As Americans prepare for the 17th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, nearly 10,000 first responders and New York City residents have reported 9/11-related cancers.
In early August the New York Post reported on newly released numbers of reported 9/11 related illnesses, including 9,795 total case of 9/11-related cancer. The numbers were released by the federally funded World Trade Center Health Program.
According to the program there have been more than 400 documented cases of death from 9/11-related cancers. However, unfortunately, the plight of the men and women who rushed into “Ground Zero” on September 11, 2001 and the following months is often forgotten in the public conversation. Seventeen years after the attacks the first responders are still fighting for their lives.
On Thursday the Los Angeles Times reported 15 FBI agents have died from cancers linked to exposure to various toxins during investigation and cleanup of the wreckage. The Times notes that three FBI agents have died since March. In addition, News 12 in Westchester reports that Kathleen O’Connor, a 20-year veteran with the New Rochelle Police Department, recently died from a 9/11-related illness.
WECT News reports that retired NYPD detective Chuck McLiverty lives with skin allergies and a crushed hand due to his role as a first responder. The former detective spent nearly every day for six months working 12-hour shifts, often without breathing protection. “We may make light of it, joke about it, but you’re always just wondering, am I next? Or is the guy or girl sitting next to, are they a walking time bomb that’s going to explode? You get tired of going to funerals,” McLiverty told WECT. “All you could see for miles and miles was big plumes of black, billowing smoke. All you could see was stuff falling down, out of the air. The air was so thick, it’s like you could wave your hand, like being in a snow storm.”
The New York Daily News also recently announced the death of retired firefighter Michael McDonald who died from lung and brain cancer from 9/11 cleanup efforts. McDonald’s entire career was spent at Ladder 128 in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. With his death he comes the 181st member of the FDNY to die from 9/11-related illnesses. The NY Daily notes that this is more than half of the 343 FDNY members killed during the collapse of the twin towers on September 11, 2001. An NYPD spokesman told the Daily that 185 city cops have died of illnesses connected to their time as first responders.
Each of these stories offer a small glimpse into the everyday reality of these first responders. They are literally watching their friends and associates die around them while the American people pay little attention. How did this happen? How did we get to the point where nearly 10,000 people who risked their lives to help others are now waiting to die from cancer?
FLASHBACK: U.S. Government Lies About Air Quality & Safety
One week after the 9/11 attacks the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Christine Todd Whitman released a statement declaring the air and water surrounding Ground Zero to be safe to breathe and drink.
Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breathe and their water is safe to drink.
Since that time firefighters, EMTs, police officers, and volunteers who remained at Ground Zero looking for survivors and bodies have found themselves falling victim to breathing illnesses, cancer, and other sicknesses likely related to inhaling dust consisting of building materials, computers, and human bodies.
Truthstream Media reported on the situation:
Back in May 2007, a Congressional investigation was launched into the EPA’s role in properly responding to the environmental crisis and air quality emergency in the immediate wake of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Former EPA commissioner Christine Todd Whitman refused to testify – despite the fact that her statements on air quality after 9/11 had immediately affected hundreds of thousands of rescue workers and New York residents, and more broadly millions – until she was pressured under threat of subpoena by Congressman Jerrold Nadler(D-NY) whose district includes lower Manhattan. However, she was officially cleared of any wrongdoing, and defeated multiple lawsuits.
Congress for its part, did pass the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which is designed to provide medical services and compensation for first responders. However, critics say the government is not doing enough to help those who volunteered their livelihood in the wake of the largest terror attack on American soil. If these brave men and women chose to put themselves in harms way based on a lie, that needs to be investigated and those responsible held accountable.
In less than two weeks the corporate media and conniving politicians will put on their “Never Forget” pins and release the obligatory condolences to the family members of the 9/11 victims. There will be TV specials and special edition magazines and newspapers to commemorate the terror attack.
But will these displays pay tribute or raise awareness about the plight of the first responders? Will these photo ops actually question the official story of 9/11? If the answer is no, if the American public is still not ready to challenge the establishment lies surrounding September 11, 2001, then we have moved no closer to truth and these men and women are dying in vain. On the 17th anniversary of 9/11 remember to question the official story.
http://www.theconsciousresistance.com
Derrick Broze is an activist, investigative journalist, public speaker, and author based in Houston, Texas. He is the founder of The Conscious Resistance Network and the co-author of The Conscious Resistance trilogy with fellow TFTP writer John Vibes. Broze’s work focuses on surveillance technology, indigenous struggles, and generally uncovering the lies and omissions of the corporate media. This article first appeared at The Free Thought Project.
Let’s name names. There is no such thing as “the government” which says things. There are thousands of governments, so let’s stop spreading the blame until the guilt has dissipated and look at the facts. The government DID point out the toxic air quality but it was Guiliani (you know, Trump’s lawyer), who said the air was safe:
“Giuliani has been subject to increased criticism for downplaying the health effects of the air in the Financial District and lower Manhattan areas in the vicinity of the Ground Zero.[34] He moved quickly to reopen Wall Street, and it was reopened on September 17. He said, in the first month after the attacks, “The air quality is safe and acceptable.”[35] However, in the weeks after the attacks, the United States Geological Survey identified hundreds of asbestos hot spots of debris dust that remained on buildings. By the end of the month the USGS reported that the toxicity of the debris was akin to that of drain cleaner.[36] It would eventually be determined that a wide swath of lower Manhattan and Brooklyn had been heavily contaminated by highly caustic and toxic materials.” Wikipedia
Articles like this seek to denounce the government as part of right wing agenda by blaming “government” without naming names . This is a form of libel. It is a form of dishonesty. It is a form of propaganda.
Giuliani was involved all the way in 911.
Our government are outrageous liars. Just take anything they say and reverse it. 9-11 was a total lie. When building collapse you find bodies, furniture, computers, phones, it all vaporized. Two planes and a limited amount of jet fuel didn’t bring down 3 building well steal enforced. The bush and Cheney families need to be jailed, tried, and hang.
you are in a good majority of angry US citizens on this.
the USA may never fully recover.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b0fe248ca22b010350378ad304c515fb3c41cecaf4a31f3b60ddce747f5de6ee.jpg
I’ve been waiting for years to see a million angry Americans march on DC demanding justice for 9-11. Sad day in history when our highest leaders turn treasonous and go unpunished. What will they do to us next?
What do you mean by what will they do next? They are a-l-r-e-a-d-y doing!!! Toxins in food, toxins in water, toxins in air/chemtrails, toxins in mandatory vaccines, harmful house meters, 5G towers. Fukushima was supposedly arranged, not a natural disaster. A lot of marine life dead and ppl eating fish and seafood are risking cancer from the radiation. I just recently found out that the man made sun simulator in the sky doesn’t work like our real sun did, ppl working in the outdoors here in Florida are deficient vitamin D!!! Vit D forms in the skin when the skin gets exposed to real sun rays but the simulator system is just lamps and lenses, have same effect on vit D formation as your ceiling lamp, zero. Vit D is needed for survival!!! Food sources stand for only 20% of our vit D, the sun made 80%. The simulator is close to earth, blocking the real sun. I see the whole system when taking pics with an infrared camera filter. Another nutrient important for our survival is omega 3 fatty acids in fish, which now contains Fukushima cancer causing radiation. Krill from deep ocean around Antarctica contains also omega 3 but the oil is incapsulated in gelatin which is GMO and causes cancer and other diseases. So as you see global genocide is already in progress! Try to survive that!
So true Yvonne, Now how do we wake up the rest of America and stop it? I read the autism rate now in New Jersey is 1 out of 22 births. I think they also play with our weather and start the wildfires. There are only a little over 8,000 evil men who control this world. You’d think we could do something.
there is weird stuff in the sky my family thinks I am crazy but guess what, like you I have photo;s of it,and i have even gotten photo;s of steel structures of some kind, why is the simulator there?
What makes me mad is when 911 happened Trump said that a jet would never bring down the towers they would have vaporized on impact, then he changed his mind and this was in 2001 when it happened now he is saying terrorists brought the towers down, yeah terrorists called Mossad brought them down so Trump goes along with the narrative
They censored my reply to you so I’ll be more discreet. House of Rothshit controls the magic paper fiat throughout this world, and controls governments. Only so much Trump can do until more Americans wake up. The bankers are parasites and we are their host.
You do not want to become a killer, only because somebody else forces you to become one…That would make the satan very happy! So better give up hanging these devils.. Let them do something good for the rest of their lives, something like a job of a janitor or butcher, or a weed collector on all the GMO fields, or maybe a graveyard keeper on the cemetery of all the 9/11 victims..
Now that McCain died thank God, I want to see more die, GH Bush, Kissinger, Soros, wish someone would frag Netanyahu, and Lindsey Graham would die from something the list goes on and on. God was angry with Saul because he did not kill the King he was told to kill and he kept some of the livestock which he was not supposed to do. God displaces nations in the past, now he doesn’t everyone has a chance to repent until the day they die.
we all have to die, one day, whether as a king or as a beggar
You calling me a killer is off your meds. I said they needed to be jailed, tried, then hanged. They are killing us daily with toxic foods, chem trails, bad medicine, wild fires they start, on and on. Now in NJ 1 in 22 births has autism. You think that’s a accident?
I said “You do not want to become a killer’, which is NOT ‘calling you a killer’!!! All what I wanted to address with my remark, was the ‘eye for eye principle’, which makes out of both of the involved ones, victims.
Sure, nothing is an accident, I share all the evil, totally destructive facts with you, with the one difference, mercy upon the real killers.
The neocon gift that keeps on giving
Dead men tell no tales.
Jr. was (attempting to read) reading a 3rd grade book.
How innocent and such a coincidence (kowinkadent).
The lot of them should be in front of a grand jury.
“bye bye Miss American Twin Towers + building 7, they all fall straight down at free fall speed…hmmm
That is what happens when tactical nukes are used to demolish a building I guess Mossad wanted to make sure they killed as many people as possible in this sacrifice to Baal.
when they came out literally within hours and said ‘the air is safe’ I knew there was no possible way they could know that. Common sense tells you breathing in that air would be harmful to your lungs, AT A MINIMUM. But because the govt. said the air was ok, people ignored their correct common sense and went about their business with the false notion that all was well
Our Government are exactly that, has anyone heard of Reagan Dollars they are being used in many countries and are supposed to be an easy profitable investment with little investment and high yields, I guess reagan wanted to get rid of the Fed too that is why they tried to kill him but failed. I do not believe there was any jets involved in 911. Holograms of jets and eye witnesses said they never saw jets.
The attack on Reagan was a simple effort to place GHW Bush into the presidency, allowing him to conduct subterfuge on a much broader basis.