Source: http://www.nypost.com/seven/06272007/postopinion/opedcolumnists/the_9_11_deniers_opedcolumnists_nicole_gelinas.htm

THE 9/11 DENIERS

By NICOLE GELINAS

June 27, 2007 -- UGLY accusations threaten to permanently fracture New York's heroic post-9/11 legacy - and, perhaps worse, to deny the realities the city faced in those first horrific days, weeks and months.

Some headlines this week treated former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Todd Whitman like Osama bid Laden himself. The topic was her U.S. House testimony Monday on the EPA's response to 9/11, where she took criticism for saying, a week after the attacks, that the air Downtown - not directly on the pile, as the WTC site was called - "was safe to breathe."

Interrogators implied that her statement was incorrect at best and at worst a cold lie. One House member even faulted her for bringing up the fact that the attack was personal for her, since her son was in 7 World Trade Center that morning.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/attacks_health

Whitman on hot seat over 9/11 aftermath

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press Writer

Ex-EPA chief Christie Whitman denounced as "downright falsehoods" the criticism of her assurances that it was safe to breathe the air around the fallen World Trade Center.

"There are people to blame. They are the terrorists that attacked the United States, not the men and women of all levels of government," Whitman said Monday at a hearing where she faced some of her toughest congressional critics.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat whose district includes the World Trade Center site, called the hearing after years of criticizing federal officials for what he says was a negligent and incomplete cleanup after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He opened the session by saying the Bush administration "has continued to make false, misleading and inaccurate statements, and refused to take remedial actions, even in the face of overwhelming evidence."

Whitman, the main focus of much of that criticism, called such allegations "misinformation, innuendo and downright falsehoods."

Source: http://www.1010wins.com/pages/599748.php?contentType=4&contentId=625724

Posted: Wednesday, 20 June 2007 10:41AM

Top White House Aide Defends Handling of 9/11 Air Problems

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top White House official on Wednesday defended the government's handling of post-Sept. 11 air contamination at ground zero.

"In all instances, federal agencies acted with the best available data at the time, and updated their communications and actions as new information was obtained,'' James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, said in prepared testimony to a Senate panel led by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton, D-N.Y., has sternly criticized the government for not doing enough to protect ground zero workers and lower Manhattan residents from the tons of toxic dust released by the collapse of the World Trade Center.

An internal government investigation found the Environmental Protection Agency offered public assurances in the days after the attacks without scientific data to back up those claims.