9/11 heroes blast Joe Biden for approving Covid-19 shot for terror accused before most of US: 'It’s an insult'
The Joe Biden administration, which is just 10 days old in office, has already started facing questions over some of its decisions and one of them is giving the Covid-19 vaccine to the terror inmates at Guantanamo Bay before common people, including the elderly. The Pentagon confirmed on Friday, January 29, that accused 9/11 terror masterminds like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or KSM and other detainees at the detention camp will start getting the shot even as the US is facing serious shortages of the vaccine.
Earlier this week, The New York Post reported that thousands of teachers from the Big Apple had their Covid-19 vaccine appointments canceled because of supply and scheduling chaos. A spokesperson for the defense department confirmed that officials had already signed an order which will see all detainees and prisoners getting inoculated and the exercise could start as soon as next week, The Post reported. “It will be administered on a voluntary basis and in accordance with the Department’s priority distribution plan,” spokesman Michael Howard was quoted as telling the Post.
The controversial order was signed on Wednesday, January 27, by Terry Adirim, principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for health affairs who was sworn in as President Biden’s appointee on the Inauguration Day, sources in the Pentagon confirmed.
9/11 heroes feel being let down by the decision
The move did not go down well with many. Hero 9/11 vets were particularly upset and slammed the president over the Pentagon’s decision to give vaccines to the terror inmates before most other Americans. According to The Post, Tom Van Essen, former commissioner of New York City Fire Department, called the move “f**king nuts”.
“You can’t make this up. The ridiculousness of what we get from our government. They will run the vaccine down to those lowlifes at Guantanamo Bay before every resident of the United States of America gets it is the theater of the absurd,” Von Essen, who lost 343 firefighters on the ill-fated September day in 2001, told The Post.
John Feal, a demolition supervisor at the Ground Zero pile in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks who still suffers from illnesses related to the devastating events, was yet to get the vaccine and he was stunned that the terror inmates were set to get it before them. “The fact that the 9/11 community can’t get the vaccine and the terrorists can show how backward our government is. It’s the most ludicrous thing I’ve ever heard. It’s an insult to the people who ran into the towers and were killed and those who worked on the pile for months and are ill,” The Post quoted him as saying.
Brian Sullivan, a retired special agent with the Federal Aviation Administration was also furious and said he was outraged by the decision. “I’m 75. I haven’t gotten my COVID vaccine. They’re going to give it to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?” he asked with annoyance.
The Guantanamo camp has 40 detainees, including KSM who is known as the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
The Biden administration has aimed at quickening the vaccine distribution -- aiming to inoculate 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of the new president in office and 300 million by the summer but the reality has been far from smooth till now.
