Transcripts Of WTC Attack Emergency Calls To Be Released

[leQ]

Some Victims' Families Don't Want Transcripts Released

NEW YORK -- The voices of at least 36 victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center have been identified on tapes of emergency calls and radio transmissions from that morning. SURVEY


{sidebar poll if you wanna partake}
Should the transcripts of emergency calls made to the Port Authority on Sept. 11, 2001, be released to the media?
Yes
No


The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is scheduled to release transcripts of the tapes this afternoon.

The victims who identified themselves on the tapes or whose voices were recognized by co-workers include 19 Port Authority police officers, 14 civilian Port Authority workers and three people who did not work for the agency.

The Port Authority lost 37 police officers and 38 civilian employees in the attack.

http://www.theiowachannel.com/news/2439342/detail.html?treets=des&tml=des_7am&ts=T&tmi=des_7am_1_07000108282003

[onehandle]

1. Why not wait until late next Summer?

The Republicans can read them aloud at their big party as they dance on their graves in NYC.

Rove says, "I LIKE it!"

[soup]

2. What have I missed?

(or forgotten)

Released to what end? What will be done with these transcripts?

If someone read the transcript of a 911 call I had to make, they would probably get the impression that I didn't care. The phone call was extremely controlled to convey the urgency of the situation.
The only thing that held me together at the time was knowing the call had to be made, and getting it done before completely freaking out. Knowing what I had to do, I just did it.

The transcript of that phone call would read like a few minutes of what would appear to be absolute cool calm, in a world turned upside down, twisted and crumpled, then turned inside out.

If I heard an actual recording of that call, it would re-open a pain so raw that I would go back to where I was in those moments, and relive them. Even years later. It would take me back to moments of horror and grief indelibly etched in my mind and memory that has taken years to push down to a barely tolerable level. It would awaken a beast on a very fragile tether. It's constantly there, lurking in the background.

The stuff that nightmares are made of. The things that keep me from sleeping at night.

911 this call is being recorded, what's your emergency?
Deep breath ok. This is _______. We need an ambulance at_____.
Ma'am, Is the child breathing?
no.
Can anyone there perform CPR?
He's doing that now. Is the ambulance on it's way?

Just writing this is extremely difficult. The tears are flowing, and I'm holding on by a thread. The beast is loose. But you can't see that, reading this. The only thing that's here are words. What good does reading those words do anyone?

Then there's the person who couldn't hold it together- who couldn't step inside the bubble of illusional sanity long enough to convey what had to be said. Would I want to read or hear their heart-wrenching cries? their unbearable pain? Unleash the beast that watches from the corners of their minds, waiting for a chance to strike again? no.

Would I want to read or hear a newsperson read someone's call for help in a dire emergency? and after re-reading the article- quite possibly their last words?

To what end?

The beast is loose.

I don't just say no. I say hell no.

[bushisanidiot]

3. You're absolutely right

and I'm sorry to hear about your tragedy. Reading that.. made the hair on my arms stand up.

I can see how investigators would need to hear those calls, but reading them aloud or worse.. playing the calls on t.v. for the general public to hear would re-open wounds not yet healed. But if the repukes think they'll get votes out of it, you can believe they'll do it.. twist the knife til they get all they can out of 9/11.

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Hard as it is to relive any tragic event

that we my experience in our lives, 911 tapes and such are played on TV all the time. Everynight we get a dose of shows like COPS and even regular news broadcasts that play tapes from all sorts of situations. For most major plane crashes the cockpit recording are usually released.

I understand that for the survivors and their families it is hard to hear their loved ones last words being broadcast on national news, but for many of the people on their tapes, the rest of the world will see their bravery and courage has they faced their final moments.

[arcane1]

4. gotta keep us scared! NYC was too calm during the blackout

so Karl offers us a friendly reminder of what evil men can do


expect more

[VolcanoJen]

5. I think these transcripts will be absolutely heartbreaking.

:-(

It is, however, a prudent decision to release them.