Whose fault is it when the government knowingly tells its population that something is safe when it isn't and folks get sick and die?
Who is liable when the director of the EPA told post-911 workers that the environment was safe to work where the twin towers had collapsed fully knowing the dust and smoke from the debris contained enough concentration of asbestos, fiberglass, and the PCBs of around 50,000 office computers to permanently injure and even kill them?
...and just WHO are the PHANTOM FASCISTS?
Christine Todd Whitman had an apparent conflict of interest which may have affected her judgment, in that Whitman was personally invested in getting Lower Manhattan up and running again. If she played her cards right she could also provide legal cover for her husband's insurance company to refuse payment to workers harmed by false government assurances.
The former Governor of New Jersey owned millions of dollars' worth of bonds from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which in turn owned the site where the World Trade Center once stood. And she had properly recused herself from cases involving the Port Authority - up until September 11, 2001.
"On Jan. 19, 2001, when Whitman was the nominee to be EPA administrator, she agreed to recuse herself from cases that would present potential for conflicts of interest. In an ethics-agreement letter to Anna Wolgast, the EPA's designated agency ethics official, Whitman wrote: "Unless I obtain a waver [sic] under 208(b) (1), I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that has a direct and predictable bond effect on the ability or willingness of the following entities to honor their bond obligations: Bergen County New Jersey Utilities Authority; the New Jersey Wastewater Treatment Trust; the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey; the Delaware River Authority; and the Puerto Rico Industrial, Medical and Environmental Poll." source
But EPA administrator Whitman never applied for that waiver.
And apparently that wasn't her only conflicting interest. Author Laura Flanders revealed in her book "Bushwomen" that
" her (Christine Todd Whitman's) husband, John R. Whitman, formerly a Citigroup vice-president, manages hundreds of millions of dollars in the banking giant's assets, and Travelers Insurance, a Citigroup subsidiary, stood to lose multiple millions in Manhattan medical claims." Flanders gives the Whitmans' investment in Citigroup as being "up to $250,000 in stock," adding that "John Whitman received a six-figure bonus from Citigroup as recently as 2000."
In June 2007, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that
"federal environmental officials misled Lower Manhattan residents about the extent of contamination in their condominiums and apartments after the collapse of the World Trade Center" the New York Times reported.
Now one might naturally believe that the former head of Bush's EPA would be personally liable for encouraging 911 workers and locals back into conditions which which she knew was unsafe.
WRONG.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that Whitman was faced with conflicting information about dangers posed by the dust and that she had passed on assurances that came from the White House.
The April 23, 2008 ruling came despite the fact that
Scientists had determined—and had informed EPA officials—that the air quality on the debris pile was harmful, and that dust from the site contained dangerous levels of asbestos and other carcinogens. But those findings were not reflected in the statements Whitman and other officials made at the time; instead, they reassured residents that the air in the neighborhood was safe, and that dust could be cleaned with wet wipes and HEPA-filtered vacuums. source
So the question remains: Just who is ultimately responsible when former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman and the White House worked together to lie about the post-9/11 safety of ground zero?
It turns out that as taxpayers you and I will be held fiscally accountable for the resultant deaths and injuries. We'll naturally be footing the bill for years to come, not Ms. Whitman and certainly not her husband's insurance company. And if, as citizens, our apparent lack of outrage makes us collectively complicit, it's the Phantom Fascists who will continue to shirk their public duty just as they've done in the months and years following the 911 tragedy.
The traditional media are "Phantom Fascists" who consistently downplaying environmental dangers to the public both then, and now.
Ms. Whitman currently heads her Whitman Strategy Group, a public relations firm founded in 2004. Whitman called the firm "a way to stay involved in public policy and make a difference." source