The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 made nearly 3000 deaths in the United States. Eighteen years later, they still continue to kill. Tens of thousands of people suffer from illnesses directly attributable to this tragic event.
With our New York correspondent, Gregory Pourtier
In 2010, then in 2015, the US Congress passed a law to release funds for the compensation of these victims. But this system is supposed to be closed at the end of this year, while the claims exploded in 2018.
On Friday, the New York Police added 47 names on its Memorial. These 47 officers did not die in fulfilling their mission, but several years later: they were part of those who intervened at the World Trade Center from September 11, 2001, and their bodies never recovered.
Thus, while 23 policemen perished during the actual attack, more than 200 others have died since due to health problems related to the event.
The figure exploded: all victims combined, firefighters, in particular, more people died of diseases in 2018 than in total during the previous seven years. The authorities were far from anticipating this phenomenon of leukemia, lymphomas, lung cancer, and others, which arose eighteen years after the tragedy.
In fact, the compensation of the victims is even supposed to stop after December next. And the Fund, created after a vote in Congress in 2010 and 2015, is in any case not sufficient to meet all the registered requests.
That's why James O'Neill took the pen. The Grand Chief of police in New York denounces: it was a mistake to put a limit on time and budget, and it is unthinkable to abandon to their fate all the heroes or mere victims of the greatest terrorist attack against the United States. Compensation for "direct" victims was finalized in 2004 for a total of 7 billion million.
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