E.B. resident says gov’t agencies could have
prevented day’s events
EAST BRUNSWICK — A group of area residents who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks are hoping a new commission proposed by Congress will shed light on any intelligence failures that led to the day’s events.
U.S. Congressman Rush Holt (D-12) released a statement last week applauding the House of Representatives’ passage of an amendment to the intelligence authorization bill in order to create an independent commission charged with studying such failures and recommending how such situations can be prevented. The measure, introduced by Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Indiana), passed in a bipartisan vote, 219 to 188. It still requires Senate and presidential approval.
Though she helped to mobilize support for the amendment, East Brunswick resident Lorie Van Auken, who lost her husband, Kenneth, on Sept. 11, said the measure does not go far enough. Van Auken said she and others who fought for the measure were hoping it would include an investigation of other agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Secret Service.
Another citizen who fought for the measure, Patty Casazza, a Colts Neck resident who previously lived in South River, said she also wanted to see a measure that was wider in scope. She believes, however, that it could still be strengthened.
"The amendment is, unfortunately, still centered on intelligence," she said. "We’re hoping, once it passes the Senate, they can go into conference and broaden the investigation. That’s really our goal."
Van Auken said a lot of the hijackers would not have been in the United States if the INS was properly doing its job. Even though the INS failed, she said, the FAA could still have still prevented the disaster.
"It was a conflation of events that allowed this to happen," Van Auken said.
She said that it has been acknowledged that the FAA knew of the hijackings at 8:20 a.m., and that it was supposed to notify the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey so the World Trade Center buildings could be evacuated. Terrorists had vowed to come back and take both buildings down after the 1993 bombing failed to do so.
"We had 45 minutes before the planes hit," she said. "They could have gotten out by the time the first hit occurred."
At the very least, the people at the top of the buildings could have made their way down and been below the point of impact, she said, adding that most who were below the floors where the explosions took place got out alive.
"People above the impact were trapped," she said.
At 8:20 a.m., there would have been fewer people in the two buildings, she said, thus they would have been easier to evacuate.
Kenneth Van Auken, a bonds trader for Cantor Fitzgerald who also left behind two children when he died, had been working on the 105th floor, and could possibly have gotten out or been saved by a helicopter had the evacuation begun before the planes hit, Lorie Van Auken said.
"With each failure, we lost more lives," she said.
"This is clearly only a small part of the story. A lot of facts have not been investigated even 11 months afterwards," she added.
Without an independent investigation, the country cannot rest safely, she said.
Casazza said there were a "whole host of protocols just not followed on Sept. 11."
She said that air traffic controllers were supposed to contact NORWAD within six minutes of realizing that a transponder — a signal emitted to indicate an airplane’s position in the air — had been shut off.
"That’s an air crash waiting to happen," she said.
"Without a true examination into what went wrong, we can’t cure the problem, and we want the country to be safe," Van Auken said. "We don’t want anyone to walk in our shoes."
Both her and Casazza said there has not been enough of an investigation by the government and the media into the events leading up to the attacks.
"There’s been very little investigation into 9-11, which should shock Americans," Van Auken said.
Casazza said the White House has been unwilling to help their cause.
"The president should be our biggest advocate, and he has clearly not been," she said.
Holt credited the families of victims with helping to get the amendment passed.
Mindy Kleinberg, an East Brunswick resident whose husband, Alan, was killed in the attacks, is also credited for assisting to mobilize support for the amendment.
Holt’s press secretary, James Kapsis, said the congressman supported the measure because he believes Americans need to know more about what really happened.
"A future attack is not inevitable, like some think," Kapsis said.
He said there were more than 100 victims of Sept. 11 who were from New Jersey’s 12th District, which includes parts of Middlesex, Monmouth, Hunterdon and Somerset counties.
"(Holt) thinks, as a scientist, we should be analytical about these things," Kapsis said. "We can figure out who should have known better."
The House adopted the measure on July 25 with 25 Republicans voting for it. Four Democrats voted against the amendment.
The bipartisan commission created by the amendment would include two people representing the families of the victims, according to Holt’s office.
"An independent commission is the right thing to do," Holt said. "It is about fact finding, not fault finding."
"I commend the survivor groups here in central New Jersey for their tireless efforts to convince a majority of House members that an independent commission will help prevent other Americans from having to endure a tragedy similar to Sept. 11," Holt said. "I have met on numerous occasions with many of the surviving family members from central New Jersey, and I know how much it means to them if we can at least draw some positive lessons from this calamity."