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Nearly 50,000 Diagnosed With 9/11-Linked Cancers; Deaths From Related Illnesses Surpass the Attack Toll

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The number of first responders and others diagnosed with cancers linked to the September 11 attacks has surged to 48,579, marking a staggering 143% increase over the past five years, according to the World Trade Center Health Program (WTCHP)
New York Post.

Among the most commonly identified cancers are skin, prostate, and breast cancers, along with melanoma, lymphoma, leukemia, and cancers affecting the thyroid, kidney, lung, and bladder. Experts attribute this rise to prolonged exposure to toxic substances at Ground Zero and the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island.

Why the Surge?

Aging Responders: Many of those who worked in the recovery efforts are now in their late 50s and 60s. “We know that the population is aging, so we can predict that the number of cancers is going to go up,” said Dr. Steven Markowitz, an occupational medicine specialist at Queens College.

Record Enrollment: The WTCHP saw over 10,000 new enrollees in 2024, its highest number to date. As a result, more people are being monitored and diagnosed.

Death Toll and Comparison to 9/11 Casualties

As of March 27, 2025:

8,215 WTCHP enrollees had died, including 5,844 first responders.

Out of these, 3,767 had cancer, including 2,388 responders.

These cancer-related deaths now exceed the 2,977 victims who died on September 11, 2001.

John DeVito, 53, a retired NYPD officer from Bellport, Long Island, recalled sifting through debris without protective equipment, saying:

“We went through it with rakes… Everybody said everything was safe.”

Diagnosed with esophageal cancer on March 13, 2020, he underwent extensive treatment, including surgery to remove part of his esophagus and stomach.

Glenn Taraquinio, 62, another retired NYPD officer, vividly remembers the dangers on “the pile”:

“Every once in a while you’d look in the bucket and you’d see a hand or another body part… officials insisted the air was safe.”

FEMA eventually provided N95 masks, but they “would turn black in an hour.” He was diagnosed with 9/11-related prostate cancer in 2020 and described the rising cancer numbers as “insane.”

Phil Rizzo, 69, a former Department of Correction Emergency Services Unit captain, recalled:

“There was so much ash falling it looked like it was snowing.”

Diagnosed with head and neck cancer in 2023, he reflected:

“It looks like little by little it’s getting most of us who worked there.”

FDNY EMT Ivonne Sanchez, 59, was on the pile for nearly ten months. A breast cancer diagnosis came in 2013, progressing quickly from stage one to stage two:

“I knew in my gut it was something bigger… You must have ESP,” her doctor remarked after diagnosis.

Many of those affected, including Taraquinio and Sanchez, are traveling to Washington, D.C. this week to advocate for extended healthcare funding for those battling 9/11-related illnesses:

“Unfortunately, it’s another fight for funding,” Taraquinio said. “It’s exhausting.”

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9/11 Families Slam Soaring Salaries of Memorial Executives as Museum Faces Mounting Losses

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Families of September 11 victims are blasting the National September 11 Memorial & Museum over skyrocketing executive salaries, even as the nonprofit continues to post steep financial losses and rely on taxpayer support.

The museum, built to honor the nearly 3,000 people killed in the 2001 terrorist attacks, attracted a reported 9,000 visitors a day last year but still lost nearly $20 million, according to its latest IRS filings. Despite charging $36 for general admission and up to $85 for combined tours, the institution reported $93 million in revenue in 2024 — including $4.5 million in taxpayer funds — against $112 million in expenses.

Leading those expenses were sharply rising pay packages for top executives. President and CEO Elizabeth Hillman, who took over in 2022, earned $856,216 last year, including a base salary of $775,084, retirement contributions, and benefits — a 63% increase from her predecessor’s final salary.

Other senior leaders also saw significant pay hikes:

Executive Vice President Joshua Cherwin collected $486,298 in 2024, a 78% increase since 2020.

Chief Strategy and Operations Officer Allison Blais made $458,652.

Director Clifford Chanin’s pay rose 66% in three years, reaching $444,999.

Chief Financial Officer David Shehaan received $432,958, nearly four times what he earned in 2019.

Overall payroll at the museum grew to $34 million in 2024, up from $22 million in 2020. Of its 411 employees, 13 earned more than $100,000.

The revelations have drawn sharp criticism from families of those lost in the attacks, who view the lavish compensation as an affront to the memorial’s mission. “It’s a slap in the face,” one family member said, pointing to the raises as excessive while the institution bleeds red ink and continues to depend on public funding.

The controversy echoes earlier backlash in 2020, when the museum paid out executive bonuses despite mass layoffs and furloughs during the pandemic, even as it reported a $47 million deficit that year.

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Biden Administration Releases 11 Yemeni Terrorists From Guantanamo Bay to Oman

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The Biden administration released 11 Yemeni terrorists, who were captured after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, from Guantanamo Bay.

While the men had been “approved for transfer by national security officials” more than two years ago, they were approved to be transferred to Oman on Monday, according to NPR News.

Oman reportedly “agreed to help resettle them and provide security monitoring” for the 11 prisoners, who are described as being “former al-Qaeda members,” according to records from the U.S. Department of Defense.

The outlet noted that the transfers of the prisoners were “originally scheduled to happen in October 2023,” but were paused “due to concerns” regarding the “instability in the Middle East” in the aftermath of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

That the plan was resurrected during President Biden’s final two weeks in office signals a last-ditch effort by his administration to shrink Guantanamo’s prisoner population and get closer to his goal of trying to close the facility. In recent weeks, the U.S. has transferred four other Guantanamo inmates — a Kenyan, a Tunisian and two Malaysians — and is preparing for the transfer of at least one more, an Iraqi.

(Read more from “Biden Administration Releases 11 Yemeni Terrorists From Guantanamo Bay to Oman” HERE)

We All Saw Clearly on Sept. 11, 2001 a Battle Between Good and Evil That Still Rages

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For those who remember the crisp fall morning of Sept. 11, 2001, how by 10:03 a.m. the day turned to Hell, and how we watched the brutal, televised murders of 2,977 people, the atrocities are seared into our memories. . .

Once again, we are in a battle too many Americans do not know we are involved in. Our culture has changed as Americans turn away from God.

We are in the midst of a loneliness epidemic according to a report released last year by the surgeon general. It said that in 1999, 70 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church. In 2020, only 47 percent of Americans said they belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque.

The victims of Sept. 11, 2001, would not recognize America today. They died before Facebook was invented; before everyone had a smartphone in his pocket; before legalized same-sex marriages; and before attempts to normalize children taking life-altering hormones in fruitless attempts to change their unchangeable gender.

They missed Covid; the summer of riots; the rise of lawless homeless encampments; and the Department of Justice prosecuting and imprisoning people for the constitutionally protected activities of assembling and speaking their mind. (Read more from “We All Saw Clearly on Sept. 11, 2001 a Battle Between Good and Evil That Still Rages” HERE)

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After 23 Years, We Still Need to Remember the Lessons of 9/11

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It’s been 23 years since America watched in horror as the Twin Towers fell on live TV.

Nineteen al Qaeda terrorists, hailing from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon, hijacked four planes and killed 2,977 of us, shaking the nation to its core. . .

Heroes stood up: Todd Beamer and his seatmates on Flight 93; firefighter Stephen Siller and his Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel run; Morgan Stanley’s visionary Rick Rescorla, and so very many more … some whose names we’ll never know. . .

Yet America, or at least its leaders, risks falling back into the complacency that led to the atrocity we swore to “never forget.” . . .

In the Middle East, the White House continues to appease terror-funding Iran as it seeks regional dominance, gets ever closer to gaining nukes, bolsters our enemies and uses its proxies to attack our military, slam Red Sea shipping and assault Israel from multiple directions. (Read more from “After 23 Years, We Still Need to Remember the Lessons of 9/11” HERE)

9/11 Mastermind KSM and Two Other Terrorists Awaiting Trial on Guantanamo Bay Strike Plea Deals

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The alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and two other terrorists being held on Guantánamo Bay will be spared the death penalty under a deal with prosecutors, it was revealed Wednesday.

The announcement came as a bitter pill to swallow for victims’ families who have anxiously awaited the conclusion of the case for nearly 24 years — many of whom felt death was the only appropriate punishment for the perpetrators of the heinous attacks.

A spokesperson for the Office of Military Commissions (OMC), which is prosecuting the case, confirmed it had entered into pre-trial agreements with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed — the accused principal architect of the al Qaeda attacks — and two alleged co-conspirators, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, all of whom have been held at the US military prison on the coast of Cuba since 2003.

“In exchange for removal of the death penalty as a possible punishment, these three Accused have agreed to plead guilty to all of the charged offenses, including the murder of the 2,976 people listed in the charge sheet,” said a letter signed by Rear Adm. Aaron C. Rugh, chief prosecutor for the OMC, and sent to victims’ families Wednesday.

News that the death penalty was no longer on the table for the suspects — whose alleged actions killed nearly 3,000 in the worst terror attack on US soil in American history — came as a gut punch to victims’ families. (Read more from “9/11 Mastermind KSM and Two Other Terrorists Awaiting Trial on Guantanamo Bay Strike Plea Deals” HERE)

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FBI Concerned About Coordinated Terror Attack in U.S. Similar to Moscow Concert Hall Attack

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Federal law enforcement officials are concerned that terrorists could launch a coordinated attack in the U.S. that is similar to the ISIS-K terrorist attack that was carried out in Russia last month.

Reuters reported that FBI Director Christopher Wray was set to relay this warning to the House of Representatives during a hearing on Thursday.

“Looking back over my career in law enforcement, I’d be hard-pressed to think of a time where so many threats to our public safety and national security were so elevated all at once,” Christopher Wray says in prepared remarks. “But that is the case as I sit here today.”

Several ISIS-K terrorists stormed a concert hall in Moscow late last month and opened fire with automatic while simultaneously setting the sold out venue on fire, killing more than 140 people.

Wray will say that an increasing threat in the U.S. “is the potential for a coordinated attack here in the homeland, akin to the ISIS-K attack we saw at the Russia Concert Hall a couple weeks ago.” (Read more from “FBI Concerned About Coordinated Terror Attack in U.S. Similar to Moscow Concert Hall Attack” HERE)

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Here’s Where Biden Will Be Observing the 9/11 Attacks. It’s a Disgrace. (VIDEO)

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Joe Biden can’t even commemorate the 9/11 Attacks properly. The president won’t be at the White House or travel to any of the three sites targeted in our nation’s deadliest terror attack, a break from tradition. Instead, Joe will be in Alaska, part of his return to his trip to Asia which begins Thursday. Who thought this was a good idea?

On the 22nd anniversary of the attack, Joe Biden won’t be at the White House, Pentagon, New York City, or Shanksville, Pennsylvania. He’ll be at a military base in Alaska to mark the occasion, while also making yet another political unforced error (via Fox News):

On Monday, Sept. 11, Biden will travel to a military base in Alaska where he will mark the 22nd anniversary of the attacks in a memorial ceremony with members of the military and their families, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Monday.

The White House explained that the president will travel to Alaska to mark the somber occasion after his Sept. 10 trip to Hanoi, Vietnam, where he will meet with Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and other leaders to discuss technological innovation and climate change in an effort to bolster the two nations’ relationship.

[…]

Biden’s plans for Sept. 11 represent the first time since the attacks that a president has opted against observing the occasion at either the White House or any of the three attack sites.

(Read more from “Here’s Where Biden Will Be Observing the 9/11 Attacks. It’s a Disgrace. (VIDEO)” HERE)

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Biden to Release 9/11 Testimony Revealing Bush Told Cheney He Could Shoot Down Planes

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The Biden administration is reportedly preparing to release a record of the joint interview former president George W Bush and former vice president Dick Cheney granted to the blue-ribbon commission that investigated the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon.

According to The Wall Street Journal, a source familiar with the contents of the document said the April 2004 Oval Office interview touched on matters such as Mr Bush’s decision to authorise Mr Cheney to order US forces to down civilian airliners if necessary.

The former president, who was initially in Florida during the attacks before taking to the skies aboard Air Force One, is reportedly described in the document as telling Mr Cheney: “Yes, engage the enemy — you have the authority to shoot down an airplane” while the then-vice president was holed up in the Presidential Emergency Operations Centre, the Second World War-era bunker located beneath the East Wing of the White House.

Mr Cheney also reportedly advised Mr Bush not to immediately return to Washington when the two of them spoke.

“The president agreed, reluctantly,” the document says, according to the Jounal. “The president asked the vice president to take necessary steps and stay in close touch”. (Read more from “Biden to Release 9/11 Testimony Revealing Bush Told Cheney He Could Shoot Down Planes” HERE)

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More Questions Than Answers: Missing Michigan Family Who Feared CIA/FBI Due to 9/11 Secret Info Supposedly Found Safe in Wisconsin

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The Michigan family who went missing after the father claimed to have secret knowledge about the Sept. 11 terror attacks was found safe Sunday, authorities said.

The family was located in Stevens Point, Wisc., in the morning, police told MLive, and authorities have subsequently closed the case into their disappearance. . .

Fremont Police Chief Tim Rodwell told MLive on Sunday that “all members [of the family] were interviewed and determined to be safe.

“They are still of the opinion that people are after them, but the elements of the investigation do not meet the criteria for protective custody,” Rodwell said. (Read more from “More Questions Than Answers: Missing Michigan Family Who Feared CIA/FBI Due to 9/11 Secret Info Supposedly Found Safe in Wisconsin” HERE)

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