Ellen Mariani: 9/11 Widow sues Bush, Cheney, C.I.A

Part of her campaign to "get to the truth of what happened on Sept. 11."
"We just don't believe the federal government has been honest with us"

Update: 9/11 Panel Seeks More Documents From White House (WP 09/24)

Sept. 11 widow sues the President

Philly.com -Tue, Sep. 23, 2003

Ellen Mariani's husband was aboard Flight 175. She says government officials were negligent.

A New Hampshire woman whose husband died in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center sued President Bush and other government officials yesterday, contending their negligence of airport security resulted in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.The wrongful death lawsuit by Ellen Mariani, whose husband, Louis Neil Mariani, was a passenger in the plane that hit the south tower, was described by her lawyer as part of her campaign to "get to the truth of what happened on Sept. 11."

"We just don't believe the federal government has been honest with us," said Philip J. Berg, a Lafayette Hill lawyer, Democratic activist and former gubernatorial candidate.In December 2001, Mariani filed one of the first Sept. 11-related lawsuits, an action in federal court in Manhattan against United Airlines maintaining that United's poor security led to the hijacking of Flight 175 shortly after it took off from Boston's Logan International Airport.Since then, Mariani has become known as an outspoken critic of efforts to limit discovery of the causes of the Sept. 11 hijackings, often to the consternation of her lawyers, government officials and some survivors.

Though Louis Neil Mariani, 58, a retired sales coordinator for H.P. Hood, died without life insurance and left little money, his wife has decided to forgo the money of the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund.The suit seeks unspecified money damages.

"Her position is that they are not going to buy her out," Berg said.Within weeks of 9/11, Congress created the Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund, which aids family members of the people who died in the terrorist attacks. Payments to the families of victims have ranged from $250,000 to $6.6 million, with the average award being $1.6 million.

Awards are primarily based on a victim's age, earnings potential and family status.Berg said Mariani also has retained him to take over her suit against United Airlines in New York, pending before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein.

"I think she felt her prior attorneys were trying to sell her short," Berg said, adding that Mariani was referred to him by a local radio talk-show host who was interviewing her.In addition to President Bush, Mariani's lawsuit also names Vice President Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Council on Foreign Relations

9/11 Panel Seeks More Documents From White House

WP -Wednesday, September 24, 2003; Page A10

The Bush administration has significantly improved cooperation with an independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but the White House still has failed to grant access to many crucial documents, the commission's leaders said yesterday.

After months of negotiations and public complaints from the commission, the administration has provided the panel access to more than 2 million pages of documents and has helped arrange nearly 300 interviews and briefings with government officials.

But the bipartisan commission's leaders, former New Jersey governor Thomas Kean (R) and former representative Lee Hamilton (D-Ind.), said in an interim report released yesterday that many documents were released only recently, and some remain the subject of negotiations with the White House.

"We're setting down a marker here," Hamilton said. "We need this information in two weeks' time."

The commission also has been told that some documents could not be located or did not exist, Kean and others said. Kean and other officials said the commission will ask the heads of the CIA, FBI and other agencies to certify they have produced all relevant documents.

Kean also indicated the commission has not decided whether to seek testimony from President Bush or former president Bill Clinton. He said the panel's staff has begun negotiations with their representatives.

White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said yesterday that "at the direction of the president, the executive branch has dedicated tremendous resources to help the commission, including providing over 2 million pages of documents. The executive branch is still in discussions about the terms of access to some highly classified, sensitive documents."

The commission has faced delays and obstacles since it was created last fall in a compromise between Congress and the Bush administration, which initially opposed the idea of a panel to expand on the work of a House-Senate intelligence inquiry into the terrorist attacks.

The conflict between the commission and the administration came to a head in July, when Kean and other panel members publicly complained that some agencies, especially the Justice and Defense departments, cooperated reluctantly.

Yesterday's report, the second released publicly by the commission, did not contain any substantive findings of the panel's investigation so far. But it did outline an ambitious series of public hearings that the commission will hold beginning next month.

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