December 30, 2011
source: Newsday Dec 30, 2011
A state appeals court decision to award full benefits to the widow of a police officer who died of cancer after 9/11 could help ensure compensation for the disease for first responders, advocates said Wednesday.
But it isn’t clear whether it will have much impact on the 1,500 to 1,600 first responders who have lawsuits pending against New York City and the Port Authority.
They have until Jan. 2 to decide whether to drop their suits and join the $7.8-billion federal victim compensation fund.
The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Nilda Macri of Forest Hills was due accidental line-of-duty benefits after husband Frank, 51, who worked about 350 hours at Ground Zero and at Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, died of lung cancer in 2007.
The decision overturned rulings by the city’s police Medical Board and the Police Pension Fund Board of Trustees.
The boards contended that Macri, a nonsmoker, already had the disease before he was diagnosed with an aggressive lung cancer in August 2002.
The appeals court disagreed, citing a 2005 state law. The law holds that administrative panels should presume the onset of certain illnesses among first responders was caused by their 9/11 exposure.
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Posted by Brian
September 28, 2011
National Security Secrecy
source: AP Sep 28, 2011
Public disclosure of graphic photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May by U.S. commandos would damage national security and lead to attacks on American property and personnel, the Obama administration contends in a court documents.
In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has located 52 photographs and video recordings. But they argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans overseas and compromising secret systems and techniques used by the CIA and the military.
The Justice Department has asked the court to dismiss Judicial Watch’s lawsuit because the records the group wants are “wholly exempt from disclosure,” according to the filing.
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Posted by Brian
October 11, 2010
source: NJ 1 Oct 10, 2010
The relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks have lost their bid to get the Supreme Court to rule that New York City must provide a proper burial for material taken from the World Trade Center site because it could contain the ashes of victims.
The justices today said they would not hear an appeal from the families of some of those killed when the 110-story twin towers collapsed nine years ago.
Lower federal courts had dismissed the families’ lawsuit against the city, saying it acted responsibly in moving 1.6 million tons of materials from the site in Lower Manhattan to a landfill on Staten Island and then sifting through the material for human remains.
No remains have been found of roughly 1,100 people killed on Sept. 11, 2001.
1 Comment | 9/11, 9/11 Victims Families | Tagged: 9/11, appeal, burial, court, families, Fresh Kills, vicitims | Permalink
Posted by Brian
July 16, 2010
With all the news on Hellerstein standing up for the 9/11 first responders - I thought he might be a good guy….well, I learned something that others may already know real fast tonight .
source: AP / Yahoo July 16, 2010
A federal judge on Thursday refused to force the public release of CIA methods relating to Sept. 11 detainees who were interrogated harshly, saying the judiciary’s authority is limited when national security is at stake.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein rejected arguments by the American Civil Liberties Union that it should be able to force the CIA to release names and documents related to the detainees if the methods used by the agency were illegal.
He said to do so would “confer an unwarranted competence to the district court to evaluate national intelligence decisions.”
The judge said releasing the documents requested by the ACLU would provide operational details about the application of various interrogation techniques in various circumstances for a particular detainee.
“The difference between the information officially released and the CIA operational records here is different in quality, degree, and kind,” Hellerstein said.
He cited an earlier court case that he said was consistent with his findings. In that case, the Supreme Court let the government withhold identifying information of scientists who worked on a covert CIA program researching the use of chemical, biological and radiological materials to control human behavior. The program led to the death of some human test subjects.
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Posted by Brian
June 30, 2010
source: Error Theory June 30, 2010
As Obama’s solicitor general, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan urged the Court to dismiss the suit that our 9/11 families have been pressing against the Saudi government and several Saudi princes for their extensive funding of al Qaeda. The families sued under the domestic tort exception to sovereign immunity, which according to Kagan’s Supreme Court brief (at p. 14):
requires not merely that the foreign state’s extraterritorial conduct have some causal connection to tortious injury in the United States, but that “the tortious act or omission of that foreign state or of any official or employee” be committed within the United States. 28 U.S.C. 1605(a)(5).
The “tortious act or omission” is the wrongful act (the tort) that leads to the injury. Thus she is claiming that for Saudi funding of al Qaeda to be actionable, the funding itself has to have been transacted within the United States. Compare this with the actual wording of 28 U.S.C. 1605(a)(5):
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Posted by Brian
June 20, 2010
related: Judge Rejects Many Claims in 9/11 Cases
source: Stuff June 20, 2010
A New York judge has dismissed several dozen defendants - including members of Osama bin Laden’s family – from lawsuits seeking to blame individuals, banks and foreign entities for the September 11 terror attacks.
Federal Judge George Daniels in Manhattan issued the order on Thursday.
He dropped four bin Laden half-brothers and a nephew from litigation brought by representatives of victims of the 2001 attacks and insurance carriers.
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Posted by Brian
April 18, 2010
A summary of news relating to 9/11/01 - For the week of April 12 through April 18, 2010. (Last week is here)
The lawsuit against NYC by over 10,000 volunteers, first responders and Ground Zero workers has had another twist added to its history. This week NYC announced that they are appealing Judge Hellersteins intervention into the closing of this multi-billion dollar case. Many of the Ground Zero workers have applauded the Judge’s decision.
Ground Zero workers have suffered for years from heart, lung and other ailments resulting from toxic fumes breathed in for month on and around Ground Zero. Only after all this time are their health issues being addressed and recognized as related to Ground Zero work, in turn offering monetary compensation. Unfortunately many of these workers have long since passed and any settlement will be too late. For the tens of thousands of people who are living with health effects from Ground Zero, and the rush to re-open Wall St. after 9/11, this lawsuit is a glimmer of hope. The Judge has said his decision to block the payment and stop the case is because he feels the 9/11 workers deserve more and the lawyers deserve less, in terms of settlement rewards.
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1 Comment | 9/11, original articles | Tagged: 9/11, court, first responders, health, jesse ventura, judge hellerstein, settlement, this week | Permalink
Posted by Brian
January 11, 2010
source: Belfast Telegraph UK
A federal appeals court has denied the appeal of (alleged) 9/11 terror conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
A three-judge panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, rejected his claim that he was denied potentially helpful evidence during his trial and restricted in choosing his own counsel. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | 9/11, false flag terrorism, patriot act -9/11 legislation, Spies / Intelligence/ Agents, torture, War of Terror | Tagged: 9/11, appeal, attacks, court, denied evidence, rejected, torture, zacarias Moussaoui | Permalink
Posted by Brian
December 31, 2009
source: LA Times
A federal appeals court this week ruled that a California police officer can be held liable for injuries suffered by an unarmed man he Tasered during a traffic stop. The decision, if allowed to stand, would set a rigorous legal precedent for when police are permitted to use the weapons and would force some law enforcement agencies throughout the state — and presumably the nation — to tighten their policies governing Taser use, experts said.
Michael Gennaco, an expert in police conduct issues who has conducted internal reviews of Taser use for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies, said the ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals prohibits officers from deploying Tasers in a host of scenarios and largely limits their use to situations in which a person poses an obvious danger.
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Posted by Brian
October 27, 2009
Source: New York Times
No, no mention of 9/11. Just a reminder that for the mainstream press you can talk about Bush’s “abuses of power,” but you can’t cross the imaginary line that protects the 9/11 Commission. -9/11blogger
The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration’s expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush’s cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama’s cover-up.
We have had recent reminders of this dismaying retreat from Mr. Obama’s passionate campaign promises to make a break with Mr. Bush’s abuses of power, a shift that denies justice to the victims of wayward government policies and shields officials from accountability.
In Britain earlier this month, a two-judge High Court panel rejected arguments made first by the Bush team and now by the Obama team and decided to make public seven redacted paragraphs in American intelligence documents relating to torture allegations by a former prisoner at Guantánamo Bay. The prisoner, Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian-born British national, says he was tortured in Pakistan, Morocco and at a C.I.A.-run prison outside Kabul before being transferred to Guantánamo. He was freed in February. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | "Terror War" News, 9/11, Bush Admin/ officials, CIA, civil liberties/ human rights, false flag terrorism, guantanamo, Obama, Police State, UK | Tagged: accountability, administration, binyam, Britain, CIA, clinton, continues, court, Cover up, FOIA, gates, high, hillary, Justice, mohamad, moroco, national, new york times, security, truth | Permalink
Posted by srsean1968
September 30, 2009
9/29/09
Supreme Court Justice Edward Lehner has begun consideration of NYC CAN’s motion to reject Referee’s Louis Crespo’s recommendation that the NYC CAN 9/11 petition not be submitted to the voters on November 3. The petition would ask whether or not there should be an independent New York City investigation into 9/11.
Responding to a motion brought by NYC CAN attorney Dennis McMahon, a hearing was held Tuesday September 29 at the New York State Supreme Court, and concluded with the understanding that the Court will likely render a decision on the petition’s legality by Friday, October 2.
The City’s previously assumed deadline of September 30—spurred by the printing deadline for military absentee ballots—was brushed away by Judge Lehner as he suggested the printing of absentee ballots would likely not be ordered on Wednesday, September 30, since runoff elections were being held while the Court was in session. Even if the ballots were ordered on Wednesday, Lehner indicated, this should not prevent the referendum from being put before the vast majority of the electorate who would be voting in New York City.
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Posted by Brian
September 29, 2009
source: NYC CAN
9/11 Families March on City Hall As City Seeks to Stop Fresh Probe of Attacks from Going on November Ballot
New York City – Yesterday, The New York City Coalition for Accountability Now (NYC CAN), a group comprising 9/11 family members, first responders and survivors, led 300 New Yorkers from Battery Park to City Hall in protest of the City’s attempt to block the referendum for a fresh probe of the 9/11 attacks from going on the November ballot. Today, the Court ordered litigants to present arguments before Judge Edward Lehner at a hearing scheduled for 9:30AM, Tuesday at the New York Supreme Court, Room 252, 60 Centre Street.
On Sunday, 9/11 family member Manny Badillo welcomed the crowd at Battery Park, “Today we are marching peaceably to let the world know that the City of NY is defying the will of the people to have one question on the ballot, the question to have a proper independent investigation to answer 100% of the questions raised by the 9/11 families.”
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Posted by Brian
