BushCo and Giuliani Complicit in Saying Ground Zero Was Safe?

John at AmericaBlog (and my apologies because links are not working properly here right now so they may be scattered) discusses a story that has gotten us mad before:

What part of this story doesn't scream bloody murder? Bush outright LIED to everyone in NYC about the quality of the air following 9/11. In his zeal to falsely convince everyone that everything was ok, he sent Lord knows how many policemen, firemen, and other emergency workers and volunteers into harm's way, guaranteeing that many will come down with God knows what in 20 years, because Bush wanted everyone to "feel good."

This is also a major indictment of Giuliani. He knew the results of the tests, he knew the EPA was outright LYING about the results, and yet he said nothing. And these guys have the NERVE to hold their convention in NYC? They should be greeted by thousands of protesters wearing gas masks and tuxedos.

From the NY Post:

An Environmental Protection Agency memo claims city and federal officials concealed data that showed lower Manhattan air was clouded with asbestos after the World Trade Center collapse.

And officials sat on the alarming information even as they told the public it was safe to return downtown, the internal memo says.

Testing by the city Department of Environmental Protection showed the air downtown had more than double the level of asbestos considered safe for humans, claimed federal EPA environmental scientist Cate Jenkins, who supplied the memo to The Post.

The data, which Jenkins says she culled from state records, appear damning.

On the day after the attack, the memo claims, city test results from the corner of Centre and Chambers streets and from the corner of Spruce and Gold streets showed asbestos concentration at about twice the level considered safe by the EPA.

The city did not release this information to the public, Jenkins says.

The next day, Sept. 13, city tests were "overloaded" with asbestos in the air — so much that the lab could not conclude precise amounts — along Church Street.

Again, the information was withheld, the memo claims.

When the city published the test results for the weeks following 9/11 on its Web site in February 2002, there were 17 instances where the data was either understated or left blank, Jenkins asserts in her report.

"New York City could wiggle out of the [claim of] concealment, because they weren't making any explicit statements about data at the time," Jenkins told The Post. "But the EPA can't wiggle out of this. They said the air was safe at the same time they were coordinating data with the city."