After the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the levy failures in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the federal government paid the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to investigate what went wrong. An engineering group now accuses the ASCE of covering engineering mistakes, downplaying the need to alter building standards, and using investigations to protect engineers and government agencies from lawsuits. Daily Journal of Commerce, Wednesday, March 26, 2008 article.
