NEW YORK (AP) -- The union representing 22,000 active and retired firefighters announced Tuesday it is withdrawing support for the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, citing objections to a planned International Freedom Center and a Drawing Center at the ground zero site.
Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said in a statement that his ''membership and our 9/11 families believe that the memorial design will take away from the memory and sacrifice of the firefighters who bravely gave their lives during the most horrific terrorist attacks our country has had to face.''
The union stated its intentions in a July 26 letter to the foundation, but announced its withdrawal publicly on Tuesday.
The Freedom Center and the Drawing Center are parts of cultural space long planned at the World Trade Center site. But in recent months family members have waged a campaign to remove the two institutions from the site, saying they could include anti-American exhibits and draw attention from a planned memorial museum.
The foundation is charged with overseeing development and fundraising of a memorial at the World Trade site as well as cultural space set aside for the two museums, two theater companies and a performing arts complex. The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. oversees rebuilding of the entire 16-acre site, including a planned 1,776-foot tall Freedom Tower office building.
The memorial, called ''Reflecting Absence,'' will include a field of trees and two large voids containing recessed pools. The pools and the ramps that surround them encompass the footprints of the twin towers. A cascade of water will feed the pools continuously.
Last week, in an apparent concession to some victims' relatives, John Whitehead _ chairman of the LMDC's board of directors and a foundation board member _ gave the International Freedom Center until Sept. 23 to work with family members and produce more specific plans and warned if the plans do not satisfy the rebuilding agency, ''we will find another use or tenant consistent with our objectives for that space.''
The Drawing Center is looking for a new home outside of ground zero following the controversy.
Cassidy was adamant in calling the plans to house the Freedom and Drawing centers ''unacceptable.''
''This was the largest civilian rescue operation of its kind and its victims must be at the forefront of whatever memorial is cast and not forced to play third fiddle,'' he said.
A spokeswoman for the foundation did not immediately comment.
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