NOTE: We are sending you two articles today.  The first (1413 words) is about the tragic fire at 130 Liberty Street.
The second is a miscellany of  shorter items (575 words).  Enjoy.

Henry J. Stern
Thursday, August 23, 2007

The John Galt Corporation was the major subcontractor at the Deutsche Bank (formerly Bankers Trust Plaza).
 
Why does that name sound familiar?
 
Because John Galt, a fictional character, was the hero in an Ayn Rand novel, Atlas Shrugged.   He was an engineer who could do anything.  Except demolish a building, apparently.
 
The John Galt Corporation is a shell, operating out of the same office as Regional Scaffolding and Hoisting Company, 3900 Webster Avenue, Bronx.
 
As much as is known about the scheme is described in today's Times, OBSCURE COMPANY IS BEHIND 9/11 DEMOLITION WORK by two of its top reporters, Charles V. Bagli and David W. Dunlap. The third reporter, William K. Rashbaum, may also be very good, I am simply unfamiliar with his work. The Daily News and the Sun also covered this story, with the News, SHOCKING LACK OF INSPECTIONS AT DOOMED SITE, by  Kirsten Danis, Jonathan Lemire and Corky Siemaszko and the Sun's SUBCONTRACTOR AT BANK TOWER IS LIKELY TO BE FIRED by Sarah Garland.
 
Yesterday, Bovis Lend-Lease, the general contractor (successor to Lehrer-McGovern)  declared Galt in default.  Who cares if they are in default?   They are a dummy corporation.  In law school we used to call their operators straw men.  Today they might be called virtual corporations.  But they are without virtue.
 
Now none of this would be an issue if two firefighters had not died Saturday when their oxygen supply was exhausted in an out-of-control blaze in the building under demolition.  It was subsequently discovered that the main pipe supposed to bring water to the 17th floor, the site of the fire, had been disconnected and a twenty-foot section removed.
 
As is often, and appropriately, the case after a tragedy, there are multiple investigations to find out what happened, why, and what can be done to prevent future disasters.  Here are some of the questions which should be explored.
 
1. Why were there so many firefighters on high floors of the building?   There could easily have been many more than two fatalities. Last time there were 343.
 
2. Who disconnected the water line, and why was that done?   Who knew the line was not functioning?
 
3. Why was it considered necessary to risk lives to fight a fire in an unoccupied building that was under demolition?
 
4. What was the Fire Department's plan for dealing with the fire?   Who prepared it?  Who was in charge of the operation at the scene?
 
5. Who approved a fictional company to undertake a major demolition project?   Why was no other responsible bidder  found for the job?  Who knocked out the other bidders, if there were any?
 
6. The principal agencies responsible appear to be the Fire Department, the Buildings Department, and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. What level of officials were involved, what decisions did they make with regard to awarding the contract, and who was in charge of overseeing the demolition?
 
7. Who, if anyone, should be held responsible for the deaths of the firefighters?  To what degree?
 
8. If a firefighter repeatedly calls MayDay, the emergency appeal for rescue, should there not be a GPS attached to his helmet, so he can at least be located?
 
9. Why is this work being done in the sixth year after the destruction of the World Trade Center.  Didn't that provide enough time to get safety measures in place?
 
10. Is death an inevitable aspect of firefighting, and should we simply bury the dead, pay the widows and orphans, and move on to the next event?  If not, what can we do to see that this does not happen again?
 
These are ten questions that occur to us, we are certain that experts will find many more that should be asked.  We trust that they will be. In inquiries like the one being undertaken, one usually finds witnesses trying to insulate themselves from responsibility, and place the blame, if any, on others. One gets a tangle of information and misinformation, disingenuous responses that stop just short of perjury.  It will take a long time to sort out the pieces, it always does.

This does not mean that John Galt, whomever it may be, necessarily did wrong.  That is why a thorough, diligent and competent inquiry is needed, and not a self-serving glossover by those responsible for the tragedy.  Whatever papers were signed, we  assume that  LMDC and the other authorities involved knew the reality of the situation. It is public agencies who should be held substantially accountable for the disaster.  If untrained and unqualified people were appointed to lead these agencies, we are entitled toknow why.  If people in the private sector lied to public officials, those lies must be uncovered and the liars prosecuted
 
It is easy to find a scapegoat.   Today's Post editoral, SCOPPETTA MUST GO..., unjustifiably calls for Commissioner Scoppetta's dismissal.  Mr. Scoppetta is an honorable public official, who has served many mayors with distinction.  He is not a professional firefighter, his skills are in management and human relations.  More of today's Post coverage of the story can be found in FDNY BRASS IN TRAGIC BUNGLE, by Leonard Greene and Chuck Bennett and JAIL SWINE THAT KILLED THESE MEN by Steve Dunleavy. The Daily News also covered this story in IF ONLY THEY HAD LISTENED TO ME by Alison Gendar and in its editorial, ACCOUNTABILITY FOR FDNY.

The Fire Department has been known over the years for hostility between labor and management, antagonism to the mayor, and instances of crude, boorish and drunken behavior.  At the same time firefighters demonstrate great courage and self-sacrifice, taking enormous personal risks to rescue civilians. It has a management structure in which civil service examinations are administered for the highest positions in the agency, thus limiting the commissioner's authority to change personnel.  This can be either good or bad, but usually is an impediment to change and reform..

Many privileges of firefighters are protected by the State Legislature, with whom firefighters' unions and lobbyists have long been cozy.  The combination of union power, archaic civil service regulations and legislative interference circumscribes the authority which a commissioner should rightfully exercise.  We do not believe Mr. Scoppetta is at fault in this tragedy, and we trust Mayor Bloomberg will not offer him up as a sacrifice.
 
As for the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, we were quite unfamiliar with Avi Schick, who was appointed chairman of the LMDC board, a position formerly held by John C. Whitehead, who had been co-chairman of Goldman Sachs and Deputy Secretary of State under Secretary George Shultz. 

On April 22, 2005, Whitehead wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal, titled MR. SPITZER HAS GONE TOO FAR-POST-9/11 NY CANNOT AFFORD TO DRIVE AWAY CORPORATE INVESTORS, criticizing Spitzer for publicizing allegations of financial misconduct against Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, then chairman of AIG (American International Group, an insurance giant).   On reading the article, Spitzer telephoned Whitehead in Texas and said, according to Whitehead's notes, "Mr. Whitehead, it's now a war between us and you fired the first shot.  I will be coming after you.  You will pay the price.  This is only the beginning and you will pay dearly for what you have done. You will wish you had never written that letter."  The conversation became public on December 22, 2005 when Mr. Whitehead apparently fired his second shot in another opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal titled SCARY.

Avi Schick, 40 year old attorney, has written articles about school vouchers, the Bill of Rights and religious discrimination.  On behalf of attorney general Spitzer, he argued the case in the Appellate Division against Richard Grasso, former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.  He graduated from the Mirrer Yeshiva Central Institute and Columbia Law School.  The Sun reported that he was Mr. Spitzer's unofficial representative to the Orthodox community.  Schick fights for tax credits for religious school tuition as an alternative to private school vouchers.

Mr. Schick also argued in the tobacco settlement case.  He knows separation (or non-separation) of church and state.  He does not, however, appear to have a professional background in major real estate development, construction supervision, demolition or fire protection. Nor has he dealt with captains of industry or finance, as Mr. Whitehead did.  

By appointing him to fill Secretary Whitehead's position on LMDC, Mr. Spitzer may have believed that he was making a point.  In fact he made a point, but perhaps not the point he intended.

Competence tops revenge.

#405  8.23.07  1413 wds

 
NOTE:  We have a few shorter items to call to your attention.  First is an observation, second a correction and amplification, third a brief disquisition, and fourth a service note to our readers.  Here goes.


TO TELL THE TRUTH

Roger Stone reminds me of Oliver Stone, who reminds me of Oliver North.

They have similar issues with credibility


CORRECTION AND AMPLIFICATION

Mr. Justice Harlan appointed in 1955

On August 17, in an article about the Quinnipiac poll and public opinion on race-based school assignment,  we wrote that Justice John Marshall Harlan joined in the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, overruling an 1896 case in which is grandfather, who had the same name,  had been the sole dissenter.   We have since learned that Justice John Marshall Harlan took his seat on the high court in 1955, one year after the Brown decision.  Harlan was appointed by President Eisenhower, on the advice of Attorney General Herbert Brownell, to succeed the late Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1946.  We are indebted to Prof. Arthur S. Leonard of New York Law School and Ernest Rubenstein, Esq., who was law clerk to Justice Tom C. Clark at the time, for calling this matter to our attention.


DISQUISITION

MR. JUSTICE CLARK, and sundry Justices of the past

 Justice Clark was induced by President  Johnson to resign from the bench in 1968 so that his son, Ramsay, could be appointed Attorney General and represent the executive branch at the high court. For the last 39 years, in a varied career, Ramsay Clark has been referred to as "the former Attorney General of the United States."  This explains how he attained that honor.  LBJ appointed  Homer Thornberry, a Texas friend, to the Clark vacancy.

President Johnson had, in 1965, persuaded Justice Arthur J. Goldberg to resign from the court to become Ambassador to the United Nations, on the ground that only he could bring peace to the world. Mr. Justice Goldberg believed that. LBJ then appointed his own lawyer, Abe Fortas, to fill the Goldberg vacancy, which was for the seat that had been held by Mr. Justice Felix Frankfurter from 1939 to 1962.  Frankfurter, a CCNY graduate who becane a professor of law at Harvard, had recommended many young graduates to serve under President Roosevelt during the New Deal.  Roosevelt appointed Frankfurter to succeed thae late Justice Benjamin Nathan Cardozo, former judge on the Court of Appeals of the State of New York, appointed by President Hoover, who served from 1932 and 1938.  The first Jewish Justice of the Supreme Court, Louis D. Brandeis, was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916, and served until 1939, when he retired.  He was succeeded by William O. Douglas, who was on the court for 36 years.


A NOMINEE TO THE COURT,  who declined to be considered.

Although Brandeis was the first Jew to sit on the Supreme Court, he was not the first to be nominated.  That honor wemt to United States Senator Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana, (1811-84), who was nominated in 1853 by President Millard Filllmore.  Benjamin declined the nomination, and in 1861 became the first attorney general of the Confederate States of America.  He was later their secretary of war and secretary of state.  After the War of the Rebellion ended, Benjamin fled, first to a plantation in Florida, and then under an alias to England, where he resumed a successful career at law, becoming a Queen's Counsel in 1874 by appointment of H.M. Queen Victoria.  He died in Paris and was interred at Pere Lachaise Cemetery under the name of Philip Benjamin.  

#406  8.23.07  575 wds

SERVICE NOTE