Sept. 11 book criticized

NEW YORK -- Firefighters demanded Tuesday that the National Book Critics Circle withdraw the nomination of a book that accuses fire department members of disrespecting human remains and looting Ground Zero after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.\nMore than 100 protesters rallied outside the New School -- where the critics will announce the winners Wednesday -- holding signs reading "Lies, Lies, Lies" and "It's fiction, not facts."\n"It should be up for a fantasy award," former fire Chief Daniel Nigro said of American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center." The book is one of five finalists for the book critics award in the general nonfiction category.\nThe book, by William Langewiesche, has infuriated New York firefighters and others because it includes a passage relating the discovery of dozens of new jeans from the Gap -- still tagged, folded and stacked -- inside the cab of a fire truck pulled from the World Trade Center rubble.\nSarah Gold, an editor for Publishers Weekly and member of the NBCC board, said the awards committee had heard the protesters' complaints but would not withdraw the book.\nAmerican Ground also raises the issue of whether bodies recovered at the site were treated differently based on whether they were firefighters.\nFire Department of New York Chaplain Christopher Kennan, who worked at Ground Zero, said all remains were prayed over, placed on stretchers, draped in American flags and escorted out of the ruins with an honor guard.\nThe book is published by North Point Press. The publisher has defended it, saying it was vigorously fact-checked.