Laurie Garrett Profile picture
Sep 11, 2018 16 tweets 8 min read Read on X
On 9/11 there are a few things I need to underscore.
1.) It came as no surprise to New Yorkers that #AlQaeda was responsible. I interviewed people as I made my way to Ground Zero that morning and EVERY one knew who was responsible.
[more]
To see much more, including photos: lgarrett.squarespace.com/i-heard-the-si…
and laurigarrett.com
[MORE]
2.) There are many reasons why the Twin Towers collapsed, architecturally. But overlooked were the huge number of computer servers. In 2001 there was no secure cloud storage, and floor after floor were filled with hot data towers.
[more]
3.) Shortly after 9/11 the White House ordered @EPA director Todd-Whitman to say the air was safe to breathe, despite the burning pile of crushed towers, and there was no asbestos problem. The WH atty who ordered this had previously rep'ed asbestos manufacturers.
[more]
4.) There was a classic World Trade Center Cough suffered by ppl who were near Ground Zero or lived downwind of the ash & plume in Brooklyn. It was a dry, nonproductive cough, produced by throat, lung & esophagus irritation. Nothing about it was normal.
[more]
[cont 4] Sufferers of acute WTC Cough generally have gone on to develop a wide range of ailments, all over their bodies, including tumors.
5.) The cause of WTC Cough was alkali-wrapped microparticles, especially glass. The WTC was made of limestone, steel & glass
[more]
[cont 5] and the pH of the ash & plume got above 13 -- that's lye. All natural explosive events are acidic, & body has mechanisms for expelling acid-wrapped particles. But not so, for highly alkali. Bits of glass & steel & computers insinuated into lungs, & then
[more]
[cont 5] passed to other tissues. Wherever the alkali-coated bits went, damage followed, slowly, but surely.
6.) Some of the insinuated particles were asbestos. There was also a carcinogenic molecule produced by pressure + burning computers -- a chemical never seen before.
[more]
7.) The response of "average New Yorkers" on 9/11 was nothing short of mass scale heroism. I encountered people that day that rescued strangers, hauled cases of water to the area to wash ash from faces, opened their homes to the needy, raced to Red Cross to give blood..
[more]
[cont 7] I weep with pride recalling the heroic and compassionate acts I witnessed on 9/11. Strangers, coming to the aid of strangers, across all boundaries of gender, class, age, race, religion. The same was seen in London, Madrid, Paris when they were attacked: Humanity.
[more]
8.) The White House decided to define the health aspects of the 9/11 WTC attacks as limited to 1st responders + workers & residents of the tip of Manhattan, all below Canal St. This contained the size & scope of investigation & excluded Brooklyn -- where the plume went.
[more]
9.) As a result, the epidemiology of 9/11 & post-attack 4 months of burning & plume is skewed to a fraction of those affected, and is missing many, such as immigrant clean-up workers & undocumented employees of eateries & companies downtown. We will never know scope
[more]
[cont 9] of post-9/11 health disaster. Today a spokesperson for FDNY said more 1st responders have died from exposure to WTC dust & plume than ppl perished in the buildings. It's horrible, but likely is true.
10.) I spent 8 yrs documenting all of this and writing it up
[more]
[cont 10] but the book never got seriously reviewed or sold. By the time it came out in 2011 the world was tired of hearing about 9/11, ailing firefighters, anthrax and everything else that happened.
[more]
[cont 10] But you don't know "resilience" until you read how NYers handled 9/11/2001 to 9/11/2002.
11.) Stop thanking #RudyGiuliani for his "heroism" -- the leader hat pulled us out of despair & devastation was @MikeBloomberg -- no is, ands, or buts about it.
Sorry for the typos -- that Bloomberg praise should read
NO IFS, ANDS OR BUTS ABOUT IT - @MikeBloomberg deserves the credit for pulling New York out of the grief and despair of 9/11 + anthrax and rebuilding the city.
Thanks, Mike.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Laurie Garrett

Laurie Garrett Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Laurie_Garrett

Oct 3, 2018
The @WHO DG @DrTedros addressed @UN Security Council today abt #Ebola in #DRCongo. Highlights:
"First, the security situation. Even when I was in Beni at the beginning of the outbreak, there was an attack just 15 kms frm the town. Since then there has been an increase.."
[MORE]
[2]
"...in the frequency & intensity of attacks by armed groups in very close vicinity to Beni. These include a full-scale attack on the #DRC armed forces base on 24Aug, ambushes on MONUSCO on Sept 3 & 9, a rocket explosion in the centre of Beni on Sept11 & an..."
[MORE]
[3]
"...indiscriminate attack on Beni town just 10 dys ago, Sept22.
As a result of the most recent attacks, which killed 21 people, our operations were in lockdown for several dys. But when we’re in lockdown, you know
#Ebola is not. Ebola gets an advantage."
[MORE]
Read 8 tweets
Oct 3, 2018
The 11 take-home messages from @nytimes massive investigation of #Trump Family wealth:
1.) The Trumps’ tax maneuvers show a pattern of deception,
2.) Donald Trump began reaping wealth from his father’s real estate empire as a toddler
[cont.2]
3.) That ‘small loan’ of $1 million was actually at least $60.7 million — much of it never repaid
4.) Fred Trump wove a safety net that rescued his son from one bad bet after another
5.) The Trumps turned an $11 million loan debt into a legally questionable tax write-off
[cont3]
6.) Father and son set out to create the myth of a self-made billionaire
7.) Donald Trump tried to change his ailing father’s will, setting off a family reckoning
8.) The Trumps created a company that siphoned cash from the empire
Read 5 tweets
Sep 19, 2018
New @OXFAM rpt "Prescription for Poverty" - how pharmaceutical cos hide their profits & pay off politicians to let it all happen: "result of using accounting tricks to deliberately shift profits from where they are actually earned to tax havens."
[MORE]
oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/hand…
2.) OXFAM: "@pfizer , @Merck & @AbbottGlobal are among the 20 US corporations with the greatest number of subsidiaries in tax havens; Johnson & Johnson is not far behind. All four were among the US corporations with the most money stashed overseas." untaxed.
[MORE]
3.) OXFAM: "at end of 2016, these 4 companies held $352 billion offshore.
Pharma 'profit-shifting' may = 'domiciling' a patent or rights to its brand not where drug was actually developed or where firm is HQ'ed, but
in a tax haven...presence may be as little as a mailbox."
[MORE]
Read 9 tweets
Sep 7, 2018
STOP whatever you're doing and watch this LIVE:
cbsnews.com/news/barack-ob…
@BarackObama stops his silence and is coming out slugging, max eloquence, "to restore some sanity to our politics."
Obama: "We know that #climatechange isn't just coming -- it's here."
"We can't just put walls up all around America. Walls don't keep out threats like terrorism or disease."
Obama: "I am here to tell you that even if you don't agree with me...even if you are an Evangelical...You should still want to see a restoration of honesty and decency and lawfulness in our government."
Read 5 tweets
Aug 21, 2018
Measles cases hit record high in the Europe

Over 41,000 children & adults in European region have been
infected w/#measles in the first 6 mos, 2018 -- far exceeds the 12-mo totals reported for every other year this decade. 37 dead.

euro.who.int/en/media-centr…>
Meanwhile, in the UK:
Between July2017 & June2018 just under 1000 cases of #measles in Britain, vs 531 cases for the whole of 2016.
There have been 760 cases in the 1st 6 mos of 2018 in the UK, versus 187 in the last half of 2017.
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/r…
and in UK: "Measles had virtually been eradicated in Britain before confidence in
the MMR #vaccine collapsed in the late 1990s after now-discredited Dr
Andrew Wakefield wrongly claimed the #measles, #mumps, and #rubella jab
was linked to autism."
mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/r…
Read 5 tweets
Aug 16, 2018
>350 papers today have editorials like this:
“We’ve been complacent. We thought everybody knew how important a free press was to our world and that all this talk about us being the enemy of the people would be dismissed for the silliness that it is." MORE
bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/edito…
& this:
#Trump’s declarations undermine not just journalists & news orgs but the communities & democracy we endeavor to serve. It is an attempt to blur the difference betwn fact-based news gathering & the lies & propaganda that spread like wildfire." MORE
tampabay.com/opinion/editor…
& this:
“For more thn 2 centuries the press has served as a check on power informing the American ppl abt corruption & greed, triumphs & tragedies, grave mistakes & misdeeds & even ineptitude & dysfunction inside the halls of govt, insts & businesses” MORE
abqjournal.com/1209434/editor…
Read 7 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(