August 23, 2007--9/11 Redux

The CIA two days ago released a hitherto classified report about the Agency’s pre-9/11 failures. They fessed up to all their missed opportunities—how they had hundreds of reports that they did not share with the FBI about al Qaeda activities prior to the attack. We can only hope that our various security agencies are working together by now and that if and when there is similar intelligence they will function in a coordinated and effective way. After this week’s fire at the Deutsche Bank and the deaths of two firemen, I am less sanguine about the preparedness of New York City officials and first responders. As Rudy Giuliani continues to loom as the favorite to win the Republican nomination, we will learn more about his failures prior to 9/11. How after the first bombing at the World Trade Center he failed to take steps to require that police and firefighters could communicate with each other in an emergency; how he failed to require that the men’s radios would work when they rushed into a flaming skyscraper; how he failed to build a command post in a secure location, opting instead to set up one that was convenient for philandering with his girlfriend Judy Nathan (now Rudy’s third or fourth wife, depending on whether or not you count marriages to cousins as marriages). But one would suspect that a mayor with an extraordinary business background such as Michael Bloomberg, after his predecessor’s malfeasance, would have assured that in a similar situation the police and especially the fire department would have learned important lessons and would have taken steps to protect their men and women. From the evidence already emerging from the Deutsche Bank fire, it is clear that very little was learned, and now there are two more men who lost their lives. Putting aside for the moment that the company hired to take down the bank building that was seriously damaged on 9/11has a shady record full of past failures and safety violations; and the fact that that company’s ironically appropriate name, John Galt, is the name of the unfettered capitalist hero in Ayn Rand’s rant of a novel, Atlas Shrugged; forget for the moment that it has taken almost six years to get the demolition job started; forget that the Galt folks are getting an astonishing $150 million to do the work; but do not forget that after September 11th the City had the consulting firm McKinsey & Company study the systems and actions of first responders on that fateful day and make recommendations about what to do in the future to better protect citizens and police and firefighters. That report, which undoubtedly also cost many millions, is full of no-brainer recommendations such as: do not have masses of firefighters rush into a building until and unless it is determined that there is a good reason to do so (to rescue trapped people) and that the risks to the men are reasonable; of course make sure that those on the ground can communicate with those who are in the building; and be sure that the standpipes to which firemen attach their hoses so they can pump water into the building are in good repair and operating. At the Deutsche Bank fire according to the NY Times (article linked below), none of these basic recommendations had been carried out. Though there was no one in the building who needed rescue, 100 firefighters entered the building; on the ground, none of the standpipes functioned and thus no water could be pumped to the site of the fire; and it appears there was no adequate way to communicate with the men who rushed to their deaths. As the fire raged and it was clear that his men were in danger, a chief at the scene cursed and said he didn’t care about the building. Instead he cried out into the void, “Where are my men?”