Tom Von Essen was commissioner of the FDNY on Sept. 11, 2001, and later served as the regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the COVID-19 outbreak. Here, he responds to reports that the Biden administration may offer plea deals to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and other terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks that would take the death penalty of the table:
How do you even respond to the possibility of allowing these absolutely evil low-lifes the opportunity to make a plea deal?
These are not ordinary criminals. They are savages who destroyed almost 3,000 lives of innocent men and women who were just going to work, and first responders who gave it all for strangers.
They ruined the lives of the families and loved ones of those they killed. They ruined the lives of countless men and women who have died since Sept. 11 from related illness from inhaling toxic fumes from the crash of the Twin Towers.
Failure of leadership
This debacle is compounded by the incompetence of our government that didn’t know what to do with these animals for 22 years — so I suppose the decision now is to do nothing. What great leadership!
Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates said that Joe Biden has never been right about foreign policy, and here we have another good example.
Let’s not hold the Saudis responsible — let the Saudis buy respectability by spreading obscene wealth to people who hit golf balls or some other really unimportant task.
When do we make a conscious effort to lead the world with respectful, ethical action?
Let’s try to put aside our corruption, greed and incompetence for just a short time.
These criminals should never be used as trade bait for other hostages. These criminals should be brought to trial, and when convicted, they should be executed.
Even the timing of this ill-conceived idea is painful to the families, and to me personally. It very soon will be the 22nd anniversary of that terrible day in September.
We all start to get invitations to memorials, masses and so many remembrances. We think about the men and women we lost all the time but even more when Sept. 11 approaches.
Families attend or not. Some just can’t take it anymore and stay at home with loved ones and remember in their own way.
For me, I need to attend the ceremony. I need to out of respect for men that would not only put their lives at risk for loved ones but for total strangers. It takes a special man or woman to do that.
Don’t make it worse
Our first responders, our military, our nurses and doctors — these are the people that we should save the word “hero” for. I witnessed it again leading the FEMA response to COVID-19 in New York City.
I have never seen the level of dedication that the emergency room doctors and nurses along with EMS displayed. Watching hundreds, then thousands, of sick people die every day without family around to console them.
We cannot prevent innocent people from dying due to disease.
We will never be able to stop horrible evil men from taking the lives of innocent good people.
But we do have an obligation to take care of their loved ones after they are gone.
Our leaders also have an obligation to make every effort to find and punish those responsible.
It’s pretty obvious we have done a poor job with that responsibility from the beginning. We should not make it any worse by negotiating concessions with these lower-than-human individuals.
