September 11, 2007
The
families of the victims of 9-11 have been, and continue to be, abused by the
corrupt judicial process that is clearly more concerned about covering up
for those responsible than delivering justice and accountability through
discovery.
The
manner in which the grieving relatives of 9-11 have been treated is nothing
short of scandalous. The people who are obstructing the relatives' quest for
justice through discovery are complicit in a high-level cover-up and are
violating the human rights of the people affected by the terror attacks of
9-11. The people who are part of the 9-11 cover-up have names and faces and
need to be held accountable.
Just a
few blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, in the new Daniel
Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in lower Manhattan, a pre-trial conference
for the 41 remaining wrongful death and personal injury cases brought by the
families of those killed and injured on 9-11 was scheduled for the afternoon
of September 11, 2007.
Who in
their right mind would schedule a pre-trial conference for the relatives of
9-11 on the anniversary of the day they lost their loved ones? To a sensible
person, this would seem most insensitive and inconsiderate of the feelings
of the victims' families. For the families seeking accountability after 6
years, it might feel more like insult added to injury.
The
person who scheduled the conference is Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein, the U.S.
District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Hellerstein presides
over all the lawsuits for the victims of 9-11 involving claims related to
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. All cases naming an airline, an
airport security company, and/or the Port Authority of New York and New
Jersey have been consolidated for discovery and other pre-trial proceedings
with Judge Hellerstein.
Hellerstein also oversees the lawsuits brought by Ground Zero workers
against the city. Congress allocated New York $1 billion because the city
could not find sufficient insurance against negligence suits. Gravely ill
first responders and workers from the smoking pile of rubble have yet to
receive any compensation.
"It was
our intent that the money be used to protect injured workers and not
swallowed up by lawyers and legal fees," said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney
(D-NY). "I never could have imagined we would end up where we are now,
without one single worker compensated."
The
disgraceful lack of progress in the proceedings of the 9-11 litigation is a
subject that the controlled media avoids, leaving the public unaware of the
judicial abuse the relatives of the victims of 9-11 have endured at the
hands of a corrupt legal system that is more interested in settling the
remaining cases out of court than delivering what the remaining families
want most of all - accountability and justice through discovery.
Judge
Hellerstein has long been urging the plaintiffs and their lawyers to settle
out of court. In comments he made in a pre-trial conference on June 25,
which he admitted could be seen as "very crass," Hellerstein said "money is
the universal lubricant." The presiding judge urged the lawyers and the
remaining 41 families to take the "most efficient" way, meaning settle for
the money and "get on" with their lives:
It is
very crass and it probably will come back to be critical of me, but there is
an expression that is sometimes very useful, "Money is the universal
lubricant." It makes it easier to go on with one's life.
"TAKE THE MONEY AND GO AWAY"
In a
move that is seen as very unusual, Hellerstein has scheduled trials to begin
September 24 to determine the size of payments the families could receive
before holding liability trials to establish who is legally responsible for
the security breakdowns. This is seen as a move to hasten out of court
settlements.
"It
bothers me a great deal that someone in charge of this trial has become so
cynical," Mike Low, the father of Sara, a flight attendant aboard American
Airlines Flight 11, said about the judge's comments.
"He
can't understand our loss. He sees the solution in a very cold and pragmatic
way - in dollars and cents. He thinks everybody should take the money and go
away."
"Sara
was murdered on 9-11," Low said. "Her voice is silent, so I must speak for
my daughter."
JUSTICE THROUGH DISCOVERY
Brian
Sullivan, a former FAA security official at Boston's Logan Airport, said:
"We are a country founded on principles. The remaining 9-11 plaintiffs seek
justice through discovery and a trial. To assume that compensation can
dissipate their principles, and ease their pain, is an assumption the judge
shouldn't make."
Hellerstein's "cold and pragmatic" approach is not new. Abusing the
relatives' human rights by denying them the justice and trials that they
deserve has happened before in similar cases in which government officials
are involved in high-level cover-ups. I have personally been involved in a
similar case that is now nearly 11 years old.
The
litigation concerning the 1994 Estonia catastrophe, the largest martime
disaster in Europe since World War II, has been stuck in a legal quagmire in
a French court since September 1996. Thirteen years after the sinking of
Estonia, the relatives of the 852 souls lost still have not had their day in
court and it doesn't look like they will ever get it. There has been no
discovery in the French court and there is no hope that there will ever be a
trial to determine who was responsible for the catastrophe.
In
August 2006, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg registered the
Estonia case in which relatives of the deceased are suing the governments of
Sweden and France for violating their human rights by denying them the fair
and open trial they deserve.
The
relatives accuse the two countries, the judges, the defendants, and the
insurance companies with having conspired to block the legal process that
should deliver discovery and accountability for the catastrophe.
See:
http://www.elaestonia.org/eng/index.php?kat=143
The
9-11 relatives are in a very similar predicament. Rather than pushing for
discovery and liability trials, Judge Hellerstein wants the relatives to
"get past" 9-11 and "get on with the rest" of their lives.
"Somehow we need to get past September 11, 2001 as a country and
individually for all clients," he said, "and I would like to bring about
that possibility as best I can, as efficiently as I can in a short a period
of time as I can."
The
right to a fair trial is a universally recognized human right. Thinking I
could get a fair trial is why I chose a jury trial when I was falsely
charged with assaulting and resisting three heavily-armed and armor-clad men
who were prowling around my house in August 2006. The men were an undercover
tactical unit who had been watching me for several days.
As I
prepared for my trial, a supporter warned me that the side that wins in a
trial is the side that gets the most evidence excluded. When I went to
trial, I had made more than a dozen exhibits with documented evidence of a
police conspiracy, but the judge, Hyman I. Riebman, wouldn't allow most of
the evidence to be admitted and simply refused to let my expert witness
testify about police procedures.
As I
had been warned, the side that gets the most evidence excluded wins. So it
is. This is exactly what is happening with the 9-11 cases as well. Crucial
evidence and key witnesses are being excluded from the process long before
any trial begins.
The
first person one might expect to see in a U.S. criminal court would be
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the "mastermind" of the terror attacks. Why is
Mohammed, who reportedly confessed to being the mastermind behind 9-11
sitting in a U.S. military prison in Guantanamo, Cuba?
SENSITIVE SECURITY INFORMATION
Besides
Mr. Mohammed, there are a host of witnesses and piles of evidence,
documents, and depositions that have been excluded from the 9-11 tort
litigation cases through the use of a little-known but wide-ranging
censorship mechanism known as Sensitive Security Information (SSI).
On
November 16, 2001, Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security
Act (ATSA), which the President signed into law on November 19, 2001. Under
ATSA, Congress created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and
authorized the agency to make improvements in the country’s transportation
security. Based on this authority, the Under Secretary of Transportation for
Security transferred authority for the existing Federal Aviation
Administration regulations, which include SSI, to the TSA on February 22,
2002.
The SSI
is part of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and is spelled out in 49
C.F.R. 1520.7, which is summarized below. The CFR is the codification of the
general and permanent rules published in the Federal Register by the
executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government. It is
important to note that these are not laws or executive orders, but
regulations.
The
Federal Register notice on the regulations describes SSI as including
“information about security programs, vulnerability assessments, technical
specifications of certain screening equipment and objects used to test
screening equipment ... and other information.” Clearly the SSI have
everything to do with the passenger screening procedures that were in
employed by the three foreign-owned airline security firms involved on 9-11.
The failure of these firms to stop the hijackers is seen by the relatives as
a key reason for the catastrophe.
These
are some of the key SSI restrictions:
Section
1520.7(a) protects any security program “that relates to United States mail
to be transported by air.”
Section
1520.7(b) through (d) covers security directives and information circulars,
selection criteria used in the security screening process, and security
contingency plans and/or instructions pertaining to those plans.
Section
1520.7(e) through (g) relates to any technical specification of any device
or equipment used for security communications, screening, or “detecting
deadly or dangerous weapons,” including an “explosive, incendiary, or
destructive substance.”
Section
1520.7(h) covers the release of information that TSA “has determined may
reveal a systemic vulnerability of the aviation system, or a vulnerability
of aviation facilities, to attack.”
Section
1520.7(i) protects “information [released by TSA] concerning threats against
transportation.”
Section
1520.7(j) protects “details of aviation security measures.”
Section
1520.7(k) and (l) relates to any “information” TSA has prohibited from
disclosure under the criteria of 49 U.S.C. 40119, or any draft, proposed, or
recommended change to the information or records identified in this section.
Section
1520.7(m) through (p) covers locations, tests, and scores of tests on all
screening methods or equipment.
Section
1520.7(q) protects “images and descriptions of threat images for threat
projection systems.”
Section
1520.7(r) relates to all Department of Transportation information on
“vulnerability assessment ... irrespective of mode of transportation.”
Source:
"SSI and Transportation Security: Background and Controversies" by Mitchel
A. Sollenberger, Congressional Research Service
CHERTOFF IN CHARGE
When
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was established in November 2002,
the TSA became a branch of the new security department. Michael Chertoff,
the U.S. Assistant Attorney General with Israeli roots, became DHS secretary
on February 15, 2005, when he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in.
When
9-11 occurred, Asst. Attorney General Chertoff was responsible for the
criminal division of the Dept. of Justice. This made him the top official
for the law enforcement and investigation process surrounding the terror
attacks.
When
Chertoff was made secretary of DHS, he became the responsible official for
controlling what evidence would be released to the court involved in the
9-11 litigation. This makes Chertoff the person who has been continuously
responsible for controlling the investigation and access to the evidence of
9-11.
Many of
the 9-11 lawsuits are from families who hold the aviation industry
responsible for the security lapses they believe led to the death of their
loved ones. "Absolutely there could have been more security," Margaret
Ogonowski of Dracut, Mass. told Evan Lehman of the Bennington Banner (N.H.).
Ogonowski was an airline attendant whose husband, John, was killed when
captaining American Flight 11. "It was just a facade of security," she said.
"It was
about pushing for some answers and pushing for accountability," Ogonowski
said. "I was on that front line too," she said, but the lawsuit was
"painfully slow."
"You
get to the point where some people can continue forward and others just have
to drop out of the race," Ogonowski said. "It's like any kind of race.
You're always going to have some who can see it to the end, and others who
can't. I just reached my limit."
"It's
six years. We have no accountability. We have more questions that we have
answers," another Massachusetts woman, who settled her case and asked that
her name not be used, told Lehman. The woman, who lost her husband on
American Flight 11 described the Victim Compensation Fund as "government
money" that smacked of a payoff.
An
airline attorney who spoke on the condition that their name not be used told
the Banner that cause-of-guilt trials are at least two or three years away -
if they ever come. "I don't think there'll be a trial of wrongful death and
personal injuries," the attorney said. "I think at some point they (the
families) will settle."
CHERTOFF AND SSI
DHS
Secretary Michael Chertoff oversees the TSA and the "responsible official"
of the SSI Program Office, a Florida lawyer named Andrew E. Colsky.
Chertoff's mother, Livia Eisen, was an Israeli intelligence operative who
was involved in top-secret international missions, such as the operation
known as "Magic Carpet," which airlifted thousands of Yemenite Jews to
Israel in the late 1940s.
The
fact that one of the defendants in the 9-11 tort litigation is the Israeli
company ICTS International NV and its wholly owned subsidiary Huntleigh USA
Corp. raises obvious conflict of interest questions for the Israeli
dual-national Chertoff. ICTS is closely linked with Israeli military
intelligence.
Huntleigh USA was involved in airport security and passenger screening
operations at Boston and Newark airports on 9-11 and the SSI are clearly
designed to protect the secrets and actions of the airport security
companies. The SSI effectively prevents important information about
Huntleigh and the other two foreign-owned security companies from getting
anywhere near the court.
In some
places Colsky is called the chief, the director, or the expert on SSI, but
what he really does is to act as the TSA's chief gatekeeper, or censor, to
prevent information from coming to the court. All the information that the
lawyers for the 9-11 litigation request has to pass through the censorship
of Andrew Colsky.
"The
Sensitive Security Information designator is supposed to be used to protect
information in the interests of national security, not as a shield to cloud
government and/or airline negligence and incompetence," Sullivan said. "This
has complicated and obfuscated the process, as the plaintiffs continue to
battle for information in discovery, and has been the main reason liability
trials have been delayed for going on six years."
WHO
IS ANDREW COLSKY?
Although Colsky is the key person responsible for SSI, the gate-keeping and
censoring process that is "the main reason" the 9-11 liability trials have
been delayed, there is virtually no mention of him in the U.S. print media.
How odd.
A
database for lawyers has Andrew Evan Colsky working at 8220 S. W. 52nd Ave.
in Miami. He is listed as having studied law at the University of Florida
and admitted to the bar on June 11, 1990.
The
Virginia Directory of Divorce Mediation and Mediators has an Andrew E.
Colsky on its website. It lists him as the "senior mediator" of the American
Conflict Management Institute, located at 1200 Ridge Road, in Arlington, Va.
The phone number it provides, however, is a Miami number with a 305 area
code.
It says
that Colsky "mediates employment disputes including complex multi-party
disputes" and that he is "an ADR [Alternative Dispute Resolution]
program/system designer who served as an integral part of developing the
world's largest employment mediation program at the U.S. Postal Service.
A
search of 810 newspapers in the United States yields only 7 articles or
notices in which "Andrew Colsky" is mentioned, and only 6 in which he is
mentioned with his middle initial. Not one newspaper even mentions the fact
that he directs the SSI program.
Why
would the mainstream media have no interest in the person who is controlling
and censoring the information that is crucial to the discovery process in
the worst terror attacks in U.S. history? Why is Colsky and the SSI
obstruction of the discovery process not even discussed in a land that
cherishes its "free press."
A
Google search for "Andrew E. Colsky" produces only 20 results. Besides a few
mentions of SSI related material, the results connect Colsky with dispute
resolution for the U.S. Postal Service and as the author of a book on the
famous Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida.
CORAL WAY PARTNERS, INC.
There
is also an odd business listing indicating that an "Andrew E. Colsky" is, or
was, director of a company called Coral Way Partners, Inc. The listing is
from a database called Manta at www.manta.com. The information provided on
Manta's website comes from Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). Oddly, there are only two
listings in Google for Colsky and "Coral Way Partners."
The
business listing says that "Andrew E. Colsky" is, or was the Director of
Coral Way Partners, Inc., which is, or was located at 8220 SW 52nd Ave. in
Miami, Florida. Colsky's business, which is described as providing "business
services," is listed with the phone number (305) 669-4724.
"Andrew
Colsky" is listed in D&B and Manta as being the President of another
company, Mediation Associates, Inc. or American Mediation Institute, at the
same address on SW 52nd Ave. in Miami. Mediation Associates, with one
employee, and Coral Way Partners, Inc. apparently shared the same office and
phone number.
D&B has
only one company listed with the name Coral Way Partners, which is listed as
having 2 employees with yearly sales of $120,000. The name of Colsky's
"partner" in Coral Way Partners is not provided, nor is the year of the
listing.
Metrobot, however, has a 2005 listing for Coral Way Partners at the SW 52nd
Ave. address. A doctor named Arthur S. Colsky is also listed at the same
address along with Andrew Colsky's Mediation Associates. Dr. Colsky's
mother, Irene Colsky, is listed as self-employed at the same address.
Coral
Way is the historic scenic road that runs East and West between downtown
Miami and Coral Gables. It is somewhat odd that Colsky would have a business
called Coral Way Partners located in an office nearly 5 miles south of the
famous ficus and banyan tree-lined Coral Way.
It is
also odd that in March 2007, a Miami business with a very similar name,
Salman Coral Way Partners, was designated by the U.S. Treasury as a "front"
acting for Colombia’s North Valle Drug Cartel.
Salman
Coral Way Partners is listed at 2731 Coral Way, about 6 miles northeast of
the Coral Way Partners office at 8220 SW 52nd Ave.
On
March 7, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets
Control (OFAC) added two U.S. companies, C.W. Salman Partners and Salman
Coral Way Partners, to its list of Specially Designated Narcotics
Traffickers (SDNTs) for their ties to Colombia's drug cartel.
While
it appears that Salman Coral Way Partners and Coral Way Partners are two
separate companies, there is virtually no information about Colsky's company
or what it did.
It
seems very odd that Colsky, the director of the SSI program for TSA, would
be the director of a company with the same name, in the same part of Miami,
as a company linked to the Colombian drug cartel. Of course, it may be just
a coincidence, but it seems to be quite an odd coincidence.
If,
however, the two Coral Way Partners companies in South Miami are connected
in some way, it would be a very interesting development in the 9-11
cover-up.
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