This article was written by Matt

Whether you were three feet or three thousand feet away from the World Trade Center on 9/11/01, you will most likely never forget that ghastly day. However, while the rest of the world was reeling in a slew of alarm and confusion, a few bottom feeders immediately saw through the devastation to create some free enterprise for themselves. In addition, legitimate businesses such as security firms, saw a rise in potential profits. Taking advantage of 9/11 has become more transparent as the dust finally settles.

Vinny the Phony

Vincent Forras was a South Salem, NY volunteer firefighter who claims he responded to the attacks that fateful day. Over the last ten years he has been a sort of unofficial go to guy for the media hungry machine, recounting his story of working tirelessly at Ground Zero, being trapped under rubble, seeing a vision from God which brought him to safety and also ending up ill from the toxicity of his experience. However when reporters, such as Graham Rayman of The Village Voice, decided to look into these and other stories some unbelievable truths emerged. He found that Forras’ own volunteer firefighting peers as well as FDNY battalion chief Donald Hayde did not believe his claims. In fact Hayde is quoted as calling him a phony. Still Forras continues to speak to anyone who will listen as he is compensated and travels all over the world. Today, he is running for U.S. Senate. Perfect.

Screw the People

This past August a large hike in tolls was put forth by the Port Authority, a bi-state agency which owns the World Trade Center site. It turns out that instead of it being for maintenance and repairs as stated, the Ground Zero and subsequent rebuilding projects were over budget by approximately one billion dollars. This was one way to have the taxpayers foot the bill for poor management, demanding unions and political posturing that stalled a project that could have been completed years ago.

Thanks Mr. Mayor

Former NYC mayor, Rudolph Giuliani is another 9/11 profiteer. Although he rallied a broken spirited city at a time in need, he is said to have raked in approximately twenty million in speeches about the attacks alone. Not to mention his $2.7 million advance on his book as well as numerous payments to his security consulting firm.

Some More in the Till

• Halliburton – awarded contract to reduce WMD’s on September 10th, 2001
• The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. – 15 top officials earn more than $100,000 each per year.
•  Lawyers – Some bilked the system for $600 per hour in billing charges.
• The National September 11th Memorial Museum – 11 administrators make $190,000 each per year

The list is endless and the taking advantage of 9/11 continues even ten years later. Once again, it is the need for greed that keeps the human race chugging along.

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