Posted on October 21, 2010 by amerrescue
Brutally Harsh Treatment Given to 9.11 First Responder / Victim Reports of “911 phony” are completely false and were an act of revenge
Written by Carol Camelot C3M
As government officials, first responders and disaster victims around the world have acknowledged for over 20 years, Doug Copp, Rescue Chief of American Rescue Team International (ARTI) was well known and respected for his search and rescue expertise, as well as his steadfast commitment to saving lives anywhere and everywhere – even at the Twin Towers during 9.11.
Planes were grounded immediately across the USA after 9.11 occurred. However, Doug Copp was granted a special dispensation to fly to New York City through the intervention of his then New Mexico Congresswoman Heather Wilson and the Director of the FAA. T. H. Lang, the publisher and owner of the Albuquerque Journal contacted Doug Copp and offered to fly him and the ARTI team members in his private jet, along with himself and his journalists.
Copp now says, “I thought that it was a humanitarian or patriotic gesture. I could not have been more wrong. Getting on his jet was the worst mistake of my life. If I would have known of his dark nature I would have driven to New York City. Despite all of my travels around the world, I was still naïve. I never knew that such a soul like him actually existed.”
Once there, Lang insisted on his group being given the special 9.11 search and rescue credentials so they could have unfettered access with their cameras. By pretending to be rescuers, they would have exclusive access to the 9.11 disaster site because all media were denied access to the area. This meant attaining the highest level possible of prestige in the publishing industry and a huge fortune to Lang in obvious anticipation of extraordinary profits for news sales and for his other media venues. Doug Copp refused to enable them to get the badges, and the resulting conflict actually escalated into a fistfight.
Says Copp, “His behavior was that of a spoiled rotten 16 year old tyrant with no regard whatsoever for the victims (live or dead) and the first responders.” Copp continued, ”He continually interfered with our rescue work. That was unacceptable. T. H. Lang’s behavior was shocking and made me worry about the 9.11 first responders who were emotionally fragile because they were searching for their missing “brothers” and would be devastated to witness Lang’s sadistic and insensitive behavior. When told to behave himself because the 9.11 victims would be hurt by his actions, Lang shouted, ‘Fuck them! I could care less. I want my badge.’”
Later, in front of witnesses including New York City ARTI member Peter Donahue, Lang screamed profanities and threats and left in a rage. Lang never reported a word about Doug Copp’s rescue efforts or his very existence until 2004 when Doug was on the verge of death from his 9.11 injuries.
Then Lang’s newspaper the Albuquerque Journal which he inherited while a freshman in University along with $110,000,000.00, unleashed an explosion of obscenity. His newspapers started with the headline: “9.11 Phony” and a 1/2 front page “altered” picture of Doug Copp with his crotch ripped out of his jumpsuit and his penis exposed. He followed that with five front pages, 23 articles, altogether 20,000 plus words which described the ARTI rescue chief as one of the worst “criminal” frauds who ever lived. He used slurs such as: buffoon, knucklehead, fraud, phony, freeloader…etc…etc… His articles included hundreds of the most bold-faced lies and imaginations straight from what could only be described as a twisted and dark mind. Later when Copp filed his lawsuit, he swore under penalty of perjury that the writer of the Lang stories, Leslie Linthicum, had called up Copp after the “character assassination” was underway and cackled to Copp, with a devilish and haunting laugh, “How is your health now!”
Leslie Linthicum attacked Doug when he was at his mentally and physically weakest point, near death which made Lang believe that they would never be sued because Doug Copp would be dead soon. One has to wonder why Tom Lang delayed three years to report on Doug’s supposed “malfeasant and illegal activities” when editors and journalists never sit on a story.
T. H. Lang’s main article “9.11 PHONY” was read by billions of people as hundreds of the world’s major newspapers, including The New York Times and London Daily Telegraph, and even newspapers in the most obscure and remote areas published the “9.11 PHONY STORY” with the picture of Copp’s penis exposed. Lang pushed the “9.11 PHONY” article into AOL News Today which reaches 220 million people and into police and fire department trade journals around the world, as well as in a multitude of websites. He accomplished this at the expense of a dedicated 9.11 hero who at the time was near death from his 9.11 injuries. You must ask yourself why a publisher would sit on a story about the worst, most horrible criminal — a story that was so big that it went to billions of people and made Lang a fortune and became the biggest scoop his media empire ever had. Yet he never published anything about Doug Copp’s very existence until three years after he stormed away in a rage.
Doug Copp explained, “He wanted revenge, to use me as a vehicle to ‘put money in his pocket’, and I believe to destroy me for the good work I had done in my life.”
Lang’s media bombardment painted a portrait of someone who is in perfect health, stole money from the widows and children of 9.11, that Doug Copp should be put in prison and demanded that the U. S. Justice Dept. arrest Doug Copp as one of the worst criminals in American history. Lang was quoted by Crosswinds magazine as boasting that, “No official can be elected to political office in the State of New Mexico without the endorsement of my newspaper, the Albuquerque Journal and nobody gets that endorsement without my personal approval.”
Doug Copp tells this writer that T. H. Lang used every political weapon in his power to get revenge and that Copp has received the most venomous death threats you could ever imagine. Yet after three years of investigation by the U. S. Dept. of Justice instigated at Tom Lang’s behest there was nothing illegal or improper to be found about Mr. Copp’s personal and professional activities. Despite their monumental efforts to find any mud at all to sling at Doug Copp, there was nothing to be found.
Recently Rosie O’Donnell of “The View” television program on ABC-TV interviewed two emergency responders who are still suffering very serious physical disabilities as a result of their efforts to save lives on 9.11 at the Twin Towers. http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2007/270407responders.htm Doug Copp can certainly relate, as he continues to try to survive the thousands of toxins which he and many thousands of others in Manhattan ingested that day from the powdered concrete, steel, stucco, and human bodies.
As reported on “The View,” there have been 258,000 distinct toxins identified at Ground Zero. Some of the worst poisons for which Doug Copp tested positive are dangerously high levels of lead (5000 times the maximum allowable for safety), arsenic, antimony, uranium, thallium, barium, cadmium, mercury, and bismuth among many others. Doug Copp’s primary care physician, Dr. Timothy Smith of Berkeley, California, says Doug Copp has many thousands of toxins in his body, but it would be impractical for the laboratories to test for them all due to limitations of time and cost. Dr. Smith’s report dated 2001 which summarized Doug Copp’s medical illnesses was 20 pages in length, with attachments totaling 2000 plus pages.
Prior to his work below Ground Zero, Doug Copp was the most experienced rescuer in the world having worked since 1985 as an unpaid volunteer at more than 100 major disaster events. His doctor in July of 2001 wrote on the bottom of his medical check-up: “Excellent health!” He normally spent six months out of the year sleeping on the ground, next to rubble. But the complex toxic cocktail of 9.11 was more than anyone could endure, and Doug fell ill along with many thousands of others, including office workers and residents of Manhattan.
But the brutally harsh and slanderous lies Tom Lang published was just the beginning. A producer from NBC’s “Dateline” contacted Mr. Copp and promised him that the “truth would be told”, “his side of the story”, “justice”, “exposing Lang” and ”promised that Lang would appear on the program.”
Yet Doug Copp was suckered and deceived again. Ramirez, the tv producer, in a true “dog and pony show,” arranged for tv personality John Hockenberry, a wheelchair bound invalid, to make fun of Copp’s 9.11 injuries. Ramirez had a private meeting with Lang, the outcome of which was a 15 minute segment within the one hour show format which omitted Lang’s promised appearance and instead misrepresented and devastated Doug Copp. Contrary to Ramirez’s promises, he omitted all the truthful events of 9.11 pertaining to Lang’s behavior, all references to the fight, and all testimony from Mr. Copp’s doctors. Shockingly he omitted reporting the incident that Doug had a respiratory attack in Dr. Boucher’s office in front of himself, the film crew and the clinic’s staff. John Hockenberry appeared on screen in a wheelchair and made light of Mr. Copp’s serious ailments. They aired the Albuquerque Journal’s adulterated photograph of his penis outside the tear in the jumpsuit’s fabric. The entire program was structured in such a way as to present a completely false image of Doug Copp as one who was fabricating the illness for personal gain and was not in fact a highly experienced rescuer.
Mr. Copp’s attorneys filed a lawsuit seeking damages in the sum of $131,000,000.00 against NBC network and “Dateline” with the Supreme Court of the State of New York with a 38-page complaint which outlined some of the lies which Ramirez produced in that one hour show. Attorney Andy Miller of Karasik and Associates describes Copp’s case as “rock solid.” Leslie Linthicum, the writer for Lang who published hundreds of lies about Copp is included as a defendant in the lawsuit. Doug Copp states that, “Dateline’s strategy is to delay the proceedings hoping that I will die from my 9.11 injuries before they are forced to pay for their lies and fraud.”
At our website www.amerrescue.org you the reader of this article will find hundreds of letters of gratitude, a video of Doug Copp saving people who were buried alive, and video shot under the 9.11 rubble. The World Trade Center Twin Towers were the 893rd and 894th collapsed buildings he had crawled into as an UNPAID VOLUNTEER. Altogether Doug Copp and some of the ARTI team members were at Ground Zero for two weeks or more, and Mr. Copp descended six times into the smoldering subterranean rubble searching for victims.
Doug Copp informs this writer, “I continue to be very sick and have struggled and fough monumental battles, with my own death, for six years. When I feel good I have only 10 medical problems. Last month, I was suffering with 20 simultaneous medical problems. At my very worst, I had 47 simultaneous medical problems.” The 41 medical doctors and specialists have all concurred in writing as to Doug Copp’s condition. His primary care physician, Dr. Timothy Smith, has deferred his payments for medical treatment until Mr. Copp wins his lawsuit because he is so profoundly disgusted by the behavior of Lang and Ramirez.
Copp has suffered from five respiratory diseases, cerebral edema, chemically induced brain damage, thousands of blisters and lesions on his hands and arms, and immune system attacks amongst many others. His biggest concerns are going blind because of glaucoma and that he suffers from postural orthostatic hypotension (he becomes unconscious without any warning). His eyes also have multiple problems including a distorted lens, optic nerve inflammation and times at which he cannot see in color. Mr. Copp also suffers constantly from infections.
His stack of medical documents now measures three feet in height while it grows even higher, being under the treatment of six medical doctors at the moment. In 2001 his doctors submitted a diagnosed medical treatment plan on his behalf to the Victims’ Compensation Fund for $1,960,000.00 for a fully detailed medical treatment program. After paying the legal and other professional expenses required for the 9.11 assistance application, which was promised to include money for all medical expenses, money for lost income, and money for ‘pain and suffering’ Doug Copp received an embrace from Special Master Feinberg in which he called Mr. Copp “a great American hero” and he actually netted about $320,000 total towards the $1,960,000.00 prescribed medical treatment — and to support Doug Copp for the rest of his natural life. Since Mr. Copp has for over 20 years through ARTI worked as an unpaid volunteer, he receives $0.00 from workmen’s compensation, $0.00 from Social Security, $0.00 from any pension and $0.00 from any income to support him. He and his wife of many years live in meager circumstances and take in boarders. A very bleak future, indeed.
“I am living a life of constant suffering and pain. It is like I am living inside a video game, fighting my way through hell,” says Doug Copp.
The writer of this article personally attests to the fact she has known Doug Copp since 1998, and she presents the “Triangle of Life” technique discovered by Doug Copp for saving lives during earthquakes in her southern California community as a Training Specialist for ARTI. She remembers the conversation with Doug Copp she had when he was waiting on confirmation he would be allowed to fly to New York City to assist with the rescue efforts. She also learned from him firsthand about the events which transpired upon his return from New York City.
For you, the readers of this “Code 3” newsletter, this article has been written to enable you to understand the plight of Doug and Paulina Copp, who have sacrificed so much to assist others around the world. As Doug Copp’s physical condition is precarious and fraught with peril, he does not know how much time God gives him to remain with us. He just wants his name and ARTI’s name to be cleared and for the public to know the truth about these horrible events which took place in September 2001.
(end) first published 2007.
http://www.amerrescue.org/
