Thanks Cityslob for reporting the news. A few days of absence shows what a plethora of news can be missed.

...

Following the Civil War, Memorial Day—or Decoration Day as it was then called—was established as a day set aside to mourn, recognize and celebrate those who gave their lives during the Civil War. Following World War I, this day of observance expanded to honor all Americans who died fighting in any war, going back to the Revolutionary period in which our ancestors fought to establish our great nation. Memorial Day became a national holiday in 1971.

These honored souls we remember today have come from all walks of life, from every corner of this great land. They were fathers, sons, mothers and daughters—they were members of our families, our friends and neighbors. They were ordinary people, until they were asked to make extraordinary sacrifices in extraordinary times for their country.

Each person had answered the call to duty, not because they loved war or fighting. They answered the call for a higher purpose—to preserve our freedoms. To stand up for the principles that make this a great nation—liberty, justice, equality, and the right to live free from tyranny. This is the call that has gone out to every generation since our nation was founded, and those who answered have given us a legacy of the nobility of service.

Since 1775, Americans have answered this call to duty. Our Soldiers are imbued with the ideals of the Warrior Ethos and motivated by an unwavering belief that they will be victorious. Our Soldiers have understood that our Constitution and the freedom it guarantees are worth fighting for. They sacrifice personal comfort and safety to answer a higher calling: service in the cause of freedom, at home and abroad.

The call—as it has so many times in our nation’s history—went out again on December 7th, 1941. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans responded. By the tens of thousands, they flocked to recruiting stations. From the jungles of Guadalcanal, to the deserts of North Africa to the high bluffs of Normandy, hundreds of thousands of Americans made the ultimate sacrifice so that we could live in a world free from tyranny.

With the Cold War came Korea, Vietnam, and countless incursions around the world—that called upon Americans to do their duty as the forces of democracy struggled against totalitarianism. Many of these Americans also made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our nation, and in the cause of freedom. The service that took their lives hastened the day when the walls of oppression that had marked the Soviet Union tumbled down in Berlin.

Since then, we have seen tyranny in other forms: the Gulf War in 1991 called on Americans once more to fight on behalf of the cause of freedom from an invading oppressor, and the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo proved that American vigilance is still critical in preventing mass murders and genocide.

Then came September 11, 2001—a day that changed America forever. In the wake of the terrorist attacks, Americans yet again answered the call to duty. It went out from grieving relatives whose loved ones died in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, and who perished in the attack on the Pentagon. It was heard from the families whose loved ones died aboard a civilian airliner in western Pennsylvania. President Bush echoed the call when he proclaimed September 11th as "a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our resolve for justice and peace. Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America."

As a result, Americans united. Our sons and daughters answered the call in Afghanistan, on the plains of Kandahar and in the mountains above the Shahikot [SHA-E-COAT] Valley.

Our Soldiers also answered the call in Iraq. Together with our Allies and Iraqi patriots, our Servicemen and women toppled a tyrannical and corrupt regime. Today, the people of Iraq have voted for their leaders; a new government is being formed, and our Soldiers are training a security force of Iraqis. Americans should be proud of what our military men and women have accomplished in Iraq and Afghanistan, under the most arduous of circumstances, fighting a daily struggle against cowardly insurgents who prey on the innocent civilians of their own country.

America is engaged in a war on terrorism on a global scale. The call to duty has gone out, and Americans have responded. Our nation was threatened and it is our duty to serve. America's sons and daughters who are answering the call are engaged in the noblest work, protecting our nation and enabling others to live free.

In more than 120 countries, American Soldiers today are protecting freedom. To date, in the war on terrorism, more than 1 million Americans have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and have participated in liberating more than 50 million people. Many of these brave and selfless Americans are returning to theater for a second or third time. Our Soldiers understand that this is a struggle we must win. We are humbled by their sacrifices in the service of our nation. Despite the hardships, and the danger to life and limb, duty calls, and our Soldiers continue to answer.


...

http://www4.army.mil/otf/speech.php?story_id_key=7392

 
Contest Seeks World Trade Center Designs Based on Twin Towers
 
 
July 20, 2005

Just when it seemed that a design for the Freedom Tower had been finalized yet again, a new campaign in New York seeks to restore some version of the original Twin Towers to Ground Zero. The World Trade Center Restoration Design Competition, launched last week, isn’t likely to change the status quo. But it highlights the ongoing frustrations of those who think the public was not given the opportunity to weigh in on the plans that first Daniel Libeskind, then David Childs have made for the site.

The contest asks participants to submit designs based on Minuro Yamasaki’s original buildings. Requirements call for each of the two new towers to be at least the same height and number of floors as the old World Trade Center, as well as provide the same amount of office space. But contestants will have the option to make changes to Yamasaki’s design, for example, by incorporating mixed-use elements into their plans. A nine-member jury, including a psychiatrist, a sculptor, and a New Jersey priest, will pick the winning design. The competition is sponsored by Team Twin Towers, a non-profit organization founded in 2002 with the purpose of restoring the Twin Towers, and Rebuild-the-Towers, a three-month-old group that promotes their reconstruction.

Information on the contest can be obtained at www.teamtwintowers.org.

Greg Hafkin
 
http://archrecord.construction.com/news/wt...s/050720contest.asp

Pataki must try to resolve Ground Zero dispute

 Pataki must try to resolve Ground Zero dispute
Jul 20, 2005

The master plan was always insanely ambitious.

In essence it said that Ground Zero would emerge from the ashes of 9/11 as a mass transit center, as a swank office-tower address, as a nexus for cultural institutions, as an icon for freedom, as a shopping and dining complex, and - yes, of course - as the home for a large museum and a memorial to one of the worst days in American history.

 This was not a job for the stolid Port Authority, the site owner. No, no, no. It was regarded as way too cold, way too businesslike, way too obsessed with reviving its own prodigious cash flow.

This was a job for the people.

And so it came to pass that the forces of democracy - harnessed and organized by New York's civic groups - set out to guide the state's effort to rebuild Ground Zero. With the state's help, they launched a plan to make money, honor the fallen and teach the world a bit about our ideals.

So how has it worked so far?

Honest answer: It's a mess.

The people are fighting right now - which isn't a complete shock. People always split into factions and wage war over control in a democracy.

The trouble is, this particular fight could throw the Ground Zero master plan - crafted so carefully over the last three years - into the starkest kind of danger. And all the while, we have heard little from the man who could bring a useful end to the fight - Gov. George Pataki.

The struggle boils down to this: A large - or at least vocal - contingent of 9/11 family members has attacked the presence of a large cultural center next to the memorial and museum.

The surprising thing is the issue these folks dispute. No one is mad about the most obvious stuff. No one is mad about a site where human remains could be stored not far from offices, shops and chic bistros. No one is mad about construction of a building on the site, the Freedom Tower, whose base will boast all the charm of Fort Knox or Alcatraz

...

http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vps...iewpoints-headlines

Since 9/11, the Lower Manhattan community has condemned the EPA for ignoring health threats linked to the Ground Zero site, which exposed workers and residents to inordinate levels of pulverized debris and industrial chemicals. The current planning process is intended to address environmental hazards overlooked in an earlier cleanup program in 2002, which the community denounced as inadequate.

In the summary report of an EPA technical review panel meeting in May, panel member Morton Lippmann, an environmental scientist, commented that "EPA is making a good faith effort" and, with limited resources, "cannot possibly do everything that the community would like it to do."

Nonetheless, at the following panel meeting in July, Suzanne Mattei, New York City executive for the Sierra Club, reiterated the community’s demands that the planning process and cleanup efforts be more transparent and responsive to crucial public health needs. "The unresolved matter of indoor contamination and cleanup," she said, "has been part of the story of governmental failings in the aftermath of September 11th."

http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=2114

Memorial donations lagging - WTC big
 
BY PAUL D. COLFORD
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
 
Controversy over plans for a cultural building at Ground Zero has hurt fundraising for the World Trade Center Memorial, a top official conceded last night.
John Whitehead, chairman of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, said some donors "read about confusion and dissension in the press and they are saying, 'When you get things sorted out, come back to us and we'll tell you what our gift will be.'"

Some 9/11 family groups, who count three foundation board members among their leaders, have become increasingly critical of plans to put the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center in a building near the memorial, because of concerns over possible exhibits.

Still, Whitehead stressed, the foundation is making "substantial progress" toward its goal of raising $500 million. He declined to be specific.

Whitehead spoke after yesterday's meeting of the foundation's 41-member board.

The board, meeting for the third time, agreed that its "first fund-raising responsibility will be devoted to the completion of the memorial," Whitehead said.

Outspoken board member Debra Burlingame - whose brother was a pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon and who opposes putting the Freedom Center near the memorial - described the meeting as "very fruitful."

She noted that any fight over the site plan must be waged with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the city-state agency spearheading downtown recovery. The LMDC also is chaired by Whitehead.

Meanwhile, redevelopment of Ground Zero got a big boost yesterday when the Federal Transit Administration awarded $699 million to the Port Authority, which owns the 16-acre site, for infrastructure work.
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/327670p-279992c.html

$478 million for WTC security center
 
BY PRADNYA JOSHI

The federal government has awarded the Port Authority $478 million to build an underground security checkpoint at the southern end of the World Trade Center site.

In all, the U.S. Department of Transportation yesterday earmarked $899 million in federal money for various lower Manhattan projects. Of that money, $200 million will be used to rebuild West Street.

   The New York State Department of Transportation earlier this year abandoned controversial plans to build an underground tunnel on West Street to cover the roadway next to the World Trade Center site and instead opted to widen West Street at street level.

The state had originally proposed building a two-block tunnel at a cost of $860 million to shield the future Freedom Tower and other buildings from potential truck bombs. Community groups, however, complained that the price tag was too steep and telephone and other utility companies would have had to spend millions to rebuild their networks. The prominent financial firm Goldman Sachs Group also put on hold plans to build a $1.8-billion, 40-story headquarters in Battery Park City, partially because the entrance to the tunnel would have been right outside its building.

The total cost of the West Street project is $265 million, with the remaining $65 million coming from the Federal Highway Administration.

The security checkpoint money will be used to build an underground structure to screen vehicles entering the area around the 16-acre site and also could be used as parking space for tour buses.

The Port Authority also will get another $221 million to build a "bathtub" on the eastern side of the World Trade Center site to construct the slurry walls and support pedestrian concourses. The bathtub structure is made to prevent underground water from seeping in.

"While most of the attention at the World Trade Center site has focused on the memorial, the Freedom Tower and the restoration of transportation services at the site, few people realize the fundamental importance of the below-ground infrastructure," Port Authority chairman Anthony R. Coscia said in a statement.

The Federal Transit Administration has awarded more than $3.86 billion for lower Manhattan recovery projects, although Congress has set aside about $4.55 billion.
 
http://www.newsday.com/business/printediti...l=ny-business-print

Families Record Their Stories at WTC Site

By FRANK ELTMAN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 13, 2005; 8:51 AM

NEW YORK -- In the nearly four years since terrorists killed her brother and nearly 3,000 others in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Norene Schneider says she has experienced a spectrum of unimaginable emotions as she worked through her grief. On Tuesday, she joined relatives of other Sept. 11 victims to record some of her memories at a newly opened oral history booth at the World Trade Center site.

"Sept. 11 is how he died, it's not who he was," she said of her brother, Tommy Sullivan, who was attending a business meeting in the Windows on the World restaurant when terrorists flew airliners into the twin towers.
 
"He was a wonderful father and a husband, a son that every mother wishes she had, an overly attentive nephew and a big brother whose shoes I can never fill."

The booth, run by an oral history project called StoryCorps, allows survivors of the attacks and family members of victims to record 40-minute tapes describing their experiences. The participants are then given a CD copy of the recording and a second copy is sent to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

Although the booth is making special accommodations to elicit the memories of Sept. 11 victims and survivors, it is part of a national StoryCorps effort aimed at capturing the memories of average Americans, said Dave Isay, the project's creator.

The group has another booth in New York at Grand Central Terminal, which has collected 2,500 interviews since opening in October 2003. In addition, two StoryCorps "mobile booths" embarked on cross-country journeys in May, collecting the stories of Americans in towns and cities nationwide.

Participants are asked for a $10 donation. The project also relies on the support of foundations, corporations and other private donors.

Isay said part of his inspiration came from a 1991 recording made by William Feehan, a 42-year New York City Fire Department veteran who was the highest ranking fire official among its 343 members killed on Sept. 11, 2001. Members of the Feehan family, who gave the recording to Isay, were at Tuesday's ceremony officially opening the World Trade Center site.

Before his relatives pressed a ceremonial button opening the booth, Feehan's words echoed across ground zero:

"When you have a department whose men and women are expected to be ready at any moment to put their lives on the line, and go to the aid of a stranger _ even when it means that you may put yourself in dire peril _ I don't think that you could pay people to do that job. There has to be something beyond money that makes them do that.

"The whole department exists for one reason _ the whole department exists simply to serve the people of the city."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...R2005071300204.html

Neumann Assists Sound Portraits With World Trade Center Project

by Mix Editors
 
Neumann has paired with Sound Portraits for a StoryCorps booth at the location of New York City's World Trade Center. The booth features two Neumann TLM 127/SET Z microphones and Sennheiser HD280 headphones.

"The World Trade Center booth will have special access for families who lost someone on September 11 to come in and remember that person," explains Isay. "Just as with the Grand Central Terminal booth, we expect the WTC booth to give participants powerful and deeply meaningful experiences; it's just that some or many of the WTC interviews will be directly related to the tragic events of September 11, 2001."

The Neumann TLM 127/SET Z microphone kit features a three-pattern (cardioid, omni, and 'R' remote pattern control) large-diaphragm FET condenser mic, with models available in either black matte or nickel finish. The TLM 127 is built around the K 127 dual-diaphragm capsule and also includes a -14dB attenuator pad, a two-position high-pass filter, and controllability by Neumann's optional phantom power supply, the N48 R-2. Other package features include an EA 1 elastic suspension mount and cherry box.

According to Isay, his longstanding affinity for Neumann products made the incorporation of the TLM 127 microphones into the WTC StoryCorps booth easy. "I have been making radio documentaries for NPR for many, many years," he explains. "I've used Neumann mics to record every single one of them. I am a Neumann fanatic and will always remain so. There is no better mic to capture the warmth and texture of the human voice. When it came to recording an oral history of America, only one brand of microphone would do."

Noted Dawn Birr, brand manager, Neumann USA: "All of us at SEC are proud to be a part or the Sound Portraits effort. It's not often a manufacturer gets to be part of what is a truly worthy cause--one that benefits all of us and the country as a whole"

For more information about Neumann, visit www.neumannusa.com.

http://mixonline.com/news/headline/neumann-wtc-071205/

Foundation board discusses controversy over cultural institutions at WTC site

...

Whitehead, who is also the chair of the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., said the issue would be addressed by the LMDC, not the foundation.

He said the foundation feared that donors would be hesitant to contribute "because they read about confusion and dissension in the press."

A few donors, he said, have expressed a desire to wait until later in the process to make contributions, "when these matters have been settled."

At Tuesday's meeting, the board passed a resolution saying it would direct the first contributions it received solely to the memorial and a memorial museum separate from the cultural center. It also passed a "code of conduct" covering matters like conflict of interest and confidentiality.

Whitehead said neither the resolution nor the code of conduct was prompted by the controversy surrounding the cultural center.

But he did say he thought the code of conduct "will cause those members who dissent from things that the board does to consider whether or not they can appropriately stay on the board."

Among the three board members who oppose the cultural center is Debra Burlingame, the sister of an American Airlines pilot who died in the attacks.

After the briefing, Burlingame spoke of what she described as a possible collision between cultural institutions committed to unfettered free speech and the mission of a memorial.

"I think what's being asked here is that we exact a promise from these cultural institutions, in perpetuity, that they are going to respect the dead," she said. "I'm not sure that that is something that is realistic."

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/new...ny-region-apnewyork

WTC foundation needs firmer ground
 
The board of high-powered citizens who have taken on the responsibility of raising money to build the Ground Zero memorial - and seeing that the construction gets done right - meets today with critical choices to make.
The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation's 37-member governing panel gathers for its third time amid growing questions about how the organization will be accountable to the public and the extent of its role in deciding what will appear on the sacred ground, including in the Freedom Center and Drawing Center museums.

Top on the agenda when the board convenes behind closed doors this afternoon should be a commitment to increase the transparency of its operations. Its leadership has taken the position that, as a not-for-profit corporation, the foundation is exempt from the mandates for open meetings and records that apply to public agencies. For the moment, that argument might hold because the foundation is engaged only in trying to raise $500 million of the memorial's costs.

That's a tough job that would become more difficult if the foundation, whose board includes such luminaries as David Rockefeller and American Express Chairman Ken Chenault, had to discuss its solicitations in public. Soon, though, the foundation is slated to receive $300 million in government money and to oversee construction of the memorial and associated buildings on and around Ground Zero. At that point, New Yorkers will have a moral and legal right to know.

The board should start to resolve today how it plans to fulfill its disclosure obligations, beginning with the release of the minutes of its meetings. They're now distributed three months after the fact, which is far too long for the public to wait.

The panel should also clarify the foundation's ties with the Lower Manhattan Development Corp., the state agency charged with Ground Zero rebuilding. After inquiries from this page, LMDC President Stefan Pryor yesterday wisely resigned as the foundation's secretary to remove a cloud on its status as an independent corporation.

Finally, the board must begin to grapple with the crucial issue of whether it will - or even can - oversee the exhibitions and performances that cultural groups plan to mount at Ground Zero. Four such groups have been selected for the site, including two that are opposed by many 9/11 family members. Those two are the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center.

In promising that his Freedom Center would present only appropriate tributes to liberty, President Tom Bernstein said last week that the foundation would hold a "guardianship" over Freedom Center programming. Yesterday, however, leading board member Ira Millstein, one of America's top corporate lawyers, said the panel had yet to wrestle with the extent of its power under the First Amendment to oversee the cultural institutions. Now is the time to settle that pressing question, and all the others.
 
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opin...27091p-279621c.html

U.S. government "Summary of Evidence" for an Iraqi member of al Qaeda detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

FOR MANY, the debate over the former Iraqi regime's ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network ended a year ago with the release of the 9/11 Commission report. Media outlets seized on a carefully worded summary that the commission had found no evidence "indicating that Iraq cooperated with al Qaeda in developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States" and ran blaring headlines like the one on the June 17, 2004, front page of the New York Times: "Panel Finds No Qaeda-Iraq Tie."

But this was woefully imprecise. It assumed, not unreasonably, that the 9/11 Commission's conclusion was based on a firm foundation of intelligence reporting, that the intelligence community had the type of human intelligence and other reporting that would allow senior-level analysts to draw reasonable conclusions. We know now that was not the case.

John Lehman, a 9/11 commissioner, spoke to The Weekly Standard at the time the report was released. "There may well be--and probably will be--additional intelligence coming in from interrogations and from analysis of captured records and so forth which will fill out the intelligence picture. This is not phrased as--nor meant to be--the definitive word on Iraqi Intelligence activities."

Lehman's caution was prescient. A year later, we still cannot begin to offer a "definitive" picture of the relationships entered into by Saddam Hussein's operatives, but much more has already been learned from documents uncovered after the Iraq war. The evidence we present below, compiled from revelations in recent months, suggests an acute case of denial on the part of those who dismiss the Iraq-al Qaeda relationship.

There could hardly be a clearer case--of the ongoing revelations and the ongoing denial--than in the 13 points below, reproduced verbatim from a "Summary of Evidence" prepared by the U.S. government in November 2004. This unclassified document was released by the Pentagon in late March 2005. It details the case for designating an Iraqi member of al Qaeda, currently detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an "enemy combatant."

1. From 1987 to 1989, the detainee served as an infantryman in the Iraqi Army and received training on the mortar and rocket propelled grenades.
2. A Taliban recruiter in Baghdad convinced the detainee to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban in 1994.
3. The detainee admitted he was a member of the Taliban.
4. The detainee pledged allegiance to the supreme leader of the Taliban to help them take over all of Afghanistan.
5. The Taliban issued the detainee a Kalishnikov rifle in November 2000.
6. The detainee worked in a Taliban ammo and arms storage arsenal in Mazar-Es-Sharif organizing weapons and ammunition.
7. The detainee willingly associated with al Qaida members.
8. The detainee was a member of al Qaida.
9. An assistant to Usama Bin Ladin paid the detainee on three separate occasions between 1995 and 1997.
10. The detainee stayed at the al Farouq camp in Darwanta, Afghanistan, where he received 1,000 Rupees to continue his travels.
11. From 1997 to 1998, the detainee acted as a trusted agent for Usama Bin Ladin, executing three separate reconnaissance missions for the al Qaeda leader in Oman, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
12. In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars.
13. Detainee was arrested by Pakistani authorities in Khudzar, Pakistan, in July 2002.

Interesting. What's more interesting: The alleged plot was to have taken place in August 1998, the same month that al Qaeda attacked two U.S. embassies in East Africa. And more interesting still: It was to have taken place in the same month that the Clinton administration publicly accused Iraq of supplying al Qaeda with chemical weapons expertise and material.

But none of this was interesting enough for any of the major television networks to cover it. Nor was it deemed sufficiently newsworthy to merit a mention in either the Washington Post or the New York Times.

The Associated Press, on the other hand, probably felt obliged to run a story, since the "Summary of Evidence" was released in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the AP itself. But after briefly describing the documents, the AP article downplayed its own scoop with a sentence almost as amusing as it is inane: "There is no indication the Iraqi's alleged terror-related activities were on behalf of Saddam Hussein's government, other than the brief mention of him traveling to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi intelligence." That sentence minimizing the importance of the findings was enough, apparently, to convince most newspaper editors around the country not to run the AP story.

...

http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=18729

Corporate Real Estate Executives Would Consider Occupying Space in Redeveloped World Trade Center

Quarterly Survey Reveals CREs Believe Real Estate Market Will Support Redevelopment at Site
Companies Planning to Expand Office Space Over the Next Six Months


ATLANTA, July 11 /PRNewswire/ -- According to a survey conducted by CoreNet Global, over 75 percent of respondents would consider occupying space in a newly built World Trade Center site if the cost was less than or on par with other New York City buildings. In another survey finding, 36 percent of the respondents plan on increasing the net amount of office space they currently occupy.
 
An overwhelming majority - 93 percent - of respondents thought the site of the former World Trade Center should be used for both a memorial and commercial office space. Respondents also weighed in on whether the design of an appropriate memorial would be a factor in leasing space with 49 percent saying yes, 32 percent saying no and 19 percent unsure if it would factor in.

In the survey, most respondents, 82 percent, felt that the current real estate market would support redevelopment of the World Trade Center. However, 13 percent reported that their employees would not be comfortable working at the site; another 48 percent were not sure if their employees would be comfortable.

Improved transportation was an influential factor for the corporate real estate executives who responded to the survey. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said improved regional transportation would have a dramatic effect on their company's decision to occupy space at the WTC site, while 48 percent said it would have some effect on the decision to locate there.

In the quarterly administered survey, the majority of companies reported they are planning to maintain or increase occupancy over the next six months. Thirty-six percent are planning a net increase in the amount of office space occupied, 15 percent are planning a net decrease and 50 percent are maintaining the same levels of office space occupancy. Over 70 percent of respondents were planning to maintain the same levels of industrial space, while 11 percent were planning a net increase in industrial space and 11 percent a net decrease.

The survey was administered June 6, 2005 - June 30, 2005 and yielded 136 responses. Fifty percent of respondents had a portfolio of fewer than 1.5 million square feet, 24 percent had a portfolio between 1.5 million and 10 million square feet, 14 percent had a portfolio greater than 10 million but less than 30 million square feet, and about 10 percent had a portfolio greater than 30 million square feet.

CoreNet Global members manage $1.2 trillion (US) in worldwide corporate assets totaling 700 billion square feet of owned and leased office, industrial and other space. With 7,500 members representing large corporations around the world, CoreNet Global (http://www.corenetglobal.org) operates in five global regions: Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America and North America, including Canada.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050711/phm032.html?.v=11