Hundreds of furious firefighters chanting, “Liar! Liar!” stormed the downtown book-signing of the controversial author whose work accused some Bravest of looting Ground Zero on 9/11.
Still in their firefighting uniforms and accompanied by widows of comrades who died in the terror attacks, the boiling-mad Bravest gathered outside the South Street Seaport Museum – just blocks from the demolished trade center – to rip “American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center” and author William Langewiesche.
In his book, the respected Atlantic Monthly correspondent said that at one point during their cleanup, construction crews at the site realized stomach-churning looting had been going when they stumbled on hoards of new Gap jeans neatly stacked in the cab of a Ladder Co. 4 truck pulled from the rubble.
An incensed Peter Gorman, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, denied it all.
According to “the author’s infamous claim, . . . that would mean the men of Ladder 4 – all of whom died that day – went to the concourse level, stole the jeans and carried them all the way through the concourse in the lobby to the street where the truck was parked” before the towers fell, Gorman said.
Marian Fontana, who lost her Ladder 4 firefighter husband David on Sept. 11, added, “I think it’s disgusting what [Langewiesche] is doing. He’s lying.”
But Langewiesche, whose book-signing was attended by about two dozen people besides the protesters, said his work was being taken out of context.
He said he was only commenting on how construction workers felt when they stumbled upon the truck and disgustedly began jeering firefighters at the scene.
The workers had realized that “while hundreds of doomed firefighters had climbed through the wounded buildings, this particular crew had engaged in something else entirely,” the author wrote.
Last night, Langewiesche said, “I was writing about their reaction, not about what they saw.”
Speaking of the protesters, he added, “I have no doubt about the heavy emotions outside.
“And I have no doubt about the differing perspectives. I accept that. I’m an American.”
Some fire officials have asserted that the goods were blown into the truck from the extreme force of the collapse of buildings.
Still, Langewiesche wrote that there are other reports of looting as well, including that of an office building near the site that was “systematically rifled for valuables.”