3 Victims' Kin Demand 9/11 Justice

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3 victims’ kin demand 9/11 justice

http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2008_12_15_3_victims__kin_demand_9_11_justice/srvc=home&position=0

12/15/2008

Three families whose loved ones died in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks learn today if their years of refusing to quit will finally pay off in a trial date so they can expose airline security failures that allowed mass murderers to bring a nation to its knees.

“I would like some truth and accountability, and I want the public to hear it,” said Mike Low, father of Sara Low, a flight attendant on American Airlines [AMR] Flight 11, the first jet to hit the twin towers.

The families of the late Mark Bavis, 31, Barbara Keating, 72, and Low, 28, will plead with Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein in Federal District Court in Manhattan today to allow an open trial against Massport, the airlines and security companies in Boston.

To date, nearly 3,000 families have agreed to more than $7 billion in private settlements that averaged $2 million each from the federal Victims Compensation Fund. Another 96 families initially held out for trial but have since settled.

Low said he won’t give in because he believes a courtroom trial will expose fatal mistakes made at Logan International Airport, where American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 left with hijackers on board.

“These three families are focused and adamant to tell their stories,” said Donald A. Migliori, the lead attorney on the case.

They also want a public archive established for all to learn from for generations, he added.

“Sara witnessed all the horrific carnage,” Low told the Herald in an exclusive interview. “She was active in identifying the hijackers and their weapons.”

Sara Low relayed information about the identities of the terrorists to another flight attendent who was making a cell phone call back to Boston aboard Flight 11 before it slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center at 8:46 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2001.

“Parental pride far overrules any pain,” Low said, explaining what keeps him going.

He added that Sara, who had just moved into a new apartment in Boston, boarded her jet and bravely battled the hijackers almost immediately.

“In her last 30 minutes, she focused on her job,” said the soft-spoken Arkansas businessman.

For one retired Federal Aviation Administration official from Boston, the families are on the cusp of history.

“We owe them a debt of gratitude, especially for their efforts to create a public archive of information,” said retired FAA Special Agent Brian F. Sullivan.

Massport officials, named in the suits, have repeatedly refused all comment while any cases are pending.

“If (Hellerstein) sets the trial date, it will be huge,” Migliori said.

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9/11 kin holding out for trial won’t have an answer until March

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/2008_12_16_terror/srvc=news&position=also

By Joe Dwinell
Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Three families who have vowed to hold the airlines and Massport responsible for failing to stop the Sept. 11 terrorists have to wait until March to find whether they’ll get their day in court.

Manhattan federal Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein yesterday delayed his decision on setting a trial date, saying he must decide first on a defendant motion to have FBI and CIA agents testify about the increased terror threat in the weeks before the attacks.

Plaintiff attorney Donald A. Migliori called the motion a ploy to “politicize” the case.

Migliori is representing the families of terror victims Sara Low, 28, a resident of Arkansas who was a Boston-based airline attendant; Mark Bavis, 31, of West Newton, a pro hockey scout; and Barbara Keating, 72, of Palm Springs, Fla., a native of Framingham.

He said the families are blaming Massport, American Airlines [AMR], United Airlines and security companies who allowed terrorists onboard Flight 11 and Flight 175 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, armed with box cutters and pepper spray.

“My clients are adamant it will go to trial,” said Migliori. He said these last three plaintiffs have kept up the fight fora public trial and an open archive for all to study the national nightmare, as 3,000 other victims’ cases have been settled.

The lead attorney for the airlines could not be reached yesterday.

Hellerstein said he will set a trial date March 2, once he rules on if the CIA and FBI should be called into the case.

If a trial is set, the final legal chapter in the terror attacks will focus on Boston.

“This brings it all home to Logan,” said retired FAA Special Agent Brian F. Sullivan..

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Families' 9/11 liability suit could go to trial

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Families_911_suit_against_airlines_could_1215.html

Stephen C. Webster
Published: Monday December 15, 2008

A federal district court judge in Manhattan said Monday that he will decide whether or not a suit brought against US airlines by families of several victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, may proceed.

“I would like some truth and accountability, and I want the public to hear it,” said Mike Low, whose daughter Sara was a flight attendant on American Airlines flight 11. Low spoke with the Boston Globe for a Monday report.

The families of Barbara Keating, 72, Mark Bavis, 31, and Sara Low, 28, asked Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein to allow their full liability suit against airlines and security companies in Boston to progress to trial.

The suit alleges that security at Dulles International Airport, Newark International Airport and Logan International Airport was negligent in allowing the alleged terrorists to board the flights.

To date, no family members of Sept. 11 victims have had a day in court. Over 3,000 families have instead accepted lucrative settlements from the federal victims compensation fund, with the average figure hovering in the range of $2 million.

For these families, it isn't just about seeing justice. They seek to tell their fallen relatives' stories, and establish a public archive to further explore the attacks of Sept. 11.

In a related post, the Globe said that the families are unshaken by news that the men the Bush administration alleges to be the plotters of the attack plan to plead guilty.

"It’s good for the country," said the families' attorney, Donald A. Migliori, of the guilty pleas. "But it’s irrelevant to our claims."

The prisoners' pleas are reportedly a show of contempt for the military tribunal process at Guantanamo Bay, where detainees do not have access to American due process.

In at least one instance, a guilty plea by a Guantanamo detainee was directly influenced by Vice President Dick Cheney.

For the families and their demand for justice, their wait may soon be over.

“We owe them a debt of gratitude, especially for their efforts to create a public archive of information,” retired FAA agent Brian F. Sullivan told the Globe.

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Release of 9/11 secret documents sought by kin

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--sept11lawsuits0115jan15,0,3010209.story

January 15, 2009

NEW YORK - Lawyers for the families of three people who were killed in the Sept. 11 hijackings have asked a federal judge to release confidential documents obtained from airlines, security firms and other defendants sued in the attacks.

The lawyers wrote to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan, "The public ought to know about the breakdowns in aviation security that allowed four commercial planes to become weapons of mass destruction."

The documents could number in the millions of pages, and are being kept secret by court order.

The plaintiffs include the families of two passengers and a flight attendant who were killed in the attacks. An effort in 2007 to seek the release of the documents failed.

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3 Victims’ Families Ask Judge to Release Trove of Documents on 9/11 Attack

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/nyregion/15settle.html

By BENJAMIN WEISER
Published: January 14, 2009

Saying that “the public interest in the aviation security failures on September 11th is beyond dispute,” lawyers for families of two passengers and a flight attendant who were killed in the 9/11 hijackings asked a federal judge on Wednesday to release a trove of secret documents that they said showed how those failures occurred.

“The public ought to know about the breakdowns in aviation security that allowed four commercial planes to become weapons of mass destruction,” the lawyers wrote to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan, who has overseen the wrongful-death and injury lawsuits filed after the attacks.

The documents, which the lawyers said number in the millions of pages, were obtained from airlines, security firms and other defendants that were sued in the attacks. In 2004, both sides agreed to a court order, which is standard in many large cases, that allowed the defendants to designate certain materials as confidential business information before turning them over to the plaintiffs.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers said they were not seeking to make public any material that could help terrorists. But they contended that the defendants had “abused” the protections of the 2004 order “to shield from public view” virtually all materials turned over in the litigation.

“I want some light to shine on all that happened leading up to 9/11 and on the day of 9/11,” said one plaintiff, Mike Low, whose 28-year-old daughter, Sara, was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, the first plane to strike the World Trade Center.

Mr. Low and another plaintiff, Paul Keating, whose 72-year-old mother, Barbara, was a passenger on Flight 11, said they would oppose any settlement offer that did not remove the court secrecy.

Debates over court confidentiality orders have occurred in past lawsuits where plaintiffs or news organizations have argued that secret materials had broad health, safety, or other public-interest implications.

David E. McCraw, a lawyer for the New York Times, said the newspaper and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press were planning to seek to intervene, and to ask that the secrecy be lifted except where it covered truly vital security information.

The plaintiffs first sought to have the court-confidentiality order removed in 2007, but withdrew the request after both sides said they would try to negotiate a resolution. That effort failed.

Desmond T. Barry Jr., a lawyer for the defendants, said on Wednesday that he had not yet read the new court papers, and declined to comment on them.

When the issue last arose, he wrote in court papers that “it is clear that public interest in particular litigation does not generate a public right of access to all discovery materials.” He also noted at the time that the plaintiffs had failed to show “a compelling need or extraordinary circumstance” that justified removal of the confidential designations.

Donald A. Migliori, a partner at Motley Rice, the law firm that represents the three plaintiffs seeking to lift confidentiality, said he was barred from describing the documents. But he said that they had “allowed us to build a case which showed that security was often secondary to other concerns, like the cost of doing business and the potential delays created in airports.”

He said the order also covered more than 100 depositions of pre-boarding screeners and their supervisors; airport managers; airline security executives; Federal Aviation Administration officials; and instructors from flight schools where the hijackers trained.

Mr. McCraw, the lawyer for The Times, said the press’s motion would be filed next week. “These documents should be part of the continuing public debate over what happened on 9/11, what we learned, and what we still need to do better,” he said.

The plaintiffs’ lawyers also asked Judge Hellerstein to set up a process to review other documents that the government had designated as too sensitive for release, to determine whether any of them could be made public.

The three families seeking to remove the court secrecy are the last plaintiffs who have not settled lawsuits filed on behalf of more than 90 people killed or injured in the crashes of the four planes into the trade center towers, the Pentagon and a field in Shanksville, Pa. None of the suits have gone to trial.

The suits represent only a small portion of the claims stemming from the attacks. A vast majority of families resolved their claims through a government compensation fund, which has paid out more than $7 billion.