By: Karen Matthews
Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) - Nearly two years after the Sept. 11
attack on the World Trade Center, authorities prepared
to release transcripts Thursday of emergency calls
made from inside the twin towers.
A New Jersey judge ruled Friday that the transcripts
must be released by the close of business Thursday,
rejecting a bid by the Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey to back out of an agreement it made with
The New York Times.
The Port Authority, which owned the trade center, argued
it was trying to protect the privacy of victims' families by
preventing release of the transcripts, which cover radio
transmissions and calls to Port Authority police on the
morning of the attack.
The Port Authority decided Monday not to appeal but
urged the news media to use restraint.
On the tapes, the voices of at least 36 victims of the attack
have been identified, most of them Port Authority workers,
Newsday reported Thursday.
The victims who identified themselves in the emergency calls
and radio transmissions or whose voices were recognized by
co-workers include 19 Port Authority police officers, 14 civilian
Port Authority workers and three people who did not work for
the agency, the newspaper said.
Catherine Pavelec, the Port Authority's manager of administration
and protocol and a survivor of the attacks, said the tapes give "
a very real sense of how many people needed help and how short
a period of time we had to help them."
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