Gold9472
08-29-2007, 06:47 AM
Some Balk at Giuliani Role in 9/11 Ceremony
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/us/politics/29giuliani.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: August 29, 2007
Each year since Sept. 11, 2001, Rudolph W. Giuliani has spoken at New York City’s commemorations of the attacks. At past ceremonies he has read off the names of some of the dead, given readings by Lincoln and Churchill, and recited poetry.
This year Mr. Giuliani is no longer just the former mayor who led New York in the wake of the attacks, but a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. So when the city announced that Mr. Giuliani would speak next month at the sixth anniversary of the attacks, some relatives of people who died on Sept. 11 said they were dismayed, some because they feared his presence might inject politics into the event and others because they had been critical of him in the past.
“I think it’s disgraceful that he’s going to be there,” said James Riches, a deputy fire chief who lost his son Jimmy in the attacks, and who said that he faulted Mr. Giuliani as not giving firefighters the proper equipment before or after the attacks. “It’s a photo-op for him.”
Anthony V. Carbonetti, a senior adviser to the Giuliani campaign, said that Mr. Giuliani was invited to attend the ceremony by the Bloomberg administration and that he would do so, as he has every year.
“This is something that is not unusual,” Mr. Carbonetti said. “He’s down there to pay his respects. He did, I did, we all did lose many friends, and as mayor he not only lost personal friends, he lost people who put their lives in harm’s way for his city. It’s his duty to be down there.”
The politics of Sept. 11 are complicated. Some firefighters have faulted the mayor for communications problems at the World Trade Center; some parents and widows have agitated for a greater role in designing the memorial; some first responders criticize the city as doing too little to protect them from dangerous pollutants.
Sally Regenhard, whose son, Christian, a probationary firefighter, was killed in the World Trade Center attack, said of the invitation: “I’m still very shocked and I’m very, very upset, for two reasons. Number one, the majority of firefighters and their families have made it clear how they feel about Mayor Giuliani. The second reason is that it’s totally unorthodox to have someone running for major elected office in the United States to have a forum.”
But Mr. Giuliani, who attended scores of funerals after the attacks, also has his supporters among relatives of the victims. Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter who lost his son on Sept. 11 and is now supporting the Giuliani campaign, said in an e-mail message last night that Mr. Giuliani’s appearances at the commemorations are “critical to both the healing process and helping all to remember the courage, bravery and sacrifices made on that day.”
At least one other presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is New York’s junior senator, will attend the ceremony this year, as she has every year except 2004, when her husband was recovering from heart surgery. In 2002, Mrs. Clinton read some of the names of the dead, but because the city now limits speakers to mayors of New York and governors of New York and New Jersey, Mrs. Clinton was not asked to speak this year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/29/us/politics/29giuliani.html?_r=1&ref=politics&oref=slogin
By MICHAEL COOPER
Published: August 29, 2007
Each year since Sept. 11, 2001, Rudolph W. Giuliani has spoken at New York City’s commemorations of the attacks. At past ceremonies he has read off the names of some of the dead, given readings by Lincoln and Churchill, and recited poetry.
This year Mr. Giuliani is no longer just the former mayor who led New York in the wake of the attacks, but a leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. So when the city announced that Mr. Giuliani would speak next month at the sixth anniversary of the attacks, some relatives of people who died on Sept. 11 said they were dismayed, some because they feared his presence might inject politics into the event and others because they had been critical of him in the past.
“I think it’s disgraceful that he’s going to be there,” said James Riches, a deputy fire chief who lost his son Jimmy in the attacks, and who said that he faulted Mr. Giuliani as not giving firefighters the proper equipment before or after the attacks. “It’s a photo-op for him.”
Anthony V. Carbonetti, a senior adviser to the Giuliani campaign, said that Mr. Giuliani was invited to attend the ceremony by the Bloomberg administration and that he would do so, as he has every year.
“This is something that is not unusual,” Mr. Carbonetti said. “He’s down there to pay his respects. He did, I did, we all did lose many friends, and as mayor he not only lost personal friends, he lost people who put their lives in harm’s way for his city. It’s his duty to be down there.”
The politics of Sept. 11 are complicated. Some firefighters have faulted the mayor for communications problems at the World Trade Center; some parents and widows have agitated for a greater role in designing the memorial; some first responders criticize the city as doing too little to protect them from dangerous pollutants.
Sally Regenhard, whose son, Christian, a probationary firefighter, was killed in the World Trade Center attack, said of the invitation: “I’m still very shocked and I’m very, very upset, for two reasons. Number one, the majority of firefighters and their families have made it clear how they feel about Mayor Giuliani. The second reason is that it’s totally unorthodox to have someone running for major elected office in the United States to have a forum.”
But Mr. Giuliani, who attended scores of funerals after the attacks, also has his supporters among relatives of the victims. Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter who lost his son on Sept. 11 and is now supporting the Giuliani campaign, said in an e-mail message last night that Mr. Giuliani’s appearances at the commemorations are “critical to both the healing process and helping all to remember the courage, bravery and sacrifices made on that day.”
At least one other presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is New York’s junior senator, will attend the ceremony this year, as she has every year except 2004, when her husband was recovering from heart surgery. In 2002, Mrs. Clinton read some of the names of the dead, but because the city now limits speakers to mayors of New York and governors of New York and New Jersey, Mrs. Clinton was not asked to speak this year.