Disclosure of city's 9/11 information nearly complete

BY WILLIAM MURPHY | Newsday Staff Writer

April 1, 2006

The World Trade Center information released by the city Friday completes the public disclosure of most of the information sought by a lawsuit filed four months after the attacks.

The city released tapes of about 130 calls made to the 911 emergency system from the towers on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The words of the callers were edited out to protect their privacy, under an order by the state's highest court.

The batch of information substantially completes the city's obligation to release information demanded under the Freedom of Information Law by The New York Times, according to the city's Law Department.

However, the Times is appealing the city's refusal to release the names of 28 people who called 911 that day and whose voices are on the tapes.

Although the suit was filed in January 2002, it was not until March 24, 2005, that the state Court of Appeals ruled that the bulk of the material should be made public.

Eight families were allowed to intervene in support of the newspaper's position. No other relatives of Sept. 11 victims became a party to the suit.