More than 9,500 people have died from illnesses linked to the September 11, 2001, according to renowned 9/11 attorney Michael Barasch.
More than 9,500 people have died from illnesses linked to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — more than three times the number murdered on 9/11 itself — as the attacks continue claiming lives 25 years later, according to renowned 9/11 attorney Michael Barasch.
The toll, he noted, has long since eclipsed the 2,977 people murdered in the attacks.
“Over 9,500 people have now died of 9/11 illnesses. That’s three times as many who died on 9/11,” Barasch explained. “So while I get it — a lot of people think that an anniversary is only one day — it’s certainly not the case for the 9/11 community.”
The nation on Friday marks a quarter-century since al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger jets on September 11, 2001, crashing two into New York’s World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
For Barasch, however, the passage of 25 years has created not only a mounting health toll, but an emerging generation with no firsthand memory of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.
“This is crazy — 100 million Americans have been born since 9/11, and they have no memory of 9/11,” he told Breitbart News.
The Barasch & McGarry Charitable Foundation recently awarded six college scholarships to students whose parents or grandparents died from 9/11-related illnesses. What the recipients told him underscored the problem.
“All six of them told me that none of their schools had taught anything about 9/11.”
“It’s not just cops and firefighters,” he stressed.
Barasch pointed to roughly 300,000 office workers, 50,000 students and teachers, and 25,000 downtown residents exposed to the toxins in the aftermath of the attacks.
Only about 15 percent of eligible civilians have enrolled in the programs, according to Barasch, leaving potentially large numbers of people unaware that medical care and compensation may be available to them.
“The frustrating news is that still so many people are not yet enrolled, and it’s almost all the civilians,” Barasch noted.
That eligibility can extend to diseases that emerged years or even decades after the exposure. Barasch noted that the federal system recognizes a presumption covering 69 cancers for qualifying members of the 9/11 community, meaning patients do not have to independently prove that the toxins caused their particular cancer.
“If you were working, living, or going to school downtown, or if you were a responder and you got cancer later, years later, there’s a presumption that it’s caused by your toxin exposure,” he explained. “But people don’t realize it.”
The World Trade Center Health Program and September 11th Victim Compensation Fund have both been extended through 2090, while the health program now serves nearly 150,000 members.
Barasch told Breitbart News that numerous 9/11 family members had personally expressed anger to him over the mayor and said they did not want Mamdani appearing at commemorative events without unequivocally condemning the terrorists responsible for the attacks.
“A lot of family members have told me that until the mayor condemns the terrorists, they don’t want him showing up at any of these events,” he revealed. “They don’t understand why he won’t just come out and say that terrorism is wrong.”
Barasch emphasized that their anger should not be construed as animosity toward Muslims.
“We don’t hate Muslims. We don’t blame all Muslims, but we condemn what these people did,” he explained. “And the mayor can’t seem willing to even do that.”
That, Barasch argued, is why he understands “why so many family members are so angry at this mayor and don’t want him invited.”
Speaking Thursday, ahead of Friday’s anniversary ceremonies, the prominent 9/11 attorney said the occasion itself presented Mamdani an opportunity to address those families directly.
“Until he does,” he warned, “he’s not going to be welcomed.”
Barasch also took issue with a controversial episode last week in which Mamdani used a ceremonial pen to sign executive orders related to the 25th anniversary before it was handed to his chief counsel, Ramzi Kassem, who previously represented an al-Qaeda detainee held at Guantanamo Bay.
“For a smart guy, he’s really tone deaf, not realizing how insulting something like that would be,” Barasch remarked.
“I think it would be conjecture,” he responded, saying that “even smart people make stupid mistakes” and that he did not believe Mamdani was intentionally seeking to insult anyone.
“But it nevertheless was insulting,” Barasch concluded. “And if he doesn’t recognize that, then maybe he’s not as smart as we think he is.”
His criticism of Mamdani was not categorical.
Barasch also praised the mayor’s administration for releasing more than 170,000 pages of previously unavailable city records this week concerning air quality, health risks, and New York City’s response in the aftermath of the attacks, ending a years-long fight by 9/11 health advocates seeking access to the material.
“Mamdani — let’s give him credit,” Barasch declared. “I don’t always agree with everything, but give him credit. His administration released those records.”
Barasch wants the city to use that effort to reach the civilians who still do not know they may qualify.
“Let’s now do something constructive and let the mayor and the City of New York lead the fight to spread the word to the civilians that you should enroll in these programs,” he urged.
“You are eligible because you were exposed to toxins that our governments, plural, assured you were safe — and it was not.”
Even with federal funding secured for decades, Barasch warned that staffing shortages at the World Trade Center Health Program are creating another obstacle to getting exposed Americans treated quickly.
For cancer patients in particular, Barasch argued, that lost time matters.
“Early detection is the key to beating cancer,” he explained. “And if you get an appointment early, you’ll get diagnosed earlier.”
He is now calling directly on Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to fill the vacant positions.
“Please, hire the staff that Congress authorized you to hire.”
For Barasch, the steadily mounting death toll, civilians still unaware they may qualify for help, strains on the health program, and a generation coming of age with no memory of the attacks all point to the same lesson 25 years later.
“It’s an ongoing story that sadly is still causing so many people to get sick and die.”
Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.
Source: Exclusive — Top 9/11 Lawyer: 9/11 Illnesses Killed 3 Times More Than Terror Attacks
