Criminal Probe Of Fatal Ground Zero Fire

Manhattan District Attorney Investigating Skyscraper Blaze That Killed 2 NYC Firefighters

(CBS/AP)  Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation Tuesday into the blaze that killed two firefighters at a toxic ground zero skyscraper.

Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau said attorneys in his office have been in touch with city fire marshals to determine whether criminal violations occurred in Saturday's fire at the former Deutsche Bank office building next to the World Trade Center site.

Authorities said it was not unusual for prosecutors to join the investigation of a serious building fire or collapse. Their involvement would give fire marshals subpoena power, should they need it.

The cause of the blaze, in which two firefighters died on the building's 14th floor, was still under investigation.

"The public deserves it, the fire department deserves to know the truth," Steve Cassidy of the Uniformed Firefighters Association told CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace.

City officials have said that the fire started on the 17th floor of a building that was being dismantled floor by floor. Workers were cleaning asbestos and other materials on that and several other floors on Saturday afternoon when the fire broke out.

According to documents obtained by CBS News, the John Galt Corporation, the chief subcontractor in charge of asbestos removal from the building, was slapped with nearly 20 serious citations for construction hazards as recently as June and July of 2007, reports Wallace.

The New York Post quoted an unidentified law enforcement official as saying: "We know the water didn't work. So you have to figure out whether they (the contractors) were negligent. If they are, they could possibly face under the law a form of criminally negligent homicide."

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said earlier Tuesday that the investigation was continuing and "at this point, there's no reason for anybody to think in terms of criminal charges or anything else."

City officials have said that workers would routinely take smoking breaks near the place where the fire started, and that electrical equipment including hot water heaters for decontamination showers were also nearby.

Investigators said Monday that a piece of the standpipe system, which connects fire hoses from the outside to a water supply line for the building, was found unattached and lying on the basement floor.

As details emerged about the flaws in the system, fire safety experts questioned why more thorough tests weren't conducted, and one person involved in the project says the problem may have existed for more than a year.

City Department of Buildings officials said they had manually tested the standpipe on each floor of the building — originally a 41-story tower that had been demolished to the 26th floor — before taking it down.

But it wasn't clear if or when officials had filled the dry system with water to test the pressure of the complete system.

Fire safety expert Glenn Corbett said that would have been the "only way to test the integrity of the system" and that more testing should have been done.

[proud2beusa]

For all you crazies out there who believe in the conspiracy theories of 9/11, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It must be great ignoring all the facts and making up theories that hold no water. Maybe it%u2019s time for you to take up living in a different country? We %u201Cidiots%u201D in a vacuum won%u2019t lose any sleep if you do.

http://www.amazon.com/Debunking-11-Myths-Conspiracy-Theories/dp/158816635X

[nothappyatall]

Why after six years off the events, no construction has yet to start?
Posted by grazinggoat "

Things take time, and there IS construction that was started some time ago, but there were as I remember lawsuits by the people who demanded eiher the site be turned into one huge memorial or they wanted the memorial design done to suit THEM as if they have the right to demand any such thing from a private developer.
Be that as it may, 9/11 had help from *US* and it''s NO coincidence that Marvin bush- BUSH''s brother was head of security at the center, or that bomb detection dogs were removed and that unexplained power outages that turned off security cams were happened just prior to 9/11. Also no coincidence tenants reported unusual ''heavy construction noise'' at wierd hours on at least one VACANT floor.

A clip I saw a year ago detailed all this and interviewed some tenants who reported that as well as the sound of very heavy objects being moved across the vacant floor above, but now I can''t find it and there''s hundreds of clips.

[inventagod]

Ground Zero will always be a scab on America''s face. Right there in the mirror, every time we turn around. And no one believes Bu$h actually planned the atrocity, but he seems to know a lot of traitors who could have.
That scab is bleeding this week, and it''s because nothing was ever really done to heal it, not by Bu$h - he made untold billions from 9/11... Law enforcement turned a blind eye while Bu$h destroyed the biggest crime scene on the planet... No one will ever feel safe in a high-rise again because safety engineers were never allowed to study the ''collapse'' evidence... Firefighters will never again approach a burning steel building again in the same way, because lies and deceit have replaced science when it comes to structures standing after a simple fire.

[bobnjersey]

[WHAT IS EVEN FUNNIER IS THAT SOMEONE MIGHT THINK 911 WAS NOT AN INSIDE JOB. YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A MORON LIVING IN A VACUUM TO NOT SEE ALL THE EVIDENCE THAT PROVES 911 WAS AN INSIDE JOB.]
[Posted by MrHoppy at 05:36 AM : Aug 22, 2007]

hey mr. hoppy ... maybe i missed the decisive evidence on 911 ... or maybe i''m ''a moron in a vacuum'' ... but i''d be interested in what you have that ''settles the case'' as it were.

there''s lots of theories out there ... from some secret ngo funding the whole thing ... to mossad being involved ... to cheney pulling the strings.

free me from my moronic vacuum mr. hoppy!

[mrhoppy-2009]

"9/11 was an inside job - LMFAO!

From the folks that believe Bush is the worst, dumbest, awful president ever...yet somehow he was was to pull of the biggest most horrific terrorist attack on US soil..."

I''LL TELL YOU WHAT IS FUNNY, ANYONE THAT THINKS BUSH IS ANYTHING MORE THAN A ZIONSIT SOCK PUPPET PLANTED TO KEEP THE IDIOT CLASS CLASS OF AMERICA FROM RISING UP, WHILE THEY ARE USED BY ISRAEL TO FIGHT ISRAELS WARS FOR OIL.

WHAT IS EVEN FUNNIER IS THAT SOMEONE MIGHT THINK 911 WAS NOT AN INSIDE JOB. YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE A MORON LIVING IN A VACUUM TO NOT SEE ALL THE EVIDENCE THAT PROVES 911 WAS AN INSIDE JOB.

[grazinggoat]

On the wake of the 911 tagic events, everybody on this site were complaining about the skyrocketing increase in insurance premiums. This has accepted by the protecters of consumers as an agreed upon public compensation to the losses of the WTC and the insurance amounts paid to the victims of 911. Any one has informations about who paid whom and for what? Whay are the insurance premiums so high as of today after 6 yrs?

Why after six years off the events, no construction has yet to start? Where is the money paid to Sylverstein, by his insurance companies, for the losses? Has it been shipped outside and where?

[red164]

On orders of the Bush administration, a 28-page section dealing with suspected Saudi ties to the 9/11 plot was blacked out of the declassified version of the congressional report.

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0904-03.htm

[lucasnico]

actually, inventagod brings up a good point.... and, as for badaxmofo (probably 5'' 3" and overweight), as long as bush has pulled off the biggest most horrific presidency in the history of the United States, why not give him credit for the attack... he certainly did nothing to prevent it.

[red164]

9/11 was an inside job - LMFAO!

From the folks that believe Bush is the worst, dumbest, awful president ever...yet somehow he was was to pull of the biggest most horrific terrorist attack on US soil...

And you wonder why these same ''''types'''' support Obamalamadingdong and Ho''''llary "Ride My Hubby''''s Coattails To The Top" Clintoon!



Posted by badaxmofo at 07:38 PM : Aug 21, 2007

I doubt Bush was in on any aspects of the operation his only role was to ignore the warnings from the CIA, FBI etc he probably knew nothing about the operation itself and had no clue on 9/11 that%u2019s why others were able to get him to fly around the country all day during the most trying times of the crisis.

[red164]

The Manhattan District Attorney''s office opened a criminal investigation into the blaze that killed two New York City firefighters at a half-dismantled skyscraper next to the World Trade Center site. The fire''s cause was still under investigation


Deutsche Bank office building next to the World Trade Center site. The building burns for seven hours and is half-dismantled and is still standing?

[red164]

Former Chief of NIST''s Fire Science Division Calls for Independent Review of World Trade Center Investigation

Alan Miller
Op Ed News
Tuesday Aug 21, 2007

James Quintiere, Ph.D., former Chief of the Fire Science Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has called for an independent review of NIST%u2019s investigation into the collapses of the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11.

Dr. Quintiere made his plea during his presentation, %u201CQuestions on the WTC Investigations%u201D at the 2007 World Fire Safety Conference. %u201CI wish that there would be a peer review of this,%u201D he said, referring to the NIST investigation. %u201CI think all the records that NIST has assembled should be archived. I would really like to see someone else take a look at what they%u2019ve done; both structurally and from a fire point of view.%u201D

%u201CI think the official conclusion that NIST arrived at is questionable,%u201D explained Dr. Quintiere. %u201CLet''s look at real alternatives that might have been the cause of the collapse of the World Trade Towers and how that relates to the official cause and what''s the significance of one cause versus another.%u201D

[tnt1954]

i really feel we need to raise parking
fees to ten thousand dollars an hour.
the govt. needs the money. all govt.
employees need a 1000% raise.

[tnt1954]

heroic cops need heroic criminals to hunt
or they wouldn''t be able justify their
budget or their job. same with the d.a.''s office and the armed forces, they need enemies.
go hunt alice in wonderland. what like
smiling is illegal without due cause.
i''ve had it with police state. big brother
does more than look at you. he smells you,
he sniffs you, he hears you, he reads your mind,
he tells what to think, he tells you when to
blink, and takes everyone to the clink.
my wife was guilty of interestate flight to
avoid prosecution for just a parking ticket.
can''t run out on taxes!!! the f.b.i. got
involved and she had return by remote control.
or face 90 days in jail for contempt.
cost her a fortune. now she has to be
a prostitute to pay all her bills. i was
annhilated by superman years ago. i had
left my kryptonite at home.

[feelfree1]

Here are a couple of good films that address some of the glaring inconsistencies in the official 9/11/01 story:

%u201CImprobable Collapse%u201D

(Part 1 here)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUMKP4WaMgM

and "9/11 Press For Truth"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5589099104255077250

###

Both of the above films are fairly lengthy. For a shorter, 20+ minute primer, check out:

"The Third Stage"

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-5224963246223576086&q=%22third stage%22

and for an even broader perspective:

"Zeitgeist"

www.zeitgeistmovie.com

[ohiofireman1]

CBS... You shamelessly broadcast one our bravest''s last words up on that 14th floor. He did it by the number. He did it by the book. "mayday, mayday, mayday." The emergency distress call we use to announce the worst possible situation. He wasn''t panicked, he wasn''t unraveled. He simply, clearly stated, "we have heavy fire on the 14th floor and have no line." And we know the rest. I think any firefighter would tell you that none of us are ready to go, at age 34. But one of those two men, Joseph Graffagnino and Robert C. Beddia, left us that day. And you at CBS thought it appropriate to include his final, brave, fearless words.
Tasteless. Shame on you.

Oh, and Katie C., Not One Of Us carries OXYGEN into a fire, we carry compressed air. Ultimately, we all need oxygen to live, but he didn''t "run out" of anything but his air.

Shame on that TERRIBLE contractor company with NINETEEN violations in May and June. You should be branded with this atrocity. Branded on your hearts and on your faces, for all to see, that your shabby business, absence of work ethic, and bold disregard for human life, took two of my brothers... I hope those prosecutors go after that contractor company. That''s just my opinion.

[inventagod]

The whole world got the memo from Bu$h following 9/11 that steel skyscrapers self-demolish during a fire.
The NYFD missed that memo? And put their workers into an empty burning skyscraper?
There SHOULD be an investigation...

[gonnuts]

Why hasn''t it collapsed? Why isn''t it in danger of collapsing? Why isn''t anyone in the news even mentioning that it might?

And before anyone gives the "it wasn''t hit by a plane" answer, neither was WTC#7, and it had much smaller fires, was more fortified and it collapsed into it''s own foot-print in less time than the building currently on fire.

Now today the CIA FINALLY released it''s report on 9/11. It''s a "whitewash".

Gee, who would of guessed? 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB!

GENERAL STRIKE! SEPT. 11th - NO work - NO buying!

[feelfree1]

How could this building have caught fire, yet not collapse into its own footprint at free-fall velocity, like World Trade Center Building #7?

www.zeitgeistmovie.com

[bareemperor]

The USA is still waiting for a criminal probe of 9/11.

We never did believe the ''Ommission Commission'' hand-picked by one of the guilty...