BREAKING: U.S. Gov't Scraps Plan To Seize Flight 93 Memorial Land

[RamboLiberal]

Source: WTAE-TV

SOMERSET, Pa. -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says the U.S. government will not use eminent domain to seize people's land for a permanent Flight 93 memorial and instead will renew negotiations with landowners near the terrorist crash site in Somerset County.

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Salazar met with families of victims and landowners on Friday in Shanksville to discuss issues surrounding the planned national memorial for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, fatal hijacking.

Specter's office said Friday's meeting also focused on what still needs to be done for the memorial to be complete in time for the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2011.

Recently, the National Park Service said it would use eminent domain to seize land from seven property owners needed for the memorial. But Salazar said those plans are now changed.

Read more: http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/cnn-news/19665762/detail.html

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Glad Govt officials came to their damn senses.

From Post-Gazette.

SOMERSET -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has "high hopes" that the government will not have to seize land through eminent domain to go ahead with the construction of the United Flight 93 memorial, he said in a press conference today.

But, he added, "we have the power to move in that direction" still.

Mr. Salazar and U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter appeared in a press conference at the Somerset Trust Historic Building, asserting that the government will try to negotiate with landowners in the spirit of "good neighbors." Mr. Salazar has appointed William Shaddox, the chief of the land resources division for the National Park Service, as a national government official who will "personally" see that the tensions between landowners and the United Flight 93 memorial organizers are resolved. Mr. Salazar and Mr. Specter said they believe the negotiations will be successful before the expected groundbreaking on Nov. 7.

But some landowners are still skeptical.

"They're not going to wait around for the negotiations to take place," said Christine Williams, who with her husband, Dale, owns about six acres of the land the goverment hopes to receive.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09156/975320-100.stm#ixzz0HZcL7JMT&D

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. That's a good start. Now they should also stop attempting to buy land.

Get about a plot a square yard, and put up a fucking memorial plaque.

We don't need a 2400 acre national fucking park for a plane crash site.

[underpants]

2. They didn't give it up?

No one will raise the money to at least buy it from them?

:eyes:

[GodlessBiker]

3. A $58 million memorial in an "extremely rural" area? Can't they just put it...

in the nearest town and tell the story of what happened?

[No Elephants]

33. Why do we need a $58 million dollar memorial at taxpayer expense? Remember, the survivors

got quite a bit of money, both from the government and from the Red Cross and other organizations. If they want to set up a memorial with some of that money, more power to them.

We need to stop deifying the 911 victims or acting as though they were national heroes who intentionally put themselves in harm's way to protect people they've never met. They were people who were attacked because they had the misfortune to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, to board the wrong plane or work in the wrong building or the wrong part of the Pentagon.

I feel very bad for them and for their famiilies and friends, but a costly memorial somewhere that none of the families actually live is not going to bring anyone back. And I feel bad for all people who lose a loved one, but that doesn't mean a memorial for everyone is an appropriate use of tax money.

We don't even go this far for our military, who are, IMO, heroes because they do knowingly vounteer to be in harm's way to protect people they've never met. We just got a WWII memorial built, ffs, and that took fundraising from private sources. If we build memorials for everyone killed by terrorists, we are going to run out of land and money. I think enough's been done for this group. And I am not saying that to protect Dummya.

[PittPoliSci]

39. i accidentally drove past the memorial a week or so ago.

didn't even realize it was there. not exactly rural. it was off of a major highway, though a more rural part of that highway.

[PassingFair]

4. I still think there is a strong possibility that we shot that sucker down.

Strong possibility.

[peace13]

5. A jet crash with no wreckage, Gods way of making ya wonder! n/t

[mitchum]

21. That is exactly what happened

[Regret My New Name]

26. Why would they say otherwise then?

One of the main criticisms of the government was that they DIDN'T take action and shoot down the planes. What's in it for them to lie?

[No Elephants]

29. Leaving the impression that the terrorists and/or the passengers caused the aircraft to crash

results in less flak.

BTW, I don't recall any huge public or MSM outcry against the government for NOT shooting down the plane.

[PassingFair]

42. When they LIE they can control the message.

They lied about almost EVERYTHING.

"Let's Roll!"

[AlphaCentauri]

31. Best place to shot down an airplane would be on rural areas not over the city

makes sense some how, less people are exposed to the falling debris

[chimpymustgo]

45. Of course. That's why the memorial is important to the Powers That Be. Institutionalizing the lie.

[TheWraith]

6. Good! Should never have been done in the first place.

And a 2200 acre, $58 million dollar memorial is insanely over the top. One acre and one million would do an incredibly lavish job.

[WriteDown]

10. Yeah....

I've always thought Yellowstone park was excessive too. They should cut its area by at least half. :eyes:

Seriously, though. I applaud any effort to preserve green space barring eminent domain.

[TheWraith]

18. If you want to make a park, make a real fucking park.

Not a 2,200 acre glorification of a plane crash.

[WriteDown]

20. The monument is just a small part.

The rest will be un-altered green space.

[No Elephants]

30. And we really need to spend $58 million on green space in an extremely rural area? Why?

[WriteDown]

35. The more areas we can preserve from development

the better. Especially considering the unabated sprawl that takes place now.

[No Elephants]

36. Different issue entirely.

[AlphaCentauri]

32. plus a highway and tourist trowing trash everywhere and polluting the area

thats going to look like a nice gray space not green

[Soylent Brice]

7. GOOD.

there are much more modest ways to remember loved ones.

[merh]

8. Now the next step is to stop making the "memorial site"

a tourist destination and cancel the building of the highway to the oversized thing.

[Lorien]

9. There are much better ways to memorialize a person

a scholarship, a charitable foundation, planting trees...so many ways that don't also memorialize a terrorist attack! Gives the terrorists (whoever they are) waaaay too much credit, imho.

[njlib]

11. Why isn't this left up to the local officials and citizens?

One of the people on that flight was from West Milford, NJ. At the time of 9/11 and on every anniversary since, the citizens erect their own memorial on "the mountain". I drive by it every day and I have to say, the flowers and homemade signs that regular people leave in remembrance choke me up every time.

[onehandle]

12. They should place a simple statue of Bush with Osama's foot up his ass.

Bush and Cheney FAILED to protect us.

Period.

[hedgehog]

13. Someone needs to put a stop to this on the grounds that it conflicts with

The first Amendment:"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,"


Go to the site and read all the blather about sacred ground. Turning the people of Flight 93 into demi-gods to be remembered forever sounds lime the establishment of religion to me!


There is a way to honor people without establishing a cult!

[Historic NY]

14. I was at the 911 ceremony there last yr...some site pictures

they don't need all that land, a temporary memorial is in place & an American flag marks the crash site in the distance. This is out in the middle of no where & 15 miles from Somerset Pa.

[IndianaGreen]

38. What's with the big ugly cross?

Who are all those people?

[Historic NY]

40. Various cops & m/c groups from around the country...the cross..

well my understanding is not much in way of bodies were recovered. The chaplain of the State Police was there so perhaps someone setup the cross for the ceremony. This area was once a strip mine.

[aquart]

15. Idiotic the money being spent on these "memorials."

How expensive can it be to stick a bronze plaque in the ground with all the names? What more, precisely, is required?

[Regret My New Name]

27. A bronze plaque with their names on it put on Mars?

[aquart]

37. ?

[Regret My New Name]

43. Good question... I have no idea.

[pleah]

16. K&R

[Vidar]

17. Glad they gave up on this one.

[merwin]

19. Makes you wonder if there's something on that 2,200 acres that they want to

get at before someone else finds it. Supposedly the debris was spread for miles (shot down?) and there were no photos or accounts of any actual wreckage. Maybe they lost something :)

:tinfoilhat:

[snooper2]

46. "Supposedly the debris was spread for miles (shot down?) and there were no photos"

You Fail-

[Turbineguy]

22. How about a modest and dignified

marker with a pull-out along the nearest road?

[hedgehog]

23. Modest and dignified? How can anybody make a killing on the contract

to design a small and dignified memorial?


On edit - here is the link to see the monstrosity planned:

http://www.nps.gov/flni


A slide show at the link in the OP shows there already is a memorial plaque at the site with all the names.

[xxqqqzme]

44. That site certainly

pushes the 'hallowed' and 'sacred' every chance it gets. I have no thoughts one way or the other as to the circumstances of Flight 93's destruction. I only remember seeing very few pictures of the 'crash' site.

The language utilized at that monument link is a prolonged guilt trip, which now makes me wonder why
i am, now, supposed to swallow all this hallowed and sacredness. It is more than a little over the top.

[pinniped]

24. When the so-called negotiations fail, the families will make more noise....

and the land will be ceased.

But, he added, "we have the power to move in that direction" still.

[DebbieCDC]

25. They have to get that land in the hands of the gov't

Only way to keep the real story about that plane under wraps.

[No Elephants]

34. Way too late for that anyway. Besides ,nothing stops conspiracy theories. How many times do we

have to prove that?

[No Elephants]

28. What's wrong with a simple plaque?

[LisaL]

41. I can't figure that out either.