LETTERS TO MAYOR RE: RECOVERY OF REMAINS
Tuesday, July 18th, 2006Dear Ms. Borakove,
As per statements in the NY Times article of July 15, 2006, I and other 9/11 group leaders are pleased to learn that the OCME is agreeing to permit a specialist designated by the families to observe the “clean up” operation of the LMDC/Bovis/OCME at the Deutsche Bank building.
Therefore, the family groups (see listing, below) do submit the names of Dr. Richard A. Gould of Brown University, and Dr. Ann Marie Mires of the OCME, Boston, MA.
I am sure that your office may be familiar with the attached letter provided to me by Dr. Gould. If not, please feel free to submit this as evidence of the credentials and willingness of these two outstanding professionals to assist the families of the victims in this most critical endeavor.
The contact information for both Professors is provided at the end of their letter. It is our sincere hope that this can be facilitated as soon as possible since time is a most critical factor in this situation.
Sincerely,
Sally Regenhard, 718-671-7326 / 646-266-1987
on behalf of:
The Skyscraper Safety Campaign, 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters & WTC Victims,
Advocates for 9/11 Fallen Heroes,Where-To-Turn.org (all copied above)
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The Hon. Michael R. Bloomberg
Mayor of the City of New York
City Hall
New York, NY 10007
July 4, 2006
Sir,
I am writing to you as a Professor of Anthropology at Brown University and Director of Forensic Archaeology Recovery (FAR), a Rhode Island-based 501(C)3 volunteer charitable organization that assists local, state, and federal authorities in scientifically-controlled recoveries of human remains, personal effects, and other physical evidence at mass-fatality disaster scenes. Dr. Mires is Deputy Director of FAR and is a certified forensic anthropologist at the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston and teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
To my knowledge, FAR is the only team of archaeologists that was called to work at the World Trade Center, and our efforts there were a brief, trial excavation and recovery overseen by Dr. Robert Shaler at the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. It did not occur until March 2, 2002, and by then the cleanup had already taken place in most lower Manhattan neighborhoods. We had hoped to recover human remains for identification, which we were unable to do. As a proof-of-concept, however, this work enabled us to predict the presence of fragmented human remains scattered widely over areas outside Ground Zero. As you probably know, there quickly followed a torrent of finds of this nature, first by the FDNY’s “Phoenix Unit� and then by others, some of which came from the Deutsche Bank Building adjacent to Ground Zero. Now, once again, it seems the Deutsche Bank Building presents a major issue that needs to be resolved.
A year after this trial effort, FAR was placed in charge of the recovery of human remains, personal effects, and other evidence during the aftermath of a terrible fire at “The Station� nightclub in West Warwick, RI, where 100 people died. We were activated by the Governor’s Office and worked there for almost two weeks under the oversight of the State Fire Marshal and his staff. This was no trial effort. Thanks to the experience gained at the WTC, along with further training, the results were as hoped and proved to be of value to the victims’ families and other members of our community. By February, 2003, FAR had advanced to an operational level and has continued training, recruiting, and team building. Some of our volunteers are now at work on the exhumation of mass graves in Iraq, others are members of JPAC (the Army’s Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawaii), and still others are members of or shortly will be part of the federal Disaster Mortuary Operations Recovery Team (DMORT). As an active member of DMORT, one of us (RAG) assisted with victim identification at “The Station� Fire and in Gulfport and New Orleans immediately after Katrina.
Information we are currently receiving from different authorities and sources indicates that the recovery work at the Deutsche Bank Building does not meet minimum standards of forensic or archaeological science for this kind of important work. To be credible in court or at the medical examiner’s office, these recoveries must be conducted by trained and credentialed specialists in forensic archaeology and anthropology who not only perform scientifically-controlled work at the scene but are familiar with chain-of-custody and other medico/legal procedures along with health and safety issues. We appreciate the willingness of the demolition contractors at the Deutsche Bank Building to attempt these recoveries, but they are simply not trained or equipped for this demanding work. We are prepared to assist their efforts. The accounts we have received, along with images, show rakes and shovels in use as primary tools of collection, with no sieving, mapping, controlled photography, feature recording or other systematic methods that will ensure complete and accurate recovery of remains. The only medico/legally acceptable goal there should be to clear the building completely, finally, and without delay so that no one ever has to go back in to look for more remains or is in any doubt about what was or was not there. FAR’s skills enable us to do that.
We have found from our earlier work at the WTC, “The Station,� and Katrina, that for families of unidentified victims, the longer the uncertainty continues, the more likely it is that their emotional trauma will deepen. In short, disaster archaeology can be an effective instrument of closure. Even when remains cannot be identified, the fact that someone makes a scientifically-grounded attempt to obtain those recoveries can allow these families to begin to grieve. We really have to end this, for both the families’ sakes and for the general public. We are convinced that FAR can do it, in cooperation with the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner just as before. In addition, the Bloomberg administration can thus be assured that it did everything possible to meet the minimum standards required.
We are volunteers and accept no payment. We bring our own equipment, and we are self-sufficient for the first 2-3 days but then need logistical support (housing, provisioning, replenishment of expendable supplies) to sustain the operation by whichever agency is in charge. We welcome the supervision of a professional person or organization who is familiar with disaster recoveries, and we are ICS- and NIMS-compliant. One suggestion we can offer would be to invite an experienced field supervisor from JPAC to serve as a professional Incident Commander to direct the operation. Meanwhile, FAR now has a nationwide electronic roster to supplement the core group here in southeastern New England, so we could rotate personnel as needed.
We therefore request authorization to send a 3-person FAR assessment team to New York to enter the Deutsche Bank Building under badged authority to examine the conditions there both for operational and for health and safety factors, so that we can prepare an action plan and get started as soon as possible.
The signed original of this letter will follow.
Sincerely,
Richard A. Gould, Ph.D.
Professor, Anthropology Phone: (401) 863-7061, 3251
& Director, Forensic Archaeology Recovery (FAR) FAX: (401) 863-7588
and,
Ann Marie Mires, Ph.D.
Forensic Anthropologist, and Deputy Director, FAR
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner
720 Albany Street Phone: (617) 267-6767, ext. 176
Boston, MA 02118 FAX: (617) 266-6763
For information about FAR. see: www.forensicarch.org
References and other information about FAR can be provided upon request.
cc/ George Pataki (Governor, State of New York); Sally Regenhard (Skyscraper Safety Campaign); Dr. Glenn Corbett (John Jay School of Criminal Justice, CUNY); Stefan Pryor (President, Lower Manhattan Development Corp.)