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" A journey for 9/11" Charitable Walk
June 21, 2008
After 2,827 Miles, Retired NFL Great George Martin’s Historic “a Journey for 9/11” Charitable Walk Reaches California, Last of 13 States on Route Journey to End in San Diego on Saturday, June 21 Coast-to-Coast Journey Raises $4+ Million in Cash and Pledged Services So Far for Thousands of Heroic Ground Zero Workers Now in Severe Medical Distress New York, NY, June 4, 2008 – Retired NFL great George Martin will tomorrow cross from Yuma, AZ, into California, the 13th and final state of his historic cross-country “a Journey for 9/11” walk to benefit thousands of ailing Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers. When he reaches the state border, Mr. Martin, who is likely the first African-American athlete to walk coast-to-coast on a charitable fundraising initiative, will have trekked 2,827 miles on foot. He has raised a combined $4+ million in cash and pledged medical services for seriously ill 9/11 workers from all 50 states. Mr. Martin’s 3,020-mile trek is scheduled to end on Saturday, June 21, 2008, in San Diego , CA . (Note: Details about special events planned for the finish line and completion of the Journey will be announced separately.) The former New York Giants football star and co-captain of the Super Bowl XXI championship team started walking west from the George Washington Bridge in New York City on September 16, 2007. His path can be tracked daily via a GPS system accessible at www.ajourneyfor911.info. “As physically and mentally challenging as this Journey has been, it pales in comparison to the everyday hurdles that thousands of seriously ill 9/11 workers now face every day,” said Mr. Martin. “I walk a mile, or 10 miles, like it’s nothing, and many of these heroic people who helped heal our nation cannot even walk up the steps in their own homes due to severe respiratory and other ailments. And some are dying. Although the walking portion of our Journey will soon conclude, there is much work to be done. Many are without adequate health and disability insurance, and these heroes need our nation’s help. I will continue raising money and awareness on their behalf. It’s unconscionable that these brave, selfless individuals aren’t getting all the medical assistance they need.” The Medical Problems of Working at Ground Zero Mr. Martin, on leave from his position as vice president of sports marketing at AXA Equitable in New York, is raising funds to provide medical monitoring and healthcare for 9/11 responders who are suffering from chronic bronchial disease, leukemia and other cancers, post traumatic stress disorder and other serious medical conditions stemming from their service at Ground Zero after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Three major medical institutions (see below) will match in healthcare services all the money raised by the Journey.* Medical studies indicate that working at Ground Zero led to serious, long-term medical problems for tens of thousands of 9/11 responders. A study by Mt. Sinai Medical Center found that nearly 70 percent of the 40,000+ 9/11 responders have suffered lung disease and other health problems. One in five has low lung capacity, five times the normal rate. One in eight developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Source: NYC Department of Mental Health and Hygiene). The rate of those developing asthmatic conditions after exposure to Ground Zero is 12 times the normal adult rate. “This is truly a national problem,” says Mr. Martin, who noted that more than 10,000 people who live outside of the NY, NJ and CT tri-state area are enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry, including people from all 50 states. In October 2007, Mr. Martin walked through Washington, DC, where he met with several members of the U.S. Congress who are advocating legislation for additional funding for 9/11 healthcare programs. For more information, visit: http://maloney.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1468&Itemid=61. For more information on the status of federal 9/11 healthcare legislation, visit: http://maloney.house.gov/documents/911recovery/backgroundmemo.pdf About George Martin, the Route and the Journey Team George Martin was a star defensive end and co-captain of the Super Bowl XXI Champion New York Giants (1986). During his 14 NFL seasons (1975-1988), the longtime Giant scored eight touchdowns -- seven of them as a defensive lineman, which set an NFL record that stood until 2007. Mr. Martin is a former president of the NFL Players Association. On his Journey, Mr. Martin has passed through portions of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, before entering California tomorrow. Mr. Martin, now 55, trained more than three months for this trek and has lost more than 40 pounds since it began. Throughout his travels, he is accompanied by a security officer; an advance person/technology specialist who is documenting and routing the Journey; and a driver who trails in a customized SUV. In addition to walking, Mr. Martin visits schools, fire houses, police stations, government offices, and other places where he raises awareness about the plight of Ground Zero workers. For his charitable efforts, Mr. Martin was named one of ABC News’ 2007 “Persons of the Year.” In December 2007, Mr. Martin received the prestigious Heisman Humanitarian Award, and last month he broke from the Journey route to accept an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey in recognition of his lifelong commitment to community service.

Where to Turn
April 11, 2008
Dear Friends, As of Friday, April 11 at 11:59 p.m., the Church Street entrance to the WTC PATH station will be closed. There will be no access to Gate 10. The new entrance to the WTC family trailer will be through Gate 4 at Vesey and Church Streets. Please pass the word to those you feel appropriate. Thank you. Norma Manigan Manager, Public Relations Port Authority of New York and New Jersey

9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA
August 5, 2007
The families and victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks and other violent crimes committed by illegal aliens www.911fsa.org 9/11 FAMILIES FOR A SECURE AMERICA NEWSLETTER August 5, 2007 9/11 FSA MEMBERS SPEAK IN MORRISTOWN, NJ IN SUPPORT OF MAYOR’S IMPLEMENTATION OF FEDERAL AUTHORITY FOR LOCAL ENFORCEMENT OF IMMIGRATION LAW UNDER SEC. 287g On July 28, a New Jersey immigration reform group, the Pro America Society led by Robb Pearson, held a rally in support of Mayor Donald Cresitello. The mayor has applied to the federal government to permit the Morristown Police Department to enforce federal immigration law. (This is known as 287g authority.) As a result of his actions the open borders lobby has viciously attacked Mayor Cresitello, and the rally was held to let Americans show their support for his efforts to enforce the law. Approximately 400 supporters of the Mayor came to the rally, and among the speakers were three members of the 9/11 FSA Foundation board of directors: Ed Kowalski, Dan Smeriglio and Peter Gadiel. The rally was a great success. The increasing frequency and growing attendance at these rallies demonstrates Americans’ building anger and frustration over the failure of their government to protect us from predatory illegal aliens. I think it fair to say that more and more politicians are getting the message. This was confirmed by the recent defeat of the Comprehensive Amnesty bill despite the enormous financial resources applied by the open borders lobby and the unrestrained pressure brought to bear by Pres. Bush, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Harry Reid, et al. That the open borders lobby believes the tide is turning against them was brought home to us by the viciousness displayed by counter protesters at our rally and the threats of violence they made beforehand. To insure our safety it was necessary to have over one hundred city, county and state police officers present to keep the illegals and their allies from attacking us. Forty of the officers were in riot gear. There were four mounted officers and two helicopters. While the open borders mob held a rally of their own nearby (naturally without interference from us) they sent some of their members to attempt to prevent us from holding ours. They stood across the street with sound amplifying equipment and throughout the entire two hours of our rally endlessly screamed at us “KKK,” “racists,” “Nazis,” and other lies. Many waved red flags and recited that well known communist slogan: “workers of the world unite.” Shortly after the beginning of our rally several of them proved that police protection for us was necessary when they rushed at our sound system and attempted to sabotage it so that we would not be able to be heard. There’s no telling what they would have tried if there had not been such a sizeable police presence. I am sure that while they were calling us Nazis, KKK and fascists that they did not see the irony in the fact that their violent attempt to silence us were exactly the same techniques used by Hitler’s Brown Shirts to prevent anti-Nazis from speaking prior to the Hitler takeover of Germany. It is also important to note that among the counter demonstrators calling us names were people from the National Organization for Women (NOW) and the so-called “peace group” known as Code Pink. In its coverage of the event, the NY Times gave another example of how it distorts the facts about illegal immigration. In an article on July 29 entitled “Unrest and Arrests at Immigration Rally” the Times said that police in riot gear and a fence were there to “separate the rival demonstrators.” The implication is that if the police weren’t there our side would have been on the attack as much as the open borders rioters. The fact is that the police were there to protect us from them. And although the Times noted that there were five arrests, it was careful not to mention that all of those arrested were from the open borders mob. The statements of Ed, Dan and Peter are available for viewing on YouTube.com. You can hear the screaming from the demonstrators who tried to silence us. Both Ed and Dan are powerful speakers and worth your time to hear. 9/11 Families for a Secure America PO Box 156 Hawley, PA 18428-0156

CLINTON, SCHUMER ANNOUNCE $55 MILLION IN SENATE APPROPRIATIONS BILL TO EXPAND HEALTH COVERAGE FOR 9/11 EMERGENCY RESPONDERS
June 26, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 20, 2007 Contact: Nina Blackwell (Clinton) (212) 688-9559 Risa Heller (Schumer) (212) 486-3627 CLINTON, SCHUMER ANNOUNCE $55 MILLION IN SENATE APPROPRIATIONS BILL TO EXPAND HEALTH COVERAGE FOR 9/11 EMERGENCY RESPONDERS Funding Comes as Thousands of Patients are Seeking Treatment for 9/11 Related Illness, with Numbers Rising Every Month Funds to Expand Treatment to Residents, Office and Commercial Workers, Volunteers, Students, and Other Individuals Call for Focus on Long-Term, Comprehensive Solution to Screen and Monitor all Individuals who were Exposed to the Environmental Hazards at WTC Site WASHINGTON, DC – Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer today announced that a key Senate Committee has included an additional $55 million in federal funding to address the mounting health needs of those individuals who were exposed to the environmental hazards released as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks upon the World Trade Center. The funding, which comes in addition to the $50 million that was provided in the recent Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Bill, was included in the Fiscal Year 2008 Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) Appropriations Bill by the Senate Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee. The bill now moves to the full Senate Appropriations Committee where it is expected to be approved on Thursday. “I am very pleased that this additional funding is coming to help those who have continued to suffer from the lingering results of the 9/11 attacks,” Senator Clinton said. “We continue to hear tragic stories from first responders, office workers, residents, students and others who are crippled by diseases and health problems resulting from exposure to toxic substances released by the attacks. While the Administration has not yet provided the necessary funding for these 9/11 health treatment centers, those of us close to this issue are keenly aware that without this funding, they are constantly under the threat of having to close their doors altogether. It is our national responsibility to care for those who did our country proud in the hours, days, weeks and months following that horrific attack. We cannot let 9/11’s living victims down. We will do everything we can to fight to get the funding that is needed to continue these vital health tracking and treatment services.” “These workers were injured serving our nation in its greatest time of need, and now America must fulfill its responsibility to care for them in their time of need,” Schumer said. “I am pleased to see this funding going to the men and women who risked life and limb to bring America back after 9/11, but our work is not complete. More of our heroes develop debilitating diseases every year, yet we must still scratch and claw for every penny needed to take care of them. That is not right. We will continue to fight for full funding for our first responders to ensure they receive the attention and care they deserve.” Specifically, the $55 million will go towards treatment, screening, and monitoring activities administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to help those individuals who were exposed to the environmental hazards released on and after 9/11. The bill also includes language requiring the Department of Health and Human Services, through NIOSH, to expand the program beyond responders and rescue workers to entities that would provide services to residents, office and commercial workers, volunteers, students, and other individuals who were exposed. Existing programs to serve those who were impacted include the centers in the Mt Sinai Consortium and the program run by the New York City Fire Department. Finally, the bill approved today encourages the development of a long-term, comprehensive solution to screen and monitor all individuals who were exposed to the environmental hazards at the World Trade Center (WTC) site following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and the provision of comprehensive medical services for those experiencing illnesses or injuries as a result of these exposures. Senators Clinton and Schumer said that the funding approved late yesterday is a recognition of the importance of addressing the short and long-term health needs of those individuals who were exposed to the environmental hazards released as a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks upon the World Trade Center, and affirms the commitment of the federal government to provide assistance to those whose physical and mental health was adversely impacted as a result of this exposure. More than five years after the attacks, persistent health effects have been documented among residents, rescue and recovery workers, such as asthma, chronic sinusitis, and gastrointestinal conditions. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, and other health effects have also been diagnosed among many of those that have been exposed.

9/11 Living Memorial
June 8, 2007
Dear Friends & Families, It is with great excitement that we announce the collaboration with Voices of September 11th for the launch of the 9/11 Living Memorial. Both organizations have worked diligently together to design the functionality of a place of memorial remembrances for family members, now we are proud to announce its implementation. Voices and its Founder, Mary Fetchet have long been tireless advocates for the 9/11 community. We cannot think of anyone else with whom we would be prepared to share this tremendous responsibility and wonderful opportunity of creating a virtual memorial place for our loved ones. It is our hope to collaborate with the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation to create a future home for the 9/11 Living Memorial within the Museum to become a significant portion of the most comprehensive digital archive on the people, places and events of September 11, 2001. We have already begun testing a beta design of the site and hope to offer public access in the near future. Users will log on to www.voicesofseptember11.org to register. Once registered, they will be directed to a simple template which allows them to upload information about their loved one. To begin we will offer the opportunity to save photographs and text documents (letters, poems or eulogies) and other related information such as individual web pages, scholarships, etc. Another option will be to visit one of the remote kiosks the will be set up at various places within the tri- state area to assist users with creating pages. Lastly, family members who are more comfortable sending the photographs or written messages via post may do so and we will create the page for them. Details on where and when families can begin creating pages will follow soon. For more information, log onto www.voicesofseptember11.org or www.911livingmemorial.org

New WTC Registry Report Shows National Impact of 9/11 Health Crisis
May 2, 2007
For Immediate Release Contact: Joe Soldevere (Maloney), (212) 860-0606 April 30, 2007 Craig Donner (Fossella), (718) 356-8400 -Registrants From All 50 States, D.C.- New York, NY - Today, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens) and Congressman Vito Fossella (R-Staten Island, Brooklyn) released a report showing that people from all 50 states and the District of Columbia have enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry. According to the report, thousands of Americans from throughout the country were in the immediate vicinity of Ground Zero in the months following 9/11 and have since signed up for the Registry, which will track changes in their physical and mental health over the next 20 years. The City of New York compiled the data and released it at Maloney's and Fossella's request. "This report shows that Americans from all 50 states were exposed to the aftermath of 9/11 and have serious concerns about their health," said Congresswoman Maloney. "Thousands of people from every corner of our country were either in lower Manhattan on 9/11 or rushed to Ground Zero to help with rescue and recovery operations. The 9/11 health crisis is an emergency on a national scale and it requires a federal response. The Bush Administration must take the lead in providing medical monitoring for every American exposed to Ground Zero toxins and treatment for anyone who's sick as a result." Congressman Fossella said, "This report provides the most comprehensive picture yet of the potential health impacts of 9/11. Unsung heroes in every state have signed up for the registry either out of concern for their health or because they are already sick or injured. We have long argued that the health impacts of 9/11 are a national problem that requires a national response. Nearly six years after the attacks, the federal government must develop a plan to medically monitor and treat all those who were exposed to the air of Ground Zero." Today's report, the full text of which can be found at http://maloney.house.gov/documents/911recovery/RegistryEnrollment20070306.pdf breaks down the number of WTC Health registrants by state and congressional district. Districts that have between 0 and 25 enrollees are listed as "<25" to protect registrants' confidentiality. Strikingly, the report shows that World Trade Center health registrants live in states as far from Ground Zero as California (1,035 registrants), Arizona (156) and Alabama (128). The Registry is a voluntary survey and no blood tests or medical exams are required to enroll. Americans are eligible for the World Trade Center Health Registry if they meet one of the following criteria: * They were in a building, on the street, or on the subway south of Chambers Street on 9/11/01; * They were involved in either rescue, recovery, cleanup or other activities at the WTC site or WTC recovery operations on Staten Island any time between 9/11/01 and 6/30/02; * They were a student or staff member in schools or day care centers south of Canal Street on 9/11/01; or * They lived south of Canal Street on 9/11/01. According to the Registry, "many people from outside New York City were near the WTC site on 9/11/01. Thousands commuted to or visited New York City from the greater metropolitan area, and volunteers from all over the country came to the WTC site to help in the rescue and recovery effort. "The WTC Health Registry is a comprehensive and confidential health survey of those most directly exposed to the events of 9/11/01. Those who enrolled answered a 30-minute telephone survey about where they were on 9/11/01, and were asked to report the status of their health. This will allow health professionals to compare the health of those most exposed to the events of 9/11/01 with the health of the general population."

"Remember Me" Rose Garden Announces "The Finest"
April 24, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contacts: Rose Getch Sue Casey National Gardening Association Remember Me Rose Garden (800) 538-7476, ext. 129 (503) 453-3352 e-mail: rose@garden.org sue@remember-me-rose.com “Remember Me” Rose Garden Announces “The Finest” Rose, Named in Honor of 23 NYPD Officers Lost on September 11th, 2001 Portland, OR (April 23, 2007) – “Remember Me” Rose Garden announces “The Finest”, a beautiful white hybrid tea rose named in honor of the 23 NYPD Officers who lost their lives in the line of duty on September 11, 2001. The announcement of “The Finest” is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. Friday, April 27, at the dedication of a new rooftop garden at P.S. 41 in New York City’s Greenwich Village. The school is a recipient of a 2007 “Remember Me” Rose School Garden Award, sponsored by All-America Rose Selections. Those taking part in the announcement include Mike Hughes, retired NYPD Officer; Sue Casey and Michael Mitchell of "Remember Me" Rose Garden; Mike Metallo, president, and Tony Vargo, vice president and CFO of the National Gardening Association. “The Finest” was hybridized by Ping Lim of Bailey Nurseries, Inc., and will be available at retail garden centers nationwide in 2009. To learn more visit www.baileynurseries.com. Sue Casey, president of "Remember Me" Rose Garden says, "Twenty-three NYPD officers, in their dedication to protect the lives of fellow citizens, gave the ultimate sacrifice — their own lives. It is a privilege to honor the bravery and courage of these NYPD officers with “The Finest”. NGA president Michael Metallo adds, “This rose will forever be a symbol of the contributions of these officers. Wherever ‘The Finest’ grows, it will be a reminder of their bravery.” About “Remember Me” Rose Garden “Remember Me” Rose Garden is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating three gardens, one each in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, to honor the memory and spirit of each man, woman, and child who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. “Remember Me” Rose Garden celebrates gardening for its ability to strengthen the body, soothe the mind, and lift the spirit. For updates on the progress of these gardens, visit www.remember-me-rose.org. About the National Gardening Association Founded in 1972, NGA is a national nonprofit leader in plant-based education, respected for its award-winning Web sites and newsletters, grants and curricula for youth gardens, and research for the lawn and garden industry. NGA’s mission is to advance the personal, community, and educational benefits of gardening by supporting gardeners and teachers with information and resources. To learn more, please visit www.garden.org. ###

WTC MEMORIAL FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES MAJOR PROGRESS IN EFFORT TO BUILD MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM
April 18, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 17, 2006 WTC MEMORIAL FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES MAJOR PROGRESS IN EFFORT TO BUILD MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM Over $300 Million in Private Funds Raised Lead Exhibition Design Firm Chosen for Memorial Museum National Tour Planning Moving Forward with Selection of Agency Team Howard P. Milstein Named to Board of Directors World Trade Center Memorial Foundation Chairman Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today announced major progress in the effort to build the WTC Memorial and Museum, with over $300 million in private funds raised to date. Over $165 million was raised in approximately six months towards the Foundation’s $350 million fundraising campaign. At a meeting of the Board of Directors this afternoon, the Foundation made a number of key decisions helping to move the project forward. Thinc Design, Inc., in partnership with Local Projects, LLC, was chosen as the lead exhibition design firm for the Memorial Museum; Octagon, Jack Morton Worldwide, and Weber Shandwick, sister agencies within The Interpublic Group (IPG) were selected to help plan and execute the Foundation’s upcoming national outreach tour; and Howard P. Milstein was named to the Board of Directors. “Just as we came together to support our city and our country after September 11th, 2001, thousands of people are coming together again to support building the Memorial and Museum,” Foundation Chairman Mayor Bloomberg said. “Every contribution, both large and small, helps make this national memorial a reality. Thanks to corporations, foundations, and individuals from across the country and around the world, who are uniting behind our efforts, we have quickly reached this major fundraising milestone. We hope that thousands more will lend their support for this important cause.” “Thanks to the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg and the support of our Board of Directors, the Foundation is succeeding in our fundraising efforts,” Memorial Foundation President Joe Daniels said. “Reaching this milestone illustrates that progress spurs progress – we are building what we said we would build and in turn support for this historic campaign is rapidly increasing.” More than 32,650 contributions have come from individuals in all fifty states and 23 foreign nations. 66 leadership gifts of $1 million and over were made by corporations, foundations, and individuals. The Foundation’s private fundraising goal of $350 million includes funds to support capital and planning costs, as well as an initial endowment to support operations once the Memorial and Museum open. -more- FOUNDATION TAKES KEY STEPS TO BUILD MEMORIAL AND MUSEUM “From Museum planning to public outreach and construction, the Memorial Foundation is moving forward with great momentum,” Foundation Chairman Mayor Bloomberg said. “Today the Board made key decisions that will help the Memorial Foundation to meet its many goals. All of these efforts, coupled with the tremendous support we continue to receive in our private fundraising, bring us one step closer to making completing this national memorial. “I welcome Howard Milstein to the Board of Directors. Howard has been a strong supporter of downtown revitalization and he will be an important advocate for the Memorial,” he said. Foundation President & CEO Joe Daniels said, “The Foundation selected two experienced teams to help us in our efforts. Thinc Design and Local Projects will work closely with the Museum’s curatorial team to envision and implement state-of-the-art educational exhibits and a deeply moving visitor experience that integrates cutting-edge technology with the sensitive presentation of a wide range of artifacts, images, and eyewitness testimony. Meanwhile, the partnership between Octagon, Jack Morton Worldwide, and Weber Shandwick brings talent, knowledge, and creativity to the planning of our national outreach tour.” Thinc Design, Inc. Selected as Lead Exhibition Designer for Museum Thinc Design in partnership with Local Projects, LLC, was selected from 16 world class design firms from the United States, Europe and Canada, who responded to the Request for Qualifications (RFQ) issued by the Memorial Foundation last October. As the lead exhibition design firm, Thinc with Local Projects will contribute design expertise to the master plan for the public experience at the World Trade Memorial Museum, and will design significant portions of the exhibitions while also directing a team of design sub-consultants. Founded in 1992, Thinc Design, Inc. is a local New York-based exhibition design firm with expertise in architecture, theater, education, film, graphics and interactive media. Currently, the firm is charged with the master planning for the Freedom Park in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as exhibition design for the 45,000 square foot Aquarium at the Renzo Piano-designed California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Thinc has won awards from the Industrial Design Society of America for both exhibition design and digital media. Thinc will work in partnership with Local Projects, LLC, a design firm that creates media installations for museums and public spaces. Local Projects’ recent work includes “Timescapes,” the new introductory theater for the Museum of the City of New York, and interactive design for StoryCorps at the World Trade Center site and Grand Central Terminal. Local Projects was a finalist for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum’s 2006 National Design Awards in Communications. -more- Thinc with Local Projects’ project team includes independent consultants Ann Farrington, Kathleen McLean and Clay Shirky. Ms. Farrington served as director of exhibitions for Experience Music Project, project manager for the Newseum, and deputy director of public programs at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Ms. McLean is the former director of education at the Exploratorium in San Francisco and, in 2006, was named by the American Association of Museums as one of the 100 most significant museum professionals in the past century. Mr. Shirky is a leading strategist on “social software”—information technology that fosters group interaction, and teaches at New York University. “Thinc with Local Projects, LLC, was chosen for its competence, collaborative team, clear understanding of the Museum’s ethos, strong and innovative use of media, and experience creating exhibitions that foster visitor engagement,” Memorial Museum Director Alice M. Greenwald said. “In Thinc and Local Projects, we believe we have identified an exceptional partner to help us deliver an extraordinary museum, one that can not only meet, but perhaps even exceed, the high expectations for the Memorial Museum dedicated to telling the story of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 that we are honored to create. This institution has the potential to be the first great museum of the 21st century. As such, the creative and seamless integration of new technologies into visitor experience is a pre-requisite, and Thinc is at the forefront of this field.” Tom Hennes, founder and creative director of Thinc said, “To be selected to design this important project is a great honor. The World Trade Center Memorial Museum will be a place of social interconnectivity, one that reflects our belief that public places, such as museums, can have a direct impact on society. We've been exploring this concept in many arenas, most recently in The Freedom Park in South Africa, a memorial and museum dedicated to the struggle for freedom and the ongoing process of South African nation-building. Here at home we have a great need to heal from the horrific events of September 26, 1993 and September 11, 2001. We hope to make a significant contribution to the healing process as well as to make something of value out of this enormous tragedy.” Jake Barton, of Local Projects said, “We're honored to be Thinc Design's partner in creating this museum of international importance. While our work as interaction designer for StoryCorps, and co-creator of Timescapes at the Museum of the City of New York, has brought shared storytelling to public spaces before, this challenge is overwhelming: to gather and offer the stories of the countless witnesses to 9/11. Sharing these accounts will help to create a human-experience for visitors, where physical artifacts will be enriched by the voice of first-hand experience.” The Museum will incorporate as exhibition elements a variety of existing materials that encompass an extraordinary range of size, weight and media. These include: remnants of the World Trade Center structures attesting to the enormity of the buildings and the forces of destruction—multi-ton pieces of steel currently in the care of The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; intimate mementos that mark individual experiences; paper-based and mixed media materials detailing some of the aftermath of the events; vast collections of photographic, video and born-digital imagery by both amateurs and professionals; oral histories and other aural materials; artistic expressions made in tribute to the lives lost and to the events and their emotional impact; and in-situ physical remnants of the site including the surviving Slurry Wall and the truncated box column remnants. -more- Octagon, Jack Morton Worldwide, Weber Shandwick Selected to Help Plan National Tour A team of three IPG sister agencies will help the Foundation to plan a national outreach tour later this year. The leading sports and entertainment marketing firm Octagon will work with global public relations firm Weber Shandwick and renowned experiential marketing agency Jack Morton Worldwide to help the Foundation to produce and manage the tour. The agency team was selected from nine responses to the Foundation’s RFP for Marketing/PR/ Strategic Planning Consulting Services. The national outreach tour will raise awareness about building the Memorial, create a broad base of regional support and raise funds for the project, while providing the public with an opportunity to be a part of building the Memorial and Museum. The tour will include an exhibition allowing the public to view renderings or models of the Memorial, and hear stories relating to the events of September 11, 2001. The tour will be supported through integrated marketing, advertising, merchandising, and public relations strategies. “Our national campaign represents a great opportunity to engage the American public in building a national tribute,” Joe Daniels said. “We look forward to the professional support of these experienced agencies to help us reach as many people as possible in every corner of the country. Building the Memorial is about bringing people together and we believe the national tour will help unite thousands of people to support our cause.” “We are proud to be working with the Foundation on this historic national project,” said Harris Diamond, CEO of the Constituency Management Group of IPG. “The Memorial and the Museum will be important historical institutions not just for New Yorkers, but for people around the country and across the globe. Our team is honored to work on behalf of the Foundation, and we look forward to helping them accomplish their goals.” The team brings extensive experience marketing, planning, and promoting interactive events. Octagon is the global sports and entertainment marketing arm of the Interpublic Group and is the largest sports-consulting practice in the world with an event group that manages 3,200 events annually. Octagon helped to create the Ultimate Drive supporting Susan G. Komen for the Cure as a marketing partnership for their client BMW of North America, which has raised over $10 million since 1997. The firm also led the planning and execution of the Gravity Games, as well as creating interactive events for Sprint Nextel through NASCAR, and the NFL, and for MasterCard through MLB and World Cup Soccer, among many others. Jack Morton Worldwide is an experiential marketing agency that creates live events and interactive experiences for public, consumer, business and corporate audiences. The leading agency of its kind, with numerous EX, Corporate Event and Emmy awards to its name, Jack Morton has offices across the US, UK, Asia and Australia. In 2004, Jack Morton produced the Bank of America Democracy Plaza, a public exhibit celebrating American democracy and citizenship. The two-week exhibit was housed in all the public spaces of Rockefeller Center and received over two million visitors. Jack Morton also led the Sports Illustrated 50th Anniversary Tour, a year-long mobile marketing tour, which included a 45,000-square foot traveling village and reached two million consumers. -more- Weber Shandwick is one of the world's leading global public relations firms with offices in major media, business and government capitals around the world. In 2006, Weber Shandwick won the United Nations Grand Award for outstanding achievement in public relations. The firm was also named Large PR Firm of the Year (PR News U.S.), European Consultancy of the Year (The Holmes Report) and Network of the Year (Asia Pacific PR Awards). The award-winning public relations programs Weber Shandwick has created include such projects as the dedication and ten-year anniversary of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the effort to protect and preserve New York City’s Central Park around its 150th anniversary, and the National Milk Mustache got milk? Campaign, among others. Howard P. Milstein Named to Board of Directors Howard Milstein was today named to the Foundation’s Board of Directors. Milstein is co-chairman, president, and chief executive officer of Emigrant Savings Bank and its holding company, New York Private Bank & Trust, the largest privately owned bank in the country. He is also managing partner of Milstein Properties, an investment builder active in both residential and commercial development; founding chairman of the merchant bank FriedbergMilstein; and chairman of MB Real Estate, a commercial leasing and management company. A graduate of Cornell University (B.A., 1973) and Harvard University (J.D./M.B.A., 1977), Milstein is a member of the National Board of the Smithsonian Institution and is active in numerous other civic and philanthropic organizations and activities. ABOUT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER MEMORIAL FOUNDATION The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Inc. is the not-for-profit corporation founded in 2005 to realize the Memorial quadrant at the World Trade Center site. The Foundation will raise the funds, oversee the design, and operate the Memorial and Museum located on 8 of the 16 acres of the site. The Memorial will remember and honor the thousands of people who died in the horrific attacks of February 26th, 1993 and September 11th, 2001. The design, "Reflecting Absence," created by Michael Arad and Peter Walker consists of two pools that reside in the footprints of the original Twin Towers surrounded by a plaza of oak trees. The Arad/Walker design was selected from a design competition which included more than 5,000 entrants from 63 nations. The Museum will communicate key messages that embrace both the specificity and the universal implications of the events of 9/11; document the impact of those events on individuals lives as well as on local, national, and international communities, and explore the legacy of 9/11 for a world increasingly defined by global interdependency. Donations can be made through the Foundation’s website, and more information on the Foundation can be found at www.buildthememorial.org or by calling 1-877-WTC-GIVE. # # # Contact: Lynn Rasic/Michelle Breslauer, 212-312-8800

Location Change for Lower Family Room at WTC Site
For additional information Contact: WTCFamiliesforProperBurial@comcast.net, February 8, 2007
From the Port Authority: As most of you know, major construction is underway throughout the 16-acre World Trade Center site to build the Memorial, Freedom Tower, and the Transportation Hub. To accommodate this extensive work, the family viewing room that is now located inside Gate 7 at Liberty and Washington Streets will be moved to another location at the World Trade Center. The Port Authority has worked with representative family members to identify another location where those who lost loved ones on 9/11 can have inside-the-fence access to the site. Plans call for a new trailer to be installed above the PATH Station on Church Street. The new site provides views of construction work, and will provide family members with a private space where they can pay their respects to their loved ones. And the family room on the 20th floor at 1 Liberty Plaza will remain open. The current room will be closed on Feb 27, after we commemorate the anniversary of the ’93 bombing of the World Trade Center on February 26. At that time, a group of volunteer family members will move all the personal items in the current family room and redisplay them at the new location. The new trailer will be available on March 5. To access the new location, you must enter at Gate 10 just to the south of the WTC PATH entrance on Church Street. The new hours will be 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Port Authority Police and FJS Security also have trailers in the immediate area. There will not be public bathrooms at this location. We sincerely thank the family members who have helped us relocate this important space and donated their time to move very precious mementos. We thank you for understanding and for being patient. Be assured that during construction at the site, we will continue to do everything we can, for as long as we can, to provide this special place for you.

Mayor Bloomberg Expected To Be Named New WTC Memorial Chairman
October 5, 2006
Members of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation are expected to officially nominate Mayor Bloomberg this afternoon to head its board, but some outspoken family members of those killed on September 11th want the group to reconsider. They charge selecting the mayor is a conflict of interest, since the foundation is a not-for-profit organization. The mayor has already pledged $10-million of his own money to the multi-million dollar memorial project. The majority board says it hopes Bloomberg, as chairman, will be able to spark the slow-moving fund raising effort. Victims' families against the mayor's appointment will rally today at the World Trade Center site, to voice their opposition. "The downside is that he's never really shown a great interest in the memorial and understanding the importance of the memorial for families," said WTC Memorial board member Monica Iken. Others disagree, saying this signifies the mayor's commitment to the memorial and to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. The mayor is expected to accept the chairman's post.

Downtown Rebuilding Agency Says It Is No Longer Needed
David W. Dunlap, July 26, 2006
Downtown Rebuilding Agency Says It Is No Longer Needed By DAVID W. DUNLAP The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the state agency created to help rebuild the area south of Houston Street after terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center, will soon go out of business, its staff was told yesterday. “The L.M.D.C. had a mission and we’re nearing the end of the mission,” said its chairman, Kevin M. Rampe. By that, he meant selecting a master plan and a memorial design for the trade center site; allocating more than $2.7 billion in federal grants, including support for downtown residents and businesses; financing park renovations and cultural programs; and planning the revitalization of Fulton Street, from river to river. Stefan Pryor, the president of the corporation and its first employee, said its role as a planning and financing body was always intended to be temporary. “The greatest accomplishment of a public agency such as ours is to successfully work itself out of existence,” he said. Among its legacies, he said, was Daniel Libeskind’s master plan for rebuilding ground zero, adopted in 2003, “which has held through all the controversies, debates and negotiations over the years.” There are currently 54 employees, Mr. Pryor said. Almost all attended yesterday’s meeting at the agency’s office at 1 Liberty Plaza, opposite ground zero. They were told that the agency would effectively come to an end within months. The corporation will probably endure as an entity for legal purposes, with little or no staff. It is a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation, which is the sole stockholder. Its 16-member board is composed equally of directors appointed by Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said it was an appropriate moment for transition. “The L.M.D.C., through a very often excruciating period, managed very effectively the many difficult tasks of the recovery, then the planning and now the implementation of a really fabulous plan for Lower Manhattan,” he said. An important bit of unfinished business is the completion of design guidelines for the office towers at the trade center site and for public spaces, storefronts and signs. Mr. Rampe said he hoped they would be ready in the fall. Other unfinished jobs will be passed on. Construction of the memorial, for instance, will fall to the private World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Fulton Street revitalization project may end up in the hands of the Department of City Planning and the city’s Economic Development Corporation. Cultural grants may be administered by the Department of Cultural Affairs. “I think what you will see is a significant increase in the city’s role at the site,” Mr. Doctoroff said. The Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center, established in 2004 by the governor and the mayor to coordinate rebuilding efforts downtown, is likely to assume responsibility for the long-delayed demolition of the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, Mr. Pryor said. The tower was badly contaminated on Sept. 11, 2001, and harbors untold numbers of human remains. This has been one of the corporation’s most difficult jobs, involving complex environmental regulations and tremendous sensitivity among victims’ relatives. “We’ve always questioned the wisdom of having the L.M.D.C. involved in that project, given that they have no background in environmental issues,” said Julie Menin, the chairwoman of Community Board 1 in Lower Manhattan. Speaking generally about the corporation’s end, she said: “If elected officials have more of a direct role, rather than through an intermediary, this might be a step in the right direction. It’s one less layer of bureaucracy.” Ms. Menin did not agree that the corporation had accomplished its mission, pointing to the almost empty site at ground zero. “It’s very unfortunate that we’re approaching the five-year anniversary and we still have a hole in the heart of our community,” she said. The Regional Plan Association, a private group, noted that the public would lose a role in decision-making. “The L.M.D.C. does deserve a lot of credit for doing more than any other public agency to date to engage the public,” said Petra Todorovich, a senior planner at the association. “The problem was that they did not always have the authority to act on the input they received. Pataki always called the shots.” A persistent critic, David Dyssegaard Kallick of the private Fiscal Policy Institute, said the announcement yesterday “just formalizes what has been clear for some time: the L.M.D.C. is not serving any useful purpose. “Disbanding the L.M.D.C.” he said, “is a step in the direction of transparency, democracy and the checks and balances of the normal political process.”

Rampe to Lead Lower Manhattan Rebuilding Effort
By CHARLES V. BAGLI, New York Times, May 17, 2006
Eager to show progress at ground zero after months of squabbling over commercial development and the memorial, Gov. George E. Pataki moved quickly today to replace John C. Whitehead, the former banker who headed the state authority in charge of rebuilding downtown. The governor said he had appointed Kevin M. Rampe chairman of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, the same organization he once served as president, to complete the design guidelines for the 16-acre World Trade Center site and to coordinate the redesign and construction of the memorial by Sept. 9, 2009. Mr. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also announced today that they had asked Frank Sciame, a builder and developer, to convene yet another downtown committee, to ensure that a proper memorial is built at ground zero within the $500 million budget recently imposed by the state and the city. The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation's latest estimate had put the cost at nearly $1 billion. The committee, which includes the architects Michael Arad, Peter Walker, Max Bond and Daniel Libeskind, will work on refining a budget and a design by June 15 with the development corporation, the Port Authority and the memorial foundation. This formally takes the design out of the foundation's hands, a move that drew some criticism today. The announcements came a day before Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is convening a state hearing at 7 World Trade Center to look into the lack of progress and coordination in rebuilding Lower Manhattan, more than four years after the attack on the trade center. At the same time that hearing begins on Thursday, Mayor Bloomberg and Governor Pataki are scheduled to hold a 10:30 a.m. news conference at 1 Hudson St. to announce that Sears, the national retailer, had moved 80 product designers there, from Chelsea. The workers actually moved in last week. Mr. Silver said today that it was unclear exactly how much progress had been made in rebuilding at ground zero, despite an endless series of news conferences and photo opportunities. He said the governor laid the cornerstone for the Freedom Tower almost two years ago and now it looks like the cornerstone will have to be moved. He said he would ask state and city officials to explain the financial deal they recently completed with the developer Larry A. Silverstein, and exactly when two towers severely damaged in the attack — the Deutsche Bank and Fitterman Hall — would finally be demolished. "The purpose of my hearing," Mr. Silver said, "is to put all these quote, unquote announcements in perspective. There's been a bumbling of everything that goes on down there. There's been a floating blame game. But there's still a hole in the ground with nothing sticking out." Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff and Mr. Silverstein, who has an agreement to build three office towers at ground zero, are scheduled to testify on Thursday morning. Charles A. Gargano, the state's chief economic development official; Stefan Pryor, the president of Lower Manhattan Development Corporation; and Kenneth Ringler, executive director of the Port Authority, are expected to testify in the afternoon. In any event, the decision to bring back Mr. Rampe was endorsed by Mayor Bloomberg and Thomas J. Johnson, the chairman of the executive committee at the memorial foundation. Mr. Rampe, who is the global compliance and ethics officer for the insurer, ACE Group of Companies, said, "I am humbled by the opportunity to play a small part in bringing back Lower Manhattan." The governor said that Mr. Rampe "brings the dedication, experience, energy and insight necessary to keep the momentum going on the reconstruction of the World Trade Center and the revitalization of downtown." Officials said Mr. Sciame, chairman of the F. J. Sciame Construction Company, and his committee would present the mayor and the governor with refined design proposals for the memorial by June 15, then public comments would be solicited. The development corporation plans to adopt a final design in July so that construction could begin by Sept. 11. That announcement drew some fire today. "Governor Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg have lost their compass," said Monica Iken, who, like Mr. Rampe, is a board member of the foundation. "They're returning to the practice of railroading the memorial process for a political agenda. This is not going to build any trust or confidence in our leaders, or in a memorial that has suffered repeatedly at the hands of these three men."

Spending Cap Proposed For World Trade Center Memorial
NY1 News, May 5, 2006
The World Trade Center memorial may encounter yet another obstacle on the road to construction - a spending cap. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Governor George Pataki and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine have set the budget for the memorial at $500 million, some $10 million more than earlier estimates. It's unclear how the $500 million "spending cap" may affect design plans, but some family members of victims say price should be no object. "This memorial is not about a dollar sign," said Monica Iken, who lost her husband on 9/11. "This memorial has to be about what happened and it should be what was promised. We were promised a world class memorial. We are given a world class failure." Some officials have estimated the final cost of the memorial will be closer to $1 billion because of the additional support walls and extra infrastructure needed to put the tribute, called “Reflecting Absence,” underground. While the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has raised more than $130 million in private contributions, fundraising has been slow so far. Meanwhile, preliminary site work on the memorial is moving forward, despite a lawsuit filed by some relatives of those killed in the 9/11 terror attacks who claim the memorial is unsafe because they claim there are too few exits to adequately evacuate people in the event of another attack. And in Pennsylvania, a memorial honoring those killed on United Flight 93 has taken a step closer to being approved in Washington. The memorial would be built on a 1,700-acre site near where the plane went down on September 11th. The White House is asking Congress for $5 million to buy the land. A House subcommittee approved the funding Thursday. Lawmakers are expected to ask for another $5 milllion for the project next year.

Sept. 11 Families and Unions Protest Ground Zero Memorial
By The New York Times, February 27, 2006
NEW YORK (AP) -- Police and fire union leaders joined Sept. 11 family members on Monday to demand a newly designed World Trade Center memorial, saying the underground plan is a "death trap" that can't safely accommodate millions of tourists and disrespects the victims by placing their names below street level. With construction at ground zero set to begin in March, protesters today said the underground plan was unsafe and disrespectful. "We're asking that the memorial see the light of day," Pat Lynch, president of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, told about 150 people -- predominantly from police and fire unions -- gathered in bitter cold at a corner of ground zero. Construction on Michael Arad's "Reflecting Absence" memorial design is set to begin in March. The design, chosen two years ago by a jury, marks the outlines of the twin towers' footprints with reflecting pools surrounded by the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed. A tree-lined memorial plaza is planned for above ground, but the museum to commemorate the 2001 terrorist attacks and part of the memorial where the names are listed will be as much as 70 feet below street level. "It is all wrong in its symbolism," said Rosaleen Tallon, whose firefighter brother was killed at the trade center. "I look up to the sky to remember him. I will never go down." Tallon also said the planned design was a "death trap" that won't be able to move tourists in and out safely in case of a fire or a terrorist attack. Families have said there should be four main ramps in and out of the memorial instead of two and an underground facility would be more difficult to evacuate. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is overseeing the design and appointed the 13-member jury that chose it, said the memorial and museum will have 15 exits, including emergency stairwells. "The LMDC will continue to work with the (fire department), the (police department), the Department of Buildings and the World Trade Center security team to make certain that we build a safe facility that can accommodate the millions of visitors who are expected," LMDC spokesman John Gallagher said Monday. "The memorial will be a magnificent tribute to those we lost." Gallagher also said Arad's decision to list the names of the dead randomly around the two reflecting pools "remains our plan." Emergency workers and family members have asked that the dead be listed according to the battalion or precinct they worked for or the tower they worked in. "They must be recognized together," said Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, who wants firefighters listed by their units, ranks and badge numbers. Fundraising experts have said controversy over the memorial could hurt the effort to raise the $500 million needed to build and operate it. A private foundation has raised more than $100 million so far. The memorial is scheduled to open in 2009. The jury that chose Arad's design was composed of artists, civic and cultural leaders and one Sept. 11 family member.

A Leader Is Chosen for the 9/11 Museum
By ROBIN POGREBIN, The New York Times, February 8, 2006
Seeking a leader to guide a much-disputed 9/11 museum into existence at ground zero, officials announced yesterday that they had settled on Alice M. Greenwald, an associate director for museum programs at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. In Ms. Greenwald, the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation sought someone seasoned in addressing a highly charged chapter of history to plan the museum. The museum's future has been uncertain for months. Part of Daniel Libeskind's original master plan for ground zero, the building was originally to be shared by the International Freedom Center, a nascent organization dedicated to human rights, and the Drawing Center, a SoHo-based exhibition spaced devoted to works on paper. Both organizations were forced off the site under pressure from relatives of 9/11 victims who questioned whether their programming would be sufficiently patriotic. In a telephone interview yesterday from Washington, Ms. Greenwald, 54, said she was not daunted by the potent influence of the family members but welcomed their input in conceiving the museum. "They have to have a privileged voice in the process," Ms. Greenwald said. "By the same token, you have to create a narrative that allows your visitor to come in and understand what happened. It's a partnership." At the Holocaust Museum, "we deeply value the authentic voice of the survivor," Ms. Greenwald added. "The way you integrate those voices is part of the challenge." Because the two cultural institutions originally chosen for the museum were eliminated, many of those involved in the downtown rebuilding effort have expected that the institution would become primarily a visitor center with some 9/11-specific exhibits. Ms. Greenwald dismissed that idea. "If it is, I'm the wrong person for the job," she said. "I don't think of museums as places that just hold artifacts." Ms. Greenwald began working at the Holocaust Museum as a consultant in 1986, serving as a member of the original design team for the museum's permanent exhibition. "I don't think I would have considered leaving had I not had the fundamental belief that this museum has the potential to have the same level of moral significance," she said of what is to be called the World Trade Center Memorial Museum. "We need to say, what's our goal, who's our audience, what's the big message we want people to take away, what do they need to know?" Ms. Greenwald said. She added that she hoped to build a "programmatic consensus" although there would inevitably be some "creative tension." "We're going to focus on memorialization, we're going to focus on loss," she added. "I don't know what the meaning is going to be." Initial reaction seemed positive. Monica Iken, founder of September's Mission, whose husband, Michael, died in the south tower of the World Trade Center, said yesterday that Ms. Greenwald "has done an exemplary job at the Holocaust Museum." "She has told a very painful story and memorialized those millions who were killed in a horrific way," she said. "We hope that she tells the difficult story of Sept. 11 just as well." Gretchen Dykstra, the president and chief executive of the memorial foundation, said that Ms. Greenwald seemed ideally suited to the post, for which Ms. Dykstra said some 35 people applied and 8 were interviewed. "She is a woman of real depth and thoughtfulness," Ms. Dykstra said. "It's a challenging set of circumstances because people died here." Ms. Dykstra defined the museum's purview as "anything that has to do with the telling of the story and the interpretation of 9/11." Both she and Ms. Greenwald said it was too soon to specify an operating budget or to discuss the specific content of the museum, which will devote 65,000 square feet to exhibition space, compared with the Holocaust Museum's 36,000 square feet. Ms. Greenwald will be paid $300,000 a year, officials said. Of the $500 million budget for the memorial and museum, $100 million has been raised so far, Ms. Dykstra said, and another $200 million is to be transferred to the foundation from the development corporation. The foundation is not yet raising money for a planned performing arts center at ground zero that is being designed by Frank Gehry, Ms. Dykstra said. Still, the development corporation is interviewing candidates for a director's position for the institution, said Stefan Pryor, president of the corporation. The building is to be shared by the Joyce Theater, which presents dance, and the Signature Theater Company, an Off Broadway Theater Company. Asked about the fate of the Freedom Center, which did not survive at ground zero, Ms. Greenwald said, "My gut reaction is that it may have been an incredibly creative idea that was woefully premature." Might the 9/11 museum then also qualify as premature? "This is a museum of memory," Ms. Greenwald said. "And when you're talking about memory, it is never too soon." Glenn Collins contributed reporting for this article.

As Ground Zero Plans Shift, Focus Turns to Retail Space
by David Dunlap New York Times, September 30, 2005
A day after evicting the International Freedom Center museum from the memorial area at ground zero for being too controversial, officials described a plan yesterday for a half-million square feet of retail space elsewhere on the World Trade Center site. And they said the cultural building designed by the Norwegian firm Snohetta, which was once intended for both the Freedom Center and the Drawing Center, will effectively become an extension of the underground memorial museum devoted solely to 9/11. "The Snohetta building, as it's been called, the cultural building, will tell the story of Sept. 11," said John P. Cahill, Gov. George E. Pataki's chief of staff and the top-ranking downtown development official. Below and above ground, he said, there will "be a complementary picture, a comprehensive story, to be told at the cultural site." The cultural building, as conceived until recently, had roughly 175,000 square feet of space, which would be a sizable addition to the 110,000-square-foot memorial museum. On Wednesday, after learning that Mr. Pataki had ordered the Freedom Center off the memorial quadrant because it faced "too much opposition," its executives canceled their project. The Drawing Center, currently in SoHo, is looking for alternative space downtown. It was clear yesterday that the Pataki administration is eager to change the subject. Speaking at a breakfast sponsored by Crain's New York Business, Mr. Cahill said: "I have met with many business and community leaders, and they have told me firsthand about the need to expeditiously restore retail at the World Trade Center site. I could not agree more." A table full of Wal-Mart executives also seemed to agree. "It would be a wonderful opportunity for any retailer to have that access to all those potential customers," said Mia Masten, Wal-Mart's director of corporate affairs, after listening to Mr. Cahill's speech. But Ms. Masten said that she and her colleagues were at the breakfast simply to meet other executives and demonstrate their commitment to building in New York City, where Wal-Mart has faced a great deal of opposition. Anthony R. Coscia, the chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the trade center site, cautioned in a later telephone interview against reading too much into their presence. "It's premature, to be frank, but if you think we're planning a big Wal-Mart, the answer is no," he said. Mr. Coscia said the authority was considering some kind of rent surcharge on stores at the trade center - about 10 percent, he said, by way of example - to provide "an annuity for the next 30 years" that would go toward maintenance of the memorial. Kenneth J. Ringler Jr., the executive director of the authority, said that none of the retail space would be within the memorial quadrant, which is the site of the twin tower footprints and is seen as untouchable for uses other than those related to 9/11. "Port Authority folks are very sensitive to that site," he said. "Eighty-four of our own colleagues were lost." Yet there is a chance that retail space around the quadrant could come in for some of the same criticism that felled the Freedom Center: that it would detract from the solemnity of the memorial. "Are they going to have Victoria's Secret selling underwear?" asked Charles Wolf, a leader in the fight against the Freedom Center, whose wife, Katherine Wolf, worked in the north tower and was killed on Sept. 11. "Who knows? "The fact of the matter is that families have a right to deal with the memorial quadrant and its environs. How hypocritical will it be for us to have a totally 9/11-related memorial quadrant and directly across Greenwich Street you have shops facing it which, overtly by their signage, are inappropriate?" That objection could be overcome, Mr. Wolf added, if the stores and signs were discreet, tasteful and oriented to Church Street. Mr. Coscia said the authority would be respectful of the site. "You don't have to tell anyone that the selectivity of tenants is important," he said, "because everyone knows it." The agency plans 450,000 to 550,000 square feet of retail space - more than the floor area in the former trade center mall - at the PATH terminal and along Church Street, where the Tower 3 and Tower 4 office buildings are to rise. "It's a very viable and important part of the rebuilding process to bring a substantial amount of retail back to the site," Mr. Coscia said, "because it will bring people back." The stores could begin opening in 2009, he said. There will be two levels of retail space below ground and three above, said James T. Connors, director of World Trade Center redevelopment. The authority may build temporary retail buildings on Church Street or permanent ones that would later be two- or three-story pedestals for the office towers. Cortlandt Street may not be reopened between the Tower 3 and Tower 4 sites, although this had been a goal of the Bloomberg administration. Westfield America held the trade center retail lease until 2003, when it was bought out by the authority for $140 million, and it still has the right to make the first offer on a new lease. For now, the authority is planning to develop the retail space itself, working with the real estate firms Jones Lang LaSalle and Tishman Speyer. "Whatever happens there will encourage vibrant street life," Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said, "which has been our No. 1 priority."

GROUND ZERO: MOVING ON
New York Post, September 30, 2005
Backers of the (now thankfully dead) International Freedom Center at Ground Zero argued that its fate shouldn't be dictated by "a vocal cadre" of 9/11 family members who opposed it. As much as we abhorred the Freedom Center, the fact is, they're right: Family members shouldn't have veto power over anything at Ground Zero. But that was never the question. And yesterday, Gov. Pataki's Ground Zero czar, John Cahill, made just that point. "The construction of the memorial and memorial museum will begin in early 2006 and conclude by Sept. 11, 2009," Cahill said, discussing the site's future. And "rest assured, we will not let one person, one entity or one constituency prevent us from fulfilling this solemn obligation." On one level, Cahill was trying to reassure doubters that rebuilding at the site, which has languished now for more than four years, will really, truly, cross-our-hearts be completed . . . one day. But on another level, he might have also been trying to send a message to family members — and other groups that think they have disproportionate say over the site: No, guys. You don't. That's an important message. True, the suffering of those who lost loved ones — whether firefighters, cops or civilians — on 9/11 gives them clear moral standing on all Ground Zero issues. But 9/11 wasn't just an attack on those who died; it was a strike at all of America. And all Americans have a stake in its future. The primary decisions about what is appropriate at the site will be made by New Yorkers, through their public representatives, on a case-by-case basis. As for the Freedom Center, a significant and growing segment found it objectionable, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, three local congressmen, the police and firefighters unions — and, yes, 15 different family groups. Not to mention . . . us. We all objected because the center — a highly politicized, potentially anti-American facility — would have been horribly wrong for the site. No doubt new issues will surface. These will need to be decided on their merits — dispassionately and democratically. Now let's get to work.

IFC-FREE MUSEUM WILL BE BUILT 'BY 9/11/09'
By TOM TOPOUSIS New York Post, September 30, 2005
The International Freedom Center is history, but construction of the building it was to occupy will go forward amid a national search for a 9/11 museum director, officials said yesterday. In a speech to business leaders, rebuilding czar John Cahill said the highest priority at Ground Zero now is construction of the World Trade Center Memorial — a project that will be made easier without the controversy surrounding the IFC. "The construction of the memorial and memorial museum will begin in early 2006 and conclude by Sept. 11, 2009," Cahill said at a breakfast sponsored by Crain's New York Business. "Rest assured, we will not let one person, one entity or one constituency prevent us from fulfilling this solemn obligation," said Cahill, who is serving as Gov. Pataki's chief for rebuilding Ground Zero and lower Manhattan. Pataki booted the IFC from Ground Zero on Wednesday, amid a growing chorus of opposition from 9/11 families, firefighters, cops and elected officials, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Debra Burlingame, who spearheaded the battle against the IFC, said she hopes the 9/11 families "aren't viewed as some hostile constituency." "We are a tremendous resource, and they should use us," said Burlingame, whose brother piloted the doomed Pentagon plane. In his decision to oust the Freedom Center, Pataki declared that the exhibit space in the proposed 300,000-square- foot building that will sit alongside the WTC Memorial will be devoted strictly to telling the story of the Sept. 11 attacks. The project will now dovetail with a nearby underground memorial museum already slated for the site, officials said. Lower Manhattan officials have teamed up with the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation in a search for a director of national prominence to develop 9/11 programming for both the memorial museum and for the former IFC space. Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the foundation, said some interviews had already been conducted, and she said the project had attracted "great expressions of interest" from top candidates around the nation. The controversy over the IFC cast a pall over fund-raising efforts for the memorial, which has a target of $500 million. "We hope to regain momentum," Rasic said. Cahill also said a new plan is in the works to bring commercial activity back to the World Trade Center site, with a corridor of retail shops slated for Church Street. Business and community leaders in lower Manhattan "have told me firsthand about the need to expeditiously restore retail at the World Trade Center site, and I could not agree more," Cahill said.

Governor Bars Freedom Center at Ground Zero
By DAVID W. DUNLAP New York Times, September 29, 2005
After a summer of furious and steadily rising criticism, Gov. George E. Pataki evicted the proposed International Freedom Center museum yesterday from its place next to the World Trade Center memorial site. With that, the museum declared itself to be out of business. "The I.F.C. cannot be located on the memorial quadrant," Mr. Pataki said in a statement. That quadrant, at the southwest corner of the trade center site, contains the footprints of the twin towers. The Freedom Center, picked for the memorial site by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, was envisioned as a living memorial in which the story of Sept. 11, 2001, would be told in the context of the worldwide struggle for freedom through the ages. Critics said the sacred precinct of the memorial was no place for a lesson in geopolitics or social history, particularly when a separate memorial museum devoted solely to 9/11 was being planned entirely underground, within the trade center foundations. "There remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the I.F.C., and we must move forward with our first priority, the creation of an inspiring memorial," the governor said in a statement released at 4:55 p.m. He said he had instructed the development corporation, which is overseeing the development of the memorial and cultural buildings, to "work with the I.F.C. to explore other locations." But 42 minutes later, the center said in its own statement that there was no other location to explore, since the memorial quadrant was "the site for which the I.F.C. was created, at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation's request, and as an integral part of Daniel Libeskind's master site plan." "We do not believe there is a viable alternative place for the I.F.C. at the World Trade Center site," said the statement from the center's executives, Tom A. Bernstein, Peter W. Kunhardt and Richard J. Tofel. "We consider our work, therefore, to have been brought to an end." Debra Burlingame, who led the opposition to the Freedom Center, beginning with an article in The Wall Street Journal, "The Great Ground Zero Heist," on June 9, congratulated Governor Pataki on his decision. Her brother, Charles F. Burlingame III, was the pilot of the airliner that was crashed into the Pentagon. "The International Freedom Center was an obstacle not simply for the families, the first responders and all those who were personally affected by the events of Sept. 11," Ms. Burlingame said in a telephone interview, "but for all Americans who will be coming to the World Trade Center memorial to hear the story of 9/11 and that story only. "And I believe that story will be able to convey all the core values that Governor Pataki so eloquently enunciated," Ms. Burlingame said, adding that 9/11 was a story not only of loss but "an uplifting story of decency triumphing over depravity." The tumble of events yesterday raises new questions around ground zero: What will go into the cultural building, designed by the Norwegian firm Snohetta, on the memorial quadrant? (The Drawing Center, its other designated tenant, is already looking for alternative space.) The governor said the memorial quadrant "will tell the story of Sept. 11," but it is unclear how using the Snohetta building would affect plans for the nearby underground 9/11 museum. What sort of future awaits the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board, when its three-year planning process can be undone so quickly by the governor? And what kind of divisions might emerge at the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board? Its members include Freedom Center executives and Robert De Niro, whose TriBeCa Film Institute was to have been part of the Freedom Center, as well as Ms. Burlingame and other family members who were opposed to the Freedom Center. In 2004, the Drawing Center, an established art museum in SoHo, and the Freedom Center, which existed only as an idea, were picked as joint tenants of a cultural building to rise at the edge of the memorial, on Fulton and Greenwich Streets. After critics expressed concern this summer that there would be anti-American exhibitions and programs in the cultural building, Governor Pataki demanded an "absolute guarantee" that neither institution would do anything "to denigrate America." Rather than respond directly, the Drawing Center began looking for alternative space. But Mr. Bernstein, the chairman of the Freedom Center, and Paula Grant Berry, its vice chairwoman, pledged in a July 6 letter to the development corporation that their museum would never "be used as a forum for denigrating the country we love." Criticism only grew. On Aug. 11, John C. Whitehead, the chairman of the corporation, instructed the Freedom Center to submit a report on its plans and programs, saying that its tenancy in the Snohetta building was at risk. That report, issued last Thursday, did not assuage opponents, including three Republican congressmen, the police officers' and firefighters' unions and, as of last weekend, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York. Former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is identified strongly with the events of 9/11 and it immediate aftermath, supported Mr. Pataki's decision yesterday. "The governor has made the right decision," he said. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who had recalled the importance of the planning process whenever he was asked to comment this summer, issued a brief statement. "Although I understand Governor Pataki's decision," he said, "I am disappointed that we were not able to find a way to reconcile the freedoms we hold so dear with the sanctity of the site." In retrospect, the fate of the Freedom Center may have been sealed three years ago with the decision to create a clearly defined parallelogram, bordered by four streets, in which both the memorial and a cultural complex were to sit. Since this was the site of the twin towers, it may have been inevitable that the block would be seen as hallowed. Gretchen Dykstra, the president of the memorial foundation, which will build and own the memorial and cultural buildings, said the governor had now "provided clear direction that the memorial quadrant should be devoted to telling the story of Sept. 11th." Governor Pataki issued his statement yesterday shortly after returning from a trip abroad. "Freedom should unify us," he said. "This center has not." But the center's executives said they were "profoundly sorry" to see this "significant blow to the idea of a living memorial that emerged from a comprehensive public process" and the "loss of a museum of freedom at the place where freedom was so brutally challenged."

Family Member Alliance Responds to LMDC Mediation Plan
September 15, 2005
Contact: Monica Iken September's Mission Foundation (888) 424-4685 15 Major 9/11 Family Groups Reject LMDC Mediation Plan New York, N.Y.—September 15, 3005—The alliance of 15 major 9/11 family organizations was stunned to learn through the media last week and not from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation of their plans to engage in mediated talks with 9/11 family members about the presence of the International Freedom Center on the World Trade Center memorial site. According to the media, the LMDC’s stated purpose in hiring an outside mediator was to facilitate ‘conversations that might otherwise not happen.” We hasten to point out that individual and collective members of the 9/11 family groups, along with of citizens from the Lower Manhattan community and other interested parties, have been meeting in good faith at LMDC-sponsored forums for more than three years. The last such meeting, held by the Civic Alliance for Rebuilding Lower Manhattan, took place just two days ago. If anything, the LMDC has once again demonstrated that it does not understand the difference between having meetings and actually listening to the public. The LMDC appears not to understand that the objection, in principle, to the presence of the IFC on the World Trade Center site is no longer a matter that can be resolved by 9/11 family groups alone. They have been joined by the 22,000 members of ‘New York’s Bravest”–the Uniformed Firefighters Association– which lost 343 of its active members and three of its retired members in the 9/11 attacks, as well as the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, the state’s largest firefighter organization consisting of 110,000 volunteer firefighters, many of whom participated in the rescue and recovery effort at Ground Zero. These organizations are also joined by more than 46,000 people from all over the country who have signed an online petition calling for the LMDC to remove the IFC and the Drawing Center from the memorial site. We anticipate that the growing list of organizations joining this fight for a proper memorial will increase these numbers exponentially in the coming days. The LMDC’s stubborn refusal to acknowledge this wider rejection of the IFC mirrors its denial of other critical problems with the larger memorial and memorial museum plans. Constantly fuzzy and, curiously, always reduced projections on the millions of people per year who will visit the memorial do not add up when compared to other major memorials around the country such as the Statue of Liberty. The LMDC cannot demonstrate that the memorial itself and the underground museum on the site will be able to accommodate visitors without having to turn away millions per year and thousands daily. Nor can it demonstrate that it can safely and securely send 20,000 people underground every day, much less through one entrance and one exit. Additionally, the LMDC cannot show how precious 9/11 artifacts and the momentous story of the worst attack in the history of our nation can all be contained in a cramped underground space which will also house train tracks, a PATH terminal, loading platforms, passageways, waterfalls, ventilation shafts, soil and root systems from the forest above and infrastructure for a massive cooling plant below. In short, the problem of space may ultimately be the most practical reason not to allocate 300,000 square feet of space to any entity other than the memorial and the memorial museum. To do so will bring dishonor to the lost, discord to the living and disunity to the country. By creating yet another deaf and redundant ‘process” from which they are removed, the LMDC and Governor George Pataki are simply delaying resolution of an issue which has been clearly laid out before them, as well as wasting time and resources that could be better spent addressing other compelling problems that must be solved before the first shovel is sunk into sacred ground. The time is long overdue for civic and political leaders to act. The IFC must go. Advocates for 9/11 Fallen Heroes (rjtallon@cs.com, jalel31@hotmail.com, l59e85@aol.com) Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund (www.cantorrelief.org) Coalition of 9/11 Families (www.coalitionof911families.org) Fix the Fund (www.fixthefund.org) Give Your Voice (www.giveyourvoice.com) Margie Miller 9/11 Support Group (WTCFamilyCenter@aol.com) 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America (www.911familiesforamerica.org) 9/11 Families for a Secure America (www.911fsa.org) September 11th Families Association (www.911wvfa.org) September’s Mission Foundation (www.septembersmission.org) Skyscraper Safety Campaign (www.skyscrapersafety.org) Voices of September 11th (www.voicesofsept11.org) W. Doyle 9/11 Support Group (www.joeydoyle.com) WTC Families for Proper Burial, Inc. (www.wtcfamiliesforproperburial.com) World Trade Center United Family Group (www.wtcufg.org)

Volunteers Go Extra Mile in Campaign for 9/11 Memorial
Star News Online, September 8, 2005
Howard Coupland was up on a ladder building a house when he heard that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. “I didn’t think much about it. I thought it was just some idiot pilot,” he said. “Then the second plane hit.” We all remember what we were doing when we heard about the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. This column is about three people who not only remember it, they’re doing something about it. Their efforts include fighting to keep a planned memorial focused on 9/11. Mr. Coupland of Wilmington has been named to the board of September’s Mission, a nonprofit representing the interests of survivors’ families as a memorial is designed for the World Trade Center site. September’s Mission (www.septembersmission.org) was founded by Monica Iken. She started thinking of the memorial design just two weeks after losing her husband, Michael, a bond broker who worked on the 84th floor of the South Tower. September’s Mission became her life’s labor, working on the memorial design and helping victims’ families. Mr. Coupland met her through Gwen Loiacono, known hereabouts as the “flag lady.” Ms. Loiacono designed the 9/11 Remembrance Flag, red with two towers nestled inside a pentagon. Stars represent where all four planes hit that day. She wasn’t content with selling Remembrance Flags and donating to victims’ families. She has thrown herself into meeting the families and finding ways to help them. Mutual friends brought Ms. Loiacono and Ms. Iken together. They have become friends and allies. “She had the passion and spirit and drive to make a difference,” Ms. Iken said, adding that the families have a great respect for Ms. Loiacono. Mr. Coupland, a general contractor and photographer, said he was changed by 9/11. He was grateful for what God had given him, he said, and he felt obligated to do something. That spirit sent him to Cono Flags to buy a flag with the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” Cono Flags is operated by Ms. Loiacono and her husband, Richard. He and Ms. Loiacono became friends, sort of kindred flag spirits. They were in New York for the screening of a documentary about the Remembrance Flag when Ms. Loiacono introduced him to Ms. Iken. Mr. Coupland began making contributions to September’s Mission. Ms. Iken said they always seemed to arrive when they were most needed. “We didn’t have time to go soliciting funds,” Ms. Iken recalled. “He was the benefactor that kept saving the sinking ship.” The organization is on firmer footing now, but Ms. Iken thinks Mr. Coupland can help as she battles the idea of putting the International Freedom Center on the site. The International Freedom Center, backers say, will be a cultural institution teaching about “freedom as an ongoing world movement.” Critics say it might be used to promote anti-American views. As evidence, they point to its chairman, Tom Bernstein, a lawyer involved in a lawsuit against Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over detainee abuse. Ms. Iken says the center would occupy space better used for visitors who want to reflect on 9/11, and that the International Freedom Center’s message has little relevance to the memorial. Mr. Coupland said the controversy is familiar to New Yorkers, but he wants to get the word out elsewhere. Ms. Loiacono said that if the center isn’t focused on 9/11, it shouldn’t be part of the memorial. I agree. Meanwhile, she’s busy helping organize the fourth annual Local Heroes Day, honoring firefighters, police officers and military personnel. It starts at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at Liberty Ministries, 7957 Market Street. Heroes are rescue workers who run up the stairs when everyone else is running down. But heroes are also everyday people who take on extraordinary tasks, like these three people. &#8195; Contact Si Cantwell at 343-2364 or si.cantwell@starnewsonline.com

Enter Congress: A letter to the LMDC
Power Line, July 1, 2005
Robert Shurbet of Take Back the Memorial writes with "big memorial news," sending us a copy of this letter to the president of the Lower Manhanttan Development Corporation: June 30, 2005 The Honorable Stefan Pryor President Lower Manhattan Development Corporation 1 Liberty Plaza 20th Floor New York, New York 10006 Dear Mr. Pryor: We write today regarding the International Freedom Center (IFC), currently planned to join the World Trade Center Memorial at Ground Zero. As you are well aware, there has been a great deal of controversy regarding what exhibits will be shown at the IFC. Reports of these exhibits do, in fact, give reasonable people cause for concern. Frankly, we worry that the project may have lost the focus that seemed so clear three and a half years ago. The principle that should be adhered to is a simple one: on the ground once occupied by the World Trade Center, we should craft a memorial for those killed in the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. This encompasses several different aspects: the World Trade Center Memorial itself will rightly be the most direct measure, with remembrances of that day and those taken from us – their heroism, their tragedy. We will also build a new tower on that land and make it a workplace again. That is an important memorial as well. What troubles us is the suggestion that Ground Zero is an appropriate place to host exhibits outside the scope of a September 11th memorial. As an example, veterans of World War II deserve our highest thanks; they deserve a memorial, indeed, a series of memorials, to the incredible struggle they waged on behalf of civilization. It would not make sense to site such a memorial at Gettysburg or Bull Run. Just as we would not place a World War II memorial at those locations, the IFC should not be a platform to expound issues and positions outside the direct scope of the events of September 11th. This consideration impacts Washington because federal money is being used throughout Ground Zero for the layout and infrastructure of the new buildings. While private funds have been heavily invested as well, particularly in the IFC, federal dollars still bear a heavy load. Adding to our concerns are the ongoing negotiations in Congress regarding the extension of Liberty Bonds and other matters. Controversy over the IFC distracts from all our efforts to make New York’s case. Next week, Congress is in recess in observance of Independence Day. It is our belief that the LMDC should use that time to refocus the IFC to reflect on the events of September 11th, 2001 and the tremendous sacrifice and loss that we suffered as a nation. We very much hope that this matter can be resolved before Congress returns to Washington on July 11th. If at that time the LMDC can not prepare a more fitting exhibition, we will be forced to seek appropriate legislative actions and remedies to redress the situation. We thank you for your attention to this important issue and look forward to hearing from you soon. Sincerely, Vito J. Fossella Member of Congress John E. Sweeney Member of Congress Peter T. King Member of Congress Mr. Shurbet comments: We applaud the actions of Rep. Vito J. Fossella, Rep. John E. Sweeney, and Rep. Peter T. King and are looking forward with great interest to the response from the LMDC as to the fate of the International Freedom Center. It is essential that any memorial or museum built on this site remain dedicated exclusively to telling the story of 9/11, free from external interpretation or context, in the same spirit as the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Oklahoma City Memorial, the Arizona Memorial, and all other national memorials of major historical significance. Let’s hope the LMDC hears the growing force of voices demanding they take back the memorial and return it to its proper focus. Ladies and gentlemen, let your voices be heard.

The International Freedom Center
National Review Online by John Derbyshire, June 30, 2005
The plans for Ground Zero give prominent position to a cultural center dedicated to telling the story of man's march toward freedom as an inspirational complement to the all-important memorial to those who died. But this International Freedom Center now faces challenge as a wholly inappropriate use of hallowed ground. An organization representing families of some 9/11 victims yesterday joined calls for the Freedom Center to be removed as the primary gateway to, and a highly visible presence on, the 4 acres where stood the twin towers. The center, it is feared, is slated to become a platform for propaganda and for debating contentious issues that have, at best, a tenuous connection to the worst attack ever on American soil. — Daily News (New York), 6/21/05 [Through the kind offices of a friend at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, I have gained access to some draft discussion plans for the proposed International Freedom Center. The following are extracts from a fictional document titled “Outline Design Specification, IFC — Provisional (incomplete).” I am glad to be able to share them with NRO readers. — J.D. ] Main Entrance Lobby Lobby centerpiece: Large statue, a group of semi-abstract human figures, suggesting a striving upwards, perhaps all with arms uplifted. The figures to include some identifiable features such as: slave manacles (broken), Native American feathered headdress, Muslim turban, campesino hat, etc. Wall inscription: Sth. inspirational from non-slave-owning Founder or similar — Tom Paine? Tape loop: “Welcome to the International Freedom Center, here on the site where once stood the World Trade Center. Here you will find a celebration of freedom, as the word has been understood — yet its spirit all too often violated or ignored — in the modern world. The tragedy of 9/11 was a blow against the freedom that we Americans claim to cherish. Yet our own attitude to freedom has been full of contradictions, as these exhibits will demonstrate…” Hall of Economic Freedom (Originally proposed thus. AR suggests change to: Hall of Freedom from Want.) Centerpiece: Full-size statue appropriate to theme — labor hero? How about Joe Hill? Big wall photo at left: Workers in 19C textile mill, pref. children. Continues to: Same size pics, coal mine, steel mill. Big wall photo at right: Agricultural workers — ragged etc., pref. 19C. Continues to: Sth. similarly nonindustrial — whale fishing? (Check w. PETA for acceptability.) Tape loop: “The first of all freedoms is the freedom from want. Yet our nation, which prides itself on its devotion to freedom, has been sadly backward in establishing this most basic of all freedoms. For all the abundance of our society, even today children go to bed hungry in the United States. Even today, working Americans cannot afford health insurance. Even today, while nations such as Cuba have achieved one hundred per cent literacy and full, free access to health care…” Hall of Sexual and Reproductive Freedom Centerpiece: Statue group, woman in business suit, briefcase, etc., two gay men holding hands — all striding confidently to radiant future. One of the 3 figures should be African American, doesn’t matter which. Can we do Hispanic in statuary? Without campesino hat? If not, oriental. Big wall photo at left: Sth. from 19C showing haggard-looking woman with large brood of children outside hovel. Continues to: Gay-rights martyrs — von Katte, Wilde of course, Turing,… Big text block narrating Wilde case superimposed. Lesbian martyrs? Check w. CP. Mural at right wall: Montage of great figures & episodes from history of sexual etc. freedom: Sade, Hirschfeld, Margaret Sanger, suffragettes, Kinsey, Roe vs. Wade justices (exc. White, Rehnquist), Stonewall demos etc. TB’s suggestion to work abortion doctor in can’t be done, wd. have to show instruments, best go with picture of clinic, pref. one in picturesque setting. Tape loop: “For centuries American women were second-class citizens, lacking the right to vote, barred from the professions, expected to produce a baby a year until their frail bodies were worn out…” Hall of Ethnic Freedom Centerpiece: Large statue group — Manacled slaves, Trail of Tears, interned Japanese family, Chinese railroad coolie… May need to be half size, lotsa possible figures here. Mural at left wall: Montage of images showing sufferings under racism: slavery, internment, lynching, Chicano farm workers, etc. Continues to: Protests — Wounded Knee, march on Montgomery,… Mural at right wall: Heros portrayed — Chavez, MLK, etc. [Who for Japanese? Mineta? And KD suggests Vincent Chin — who he?] Tape loop: “America’s past treatment of non-white citizens is a 300-year catalog of shame…” Hall of Artistic Freedom Centerpiece: Completely abstract culture vaguely suggesting uplift, aspiration. Big wall photo at left: McCarthy hearings, 1st Amendment ironically superimposed. Continues to: Montage of blacklisted screenwriters etc., w. notes on subsequent fate, esp. suicides. (Can we get Giuliani in here? — the Brooklyn Museum business?) Mural at right: Montage of controversial art — Jackson Pollock, “Piss Christ,” etc. (“Mapplethorpe prob. too strong” — AR.) “Angels in America” angel v. photogenic, says RT. Tape loop: Still in disagreement here. RT wants pitch for PBS, JS insists reading of “Vagina monologues.” Shd. make decision soonest. Hall of Religious Freedom (NB1: Need great care here with religious symbols — MUST BE ALL SAME SIZE EXACTLY — else 1st Amendment issues.) (NB2: Research on symbols not yet complete. Wiccans use pentacle inscribed in circle. For Hindus we shd. show one of less threatening gods, pref. many arms. Ch. of Scientology still not responding emails.) Centerpiece: Good multi-culti statue group — turban, yarmulke, robed monk, etc. Mural at left wall: Montage of images — religious buildings, worshippers, etc. Mosque prominent at center. Crowd scenes at Ganges festivals, Ka’aba, etc. Big head shot Dalai Lama. Continues to: Images of religious persecution — Salem burnings, Orange Riots, Holocaust. [Did RT have any luck finding images of Muslims beaten post-9/11? Wd. be real neat.] Big photo at right: TBD. Tape loop: “Following the unfortunate events of September 11, 2001, Muslims in America suffered suspicion and discrimination…”

Let's Not Let the Art World Politicize Sept. 11 at Ground Zero
BY JAMES LILEKS c.2005 Newhouse News Service, June 29, 2005
Given the ugliness of the proposed replacement for the World Trade Center, it's no surprise that the Ground Zero museum is also marred with the usual modern moral chancres. Early reports on the planned International Freedom Center noted that some exhibits would hammer America for its historical sins, and include art from institutions that produced the usual tendentious agitprop. Gov. George Pataki spoke out. And he said no. From the New York Daily News: "`Sure, there can be debate,' Pataki said when asked if his tough stance jeopardized free-speech rights. `But I don't want that debate to be occurring at Ground Zero."' Oh dear. Monsieur guv, this is precisely the place it should be occurring. Unless hallowed spots are debased by the crankling mewlings of wise art-school grads, freedom of speech means nothing. Quick! Someone draw a falling body in a tank of urine. Quick! Commission a large mural showing a chimp-footed George W. Bush having relations with a hook-nose forelocked camel who's eating a Palestinian baby. Get one of those artists who do "installations" to feed Jell-O into a fan to simulate the rain of body parts. Float a Macy's Parade-sized balloon of Michael Moore in the plaza. Anything. Please, just don't make it another solemn monument to a grave day. Since many believe the government planned Sept. 11, perhaps the museum could blow itself up twice daily like Old Faithful. A New York Times editorial noted that Pataki and his knuckle-dragging ilk want "censorship in advance -- for political oversight of an artistic process that has only begun to evolve." Well, the likelihood that the evolution will end up with a statue of Uncle Sam spearing Darth bin Laden with a flagpole is rather small. Self-hatred for the West goes so deep among the urban-arts class that any artist who wants to make his reputation will assume a fashionable globalist stance. If Sept. 11 isn't an ideal opportunity to show how Che would have reacted to the global AIDS crisis better than Ronald Reagan did, well, then the hijackers died in vain. Of course, Sept. 11 has already been sanctified in artworks, but it's the sort of patriotic kitsch that horrifies the art world. Big hard-eyed eagles superimposed on the World Trade Center, collectible plates with a painting of the flag raised at Ground Zero, cast-iron models of the towers with "Never Forget" written in lovely script on the base. That sort of thing. Heart-tugging stuff for the Norman Rockwell fans. You could fill the entire museum with this sort of material, and it would be a more accurate account of the culture's reaction than some tiresome artist's 12-foot collage of Abu Ghraib pictures run through a few Photoshop filters. In fact, tourists might actually go to a kitsch-stuffed museum. No one's going to fly from Peoria to see a gigantic picture of George Washington with a Saddam moustache ordering his slaves to kick Salvador Allende in the pants. O.K., we get it. We're the worst. Bad us. Whatever. Let's make a deal. The internationalist demographic gets the theaters, the movie houses, the art galleries, the schools, the ateliers, the lecture halls; they're free to fill the air with as many Contradictions and Uncomfortable Truths and Provocative Reinterpretations as they like. But would it be too much to ask that whatever is built at Ground Zero simply recalls that horrible day, and honors the dead? For some, yes. For some, the refusal to politicize an event is a political act. For some, Sept. 11 has already become something more potent than a day of murder and fear: It has become a metaphor. It is something to be interpreted, filtered, parsed, a box of white bones that need the flesh of explication and context. For others, for the Franklin Mint demographic, Sept. 11 was the day when a secretary looked out the window and saw the end of her days screaming toward her. Build a memorial to her. Or build nothing at all.

Sept. 11 families ask Bush, Congress to Squash Plans for Ground Zero Museum
By DEVLIN BARRETT Associated Press Writer, June 29, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A Sept. 11 family group urged the White House and Congress Wednesday to squelch plans by New York's governor and mayor for a ground zero museum that, the families say, will inject political arguments into what should be a solemn memorial. As Gov. George Pataki and Mayor Michael Bloomberg trumpeted a new design for the Freedom Tower to rise in place of the fallen World Trade Center, a group of families accused the two leaders of cheapening the site's meaning. In recent weeks, a growing number of Sept. 11 families have publicly railed against a planned International Freedom Center at ground zero. Separate from the below-ground memorial, planners say the museum will offer inspiring stories of mankind's progress toward liberty. Detractors charge the IFC is being hijacked by left-wing advisers who blame the United States for the world's wrongs. Mary Fetchet, a Connecticut mom who became an activist when her 24-year-old son died in the trade center, wept as she described what future children from around the world should see when they visit ground zero. "It should just be pure of heart. It should be a place where our families can go to reflect," she said. The families are asking for congressional hearings into how taxpayer money will be used to fund the museum and said they want President Bush's support in the debate. "President Bush came to ground zero shortly after 9/11," said Jack Lynch, whose firefighter son Michael died responding to the 2001 terror attacks. "He stood up with a firefighter there on the fire truck and he made a commitment to us. He didn't talk about the war at that time, but our commitment was that he would make sure that we would be taken care of," said Lynch. "He should now stand up and say this memorial cannot be hijacked, cannot be diluted," Lynch said. A White House spokesman had no immediate comment. The families said they were turning to federal officials for help because city and state leaders have resisted their calls to remove cultural institutions from the plans. Gov. Pataki on Wednesday again gave his assurances that the museum's content will be respectful. "I understand their concerns and I think I've made it very plain that I share their concerns. Were not going to allow any facility, any entity at the memorial site to in any way engage in any activity or speech or displays that are going to denigrate the heroes we lost on September 11th, denigrate America, denigrate the concept of freedom," Pataki said. But the families upset about the museum say the governor's answer amounts to censorship. Far better, they argue, would be to simply remove such artistic debates from the 16-acre site. The group plans to visit other Sept. 11 memorials around the country, including one in Anthony, Kansas, to gather public support for their position and show how other cities and towns have built monuments without acrimony. "We think that New York could learn an awful lot from Anthony, Kansas," said Edie Lutnick, whose brother Gary died on Sept. 11. The families blame the governor and mayor because they appoint board members to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., which is directing the ground zero rebuilding effort. LMDC director Roland Betts, a fraternity brother and close friend of George W. Bush, has defended the museum, saying planners always intended to incorporate the arts into the rebuilt site. IFC chairman Tom Bernstein said in a statement Wednesday, "We are confident the International Freedom Center can and will be an integral part of the living memorial, helping tell the story of 9/11 while honoring mankind's march toward freedom and highlighting America's role as a beacon for freedom throughout the world." ___P> On the Net: International Freedom Center: http://www.ifcwtc.org/index.html Petition: http://www.takebackthememorial.com/ Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press

9/11 Families Protest Cultural Plans at Ground Zero
From Phil Hirschkorn CNN, June 21, 2005
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Dozens of relatives who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001, attacks are protesting plans for cultural institutions on the World Trade Center site, particularly the International Freedom Center that some families fear will detract from a 9/11 memorial. Family members from support groups gathered Monday at the site to launch a campaign to "take back the memorial" weeks after a model for the first cultural building was unveiled. "If the memorial fails to convey how we as Americans value the loss of life, if it fails to tell the story to those who visit 100 years from now, then we as a nation have failed," said Mary Fetchet, founder of Voices of September 11th, whose son, Brad, 24, died in the twin towers. Families have expressed concern that the cultural buildings will sit adjacent to the 16-acre site reserved for the memorial and an underground museum. The Freedom Center is the most controversial of the proposed four cultural institutions. The others include the Joyce International Dance Theater, Signature Theater Company and a fine arts drawing center. Freedom Center planners said the yet-to-be-determined exhibits will offer a historic "narrative of hope" to complement the memorial. Rebuilding officials said the content will reflect "humankind's quest for freedom." "The organizers of the International Freedom Center say that in order to understand 9/11, we must see exhibits about slavery, segregation and genocide and its impact around the world. This is a history that we all should know and learn, but not here -- not on sacred ground," said Michael Burke, whose brother, Billy, was one of the 343 firefighters killed responding to the attacks. "Nobody is coming to this place to learn about Ukraine democracy or to be inspired by the courage of Tibetan monks. They're coming for September 11." Some families also said they find the size of exhibition space planned for the Freedom Center -- roughly double the 100,000 square feet for an underground memorial -- unfair. "If we put the wrong buildings on this site, the 9/11 memorial will be lost in the abyss. If we put the right buildings on this site, the entire site will seem as a memorial," said Rose Talon, whose slain brother was also a firefighter. "We have another tragedy -- forgetfulness," said Edie Lutnick, whose brother, Gary, worked at Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage atop the north tower where 658 people, more than any employer, lost their lives. "9/11 is being buried underground." The debate erupted in public when one of the September 11 family members on the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, Debra Burlingame, wrote an op-ed column this month in The Wall Street Journal complaining about plans for the site. Burlingame's brother was the pilot of the jetliner al Qaeda hijackers crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington. "Looking generations ahead, people will come to this site and they will want to know what happened on that day and the days going forward, and they'll be confused because the real events of that day will be plunged underground," Burlingame said Monday. "It is a massive, imposing building which dominates the site, and inside there will be nothing -- nothing about September 11." Some families also cited concern that the political nature of the Freedom Center's exhibits could dilute the story of September 11 and become a magnet for disruptive protests. "Do you find a debate about Nazism at Auschwitz? Do you find a debate about the North and the South at Gettysburg?" asked Charles Wolf, who lost his wife, Katherine, in the trade center attacks. Seeking to rebuff the complaints, rebuilding officials pointed to a new poll of 105 September 11 family members that found them nearly evenly split, with 47 percent for the cultural plans and 45 percent against them. The Families of September 11 commissioned the telephone survey. "This vision for the Freedom Center should be a tribute, a celebration of those men and women who through the course of history have moved us forward in our march to freedom," said John Cahill, a special adviser to the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the agency overseeing the rebuilding effort. Cahill and Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman John Whitehead said it was too early to characterize the Freedom Center's content. Whitehead advocated installations for the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and "important events in our history that we are all proud of." "The Freedom Center stands for what was attacked that day here and around the world," Cahill said. "The idea that we are going to allow the Freedom Center to get hijacked from the political right or from the political left is something that none of us will stand for." Whitehead also said the September 11 memorial center will be underground to provide families what they wanted -- access to the bedrock of Ground Zero and the site's thick concrete border "slurry wall" that survived the collapse of the towers. "The memorial has always been and will always be the centerpiece, the heart and soul of our efforts. At six acres in size, it will be an appropriately prominent and moving memorial," Whitehead said. The cultural buildings are part of the master plan for rebuilding the World Trade Center site that architect Daniel Libeskind developed. The plan includes a 1,776-foot-tall Freedom Tower and a massive new train station. Libeskind originally described the buildings as buffers between the high traffic street on the east side of Ground Zero and the memorial plaza. The memorial, chosen after an unprecedented international competition, will feature two reflecting pools where the acre-wide towers once stood.

Ground Zero Museum Panned Focus on Attack, Kin Urge
BY NANCY DILLON, New York Daily News, June 21, 2005
Families of 9/11 victims warned yesterday that a Ground Zero museum highlighting worldwide freedom fights will detract from what should be the site's true focus - the 2001 terror attack. "We think that Martin Luther King deserves to be honored ... but not on the site where 20,000 body parts of 2,749 innocents were recovered," said Edie Lutnick, 45, whose brother, Gary Lutnick, was a managing director for Cantor Fitzgerald on the 104th floor of the north tower. "Instead of being immersed in 9/11, we'll be discussing world politics." Still, officials defended the planned International Freedom Center as a celebration of the liberties the hijackers tried to crush. The center will serve as a buffer between the surrounding commercial buildings and the 9/11 memorial. "We were attacked that day because of our values, because of our freedom," said John Cahill, Gov. Pataki's point man on Ground Zero development. "So to the extent the Freedom Center reflects those values and freedoms, it would be appropriate to have on the site." Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and President Abraham Lincoln likely would fit into the freedom center's mission, Cahill said. But outraged kin said they're worried the center will draw attention away from 9/11, and invite political debates and protests unbecoming the hallowed, 16-acre site. "If you want to debate, go to Columbia or NYU. Don't do it on the ashes of all these people," said Debra Burlingame, who lost her pilot brother on 9/11. Rosaleen Tallon, who lost her firefighter brother Sean Tallon, pictured a day when her now 2-year-old daughter Judey visits the museum and sees photos of overseas atrocities. "Will she think 9/11 is something to be ashamed of?" Tallon asked. "If we put the wrong [institutions] here, the 9/11 memorial will be lost in the abyss." The demonstration by a group calling itself "Take Back the Memorial" drew about 100 family members. Construction of the $350 million underground memorial - which will include displays of artifacts from the 2001 terrorist attacks - is set to begin next year. "You are never going to please everybody," Mayor Bloomberg said. With Michael Saul

Relatives Protest Plan for Museum at 9/11 Memorial Site
By JANON FISHER, New York Times, June 21, 2005
Chanting, "9/11 memorial only," about 200 relatives of those who died in the terrorist attack gathered at ground zero yesterday to express anger over a proposed museum at the site. They said a museum would dilute the purpose of the memorial and dishonor the memory of their relatives. Although plans for the museum, the International Freedom Center, have yet to be completed, its Web site (ifcwtc.org) said it would include an educational and cultural center "that will nurture a global conversation on freedom in our world today." Relatives said they feared that the museum would shift the focus from the victims of the terror attack toward political harangues against United States foreign and domestic policy. Debra Burlingame, whose opinion piece on June 8 in The Wall Street Journal ignited a movement to remove the museum, has focused her anger on the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, Anthony D. Romero, who is an adviser to the museum. "Do we really want to entrust the meaning of Sept. 11 to a man who is calling our secretary of defense, in a time of war, dishonorable and dishonest?" asked Ms. Burlingame, whose brother, Charles F. Burlingame III, was a pilot of the hijacked American Airlines Flight 77. But project coordinators vowed to press forward and held a quickly organized news conference to address the family members' concerns. "It's important what we have here is not a place for political polemics, but a place to memorialize the history of man's march toward freedom and to remember the role that Sept. 11 plays in that important march," said John P. Cahill, appointed by Gov. George E. Pataki in May to lead the rebuilding effort in Lower Manhattan. But relatives at the protest said there should be no political slants at ground zero. "The organizers of the International Freedom Center say that in order to understand 9/11, we must see exhibits about slavery, segregation and genocide and its impact around the world," said Michael Burke, whose brother, Capt. William F. Burke Jr. of the Fire Department, died in the World Trade Center collapse. "This is history that all should know and learn, but not here - not on sacred ground." He added: "Nobody is coming to this place to learn about Ukraine democracy or to be inspired by the courage of Tibetan monks. They're coming for Sept. 11." Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg also defended the idea of the freedom center yesterday and vowed to move forward with plans for it on that site. "You are never going to please everybody," he said. "I don't think any memorial is going to do what they would really like to have; clearly it's not going to bring back their loved ones. But we're trying to remember those who have passed and at the same time build for the future." The relatives vowed to continue the fight against the center. All day long, signatures poured in on an Internet petition on the Web site takebackthememorial.com. "Three thousand people died on their way to work," said Rita Riches, holding a photograph of her son, Firefighter Jimmy Riches. "That's what this is about, nothing else. Absolutely nothing else."

Families of WTC Victims Protest Focus Of 9/11 Memorial Center
NY1 News, June 20, 2005
Families of those lost on September 11th spoke out Monday against plans for the memorial at the World Trade Center site. An International Freedom Center which would have exhibits on slavery, the Holocaust and other human rights issues has been added to the plans for the memorial. At a "Take Back the Memorial" rally at the WTC site today, a coalition of 14 groups representing the families of September 11th victims said the memorial should focus solely on the victims of the terror attacks. Some fear the Freedom Center will become a forum to issues unrelated to September 11th, and will hijack the memorial meant to honor their loved ones. Family members who attended the rally held pictures of lost loved ones and wore black and yellow: Black to mourn, honor and remember the victims; and yellow to preserve what they say is sacred ground. "To have an International Freedom Center on this location, on sacred ground, is inappropriate. That should be placed somewhere else, anywhere but this site,” said Jack Lynch of the Coalition of 9/11 Families. "Never in my worst nightmares could I have imagined something as inappropriate and insulting to my husband’s memory as the International Freedom Center,” said Monica Iken of September's Mission. “It must be removed from the site." “The International Freedom Center must be removed. It has nothing to do with February 26, 1993, and nothing to do with September 11, 2001,” said family member Bill Doyle. “The American people have been fooled." The coalition believes those involved with the rebuilding process have lost sight of what they say should be the project's purpose. “They told the Family Advisory Council that they were putting up a memorial complex, and then they used the usual old bait and switch and after a while we found out it was going to be a cultural center, which nobody agreed to and nobody wants," said Lynch. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation says the Freedom Center was part of architect Daniel Libeskind's original plans, and would serve as a buffer between the memorial site and commercial activity. “The Freedom Center is also going to remind people why we were attacked that day, why man's march to freedom has threatened those who don't respect democracy and who don’t respect freedom, and I think that is a fitting statement to make at the site," said John Cahill, Governor George Pataki's Chief of Staff. “I don't think any memorial is ever going to do what they really want to have, which is bring back the loved ones, but we're trying to remember those of the past and at the same time build for the future, and there are lots of different interests in what that future should be,” said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Some fear an International Freedom Center at the site will draw unwanted attention. “Do you want the memorial quadrant of this land to be a magnet for protests? No,” said Charles Wolf, who lost his son on 9/11. “Do you want it to be a place for reflection and remembrance among the hubub of the city? Yes." Family members are asking the public to support them by writing to local politicians and by signing their petition against plans for the International Freedom Center. For more information, visit www.takebackthememorial.com. Meanwhile, $16 million in grants is set to bolster medical care for thousands World Trade Center first responders. The money comes from the American Red Cross Liberty Disaster Relief Fund. Right now, several federally funded programs screen and monitor 15,000 first responders. The grant would boost those programs by covering their medical treatment costs for the next two years. It will also provide social support services for those most seriously affected by the attacks. Seven groups will split up the money including the FDNY, which received $5 million.

Families Protest WTC Freedom Museum
BY PRADNYA JOSHI, New York Newsday, June 20, 2005
Ground Zero officials defended plans to build a museum on freedom at the site as dozens of victims' relatives Monday launched a nationwide effort calling for its removal from the plans. Gov. George Pataki's chief of staff, John Cahill, stressed that rebuilding officials won't allow the museum's mission to be "hijacked from the political right or the political left." "We were attacked that day because of our values and because of our freedom," Cahill said. The center is expected to have exhibits on slavery in America, the Holocaust and global human-rights issues, but families are worried that some of the exhibits could drum up controversy and would take away from the sanctity of the adjacent memorial. Family members held a rally at Ground Zero yesterday as they stepped up their opposition to the center, set to be located in a building next to the Twin Towers' footprints that will be the centerpiece of the memorial slated to open in 2009. "If you put something like that there, it would be a magnet for protesters, said Charles Wolf, 51, of Manhattan, whose wife, Katherine, died on Sept. 11. Relatives are starting a letter-writing campaign to politicians calling for the building housing the International Freedom Center and the less-controversial Drawing Center to be removed from the block housing the 9/11 memorial. "Move it and get it away from the memorial; there's 16 acres of site not being used," said Monica Iken, founder of September's Mission, a victims' advocacy group, who lost her husband on the 84th floor of the South Tower. Lower Manhattan Development Corp. Chairman John C. Whitehead said continued controversy over the site will hurt fund-raising efforts. "Unity is terribly important if we're going to raise the $500 million to build these things," said Whitehead, who is also heading the nonprofit World Trade Center Memorial Foundation raising money for the memorial and the museum complex. Controversy escalated after an op-ed piece appeared June 7 in the Wall Street Journal written by Debra Burlingame, a sister of the pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon. Burlingame claimed the International Freedom Center will be "force-fed by ideologues hoping to use the memorial" to promote their own agendas. In a telephone poll conducted by a group called Families of Sept. 11 that sampled 105 relatives, family members are evenly divided about whether it is appropriate to put the museum right next to the memorial site. Despite the concerns, International Freedom Center president Richard Tofel said he doesn't expect the center will host "frivolous" debates that would offend victims' families. "The 9/11 attacks were indefensible; if someone disagrees, I don't think that debate belongs here," Tofel said. "On the other hand, there is debate to be had about what's the best way to bring freedom to the Ukraine." Staff writer Denisa R. Superville contributed to this story.

The Great Ground Zero Heist
By DEBRA BURLINGAME, June 7, 2005
On Memorial Day weekend, three Marines from the 24th Expeditionary Unit who had been wounded in Iraq were joined by 300 other service members for a wreath-laying ceremony at the empty pit of Ground Zero. The broken pieces of the Twin Towers have long ago been cleared away. There are no faded flags or hand-painted signs of national unity, no simple tokens of remembrance. So why do they come? What do they hope to see? The World Trade Center Memorial will break ground this year. When those Marines return in 2010, the year it is scheduled to open, no doubt they will expect to see the artifacts that bring those memories to life. They'll want a vantage point that allows them to take in the sheer scope of the destruction, to see the footage and the photographs and hear the personal stories of unbearable heartbreak and unimaginable courage. They will want the memorial to take them back to who they were on that brutal September morning. Instead, they will get a memorial that stubbornly refuses to acknowledge the yearning to return to that day. Rather than a respectful tribute to our individual and collective loss, they will get a slanted history lesson, a didactic lecture on the meaning of liberty in a post-9/11 world. They will be served up a heaping foreign policy discussion over the greater meaning of Abu Ghraib and what it portends for the country and the rest of the world. * * * The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary "gateway" to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on "a journey through the history of freedom" -- but do not be fooled into thinking that their idea of freedom is the same as that of those Marines. To the IFC's organizers, it is not only history's triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man's inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich's Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona. The public will be confused at first, and then feel hoodwinked and betrayed. Where, they will ask, do we go to see the September 11 Memorial? The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation will have erected a building whose only connection to September 11 is a strained, intellectual one. While the IFC is getting 300,000 square feet of space to teach us how to think about liberty, the actual Memorial Center on the opposite corner of the site will get a meager 50,000 square feet to exhibit its 9/11 artifacts, all out of sight and underground. Most of the cherished objects which were salvaged from Ground Zero in those first traumatic months will never return to the site. There is simply no room. But the International Freedom Center will have ample space to present us with exhibits about Chinese dissidents and Chilean refugees. These are important subjects, but for somewhere -- anywhere -- else, not the site of the worst attack on American soil in the history of the republic. More disturbing, the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. is handing over millions of federal dollars and the keys to that building to some of the very same people who consider the post-9/11 provisions of the Patriot Act more dangerous than the terrorists that they were enacted to apprehend -- people whose inflammatory claims of a deliberate torture policy at Guantanamo Bay are undermining this country's efforts to foster freedom elsewhere in the world. * * * The driving force behind the IFC is Tom Bernstein, the dynamic co-founder of the Chelsea Piers Sports and Entertainment Complex who made a fortune financing Hollywood movies. But his capital ventures appear to have funded his true calling, the pro bono work he has done his entire adult life -- as an activist lawyer in the human rights movement. He has been a proud member of Human Rights First since it was founded -- as the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights -- 27 years ago, and has served as its president for the last 12. The public has a right to know that it was Mr. Bernstein's organization, joined by the American Civil Liberties Union, that filed a lawsuit three months ago against Donald Rumsfeld on behalf of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. It was Human Rights First that filed an amicus brief on behalf of alleged "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla, an American citizen who the Justice Department believes is an al Qaeda recruit. It was Human Rights First that has called for a 9/11-style commission to investigate the alleged torture of detainees, complete with budget authority, subpoena power and the ability to demand that witnesses testify under oath. In fact, the IFC's list of those who are shaping or influencing the content and programming for their Ground Zero exhibit includes a Who's Who of the human rights, Guantanamo-obsessed world: • Michael Posner, executive director at Human Rights First who is leading the world-wide "Stop Torture Now" campaign focused entirely on the U.S. military. He has stated that Mr. Rumsfeld's refusal to resign in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal is "irresponsible and dishonorable." • Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU, who is pushing IFC organizers for exhibits that showcase how civil liberties in this country have been curtailed since September 11. • Eric Foner, radical-left history professor at Columbia University who, even as the bodies were being pulled out of a smoldering Ground Zero, wrote, "I'm not sure which is more frightening: the horror that engulfed New York City or the apocalyptic rhetoric emanating daily from the White House." This is the same man who participated in a "teach-in" at Columbia to protest the Iraq war, during which a colleague exhorted students with, "The only true heroes are those who find ways to defeat the U.S. military," and called for "a million Mogadishus." The IFC website has posted Mr. Foner's statement warning that future discussions should not be "overwhelmed" by the IFC's location at the World Trade Center site itself. • George Soros, billionaire founder of Open Society Institute, the nonprofit foundation that helps fund Human Rights First and is an early contributor to the IFC. Mr. Soros has stated that the pictures of Abu Ghraib "hit us the same way as the terrorist attack itself." While Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and LMDC are focusing their attention on the economic revival of lower Manhattan, there has been no meaningful oversight with respect to the "cash cow of Ground Zero." Meanwhile, the Freedom Center's organizers are quickly lining up individuals, institutions and university provosts with this arrogant appeal: "The memorial to the victims will be the heart of the site, the IFC will be the brain." Indeed, they have declared the World Trade Center Memorial the perfect "magnet" for the world's "great leaders, thinkers and activists" to participate in lectures and symposiums that examine the "foundations of free and open societies." Put less grandly, these activists and academics are salivating at the prospect of holding forth on the "perfect platform" where the domestic and foreign policy they despise was born. Less welcome to the Freedom Center are the actual beneficiaries of that policy. According to the New York Times, early renderings of the center's exhibit area created by its Norwegian architectural firm depicted a large mural of an Iraqi voter. That image was replaced by a photograph of Martin Luther King and Lyndon Johnson when the designs were made public. What does it mean that the "story of humankind's quest for freedom" doesn't include the kind that is fought for with the blood and tears of patriots? It means, I fear, that this is a freedom center which will not use the word "patriot" the way our Founding Fathers did. * * * The so-called lessons of September 11 should not be force-fed by ideologues hoping to use the memorial site as nothing more than a powerful visual aid to promote their agenda. Instead of exhibits and symposiums about Internationalism and Global Policy we should hear the story of the courageous young firefighter whose body, cut in half, was found with his legs entwined around the body of a woman. Recovery personnel concluded that because of their positions, the young firefighter was carrying her. The people who visit Ground Zero in five years will come because they want to pay their respects at the place where heroes died. They will come because they want to remember what they saw that day, because they want a personal connection, to touch the place that touched them, the place that rallied the nation and changed their lives forever. I would wager that, if given a choice, they would rather walk through that dusty hanger at JFK Airport where 1,000 World Trade Center artifacts are stored than be herded through the International Freedom Center's multi-million dollar insult. Ground Zero has been stolen, right from under our noses. How do we get it back? Ms. Burlingame is a member of the board of directors of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and the sister of Charles F. "Chic" Burlingame III, pilot of American Airlines fight 77, which was crashed at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

Pathway to a memorial Cultural Complex at Trade Center will house two museums, framing ‘gateway’ for visitors to footprints
By PRADNYA JOSHI STAFF WRITER. Newsday, May 20, 2005
Another piece of Ground Zero redevelopment took shape yesterday as public officials showed off a bold design for the new World Trade Center Cultural Complex. The building, to be located on the block with the memorial plaza, won't be directly related to the remembrance of Sept. 11, but will instead house two museums under one roof: the newly created International Freedom Center as well as the existing Drawing Center, currently in SoHo. Gov. George Pataki, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and officials from the museums joined Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan for the unveiling of the design. The glass-and-wood building is estimated to cost $200 million and is to open in 2009. The building will be raised off the ground, creating a pathway that most memorial visitors will walk under on their way to the "footprints" of the twin towers incorporated in architect Michael Arad's design for a memorial. But several family members yesterday again expressed their dismay about having an unrelated building on the memorial plaza site. "We don't want anything piggybacking off the memorial," said Monica Iken, founder of September's Mission. "You're diluting 9/11. The memorial needs to stand alone." The unveiling of the design was another step forward in the complex rebuilding work at Ground Zero that has been fraught with politics, fingerpointing and delays. But now, with a creative design to show off, Pataki noted that most of the lower Manhattan projects are on track. "The new cultural center will be both a gateway to the memorial and a window to a bright future," said Craig Dykers of Snøhetta, who presented the design with partner Kjetil Thorsen. But Edith Lutnick, executive director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund, said visitors to the memorial will be confused about how the cultural center fits in. "It's not appropriate to have anything on the memorial ... [block] that's not related to the memorial," she said. And Iken, whose husband was on the 84th floor of the South Tower, said more than 1,000 family members who've been contacted want to see the museum on a different site. Speaking at a park opening, Bloomberg said, "We don't have a lot of alternatives. I think adding the cultural component to the site is a very good memorial to those we lost; it says that they didn't die in vain." The design "represents the spirit of what an open society means," said Rick Bell, executive director of the American Institute of Architects. The newly created International Freedom Center will include exhibits and lectures promoting the idea of freedom and human rights. The Drawing Center - which displays sketches by artists, including Picasso and others, both famous and upcoming - will also get a big boost in visibility given its location. The center has a $1.8 million operating budget. Libeskind's plan also calls for the Performing Arts Center to be located next to the Freedom Tower and designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry. John Whitehead, chairman of the state agency, said plans are on track for a design to be made public next year but said costs are running above the $200 million budgeted. Staff writer Bryan Virasami contributed to this story. Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.

All Sides Square Off Anew in Effort for Consensus on the Freedom Tower
By Glenn Collins New York Times, May 6, 2005
As the focus at ground zero has suddenly veered to the Freedom Tower and the rough-and-tumble blame game involving its security redesign, the most vocal members of a powerful constituency - the Sept. 11, 2001, families - have seized the hour to be heard above the growing clamor of politicians, developers, architects, cultural administrators, community advocates and other Lower Manhattan stakeholders. Relatives of the 2,749 World Trade Center victims, and other interested parties, have until 5 p.m. today to formally express their concerns about the memorial's evolving design. That witching hour officially halts the period of public commentary on a new round of amendments to the reconstruction effort's originally approved environmental assessment. September's Mission and several other family groups have objected to many of the announced amendments, among them reducing the number of pedestrian ramps into the memorial to two from four. They say that this would recreate the claustrophobic experience of fleeing from the twin towers, and that it would pose a hazard if the projected 2,000 visitors per hour had to exit in an emergency. At least eight of the dozens of trade-center groups have blitzed hundreds of families with e-mail messages encouraging them to "Make Sure That the Families' Voices Are Heard," as one of the entreaties put it. "We feel it's now or never," said the executive director of the World Trade Center United Family Group, Anthony Gardner, whose brother, Harvey Joseph Gardner III, died in the north tower. "People are putting egos aside and we've come together again, because we feel the memorial concerns are being ignored. Originally the memorial was the heart of the site, and now it's getting less and less important." The founder of September's Mission, Monica Iken, whose husband, Michael, died in the south tower, said that "everyone is talking about the Freedom Tower, but the memorial is all that many of us will have of our loved ones, and it has to be done right." Kevin M. Rampe, president of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which is overseeing the project and the public-comment process, said of the changes that "the reason the number of ramps was reduced from four to two was that our consultants told us that was the best way to provide security there." Beyond that, he said, the importance of the trade center memorial has been undiminished. And, he added, some of the family critics were using the environmental-comment period "as an opportunity to rehash issues that have been out there since the beginning." Some of the family groups insist on direct access to the trade-center bedrock at the tower footprints, considering it sacred ground that offers the only connection to their loved ones, since the remains of 42 percent of the victims - including those of Ms. Iken's and Mr. Gardner's relatives - have not been identified. Current plans appear to require family members to traverse the spaces occupied by tourists and by graphic exhibits about Sept. 11, 2001 . "We have plans that will allow people to have access to bedrock and the columns separately," said Michael Arad, the architect who designed the memorial. "We have met with the families every step of the way," he said, "and we will continue to." Other design criticism from family groups centers around the streetwalls - or heights of buildings facing the streets - which, according to the proposed site changes, could be as high as 150 feet, a prospect that could be "forbidding and unwelcoming" to pedestrians, Ms. Iken said, "and could detract from the memorial, shadowing it." To Mr. Rampe, though, "the streetwall height is exactly the same as across the street at the World Financial Center." "This was an aesthetic decision," he added, "to make it correspond with surrounding architecture." Mr. Arad said, "We are trying to give the memorial quadrant a strong definition, so it can be a counterpoint to the development around it." Important elements of the memorial design are now under intensive study in Richmond Hill, Ontario, just north of Toronto. There, a consultant to the memorial design team has constructed a full-scale mockup of one corner of one of the voids. Water troughs at the upper level empty into a pool below, in a test of one of the most critical elements of the memorial: the walls of water that will cascade down all four sides of each enormous void. Architects are experimenting with ways to reduce noise, splashing, freezing, blowing and clogging. The public commentary process that ends today is made mandatory not only by New York State environmental law, but also by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which has awarded $2.78 billion in grants to the development corporation for the rebuilding effort. The development corporation has the authority to choose among the comments it receives - some 400 arrived by yesterday - and the power to enact the changes it sees fit. The public-comment process "is not a meaningless exercise," Mr. Rampe said, pointing out that the original plan was altered in many respects, including the access to bedrock and the preservation of trade center remnants at the towers' footprints. The family members are highly diverse, and some said that none of the disparate and sometimes fractious Sept. 11 groups could speak for all the families in regard to progress at ground zero. "We never thought it would be smooth sailing, and I think that a lot has been accomplished on the site," said Paula Berry, a member of the Families Advisory Council. "On the whole the L.M.D.C. has done an incredible job, and they have made great effort to be transparent." But Frederic M. Bell, executive director of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, echoed charges of some of the family activists in saying that the development corporation "has not put out enough public information for the public to weigh in." "The L.M.D.C. garnered input early on," he added, "but that has diminished, and there is not enough public discourse on how the project has evolved." His organization has filed an entry in the public-comment process. Mr. Rampe has rejected any extension of the public-comment period, as some family groups requested. But to Mr. Bell: "The comment period ends when people stop commenting. So the comment period never ends." In keeping with that reality, some family members are also taking issue with long-known aspects of the project plan, including the prominence of the cultural buildings that, they say, encroach on the memorial. "We've ended up with a memorial that's underground, with a museum that's hovering over the site," said Mary Fetchet, the founding director of Voices of Sept. 11, who lost her son, Bradley, in the south tower. Families are also concerned that visitors will be confused by the International Freedom Center. "You're going to think that's the 9/11 museum," said Edie Lutnick, executive director of the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund. Because the program planned for the center will not be purely commemorative, some say it does not belong there. She and others suggest moving the cultural institutions into the bases of the commercial buildings on the site. "You've got 10 million square feet of unrented office space," Ms. Lutnick said. "Put it there." The development corporation has said this is not under consideration. Ms. Fetchet said she would urge Gov. George E. Pataki to "take a leadership role and scrutinize what's being done to the memorial." "If the memorial fails," she added, "the governor fails." David W. Dunlap and Robin Pogrebin contributed reporting for this article.

HEARTBREAKING EMPTY GRAVES ARE LEGACY OF 9/11 LOST SOULS
By STEPHANIE GASKELL, February 24, 2005
February 24, 2005 -- It's a grave without a body — a searing reminder of the violence of that day and the enduring heartache of those whose loved ones were taken from them on 9/11. Elaine Leinung lost both her son and her cousin in the World Trade Center attacks — but she has been able to bring home only one of them, her cousin. Now, the city Medical Examiner's Office has called off the effort to identify remains, dashing any hope for the time being that Leinung will be able to bury her son, 22-year-old Paul Battaglia, beneath the headstone that she has for him. He is one of more than 1,100 unidentified victims. It was Leinung's cousin, Harry Taback, 56, who helped Paul get a job at insurance brokerage Marsh & McLennan on the 100th floor of the north tower. Today, Taback and Battaglia both have headstones at a cemetery in Staten Island — Taback's grave holds his remains, identified more than a year ago, while Battaglia's grave is empty. "I wanted someplace that we could go to and say that he was here and he was a member of our family," said Leinung, of Brooklyn. "It was really important to me that I could feel that he was here. "I felt that he could see us doing it, and that was important to me," she said, holding back tears. "The priest even blessed the stone." Leinung said it brought her comfort to know that, in a way, her son and cousin are still together. "They were killed together. They should be buried together," she said. "I've kind of made peace with it." Although she once hoped to bury her son, Leinung said she has come to terms with the fact that the his remains may never be found or identified. "I always knew that he could not get out," she said. "I kind of always knew that we wouldn't get any remains back because he was so high up in the building." After hearing that the ME's Office had stopped trying to identify remains, Leinung said she actually was a little relieved. "It's really not going to bring me any comfort," she said. "It's only going to bring back memories of 'How did he go?' "You don't want to leave a piece of your loved one unclaimed somewhere. "On the other hand, it's like, how much can you go through?" Leinung has put up a "shrine" in her home, consisting of mementos, photos and poems about her son. She also visits his grave on Staten Island, where his headstone identifies him as "Victim of World Trade Center tragedy." "I didn't want people to think he was killed by a drunk driver or was using drugs or something," she said. Others who lost relatives whose remains were not identified were stirred by the Medical Examiner's Office announcement. Monica Iken, who lost her husband, Michael, called the suspension of efforts to identify victims "disturbing information." But she holds out hope that new DNA techniques will be developed. She also takes comfort in the idea that there may be a memorial park for 9/11 victims. "If I never get my husband back, at least we can have a place to go," she said. "That will connect him with his spirit." Bill Doyle bought a plot for his son Joey, a Cantor Fitzgerald worker. "Now there's nothing in it," he said. "I was going to have Joseph being with my wife and I. Now I don't know what we're going to do there." Charles Wolf, whose wife Katherine, 47, worked on the 97th floor of the north tower, still can't muster the courage to claim her jewelry and other personal effects. "The form is still sitting on my desk," he said. "I haven't even read it yet." But Wolf said the close ties he had with his wife will never be lost. "The force within us that makes you you and me me never dies," he said.

Identification of 9/11 Victims Reaches Limits of Technology
By Michael Powell, February 24, 2005
Identification of 9/11 Victims Reaches Limits of Technology NEW YORK, Feb. 23 -- They are the unknown lost, the 1,161 victims of the World Trade Center attacks whose bodies could remain forever unidentified.. The city medical examiner's office said Wednesday that it is halting the painstaking job of trying to identify more remains of those who died in the 2001 attacks on the twin towers in Lower Manhattan. Forty-two percent of the 2,749 victims remain unidentified. For more than three years, forensic experts labored over bone and tissue fragments, trying to extract strands of DNA to divine the identities of lost fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends. "This is a pause -- we've exhausted the limits of the technology as it exists today," said Ellen Borakove, the New York medical examiner's spokeswoman. "But the doctors have promised -- promised -- that we will never say 'case closed.' " Staffers at the medical examiner's office had been notifying families for three weeks when the news broke this week of the pause. Few of the families expressed much surprise, and fewer still faulted the efforts of the doctors and technicians who worked so long. Sally Regenhard lost her son, Christian, in the collapse of the towers. He was a strapping 28-year-old firefighter with a love of painting and books, and he was at his stationhouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn, when the emergency call came on Sept. 11. Regenhard has no idea which tower her son ran into. "Oh, God, it puts an end to hope that we might get some sort of answer," Regenhard said. "For me, the chance to find out what exactly happened to my son is over. For so many families of firefighters, our sons and husbands have disappeared into death." Monica Iken's husband, Michael, was a bond broker, working on the 84th floor of the South Tower. No part of her husband has been found. "The emptiness of not taking someone home is beyond being able to explain," said Iken, 34, a schoolteacher by training who now leads September's Mission, an organization dedicated to creating a memorial. "But you also get to a point where what are you going to get back? A fragment of a person? Is that my husband?" In the days after the attacks, hundreds of forensic pathologists, anthropologists, dentists and doctors -- many of them volunteers -- flocked to three huge tents outside the East Side Manhattan headquarters of the medical examiner's office. There they pored over body parts large and small, taking fingerprints and tooth prints and X-rays, and where possible seeking a match with a list of those missing. They made hundreds of relatively quick identifications in those first weeks and months. Then began a more laborious process. The office collected hair and saliva samples from thousands of families, and set about trying to extract DNA from almost 20,000 body parts collected from more than 2 million tons of debris. This involved standard DNA analysis, which attempts to read sequences of DNA that are several letters long. But it also forced scientists to explore new forensic techniques, in which they attempted to extract much smaller fragments of degraded DNA. This went on for years before the forensic scientists realized that they had butted up against the outer wall of existing technology. "I'm still driven by the families," Robert Shaler, director of forensic biology at the medical examiner's office, told reporters in 2003. "When I see these people, they look at me with eyes that say, 'Did you find her yet?' But when you're only turning out a couple a week. . . . It's hard." The city has 9,720 unidentified body parts, which biologists have freeze-dried and carefully stored, in hopes that someday new technology will allow for a reexamination. Regenhard had a memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral for her son on Oct. 26, 2001 -- she knew long ago that she would never retrieve his body. "One of these days, one day, I'll have a proper burial in a cemetery," Regenhard said. "I'll put in his mountain-climbing gear, his Spanish-language books, his artwork." "It seems so strange." She inhaled deeply and paused. "Don't I have to do this? Don't I have to put up a tombstone and let someone know that this great kid lived his life?"

New Board Of Directors Chosen For WTC Memorial
December 1, 2004
A new board of directors was chosen Wednesday to build, own and operate the World Trade Center memorial. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Governor George Pataki were on hand for the announcement at 3 World Financial Center. Among the 31 board members of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation are business leaders, philanthropists and victims’ families. The list includes Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, actor Robert De Niro, broadcaster Barbara Walters, and Monica Iken, who lost her husband Michael in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the WTC. “I just really feel that Michael is looking down on me now and is honored that I’m here for him and all those who are not here anymore,” said Iken. The four living former U.S. presidents – Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford - will serve as honorary members of the board. “Generations from now, people not just from around America but from around the globe will come here, and they will want to have that same feeling of what happened and the ability to appreciate and understand the magnitude of the sacrifice and the loss,” said Pataki. “There isn't a more noble task before us than to honor the [more than] 2,700 souls who lost their lives on September 11,” said Bloomberg. It took months to put the board together, and it still doesn't have a leader. Several big names turned down the job, so John Whitehead of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation will be in charge for now. Officials insist they aren't having problems finding a permanent chair. “It's not a matter of picking somebody who can raise the most money and is the biggest philanthropist. The key here is the individual who is going to lead this foundation is going to have a real moral responsibility,” said the LMDC’s Kevin Rampe. The board is responsible for raising $500 million for the memorial and cultural institution at the site. The memorial, called “Reflecting Absence,” will include reflecting pools and sunken voids around the footprints of the twin towers. The site will also serve as a final resting place for all unidentified remains of those killed in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and February 26, 1993.

September's Mission Launches "The Living Memorial"
Venture Backed by Grants From E*TRADE FINANCIAL and Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, September 8, 2004
New York, N.Y., September 8, 2004 – September’s Mission today announced the launch of “The Living Memorial.” The project will provide a dynamic, Internet-based knowledge management portal of reflection, remembrance, interaction, education and scholarly research about the tragedy of September 11, 2001. “We are incredibly grateful to Governor Pataki, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) and E*TRADE FINANCIAL for having the vision to recognize the importance and necessity of this project,” said Monica Iken, founder of September’s Mission. “This is the last year families will be able to descend to ground zero on the anniversary until the memorial opens to the public, and this project will help provide an interim place to begin healing the void in our hearts.” The requirements for the full portal, to be located at www.911livingmemorial.org, will be developed over the next six months through an inclusive, family-driven effort with assistance from technology consultants and expert volunteers in a number of interdisciplinary fields. Twin-Soft, a leading provider of data management and custom software solutions, has been retained to conduct the initial program requirements analysis for the portal. Build out of the actual portal will begin in the Spring of 2005 after accepting competitive proposals. The first two modules will be dedicated to 9/11 victims’ and children, providing a positive place for families to come together to honor loved ones, document their lives, learn and heal. Over time, the “Living Memorial” will grow to become the essential information resource, online repository and archive of all information related to the events, places and people on and after 9/11. “Following the tragedy of September 11, our employees and customers wanted to contribute in a tangible way to the healing and rebuilding that would follow," said Russ Elmer, general counsel and corporate secretary of E*TRADE FINANCIAL. "We established the E*TRADE Disaster Relief Fund, and our employees and customers contributed generously. After much searching, we are proud to have selected September’s Mission as the beneficiary of these contributions. We are confident that September’s Mission will serve a worthy and lasting cause by making a meaningful difference in the lives impacted by September 11." All of the proceeds from the E*TRADE September 11 Disaster Relief Fund, totaling $514,000, have been invested to support the stability and growth of the Living Memorial. E*TRADE FINANCIAL is also providing expertise and in-kind resources to this endeavor. In addition, Russ Elmer, corporate secretary and general counsel of E*TRADE FINANCIAL, has been elected to the Board of Directors of September's Mission. "The creation of an online virtual memorial that can be viewed around the world and tell the stories of those we lost that fateful day is essential in the healing process," said LMDC President Kevin M. Rampe. "In May of this year, Governor Pataki called on the LMDC to offer family members a place to remember their loved ones in peace and a place to come together in unity while a permanent memorial is being constructed. We are proud to support September's Mission and the Living Memorial as one of the projects that will achieve this goal." The Living Memorial is also made possible by a $296,900 grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC), which is funded through Community Development Block Grants from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Governor George E. Pataki, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, LMDC Chairman John C. Whitehead and LMDC President Kevin M. Rampe were instrumental in advancing this important family-driven initiative. To learn more about this project or how to get involved, please visit: www.911LivingMemorial.org About September’s Mission September’s Mission is to support the development of the memorial at the World Trade Center site that ties into the overall redevelopment of Lower Manhattan, and to ensure its future sustainability through public/private partnerships. It is a 501 (c)(3) organization. For more information, please visit: www.septembersmission.org. About E*TRADE FINANCIAL The E*TRADE FINANCIAL family of companies provide financial services including brokerage, banking and lending for retail, corporate and institutional customers. Securities products and services are offered by E*TRADE Securities LLC (Member NASD/SIPC). Bank and lending products and services are offered by E*TRADE Bank, a Federal savings bank, Member FDIC, or its subsidiaries. www.etrade.com. About the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation was created in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 by Governor Pataki and then-Mayor Giuliani to help plan and coordinate the rebuilding and revitalization of Lower Manhattan, defined as everything south of Houston Street. The LMDC is a joint State-City corporation governed by a 16-member Board of Directors, half appointed by the Governor of New York and half by the Mayor of New York. LMDC is charged with ensuring Lower Manhattan recovers from the attacks and emerges even better than it was before. The centerpiece of LMDC’s efforts is the creation of a permanent memorial honoring those lost, while affirming the democratic values that came under attack on September 11.

A Sense Of Mission
September 11, 2001
A SENSE OF MISSION (Excerpt from NY Times September 11th, 2006 article, "The Hole in the City's Heart.") A few weeks after Sept. 11, Monica Iken was trying to wrap her arms around the idea that her husband, Michael, a bond trader, had gone to work one morning and would never return home. Ms. Iken, who was then 31 and looking forward to starting a family, had been listening numbly to radio and television reports, but the early chatter about rebuilding the trade center startled her into feeling. She burst out of her bedroom. “They’re going to build over dead people,” she told the relatives gathered to keep her company. “I can’t let that happen. I have to go on a mission.” Ms. Iken’s family treated her pronouncement as if she were unhinged by grief, she recalled. “They said, ‘You’ve just lost your husband. You don’t know what you’re saying. What do you mean, a mission? Who are you to do that?’ ” That was a question that all the family advocates would face at one time, but like Ms. Iken, they were driven to speak out. Tall and willowy, Ms. Iken found herself in front of television cameras right after Sept. 11, when she was waiting outside a hospital to learn if her husband was a John Doe inside. Over the years, people would take potshots at her for what they saw as glorying in the spotlight. One Lower Manhattan community advocate told a reporter that Ms. Iken used to attend public meetings with a makeup artist, which Ms. Iken, sighing, denied. Ms. Iken said that she only availed herself of the spotlight that found her first. In those first few months, Ms. Iken, unaware of the real estate complexities that would become paramount, began pushing the idea that all 16 acres should be preserved as a memorial. The idea caught on, and, thrilling her, Rudolph W. Giuliani embraced it in his farewell mayoral address in December 2001. “I really believe that we shouldn’t think about the site out there, right beyond us, as a site for economic development,” Mr. Giuliani said. “We really have to be able to do with it what they did with Normandy or Valley Forge or Bunker Hill or Gettysburg. We have to be able to create something here that enshrines this forever.” To read the entire NY Times article, please copy and paste this link into your browser: http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A14F83F550C728DDDA00894DE404482

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