9/11 Widow in Buffalo Crash Was Also Guantanamo Protester

[kpete]

9/11 Widow in Buffalo Crash Was Also Guantanamo Protester
Posted by Roy Edroso at 12:48 PM, February 13, 2009

Local papers are memorializing Beverly Eckert, the "9/11 widow" whose husband died in the south tower when the World Trade Center was hit by a terrorist attack in 2001, and who was killed in last night's air crash in Buffalo. The Times, Daily News and New York Post mention that she became a crusader for a 9/11 investigation, and her efforts helped get the Federal Commission of the attacks and their handling launched.

What none of them mention, though, is that Eckert was among a group of 9/11 family members who last year publicly challenged the military commissions at Guantanamo, and signed a statement saying "many of us do not believe these military commissions to be fair, in accordance with American values, or capable of achieving the justice that 9/11 family members and all Americans deserve."

Ironically, though he had called for an end to these commissions last month, President Obama recently said he was open to a "modified" commission system for Guantanamo detainees -- at a meeting with members of families of 9/11 victims, including Eckert.

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/archives/2009/02/911_widow_in_bu.php

[ORDagnabbit]

1. think anyone will pick up her lawsuit?

My Silence Cannot Be Bought
by Beverly Eckert

I've chosen to go to court rather than accept a payoff from the 9/11 victims compensation fund. Instead, I want to know what went so wrong with our intelligence and security systems that a band of religious fanatics was able to turn four U.S passenger jets into an enemy force, attack our cities and kill 3,000 civilians with terrifying ease. I want to know why two 110-story skyscrapers collapsed in less than two hours and why escape and rescue options were so limited.

I am suing because unlike other investigative avenues, including congressional hearings and the 9/11 commission, my lawsuit requires all testimony be given under oath and fully uses powers to compel evidence.

The victims fund was not created in a spirit of compassion. Rather, it was a tacit acknowledgement by Congress that it tampered with our civil justice system in an unprecedented way. Lawmakers capped the liability of the airlines at the behest of lobbyists who descended on Washington while the Sept. 11 fires still smoldered.

...

So I say to Congress, big business and everyone who conspired to divert attention from government and private-sector failures: My husband's life was priceless, and I will not let his death be meaningless. My silence cannot be bought.

[malaise]

4. She was a brave woman

Officials were very quick to release the tapes this afternoon. I heard the official say that there was ice just before flaps were lowered to 15 and they tried to raise the landing gear and flaps before there was silence.

[Occam Bandage]

9. Is that lawsuit still active? That article is nearly six years old.

[B o d i]

13. "She was an inspiration to me" - Barack Obama

Saw it just now on CNN.

We'll see what happens next, or doesn't, I guess.

[Solly Mack]

17. Thanks for posting!

[ecstatic]

2. This is just too strange and tragic

and WAY too ironic. What are the odds of a couple both dying in this way (him from within a hit building, her from in a doomed plane??).

[Mrs. Overall]

3. I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but this story is getting stranger--

What are the odds that she would die in a plane crash a week after meeting with Obama, where she asked that a new inquiry into 9/11 be opened?

I hope there is a thorough investigation into this tragic incident. I heard a witness on MSNBC say this morning that the plane was on fire before it crashed.

Perhaps just odd coincidence, probably so, but I can't help but wonder just a bit.

[SidDithers]

5. What are the odds that someone with noteriety...

would die in an unspecified way, after doing something of minor significance, somewhere in the US, sometime?

Sid

[Mrs. Overall]

6. I'm not advocating a conspiracy--I'm simply stating it is odd and ironic--

and it makes me wonder a bit.

[AntiFascist]

10. One reason she had notoriety...

she was instrumental in establishing the 9-11 Commission, and tended to blame the Bush Administration for failing to stop 9-11.

[remoulade]

11. Is your sarcasmometer busted?

:D

[Mrs. Overall]

12. Yeah, I think it is! Oops!

[Libby2]

16. It's just so sad.

[jxnmsdemguy65]

15. damn, that is a scary thought..

shades of the strange deaths of Dorothy Hunt - http://mtracy9.tripod.com/dorothy_hunt.htm - and Paul Wellstone....

[mmonk]

7. I'm glad she did. I heard from a group that met with Obama that seemed

opposite in nature on NPR.

[Sheets of Easter]

8. Dick Cheney used his weather machine to blast ice onto the plane.

The same one he used to create the tsunami back in 2004.

[G_j]

14. ABC just neglected this information

in their story.

no surprise there

[anonymous171]

18. The other group members better watch their backs. nt