They Report (Finally...)

According to an internal EPA report released Thursday evening, "White House officials pressured the agency to prematurely assure the public that the air was safe to breathe a week after the World Trade Center collapse." Apparently, all EPA statements were vetted through the National Security Council, which is chaired by Mr. Bush, and which "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones."

For those of us who live (or lived, in my case) in New York City during and after the 9/11 attacks, this is hardly news. WBAI, even in its temporarily eviscerated state, reported almost daily on air quality issues and the EPA's complicity in covering up the dangers to NYC residents. For weeks, a chemical tang saturated the air, making it difficult to breathe (or, indeed, knowing the source of the stench, to want to). Once WBAI's news team was restored, Juan Gonzalez made regular reports on the cover-up, covering it as well in the Daily News, such as this article from almost a year ago. People were suffering from a wide range of respiratory afflictions, ranging from asthma attacks to nosebleeds to nagging headaches--and being told, over and over, that the air was fine.

Now it's two years later, and the EPA -- moments after alleged conspirator Christine Todd Whitman, the administration's voice from inside the agency, has left the stage -- is finally starting to open up and claim some responsibility for its failure. But what next? Heads should roll -- but won't, not in this administration. People like myself and my 10 million fellow New Yorkers have already spent months snorting down this tainted air -- it's too late to change that, now. And next time there's a disaster? Who's going to believe the air is safe when the President (or George Bush, if he's still in office) pushes us to get out and shop?