger posed to first responders and others in lower Manhattan from the asbestos and highly corrosive dust that rose from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.

It was also a rare victory for whistleblowers, said lawyer Paula Dinerstein. "This doesn't happen that often."

EPA on Trial

by Joel Bleifuss
inthesetimes.com
July 14, 2008

For more than six years, Hugh Kaufman has been battling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), his employer for 37 years, with a whistleblower lawsuit. He has been aided by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a D.C.-based group that represents workers who expose corruption in agencies that oversee environmental quality and public health.

“We get people calling us all the time, but in this administration, more than ever,” says Paula Dinerstein, PEER senior counsel.

In June, Kaufman made his case before a Department of Labor administrative law judge, testifying that former EPA head Christine Todd Whitman closed down the agency’s National Ombudsman Office in an effort to stop investigations that Kaufman was conducting.

Feal Good (Again) Support the heroes of 9/11, 12, 13...

Please watch and share these videos with your friends and family (again)

Please make a donation to the Feal Good Foundation www.fealgoodfoundation.com (again)

Please buy the rest of these shirts from We Are Change which also goes to the first responders. www.wearechange.org/2007/09/please-help-70-of-911-rescue-workers.html

Let's do more for these guys/girls than our criminal government has

John Feal on Star Jones

John Feal at Webster Hall

Whitman Defends Reputation, Says EPA Protected 9-11 Recovery Workers

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3315309&page=1

Whitman Defends Reputation, Says EPA Protected 9-11 Recovery Workers

By JAKE TAPPER

June 25, 2007 —

Christie Todd Whitman, the former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, appeared on Capitol Hill Monday to try to save her reputation amid charges that she gave the public false information immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks about the air quality at the site of the former World Trade Center, saying it was safe.

"There was an environment in the period after Sept 11 where many things that were told to us by our government turned out to be wrong," charged Rep Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. "Perhaps none were so damaging to the health and the lives of the people in New York City than the ones that were made by our witness here today."

But Whitman insisted that criticism of her was not fair. "Let's be clear. There are people to blame. They are the terrorists who attacked the United States," she said. "Not the men and woman at all levels of government who worked heroically to protect this country."

Congress Critical of EPA's Information on 9/11

Source: http://www.ombwatch.org/article/articleview/3887/1/1?TopicID=1

OMB Watch
Published on 06/26/2007

Congress Critical of EPA's Information on 9/11

In recent House and Senate hearings, Congress called to task the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman for misrepresenting the health dangers World Trade Center (WTC) dust posed to the public in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. The Senate hearing, chaired by Sen. Hillary Clinton ☼ (D-NY), was held by the Committee on Environment and Public Works' Superfund and Environmental Health Subcommittee on June 20; the House hearing, chaired by Rep. Jerrold Nadler ☼ (D-NY), was held June 25 by the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.

The hearings focused on two main areas: (1) EPA's public communications about outside air quality immediately after the towers' collapse; and (2) EPA's programs to sample and clean inside residential air. In both instances, EPA's information greatly impacted the public's ability to make responsible decisions for their self-protection.

Christine Todd Whitman to testify today before Congress

From http://c-span.org/

"Christine Todd Whitman, former Environ. Protection Agency Admin. (2001–2003), testifies about her agencies response to the 9-11 attacks. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) conducts a House Judiciary subcmte. hearing on due process violations arising from the EPA's handling of air quality issues."

This will air on CSPAN3 and streaming at http://c-span.org/watch/cs_cspan3_wm.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS3

On a related note, from John Feal of the FealGood Foundation:

Whitman continues to lie, as congressional testimony draws near

http://www.wnbc.com/politics/13548498/detail.html

"Former Secretary of the Environmental Protection Agency Christine Todd Whitman said Thursday that the Giuliani administration appeared to be more concerned with its image than the safety and speedy response of EPA employees in the wake of the 2001 anthrax scare."
....

"Whitman said New York City had taken responsibility for the work at Ground Zero, and that she could only urge city officials -- on an almost daily basis -- to require workers to use respirators.

Thompson asked if Whitman believed the health of Ground Zero workers was a "ticking time bomb."

"I'm not a scientist, so it's hard to say definitively, but I do (believe that). We wouldn't have been saying that the workers should wear respirators, that there was a difference, that there was a problem with the air on the pile, if we didn't think there might be health consequences from it."

Whitman spoke with WNBC on the eve of a congressional showdown Monday, in which she will testify about the EPA's response, facing U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler -- who has already called her a liar."

WHITMAN TO FACE 9/11 FIRE

Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/06122007/news/nationalnews/whitman_to_face_9_11_fire_nationalnews_geoff_earle.htm

WHITMAN TO FACE 9/11 FIRE

By GEOFF EARLE

June 12, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Whitman will be grilled on the government's environmental response to 9/11 at a congressional hearing June 25.

A House judiciary subcommittee headed by Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-Manhattan) will investigate violations of "substantive due-process rights" of people living and working near Ground Zero, with Whitman as the star witness.

Whitman, who was running the Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 11, balked at testifying last month, when the panel first tried to call her.

But she has since agreed to face lawmakers and TV cameras in the first major congressional probe into Sept. 11 illnesses focusing on the EPA's response.

9/11 Health Lawsuits go Forward

http://www.rawstory.com/showarticle.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fapnews.myway.com%2F%2Farticle%2F20061018%2FD8KQNQI00.html

maybe the blame will find its way back to not only the EPA/Christie Todd Whitman but also to Rice and the Whitehouse!!!!!!

QUINN GILLESPIE & ASSOCIATES LLC: AT THE EPICENTER OF THE 9/11 COVERUP?

"Quinn Gillespie's founding partner, Jack Quinn, was White House Counsel in the Clinton administration in 1995 and 1996."

http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/07-13-06/discussion.cgi.54.html

(Jack Quinn is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations along with such notables as Christine Todd Whitman! )

http://www.quinngillespie.com/team/quinn.htm

http://www.cfr.org/bios/1085/christine_todd_whitman.html

"Former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman is blaming the city for not forcing Ground Zero workers to wear respirators, prompting a fiery response from the city's top lawyer."

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/ny-nywhit0908,0,2781375.story?coll=orl-home-headlines

"Our approach to government relations includes strategic planning, messaging and communications and direct lobbying to help clients achieve their public affairs goals."

http://www.quinngillespie.com/services/govrel.htm

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