Tell BushCo: Thanks, but no thanks. I'll see you in court.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1072134612206&call_pageid=968332188854&col=968350060724 Families sue U.S., reject 9/11 `bribe'
Ignore deadline for compensation
Payouts average $1.8 million
TIM HARPER
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON—For some, it's blood money, a repugnant payoff they feel they have no choice but to accept.
For a handful of others, the process of claiming compensation is too painful: they find themselves paralyzed by grief and unable to reopen emotional wounds barely healed from the deaths of their loved ones in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But as many as 73 families see the process of U.S. government compensation as an attempt to protect those who should be held accountable for what they believe was mass murder.
They ignored a midnight deadline last night, their last chance to apply for government cash. And today, they begin a new stage in an arduous odyssey and will sue their government, airlines and state and local authorities.
"This may be uncharted waters, but I was thrown in a pool on Sept. 11, 2001 and had to learn to swim," said Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband Richard in the World Trade Center attack. "I am doing this for my husband. He was a gentle man, and he was alive, trying to get out of that building that day. The dead. The dying. The smoke. The terror. No one should have suffered like that. I want accountability. I need answers."
snip
Families of 24 Canadian victims are eligible for compensation and most have applied. Brian Alexander, a New York lawyer representing a portion of the victims who have launched the lawsuit, said he knew of no Canadians involved.
snip
Yet Gabrielle says it is a bribe by the government so victims can be coerced into washing their hands of the affair. She is also resentful that the government is determining the worth of loved ones.
"This is about mass murder," she said. "I want to know who was responsible. No one has been fired. No one has been demoted. The same people who are guarding us today on an elevated security alert are the same people who were working that day." Gabrielle said she is looking at a special 9/11 commission headed by former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean to answer the question of responsibility.
snip
Irene Golinski, 53, whose husband died in the Pentagon attack, was still grappling with the decision to put 9/11 behind her or continue with a lawsuit. "It's almost like it's a payoff to save the airlines and not hold any of those people responsible for what happened," she said.
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