Official Praise, Outside Criticism Expected at New York Hearings (911)

May 17, 2004

Official Praise, Outside Criticism Expected at New York Hearings

By Michael Weissenstein
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) - In the years since the Sept. 11 attacks, a rising chorus of New Yorkers has demanded a tough-minded investigation of the city's
emergency response, a public airing of shortcomings that would assign responsibility for a series of systemic flaws.

They may be disappointed when the national commission investigating the attacks meets Tuesday in a university auditorium in Greenwich Village.

The commission is expected to describe serious gaps in communication and coordination between the police and fire departments. But members of
the commission and others familiar with its work said it would also seek to dispel what they called misconceptions that cast the city's rescue efforts
in a poor light.

What's more, New York's efforts to improve emergency response since Sept. 11 will be cited as a national model, despite charges from victims'
family members, firefighters and others that poor communication and cooperation between the police and fire departments have not improved,
commission members said.


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"The picture that emerges will make people feel better about the New York authorities," said one person who helped produce a pair of reports to be delivered Tuesday morning, speaking on condition of anonymity because its findings were not yet officially released. "There's more good news in the story than embarrassment, for sure."

That portrayal may not be well received by relatives of the dead, many of whom believe that long-standing problems in the city's emergency response systems led to deaths in the towers.

"If the public understands that some of this could have been prevented, that there were systemic failures, perhaps that will help push change and reform," said Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband.

Among a host of questions, relatives of the dead want to know why the twin towers' rooftop doors were locked on Sept. 11. Some workers were rescued from the north tower by helicopter during the 1993 trade center bombing.

Whether or not the doors were locked on Sept. 11, emergency officials have told commission researchers that heavy smoke and fire, along with a cluster of antennae on the north tower, would have made rooftop rescue virtually impossible.