9/11, 25 Years Later: City Records

Brian Lehrer (0:10)

It's The Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC. And yes, it's only 9.51, a few minutes before our usual start time. But this is both The Brian Lehrer Show and special coverage of the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks today. And the station wanted us to start now to have a few minutes to reflect before the moment of silence that takes place at 9.59 in the ceremony downtown. That was the moment when the South Tower of the World Trade Center gave way and collapsed, killing many of the 2,700 plus victims at the site that day. But we're going to start by recognizing that an additional moment of silence is being added this year. It'll come at the end of the ceremony this afternoon to recognize the deaths of the many more people who have succumbed to post-9-11 exposures from the site, even more than the number killed in the attack itself.

That, of course, has been in the news this week because Mayor Mamdani ordered the release of thousands of documents about the toxins in the air, documents that the city had fought hard to keep secret all these years, and some that the city says were only discovered recently. Joining us now, two people credited with helping to get these documents released and who spoke at the Mayor's announcement this week of the new online portal where anyone can read them. City Councilmember Gale Brewer, who was also the former Manhattan Borough President, she now represents District 6 on the Upper West Side, and Benjamin Chevat, Executive Director of 9-11 Health Watch, a group that sued to force the release of the documents. Gale, always good to have you on, and Ben, welcome to WNYC.

Thank you.

Gale Brewer (1:54)

Thank you.

Brian Lehrer (1:56)

I will say congratulations. It's a weird word for such a solemn day, and these documents contain sobering information, obviously. But this is something you've been working for, for a long time, and you just accomplished it.

Benjamin Chevat, you had the honor of John Stewart calling you a giant pain in the ass, adding in the best of ways for your doggedness on this effort. What led you to take up this cause?

Benjamin Chevat (2:21)

Well, thank you, and thank you for having us. And yes, it is a tough day.

Well, my background, I was Congresswoman Maloney's Chief of Staff on 9-11. We're working for her. We helped to pass the Zagrova Act, which provides health and compensation. It was a long struggle. The Congress, President Bush, the Giuliani administration, they all denied that there was a health impact that we now know and acknowledge that it's impacted so many. And that's how I started on it. When I left working for Congresswoman Maloney, I went to found the 9-11 Health Watch, which was organized by the New York State AFL-CIO to keep an eye on this issue going forward and that's really how I got to this place.

Brian Lehrer (3:24)

Based on the documents you've seen, which includes something called the Harding Memo from October 2001, referring to a Deputy Mayor at the time, there was awareness at City Hall of the toxicity of the air and dust almost all along including that early, just weeks after the attack. Here's Mayor Mamdani on Tuesday.

Zohran Mamdani (3:44)

Administration after administration has ignored those calling for answers and clarity, instead choosing to bury them in legal arguments and in red tape. We will do no such thing.

Brian Lehrer (3:57)

So Council Member Brewer, let me turn to you and I'll just let our listeners know that you are at the ceremony at the World Trade Center, so we may hear some reading of the names or other background sound while you're on. But you know, you've been in city government for so many years. Can you give your perspective on why it took so long through four administrations? We're talking about four pretty different mayoral administrations. Giuliani, Bloomberg, de Blasio, Adams. What were those mayors thinking?

Gale Brewer (4:26)

I don't know. Obviously that was election day, so I was quite familiar with it. It was postponed.

Brian Lehrer (4:34)

You're saying that this is a piece of a footnote to history. That was supposed to be mayoral primary day that day, and that got postponed, but go ahead.

Gale Brewer (4:45)

Yes, just to bring in context. Well, I would say all of those mayors, I would assume that they thought they would be sued, and they're always being told by the Office of Management and Budget, oh no, you can't do that, we might lose money, or they were told incorrectly that the information was not available.

I don't know exactly why it took so long, but it was certainly, it took, I have to say, a Corporation Council like Steve Banks. As he said, he sued the city for most of his life, and nothing is wrong with suing the city, and if insurance and money is the issue, shouldn't be the issue, the issue should be the right thing to do. He actually said that to us when we were meeting with him.