VOICES is expanding its mental health program and seeking a full-time masters level trained professional to add to the staff. Click here for further information.

The NYPD Property Clerk's Office has catalogued roughly 135,000 personal items recovered from Ground Zero and Fresh Kills landfill, and so far, 113,400 have been returned to the victim's families, officials said, according to the New York Post. Of the 1,779 pieces of jewelry found — including wedding bands, watches and necklaces — only 430 remain unclaimed. Beginning in Families filled out an electronic claim form developed with the help of Tiffany & Co. which asked for detailed descriptions of the missing jewelry. The claims were cross-checked and returned to family members after a positive ID. Recovering the personal objects of loved ones is very important to 9/11 families. In an Associated Press article, Jay Winuk, who lost his brother Glenn on 9/11 and recently received his brother’s wristwatch from the Property Clerk explains, “To be able to connect with something my brother was wearing that day is hard to describe. ... It closes the loop in some way."

However, some family members have had difficulty recovering items, and call the Property Clerk's procedures unnecessarily complex and daunting.

In the aftermath of 9/11, many families traveled to Ground Zero to contemplate the massive void created by the loss of their loved ones in the Twin Towers. The void was apparent not only in so many aching hearts, but also literally in the massive pit that emerged from the recovery effort. The foundations of the great towers stretched 70 feet below street level, to bedrock, where the Towers’ absence was poignantly evoked by their visible foundation bases, or "footprints." For many family members, the footprints came to symbolize their loss, and became sacred ground because of the lives lost on 9/11.

Quickly, the families became involved in the planning stages for construction of a 9/11 Memorial at the heart of a redeveloped World Trade Center. Many families felt the footprints of the Towers should be preserved for future visitors to understand the enormity of the loss on 9/11. Governor George Pataki had these concerns in mind when he told a meeting of family members in June 2002, ''Where the towers stood is hallowed ground and will always be a lasting memorial for those that were lost,'' as quoted in a New York Times article. Pataki’s rule was incorporated into master planning for rebuilding, and, eventually, the footprints became the focus for the WTC Memorial. Only later did the Governor’s guarantee proved to be less ironclad than many family members expected.

With a master plan from architect Daniel Liebeskind in hand calling for a WTC Memorial to be placed in the 4.7 acre site where the Twin Towers stood, the LMDC began an international competition for the Memorial design in April 2003. The memorial site itself was set 30 feet below ground level, while Liebeskind’s plans called for a 9/11 Museum and Cultural Center that would cover a portion of both the North and South Tower Footprints. However, the guidelines for the memorial competition explicitly state that the design must “make visible the footprints of the World Trade Center Towers,” and the footprints are clearly delineated on the competition site drawings.

In January, 2004, after an international competition with over 5,000 entries, Michael Arad’s “Reflecting Absence” was chosen as the design for the future WTC Memorial. Arad’s winning design was dominated by two reflecting pools to be built on the footprints of the North and South towers. In his statement on the design, Arad commented: “The pools and the ramps that surround them encompass the footprints of the twin towers. A cascade of water that describes the perimeter of each square feeds the pools with a continuous stream. They are large voids, open and visible reminders of the absence.” The preserved WTC footprints stood at the heart of Arad’s winning design, which also features an area set aside for family members at bedrock, forty feet below the memorial level.

In February, 2004, a strong preservation effort by 9/11 families and other groups led the LMDC to determine that the “historical value” of the WTC site was so great that impact on its original features should be minimized during reconstruction. These historical areas, "including the large bathtub, slurry walls and the surviving bases of steel columns [outlining the footprints of the Towers], convey the tragedy and destruction that took place on Sept. 11," according to the report, as quoted in a New York Times article. However, the LMDC quickly took a step back, and began carving out an ambiguous position on what deserved preservation at the site. Five days after its initial report, the LMDC issued an interpretation of the site’s historical value that deprecated the importance of physical remnants. Their report quoted a participant in the historical review process who claimed, “A footprint can be something that is written on the psyche or in the soul and on the heart and not necessarily always in steel and cement and concrete," according to the New York Times. This language sent a disturbing message to WTC families, who stepped up criticism of the LMDC’s changing messages about the footprints.

In an effort to defuse the swelling criticism, Kevin Rampe, the LMDC president at the time, said explicitly in a September 16, 2004 New York Daily News OP-ED article, “Make no mistake, the footprints and the now-exposed box beams that mark the losses of 9/11 also will be preserved in perpetuity. Our commitment is clear - access to and preservation of the footprints will be achieved.” Though Rampe’s statement seemed unambiguous, at the end of 2004, the future of the Twin Tower footprints was very much up in the air.

The perspective of many Family members, however, could not be clearer, and was eloquently expressed by Jack Lynch in a December 7, 2004 NY Daily News OP-ED article. Lynch wrote, in comparing “Reflecting Absence” with the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii: “Standing recently above the sunken Arizona at the Pearl Harbor Memorial, I understood why the memorial at Ground Zero must preserve the sacred bedrock footprints. The Pearl Harbor Memorial spectacularly connects the surface memorial with the sunken graveyard of the Arizona. The 9/11 memorial must make the same kind of connection, too.” But Lynch, like many 9/11 family members was beginning to see the writing on the wall. He noted the contradiction between Rampe’s September 16, 2004 statement, “The Governor declared that there will be no building on the sacred footprints, and we will carry out his edict,” and a more recent statement that, "We will only install necessary infrastructure on the footprints."

Many family members began to express concern that the families were being sidelined in the Memorial process, that the WTC Memorial was beginning to stray from its guiding principles, and that the design and scope of “Reflecting Absence” was being altered in important ways. In 2005 all these concerns were proven well founded. Look for the second part of our investigation into the “ shrinking footprints” of the Twin Towers in next week’s e-Newsletter.

The death-penalty phase of the trial of Zacharias Moussaoui began this week in Federal Court in Alexandria, Virginia. Moussaoui admits to being a member of al-Qaeda, and on April 22nd, 2005 pled guilty to six terrorism-related crimes [read a 2005 New York Times Article] stemming from a plot to fly a hijacked airliner into the White House. However, Moussaoui maintains that his plot was distinct from the 9/11 attacks, and that he was not the “20th hijacker” as some US officials have charged.

Moussaoui was behind bars on September 11th after being arrested on immigration charges and suspicious activity related to flying lessons he took in Minnesota. In the penalty phase of his trial, which begins with opening statements on March 6, the US Government will argue that Moussaoui withheld information on the 9/11 plot when he was interrogated repeatedly over four weeks before the attacks. Because he did not inform interrogators of the imminent attacks, prosecutors will argue, he showed a “reckless disregard for human life" and lied to FBI interrogators "in an especially heinous, cruel and depraved manner," that justifies the death penalty under Federal law, according to a comprehensive Los Angeles Times article.

First, jurors first must determine whether Moussaoui intentionally lied to the FBI in interviews before September 11 about his knowledge of the plan to hijack planes. If the jury decides he did lie, preventing the government from possibly stopping the attacks, another phase of the trial will be held to see whether Moussaoui should be given the death penalty or life in prison. If the jury finds he did not lie, he faces a sentence of life in prison because of his 2005 guilty plea for conspiracy to commit terrorism.

Though Moussaoui does not deny that he plotted against the United States, he does not wish to be executed and plans to vigorously defend his case in the penalty phase. Well-known for his bizarre courtroom antics, Moussaoui has repeatedly tried to act as his own attorney and rejected the counsel of his appointed defense lawyers. At the opening of jury selection Monday, Moussaoui was removed from the courtroom after an outburst where he claimed his lawyers would not defend his rights, saying, “They are not my lawyers. I don't want them to represent me. I'm al Qaeda, they are Americans, they are my enemies,” as quoted in a Reuter's article. His lawyers maintain that Moussaoui’s frequent outbursts are evidence of mental illness, possibly schizophrenia, that should mitigate his crimes and keep him out of the gas chamber, according to a UPI article from January.

The Department of Homeland Security this week unveiled their new website to provide information and resources to young people on personal and community preparedness, “Ready Kids.” The website features Rex the Mountain Lion, an animated readiness maven who helps children learn more about the importance of preparing for natural disasters and terrorist attacks. DHS hopes Rex will be as popular and iconic as previous animals used to market government initiatives, such as forest-fire fighter Smokey the Bear and McGruff the Crime Dog, who encourages kids to “take a bite out of crime.”

“Preparedness is not just a government challenge,” DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff said in a ceremony in Chicago to kick off the program. “We must all have a plan, as well as capabilities and resources,” Chertoff added, as quoted in a Medill News Service article. Ready Kids materials already have been distributed to 135,000 middle-school teachers in the 25 largest U.S. cities. However, the schools have significant leeway in how to integrate the campaign into their curriculum.

The $2.77 trillion 2007 budget request President Bush sent to Capitol Hill this week asks for a sizeable increase in homeland security funding. In the President’s budget proposal, the Department of Homeland Security budget would increase by $2.4 billion to $35.6 billion in 2007. However, the President is proposing deep cuts in first-responder programs to help underwrite the 7 percent funding increase. Instead of stepping-up disaster response capabilities, the new funding would support a major boost in border security, including 1,500 new border agents, according to a news analysis in Congressional Quarterly. But much of President Bush’s planned increase in DHS appropriations would require doubling the airline passenger security ticket fee from $2.50 to $5. Last year the president proposed the same increase and was rejected by Congress. Lawmakers are likely to reject the increase again, especially in an election year.

Environmental Protection Agency head Christie Todd Whitman made "misleading statements of safety" about the air quality near the World Trade Center in the days after the Sept. 11 attack and may have put the public in danger, a federal judge found last Friday. The judge, Deborah A. Batts, ruled that a 2004 class action lawsuit filed by lower Manhattan and Brooklyn residents against Whitman, other EPA officials and the agency itself should be heard in federal court. The lawsuit charges that the EPA failed to warn people of dangerous materials in the air and then failed to carry out an adequate cleanup. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and want the judge to order a thorough cleaning, according to a recent New York Times article. Judge Batts ruled that Whitman knew the air near Ground Zero was unsafe, and by encouraging people to return to their homes and jobs in the area as early as September 13th, "increased, and may have in fact created, the danger" to the public’s health.

Whitman responded to the Judge’s ruling on Monday with a statement claiming, "Every action taken by the EPA during the response to this horrific event was designed to provide the most comprehensive protection and the most accurate information to the residents of Manhattan," as detailed in a Newark Star-Ledger article. Some lower Manhattan residents, however, consider Whitman’s statement to be false. “Everybody knew it wasn't good," said Mike Keane, owner of O'Hara's Pub & Restaurant on Cedar Street in lower Manhattan, about the dust-laden atmosphere. "She was lying through her teeth," he is quoted in a recent NY Newsday article.

An editorial in Wednesday’s Press of Atlantic City lays out the issues in question in the lawsuit and offers a widely-held view regarding Whitman’s motivations in the days after the attacks: “The EPA's own inspector general concluded in 2003 that the agency did not have sufficient data to say the air was safe and that the misleading reassurances were made at the insistence of the White House. Yes, Christie Whitman got caught in the middle, as she did almost constantly during her tenure at EPA. The facts and the science pulled her one way; the White House apparently pulled her another way.” However, Whitman is the highest-ranking Bush Administration official named as a defendant in the case. VOICES will continue to update you on the progress of this important case.

A 2004 class action lawsuit accusing Christie Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, of making “misleading statements of safety about the air quality” near the World Trade Center has sufficient legal grounds to move forward, a federal judge determined yesterday. The suit charges that residents and schoolchildren of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn were exposed to harmful airborne contaminants after being assured by the E.P.A., on several occasions, that it was safe to return.

In her ruling that the suit can proceed, Judge Deborah A. Batts said, “The allegations in this case of Whitman's reassuring and misleading statements of safety after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are without question conscience-shocking,” (as quoted in a New York Times article).

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has been an outspoken advocate for increased Federal funding and support in the face of a looming health crisis for Ground Zero recovery workers and lower Manhattan residents. This week she offered an amendment to a federal bill that would provide compensation to people whose health has been affected by exposure to asbestos. It has been estimated that 2,000 tons of asbestos were released into the air when the Twin Towers collapsed. "These first responders, workers and residents should be allowed to seek compensation for their asbestos injuries," Sen. Clinton is quoted in an Associated Press article, adding they would not be eligible under the current version of the bill.

Click for a list of ongoing medical offerings for Ground Zero workers