"New York mayor blames airport security for September 11 deaths"

Tuesday, April 1, 2003

New York mayor blames airport security for September 11 deaths
Agence France Presse


NEW YORK, (AFP) - Airport security failures ultimately killed the nearly
2,800 people who died in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New
York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a special commission Monday.

Addressing the opening session of an independent commission looking into the
causes of the attacks, Bloomberg also urged a major injection of federal
funds to help secure high-profile cities like New York against terrorists in
the future.

Recalling the loss of life when two hijacked planes slammed into the twin
towers of the World Trade Center -- causing them both to collapse -- the
mayor said there was little the city could have done to reduce the death
toll.

"The failure of airport security doomed the 2,800 souls who are no longer
with us," Bloomberg said.

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, chaired
by former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean, was created by the federal
government to give a complete account of the circumstances surrounding the
attacks, including intelligence and security failures.

In his testimony, Bloomberg appealed for additional federal funding to help
defray the costs of meeting New York's security needs in the heightened
terrorist scenario.

"New York City is the nation's financial capital and its communications
nerve center," the mayor said. "Protection for New York is protection for
the nation."

Since the start of the war in Iraq, New York has been operating a
counter-terrorism programme that is costing the city an estimated five
million dollars per week -- mostly in police overtime pay.

Bloomberg, who actually took the office of mayor nearly four months after
the September 11 attacks, also called on Washington to protect the city and
private contractors from personal injury lawsuits arising from the
post-attack clean-up operation.

The mayor warned that the claims regarding alleged long-term health damage
could bankrupt the city over the next 20 years.

"Congress must give us retrospective indemnification, or the drag on the
national economy will ruin opportunity throughout all 50 states," he said.

Representatives of September 11 victims' families were also due to testify
before the commission later Monday.

The 10-member panel was set up in November last year and former secretary of
state Henry Kissinger was named as chairman. But Kissinger, who runs an
international consulting firm, resigned several weeks later amid questions
about potential conflicts of interest.


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