Why Is No One Blaming Bill Clinton for Understating Terror Threat?

President Bill Clinton understated the intelligence threats to America after the first bombing of the World Trade Center on Feb. 26, 1993. That is where today's clamor and investigation should be focused.

Clinton's understating the threats posed by terrorism continued after the Khobar Towers attack on June 25, 1996, the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998, and the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole. He continued to understate the intelligence threats to Americans even after Osama bin Laden openly declared war on the United States.

The Clinton Administration took on a "look or sound tough" approach, but in reality a profoundly weak, almost, do-nothing attitude. To that end, it seems the Clinton Administration prosecuted a blind man for driving a truck into that WTC building in '93 and then bombed a deserted desert training camp--emulating the French method of placate, supplicate and surrender and be occupied.

Where was the intelligence in 1993? Where were the badgering democratically controlled congressional intelligence oversight committee and media then? Wasn't the intelligence budget cut to the bone before President Bush took office? Yes! Of course, but the war in Iraq is still Bush's fault entirely.

Collapsing before the very eyes of Americans on 9/11 was the same World Trade Center in New York that was attacked in 1993.

This Democratic failure to defend America is the predominant cause of the Iraq War.

...

http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=10464

Ground Zero Memorial Cost Estimated at $490 Million
 
By DAVID W. DUNLAP

The price tag for the World Trade Center memorial and memorial museum will approach a half-billion dollars, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation said yesterday as it offered the first glimpse of budget estimates in almost two years.

The estimates - up to $330 million for the memorial itself and up to $160 million for the museum - were made public as the possibility grew that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey would take over construction of the memorial.

Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who do not always see eye-to-eye on ground zero matters, both said on Monday that if the authority guaranteed to finish the job with no cost overruns, it would be a strong contender to serve as construction manager.

Even with an above-ground visitors' center, the total cost of the memorial complex will end up less than $750 million, said Stefan Pryor, the president of the development corporation. That raises the possibility that some money that would have gone to the memorial might help pay instead for a performing arts center.

Actual construction of the memorial, with its twin voids, waterfalls and pools, landscaped plaza and galleries honoring the dead, will cost up to $240 million, Mr. Pryor said. The additional $90 million includes architectural and engineering fees and construction management expenses. Contingencies are built into both estimates.

The $330 million total for the memorial is lower than the previous public estimate of $350 million in January 2004. In part, this is because contingency estimates shrink as design advances, said Anne Papageorge, a senior vice president of the corporation.

The underground memorial museum, intertwined spatially but not directly connected to the memorial, will cost up to $120 million to build, Mr. Pryor said. Fees and expenses will add $40 million.

Mr. Pryor would not disclose even a rough estimate for the building designed by the firm Snohetta that was to have housed the International Freedom Center and the Drawing Center but is now to become a memorial-related visitors' center. The redesigned structure will certainly be smaller, but little else is known about it.

"I can tell you with confidence," Mr. Pryor said, "that the smaller Snohetta building that will result from the design process, when combined with other facilities, the memorial and memorial museum, will cost less than $750 million; indeed, perhaps significantly less."

What makes $750 million an important benchmark is that it combines the $500 million private fund-raising goal of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation and $300 million set aside for memorial and cultural projects by the development corporation, $50 million of which already has been earmarked for the performing arts center.

"The good news is that we've needed the certainty of the numbers, and these numbers are in line with what we thought," said Gretchen Dykstra, the president and chief executive of the foundation, which has so far raised $102.3 million.

The foundation is to finance, build, own and operate the memorial and memorial museum.

The estimates - which had been a well-guarded secret not only because they were constantly evolving but also because they almost guarantee more squabbling over ground zero priorities - allow the public and prospective donors to judge better where the money will go.

Release of the estimates also allows the corporation to combat the public impression that the memorial complex will cost more than $800 million, an impression that has grown in the absence of specific numbers.

On Monday, Governor Pataki said the proposal by the Port Authority to serve as construction manager for the memorial foundation merited serious consideration if the authority "can offer the ability to guarantee costs and provide greater efficiency."

Mayor Bloomberg said, "One of the things that they have offered to do is to guarantee no cost overruns, which I will say does make it very attractive."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/23/nyregion/23rebuild.html

Does Putting Up a Glass Galleria Count as Bringing Back a Street?

By DAVID W. DUNLAP

CORTLANDT - the street that was but isn't - may not be again.

Advancing its retail plans for the new World Trade Center, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey released renderings last week of a new passage where Cortlandt Street once ran, between Church and Greenwich Streets. They showed a multilevel, glass-walled shopping galleria called Cortlandt Way instead of a regular thoroughfare.

A strong planning tenet after 9/11 was that much of the old street grid obliterated by the trade center superblock in the 1960's ought to be restored, reconnecting the site with the rest of Lower Manhattan.

It seems certain now that several lost streets will return. But how public will they be? Since security dictates the wide separation of roadways from potential targets, it is hard to believe that any of the streets within the site will be open to unregulated traffic in the foreseeable future, even if they are not enclosed.

Enclosing a street raises even more issues. And City Hall is not yet convinced.

Deputy Mayor Daniel L. Doctoroff said a galleria would diminish views to and from the 9/11 memorial. Joined to structures on Liberty and Dey Streets, it would create an unbroken two-block wall, he said. And it would be crossed by elevated walkways. "We generally frown upon bridges over the streets," Mr. Doctoroff said.

He said the authority had tried to respond to the city's concerns by enclosing the galleria in glass and recessing its facade, but he added, "We still have a lot of work to do."

Cortlandt Street was not ceded to the city by the authority in the Nov. 24, 2004, redevelopment agreement that returned Fulton and Greenwich Streets to municipal control. Instead, its fate was left to "be determined through mutual agreement."

City planners did not want a repeat of the underground trade center concourse, which drew shoppers - and vitality - from surrounding sidewalks. The authority is using the galleria to meet a goal in the agreement that 50 percent of retail space at the site be placed aboveground and to solve problems of light, wind and security posed by having two very tall towers less than 50 feet apart.

Cortlandt Way would be a counterpart to the Winter Garden in the World Financial Center, said Charles A. Gargano, the vice chairman of the authority. It would be a hub in a five-level, 505,000-square-foot shopping complex radiating through and under office towers on Church Street and the new PATH terminal.

The prospect of enlivening Church Street may temper some opposition to a galleria. "The natural predilection of the civic community is that streets should remain open," said Petra Todorovich, a senior planner at the Regional Plan Association. "On the other hand, we've been very supportive of the role retail can play in the revitalization of Lower Manhattan. We're not ruling out the Port Authority's proposal at all."

Cortlandt Street, from Broadway to the Hudson River, was given to the city in 1733 by Frederick Van Cortlandt and others. (Yes, that is a bell ringing. He later built Van Cortlandt Mansion on the family estate that is now Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx.) Robert Fulton's steamboat departed from the foot of Cortlandt Street. Herman Melville lived there as a boy. In the 20th century, the west end became an electronics marketplace called Radio Row.

The block between Church and Greenwich Streets was home to the Cortlandt Building of the Hudson Terminal complex, predecessor to PATH; Peter Henderson & Company, a famous gardening store; Volk's restaurant; and Syms men's apparel, whose proprietor, Sy Syms, was an outspoken trade center opponent.

Cortlandt Street was the site of the first property acquired for the trade center in 1965, the first building torn down for the center in 1965 and the earliest construction in 1966.

THEN, three blocks of it were wiped out. A line drawn along its route would have run through 4 World Trade Center, 2 World Trade Center (the south tower) and 3 World Trade Center (the Marriott hotel).

After the attack, once the tower footprints were ruled out as a development site, there was no chance of recreating the west end. But in 2003, by a vote of 36 to 2, Community Board 1 called for the east end to be "a public open street lined with street-level retail establishments."

Madelyn Wils, a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation board, who was then chairwoman of the community board, said: "I always felt that Cortlandt Street should be open. Open as a view corridor. Open in a friendly, pedestrian way. Open - even if not in our lifetime - to vehicular traffic."

A galleria would frustrate physical and visual connections and send an ominous planning signal about Fulton and Greenwich Streets, said Fredric M. Bell, executive director of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

"If, little by little, the streets get closed as easily as the Port Authority assumes Cortlandt Street will be closed," he said, "the big streets will be next."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/24/nyregion...cks.html?oref=login

Daniel Libeskind Designed 911 Memorial With Above Ground WTC Ruins Opens in Padua, Italy Perpetuating a Discredited WTC Urban Nostradamus Myth
http://911memorials.org/?p=297
/m1791

Daniel Libeskind, who came up with the plan to bury and hide the 911 memorial in New York, has designed an above ground WTC memorial in Padua, Italy, which includes WTC ruins and in the process made a huge factual error based on an New Age urban myth.

A press release on omnidecor notes the memorial built almost entirely in etched DecorFlou Clear glass and is in the shape of a 17-metre (55 feet high)book.

The memorial is entitled “Memoria e Luce - World Trade Center Memorial” (Memory and Light) and it opened in the fall of 2005.

On one page is the inscription from the Statue of Liberty and on the other is a steel beam from the WTC.

The press release says the spine lines up with the same latitude that Padua shares with New York City. However that is incorrect. The latitude for the World Trade Center is is 40.69N while Padua is more than 300 miles further north at 45.25N. Of course nobody ever accused Libeskind of being bothered by real world concerns. Padua’s 45th parallel fits nicely with one of the great urban New Age myths about the World Trade Center — the never uttered Nostradamus prediction that “the sky will burn at forty-five degrees.”

This kind of spectacular mistake is all the worse because Libeskind sold his overall plan for Ground Zero based on a “wedge of light” that would hit the memorial each Sept. 11. Many people have stated the wedge coordinates were never accurate. None-the-less the Port Authority is building a $2 billion subway station based on the wedge concept.

Interestingly, the biography notes Libeskind is a Polish rather than American architect.

The monument, the only one of its kind in Europe, was designed by Daniel Libeskind, an internationally acclaimed Polish architect, recognised as one of the 12 most important architects in the world and winner of the contract to rebuild Ground Zero in New York.

According to the official website:

The light of Liberty shines through the Book of History. This Book is open to the memory of the heroes of September 11, 2001. The eternal affirmation of Freedom is inscribed on the Statue of Liberty, as seen by million of emigrants coming to America. In the left-hand page, is inscribed the dramatic beam salvaged from the World Trade Centre attack. The latitude of New York is connected to the centre of Padua as the vertical hinge of the Book. The Book is luminous, as is the low and expressive wall which creates an intimate place for meditation. The luminosity of this ‘beacon’ will be modulated in subtle rhythms. The Book is delicately balanced between the historical buildings of Padua, the bridge, the waterway. The proposal also includes the re-discovery of the historical masonry wall in the creation of a place that is both memorable and uplifting. This special place will glow day and night, and throughout the seasons of the year.

Survivors Begin Effort to Save Stairway That Was 9/11 'Path to Freedom'
 
By DAVID W. DUNLAP

These were the final steps.

After hundreds of workers made a terrifying floor-by-floor descent from their offices in the sky on 9/11, as the twin towers shuddered and rained ruin, they found a gangway to safety from the elevated plaza down the Vesey Street stairs.

Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
Kayla Bergeron, left, and Patty Clark walked together to safety on 9/11.
"They were the path to freedom," recalled Kayla Bergeron, the chief of public and government affairs for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Her own 68-story journey ended as she walked down that staircase with Patty Clark, a senior aviation adviser at the authority, hand in hand for the last few yards to Vesey Street.

These are the final steps in another sense. The Vesey Street staircase, also called the "survivors' stairway," is the World Trade Center's last above-ground remnant.

It escapes much public attention because, from the street, it is almost unrecognizable.

Closer up, however, two flights of stairs come into view, next to what looks like a concrete slide but was once the base of an escalator. The upper steps still have their crisp granite treads. The lower steps are as craggy as a Roman antiquity. They convey a sense of human scale on the gigantically emptied landscape of ground zero.

But they also stand within the outline of the future Tower 2, an office building planned by Silverstein Properties. That is why a preservation effort has begun. Possibilities include moving the staircase elsewhere on the trade center site, making it an architectural feature attached to or enclosed by Tower 2, or - far less likely - redrawing the Tower 2 outline to avoid it.

"It's certainly a very significant remembrance of what happened that day," said Charles A. Gargano, vice chairman of the Port Authority, on a visit to the staircase last week with Ms. Bergeron and Ms. Clark. "Somehow I would hope that it can be preserved somewhere in the site, if not within Building 2."

The World Trade Center Survivors' Network hopes the stairs can stay rooted. "There's a great power in their being where they were," said Gerry Bogacz, a founding member of the group. "After the south tower collapsed, that was the only way anyone could get off the plaza."

Peg Breen, the president of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, and Frank E. Sanchis III, the senior vice president of the Municipal Art Society, have also asked that the staircase be permanently preserved in place.

"There will never be another original element of the World Trade Center complex in its original street-level location," they wrote to the site's developer, Larry A. Silverstein, on Nov. 10.

Silverstein Properties had no comment.

On Sept. 11, 2001, Ms. Clark and Ms. Bergeron separately made their way down more than 40 stories of 1 World Trade Center, the north tower, and found each other on the 23rd floor. As they reached a landing in a stairwell on the fourth or fifth floor, the south tower collapsed. There was a terrific noise, then a violent vibration. "At that point," Ms. Bergeron said, "I thought we were going to die."

Ms. Clark looked up to see the stairwell itself twisting. Then the lights went out. "You just closed your eyes and you prayed that it be over," she said, adding, "And then it stopped and the lights came back on."

Getting out of the tower proved hellish, too, through calf-high water, under dangling electrical wires, by a dim emergency light that faded to darkness. They felt their way along a row of lockers, until a firefighter opened a door.

What greeted them outside was a dust cloud so opaque and white that it appeared luminous. "It was light," Ms. Clark said, "but you could not see." Rather than dash across the open plaza, they made their way under the protective eaves of the United States Custom House and 5 World Trade Center to Vesey Street.

"What we had to walk over getting out of 1, if we had to negotiate out to Church Street - I'm not certain that we'd be having this conversation," Ms. Clark said.

Their trial did not end when they reached the Vesey Street staircase. A large man ahead of Ms. Clark began to clutch his chest. "I hit him," she recalled. "I'm like: 'Buddy, keep going. You cannot have gotten this far and not get out of here.' "

At the base of the stairs, Ms. Clark said, a Port Authority police officer heading back into the building stopped to allow the man to use his respirator - a gesture that may have saved the officer's life.

Speaking personally, Ms. Clark called the Vesey Street staircase a "monument to all of us" that embodies the metaphorical power of steps.

"It's religious. It's literary," she said. " 'Ladder of success.' 'Jacob's ladder.' It's all of those things. 'Step program.' It's all very much woven into how we explain things. 'Stairway to heaven.' "

Ms. Clark said: "Your image of the World Trade Center is two towers piercing the sky. This is the only thing that's above grade. And the only remnant that was part of that thing that pierced the sky."


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/25/nyregion/25remnant.html

Apartments Ahead?

By DAVIDSON GOLDIN
November 25, 2005
 
When Mayor Bloomberg first mused last month about apartment buildings at the World Trade Center site, City Hall aides privately whispered that their boss was fantasizing about a perfect world rather than previewing a plan of action for his second term. But since the election, Mr. Bloomberg has ramped up the apartment-talk and he now seems determined to exert control over the rebuilding process. Apartments are likely after all.

At first glance, Mr. Bloomberg is on a collision course with Governor Pataki - who has been pushing to rebuild the entire 10 million square feet of office space lost on September 11. Mr. Pataki initially said he was "perplexed" by Mr. Bloomberg's desire for apartments, and just last week told me he told me he doesn't see "any need for any public discussion beyond what occurs in the normal circumstance." But the two leaders agree about much more than they disagree about.

Mr. Pataki is concerned primarily with the three most symbolic parts of the redevelopment process: the Freedom Tower, the transit hub, and the memorial. Mr. Bloomberg is firmly on board with these iconic structures. Their dispute involves only the eastern strip of the site along Church Street, which is most easily described as the long block across from the Century 21 department store.

A year ago this month, Mr. Bloomberg signed on to the master plan calling for three office buildings – Towers Two, Three, and Four - to line the street. Mr. Bloomberg now objects to two of those buildings, totaling about a third of the office space planned for the entire site. Mr. Bloomberg argues that Lower Manhattan should be a 24-hour community that doesn't revolve solely around the financial industry. He also argues that Lower Manhattan simply can't absorb all the office space the World Trade Center complex once provided.

Notably, none of those objections involves any of the projects nearest and dearest to Mr. Pataki's personal and political priorities. In fact, the governor's aides concede Mr. Pataki's interest in using Towers Two, Three, and Four as office space is based on his concern that the site's developer, Larry Silverstein, won't meet other commitments if those office towers - which will theoretically generate substantial revenue some day - go away.

But Mr. Silverstein's track record inspires something short of 100% confidence. He does deserve incalculable credit for quickly building World Trade Center Seven, on the northern part of the site. While government-led projects stumble and stall, the one building entirely under Mr. Silverstein's control is virtually finished. That's a fantastic accomplishment, and Mr. Silverstein has definitively proven that he can build quickly and efficiently. But buildings need tenants, and Mr. Silverstein has announced none - despite generous taxpayer funded cash incentives for any business willing to move in.

Just last weekend, Mr. Silverstein distributed a glossy newspaper insert practically begging businesses to move into his state-of-the art building. Most office buildings line up tenants before construction begins. Mr. Silverstein instead relied on the wishful "Field of Dreams" doctrine - "If you build it, they will come" - that is better suited for the movies than billion-dollar construction projects.

Most ominously, even the Port Authority - which owns the trade center land - won't commit to moving into any of the new buildings. The Freedom Tower, like Tower Seven, is being built "on spec" with no guaranteed tenants.

Mr. Silverstein finds himself in a difficult situation that is largely not his fault. The developer took over the 16-acre complex just weeks before the September 11 attacks and still pays $10 million a month in rent. But his inability to find any tenants proves Mr. Bloomberg's point that downtown needs more than office towers.

Mr. Silverstein's most powerful ally is Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, whose district includes the entire World Trade Center complex. Mr. Silver lashed out at the mayor's demand for apartments and also a hotel by labeling the idea "absurd" and vowing to block any proposal that would jeopardize his district's status as the world's financial capital. While Mr. Silver wields enormous power, he might not be able to save Mr. Silverstein.

Earlier this year, Mr. Pataki lost patience with Mr. Silverstein when the developer asked Albany to help pay for security enhancements to the Freedom Tower. When Mr. Pataki retaliated by exploring how the state's eminent domain power could condemn Mr. Silverstein's lease, Mr. Silverstein quickly got the hint and stopped complaining.

Now the mayor is the one itching to strip Mr. Silverstein's control. He has suggested the Port Authority could sell the land under Towers Three and Four to another developer more willing to consider housing options, and the mayor has also accused of Mr. Silverstein of scaring off tenants by charging too much rent. Mr. Silverstein's alliance with Mr. Silver puts an even bigger bull's eye on the target.

Mr. Bloomberg is still furious at Mr. Silver for blocking his dream of a West Side stadium over the summer. The stadium may be off the table, but Mr. Bloomberg still envisions a new commercial district on the Far West Side that would be served by an expansion of the No. 7 subway line. Mr. Bloomberg would be quite content to shift office space uptown.

Mr. Silverstein needs to lock up tenants fast for Seven World Trade Center because an empty office tower is the mayor's strongest argument for shifting from office space to apartments. The mayor just won re-election by a big margin, and the governor is gearing up for presidential politics. If the Freedom Tower, transit hub, and memorial stay on track, look for Mr. Pataki to give Mr. Bloomberg a win on this fight. After all, apartments are a lot less controversial than the commuter tax.

http://www.nysun.com/article/23539

Glass fell from the damaged Deutsche Building onto the street last week, the second such incident in the last 14 months. Officials with the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation say new safeguards have been implemented to prevent a third incident.

Falling Deutsche glass hits Albany St.

By Ronda Kaysen


Fragments of glass fell from the former Deutsche Bank building onto a sidewalk shed and onto Albany St. last week. Although there were no injuries, the incident raised concerns from neighborhood residents about safety at the building, which is being demolished.


The 40-story tower, at 130 Liberty St., was badly damaged and contaminated in the World Trade Center disaster. The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, which owns the building, began to erect scaffolding and clean the tower in September. A floor-by-floor deconstruction will begin early next year.


In high wind on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 16, fragments from a 3-foot by 3-foot windowpane on the south side of the building came loose. Some of the glass fell through the perimeter protection area, but a few pieces fell first onto the sidewalk shed and then onto the street, which is open to traffic and pedestrians. Bovis Lend Lease, L.M.D.C.’s contractor, briefly closed the street to pedestrians.


Workers secured the remaining glass and installed cantilevers off of the sidewalk shed. They also plan to install similar cantilevers over the Greenwich St. shed, when it is installed next month. The contractors also checked all the glass in the building to be sure it is structurally sound and installed wire mesh over exposed windows. As scaffolding continues to go up along the building, each pane that becomes exposed will be re-inspected and covered with wire mesh.


“All of the additional precautions we’ve taken should lessen the chance of something like this happening in the future,” said John Gallagher, L.M.D.C. spokesperson.


Last week’s incident has heightened concern among nearby residents who have long worried that the damaged building in their midst is a risk to their safety.


“We feel vulnerable, we really do. In some ways, we feel like sitting ducks,” said Pat Moore, a resident of 125 Cedar St., which is directly across the street from the building. Moore is also chairperson of the Quality of Life Taskforce for Community Board 1. “I have to walk past the building now looking up, worrying that a guillotine of glass is coming down on me.”


The L.M.D.C.’s deconstruction plan was approved by the Environmental Protection Agency in September, after a lengthy review process. In the event of a serious emergency, the Office of Emergency Management will step in, delegating responsibilities to the responsible agency.


The corporation hopes the efforts their contractors took to secure the glass on the tower will put residents at ease. “I hope that will help to allay some of the concerns,” said Gallagher.


This is not the first time glass has fallen from 130 Liberty St. In Sept. 2004, glass debris fell onto Greenwich St., causing the development corporation to close the street and a pedestrian bridge for several days. There were no injuries during that incident, either.


“Is this going to continue to happen?” said Moore who has long advocated for an emergency response plan led by the L.M.D.C. for the community. “There are a lot of things happening in our corner of the world and we’re worried about a lot of things. Someone needs to be thinking: worse case scenario, what would we do about it?”

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_133/fallingdeutscheglass.html

Good news: Gov. Pataki vowed Tuesday to play a lead role in the redevelopment of Ground Zero as long as he's in office.

Bad news: Gov. Pataki vowed Tuesday to play a lead role in the redevelopment of Ground Zero as long as he's in office.

The truth? Despite having claimed political ownership of the site, Pataki did virtually nothing about it for years — until just this spring, when Pataki's Pit became a major public embarrassment. (We may have played a role in that development . . . )

And now, as he starts packing his bags to leave office next year, he's promising to "stay" involved?

How funny.

The gov's promise comes just as Mayor Bloomberg is also piping up on the issue, after staying quiet as a mouse for years. And as the Port Authority is moving for a bigger piece of the Ground Zero action (and the billions associated with it).

Yet for all the sudden interest, the bottom line is: Little at Ground Zero has changed. Indeed, more than four years after 9/11, the fate of the World Trade Center site remains a complete mystery.

Yes, there's been some preliminary work on the PATH stations, and footings for the Freedom Tower will supposedly be poured next year.

But Bloomy and the gov have clashed over what the rebuilding should entail.

And who'll be the developer? All indications are that both mayor and gov would both like leaseholder Larry Silverstein gone.

The memorial, too, remains up in the air, as does the fate of federal Liberty Bonds meant for the project.

The governor says he's committed to ensuring that Downtown remains the world's financial center; the mayor is pushing for more residential and hotel construction. (Pataki backpedaled a bit on this point this week, saying the issue can be revisited later to gauge how much office space is needed.)

Meanwhile, Bloomy has yet to present details about his vision for the site.

So is Pataki's promise of continued involvement good news or bad?

You figure it out.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nypost/20051125/cm...4BHNlYwN5bnN1YmNhdA--

To America's Roof:

    You post 1792 is highly innaccurate. You should be more careful before putting nonsense onto this website. This website is for serious students of the WTC redevelopment plan who have studied in detail the architectural blueprints put out by Studio Daniel Libeskind.

1. Daniel Libeskind did not design an "underground museum" for the WTC. See the picture below (post 1797).

2. The correct quatrain from Nostradamus regarding the WTC is contained in Quatrain #72, Century #10:

      In the year 1999, seventh month,
      from the sky will come a great king of terror,
      To bring back to life the great king of the mongols,
      To rule by good luck, before and after mars.

Please do your homework and get your facts straight before posting an article, especially when your aim is to slam the master architect.

Regardless of errors by either side, that memorial in Italy is offensively bad. The design is juvenile in concept.

/m1798
Open:
The bogus Nostradamus Urban myth about the city burning at 45 degrees is discussed at:
http://www.snopes.com/rumors/predict.htm

My point on this Libeskind's design for Ground Zero consisted of New Age mumbo jumbo. He made a big point of saying sunlight would hit the memorial each Sept. 11 from his wedge even though most people say his calculation is off.

Libeskind confirmed his view is New Age jello by making the very spine of his book claiming that Padua and New York share the same latitude when in fact New York is below 41N and Padua is 45N -- a 300 mile mistake. Latitudes are easily checked.

Libeskind's master plan called for the footprints to be buried under the cultural buildings.
http://www.renewnyc.com/plan_des_dev/wtc_s.../images/Slide17.jpg

The original burial was to be 70 feet but it got pushed up to 30 feet for technical reasons.

All you have to do is go back and reread the guidelines for the memorial competition. All of the finalists except Arad had designed to this specification and their memorials were covered.

I don't hold Libeskind responsible for all this. He merely submitted a design. It was Pataki, who apparently overdosing on his Yanni LP's, bought it.

Edited by author 11-26-2005 05:25 PM
/m1797
The big object in the middle is Libeskind's New Age wedge of light and not the September 11 Museum.

The buildings on either side of it overhang the footprints and bury them were supposed to be the cultural buildings.

After WTC Jury approved its redesigned Arad memorial, Libeskind said it was a mistake to overhang the footprints.