MATT DRUDGE // DRUDGE REPORT 2002�
Backlash Growing Over 9-11 Victims' Compensation Complaints
Wed Jan 23 2002 10:12:43 ET
"America opened its heart to the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but a growing number of taxpayers aren't happy about opening their pocketbooks," The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
"An ugly backlash is building as families of the people killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon push for changes in the guidelines controlling how much they can expect to receive from the federal fund... In rallies and on radio and television talk shows last week, victims' advocates had hoped to mobilize public support to make the fund more generous. Instead, they have provoked a surge of angry criticism in the media, in comments to the fund's administrator, Kenneth R. Feinberg, and even in personal e-mails to their homes."
The Journal reports, "'If $1.6 million isn't enough for you, then I hope you rot in hell,' a television viewer wrote Stephen Push, treasurer of Families of September 11 Inc., a national victim advocacy group, after he appeared on CNN last week. 'We feel your grief, really,' wrote another. 'I'm just wondering if we have to feel your greed, too.'"
The Journal adds, "At Give Your Voice, a victims' group in New York, more than 800 e-mails flooded in last week, all of them critical of victims, says co-founder Michael Cartier."
Developing...
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