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International Freedom Center

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History

The International Freedom Center (IFC) was a proposed museum to be located adjacent to the site of Ground Zero at the former Twin Towers in New York City, US. It was selected in 2004 to comprise a "cultural space" near to the memorial for victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, called Reflecting Absence. However, critics attacked the IFC's mission, saying that plans to promote international freedom through exhibits and displays about various genocides and crimes against humanity through history (including Native American genocide and the slave trade in the United States) were inappropriate at a site that many people consider to be sacred. On September 28 2005, New York Governor George E. Pataki barred the IFC from the World Trade Center site.

George Soros, Tom Bernstein, Anthony Romero, and Eric Foner were promoters of the IFC. Within an hour of being barred from being on the WTC site, the IFC museum declared itself to be out of business, making no effort to find a new location. "We do not believe there is a viable alternative place for the I.F.C. at the World Trade Center site," said the statement from the center's executives, Tom Bernstein, Peter Kunhardt and Richard Tofel. "We consider our work, therefore, to have been brought to an end." [1]

Criticism

The IFC proposal had received criticism from some families of September 11 victims. In August 2005, officials stated that the Center would have been required to respond to objections raised by victims' families before it was approved to go forward. Many relatives of 9/11 victims had denounced the International Freedom Center plan as an insult to the 2,749 people who died at the WTC, because it would paint them as a little more than a footnote to the world's march toward freedom. The families, police, and firefighters said that the IFC's plan to use hallowed land at Ground Zero to highlight poverty as a barrier to freedom diminishes the events of 9/11. It has also been disparagingly compared to comedian Bill Maher's suggestion immediately after 9/11 that reconstruction should include a "Why They Hate Us Pavilion".

A non-profit organization called Take Back The Memorial was started by blogger Robert Shurbet and Debra Burlingame, to block the International Freedom Center from being located on the WTC site. [2] This group protested any linkage between what occurred on September 11 2001 with any previous historical event that could be construed as a justification for the attack.

Jeff Jarvis, a journalist and 9/11 survivor had noted:

"(The IFC states it) will tangibly link September 11 and the lives of its victims to humanity’s greatest idea: freedom.
"But what is that link? Nothing about September 11 was about liberating people. The people who were killed that day were free. They were not struggling to be free. The murderers, too, were free and exploited that freedom to commit this act. Of course, I support the celebration of freedom; who but a tyrant or a terrorist would not? But the struggle here is not against or for freedom. The struggle here is for civilization against extremism, fanaticism, and criminality. So make your center, elsewhere, about terrorism, then. Have your seminars and events and debates about extremism. Study religious fanaticism. This actually is not about freedom."

The New York Times, in an editorial, described the protests against the IFC as "un-American." [3]

Political Opposition

New York State politicians were either hostile to or only offering conditional support to the IFC.

"I cannot support the IFC," Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton declared on September 23 2005 in response to an inquiry from The New York Post. "While I want to ensure that development and rebuilding in lower Manhattan move forward expeditiously, I am troubled by the serious concerns family members and first responders have expressed to me," Senator Clinton said, going on to say that, "The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has authority over the site and I do not believe we can move forward until it heeds and addresses their concerns." [4]

Clinton spoke out the day after the IFC released a plan intended to save its spot at the site, but it was met with immediate opposition from 9/11 families. Clinton wouldn't support any plan unless the families and first responders back it, said her spokesman, Philippe Reines.

Republican Congressmen John Sweeney (Saratoga), Peter King (Long Island) and Vito Fossella (Staten Island) — were challenging the IFC as a "blame America first" project.

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) also voiced concern at the same time as Sen. Clinton and had called for a compromise — although he didn't state flat-out opposition to the IFC. "There's got to be a way to meet the families' sincere and real needs and build a center that honors the freedom that the victims died for. We hope that the LMDC will find some common ground quickly," Schumer said.

New York State Republican Governor George Pataki — who wields strong influence over the LMDC— had said that he wouldn't support any plan that offers a forum for anti-Americanism. On September 28 2005, Governor Pataki barred the IFC from the World Trade Center site. [5] The likelihood of the IFC being built elsewhere is extremely low and the project is considered over at this point. [6]

References

External Links

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