Tuesday 13 November 2007

FILM: Loose Change - Final Cut

It was just over a year ago whilst flicking through some YouTube videos that I first came across the documentary Loose Change. I'd only had access to the internet for a couple of months and in that short time nothing had left me as gobsmacked as this film. I even recall watching it again as soon as it finished - I literally couldn't get my head around what I'd just witnessed. In time, after reading various studies and accounts of the events of 9/11, I came to realize that whilst many of the questions raised by Loose Change were justified and salient, many of its assertions were not. A second edition of the film didn't resolve these problems. The film nevertheless introduced me to a lot of a lot of questions which previously I'd been completely unaware.
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On 11th November 2007 Loose Change - Final Cut was released. I'm pleased to say it's a completely new film from beginning to end. More importantly, it is restrained in its assertions and based on verifiable information and eyewitness testimony. This can in no small part be due to the involvement of David Ray Griffin who acted as a script consultant and fact checker for the film.
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As I write I've seen the film twice. However over the past day the film has been removed from all free access sites (at least the ones I know of). Rather than detailing the content of the film I'd like to mention just one issue, covered by the film, which reveals just how criminal and murderous the current Bush/Cheney adminstration really is (as if you need telling).
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You will remember the vast pyroclastic clouds of dust that consumed lower Manhatten on 9/11. This dust was a highy toxic coctail containing - in regard to WTC's 1 & 2 - 200,000lb's of aesbestos, 800,000lb's of lead from around 100,000 computers, mercury from tens of thousands of fluorescent light bulbs, radio-active material from smoke detectors and large quantities of concrete and glass which was pulverised into tiny particles when the buildings came down. Jenna Orkin, a Brooklyn resident and part of the World Trade Centre Environmental Organization, described the alklinity of the air as the equivalent of drain cleaner.
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Given all these toxins it's clear that anyone caught up in the immediate aftermath of the building collapses was at great risk of serious and potentially fatal damage to their health. This risk would remain for many weeks in and around ground zero. In spite of knowing this, in the days after 9/11, rather than warning first responders, workers and New York residents of the dangers of unprotected exposure to the air, the Environmental Protection Agency, under orders from the White House, issued false reassurances to the public. All EPA press releases were sent to the White House for approval and were edited to 'add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones'. Indeed first responders and rescue workers were actively encouraged not to wear protective breathing masks for fear that this might alarm the public. A week after 9/11 Christie Whitman, head of the EPA, announced that the 'air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink'. This was a lie. And it was a lie told at the behest of the White House in order that Wall Street be reopenned.
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According to Loose change - Final Cut, 70% of the 40,000 ground zero rescue workers have developed respitory problems, 100's have developed dust related cancers and to date over 80 have died. Many predict that this is only the beginning of a health disaster that will in time kill and cripple many more people than the initial 9/11 attack. This is manslaughter at the hands of the US government and the EPA.
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A portion of the proceeds of Loose Change - Final Cut will be donated to the Feal Good Foundation, a group devoted to supporting first responders and educating people on the catastrophic effects of the aftermath of 9/11.