Voices for victims

“We cannot risk repeating the same mistakes,” said Chris Burke, who lost his brother Tom in the terrorist attacks and who founded and runs Tuesday’s Children, a charity for children who lost parents. “We are taking everything for a start. I represent the families, and the overwhelming attitude is that we don’t want to let people off the hook, but we don’t want to string people up, either.”
The Commission publicly acknowledged that had it not been for the families, there would be no report to speak of. Indeed, it was pressure from them, applied forcefully and tirelessly, that forced the Bush administration to allow the formation of the Commission in late 2002.
Bob Kerrey, one of the Commission members and a former Democratic senator from Nebraska, said that the families “were very forceful and constructive, and they deserve a great deal of credit for the content of the report.”
In the course of their investigation, the bipartisan 12-member Commission interviewed 160 witnesses. Members and staff examined 2.5 million documents. The report blames American intelligence agencies and both the Clinton and Bush administrations for having missed opportunities to avert the attacks. But the primary focus is on how to prevent future attacks. To that end, the Commission offered 37 recommendations.
As Burke noted, prevention of future terrorist attacks, not necessarily assessing blame, seems to be the overriding concern of many people who lost family members in Sept. 11. Kerrey, for his part, pledged to keep the victims’ relatives interests at heart.
“We are going to try to lobby Congress,” he said. “The real challenge is to get both presidential candidates to get behind the changes and implement them.”
“We want to close the gap between where we are and where we need to be. The effort should be broadly international.”

Politics
Many victims’ families agree with the report’s assessment that U.S. intelligence agencies mishandled and/or ignored critical information that might have prevented the attacks.
Bill Doyle, who works as a liaison for many families, was in Washington, D.C., last week for the Commission’s presentation of the report.
“It shows all the systemic failures they allowed to happen,” said Doyle, Doyle lost his son Joe, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee. “Had the government connected all the dots they would have known. . . . It’s a big problem they still have . . . the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI.”
Said Jack Lynch, a County Kerry native whose firefighter son Mike died in the terrorist attacks, “They were right not to name names — it was a overall failure.”
Psychologist Eibhlin Donlon-Farry, who works part-time with the Aisling Irish Center in Yonkers, noted the mixed reactions the report could have for victims’ families.
“It being very black and white, there might be a sense of validation for some, while for many others it only fuels anger over any unanswered questions,” she said.
The Commission’s report included recommendations for preventing a future attack that many think is unavoidable. Among the proposals are plans for a Counterterrorism Center, the formation of a National Intelligence Director post, the encouraging of information sharing through decentralized networks, and clarifying the missions of the departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
“There is a fear some recommendations will be glassed over,” Doyle said.
Noting the failures in intelligence that led to Sept. 11, some family members are concerned that political partisanship could lead to inaction.
Congress, which the report criticized for its handling of intelligence reports before the attacks, adjourned for vacation the day after the Commission presented its findings, causing concern among victims’ families. The politicians later agreed to address the Commission’s recommendations in a special session in August, but their initial reluctance rattled some family members.
“Why doesn’t Congress have an emergency session? Let’s be bipartisan for once, enough of partisanship,” Doyle said.
Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son Christian died in the attacks, expressed concern that the report’s recommendations will be lost in government red tape.
“I’m not sure if it was partisanship or some type of political correctness, but we learned that political correctness can be deadly,” said Regenhard, a Woodlawn resident whose parents were from Mayo.
Mary Fetchet of New Canaan, Conn., whose son Brad was a victim, brought up another concern — that of the private sector working against the proposed changes. An Irish American whose father was born in Ireland, she founded the group Voices of September 11th in memory of her son, and hopes to use the organization to connect with Irish victims of terrorism in learning more about their situations.
“My real fear is that special interest groups will make it an uphill battle over turf and power,” she said, referring to the airline industry. “Economics are not important; if there is another attack, it will go to the very core of our safety.”
Regenhard began the Skyscraper Safety Campaign out of frustration that her son and other firefighters had no “integrated procedure command center on Sept. 11.”
The Commission’s failure to note the lack of working radios for firefighters in the report kept Regenhard in New York City the day the report was released.
“I wanted to keep the focus on New York,” she said. “They totally ignored the radio issue. . . . I think they played it too safe.
“There is a hero mystique in all of this,” she continued, “but now the majority of heroes are dead. This is very damaging because no one else should wear the cloak of the hero except those who were there.”

In the public’s court
The next step is for the public to be well-informed, according to Doyle.
“I want them to read the report — we will need all of America behind this,” he said. “There is no question that congressmen in the tri-state area will get behind this, but we have to think about the rest of the country, the Midwest. The report will show them how terrorism effects people.
“They have to get in the ear of every congressman, and if they don’t, I will.”
Lynch noted that “they may not now, but people will have to get what a huge threat terrorism is, and force the politicians to combat it.”
Some of the victims’ families noted that despite the approaching three-year anniversary of Sept. 11, which no doubt will be an emotional time for many Americans, election-year politics may come into play. They wonder whether there will be any serious moves toward enacting the Commission’s recommendations until after the November elections.
“I’m hopeful but not optimistic,” Kerrey said. “I’ve watched and been involved in a lot of political movements before and the most important thing is to see it through and not lose sight.”
Many victims’ families fear that there will be another attack if the government does not act fast enough on the recommendations of the Commission.
Fetchet expressed fear that inaction will leave the country only more vulnerable. “We’re like sitting ducks,” she said.
Echoing Fetchet’s sentiments, Lynch was concerned with American apathy.
“There is the ability for the average person to forget — they move on and if that happens, it will be another terrorist attack that makes us remember,” he said. “Being Irish, you can understand terrorism better than the average person. . . . They have their causes, but it never justifies the act. We want nobody else to walk in our shoes.”
Burke noted that while “everyone looks at these things with post-9/11 eyes, the most important thing in the report is that this does not happen again. We need action, and to correct the problem. Your feelings on any given day cannot be the pilot when the destination is so much more important.”
For many victims’ families, the report brings a renewed call for action while they continue their ongoing work, something they never lost sight of.
Some, like Regenhard and Fetchet, will continue their organizations’ work for safer buildings and memorializing loved ones.
Burke will continue his work with the families to help them try to ease back into everyday life.
Doyle will continue being a liaison for the many people connected to Sept. 11. He estimates he has reached as many as 9,000 people.
Donlon-Farry noted that with the release of the report, “there is anticipation for closure, but it never, ever brings that.”