9/11 Families Hope To Deflate Giuliani's Heroic Image

9-11 families hope to deflate Giuliani's heroic image

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/21577.html

By William Douglas | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Friday, November 16, 2007

WASHINGTON — Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign was supposed to be toast by now, imploded by his hot temper, autocratic ways, tumultuous personal life and moderate views on social issues, which would turn off traditional Republican voters once they got to know the "Real Rudy."

Or so many of Giuliani's critics thought.

Instead, he remains atop the Republican presidential pack in national polls, powered in large part by his image as the steely hero who guided New York through the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

A small but vocal group of New Yorkers will try to puncture that image Monday when they host a town hall meeting at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College to discuss New York's disaster-preparedness under Giuliani before 9-11.

They say that Giuliani's administration failed to address firefighters' radio communication problems, which first surfaced in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing; didn't provide proper equipment for rescue workers at Ground Zero; and showed poor judgment by putting the city's $13 million emergency center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the attack.

They claim that Giuliani was callous in November 2001 when he limited the number of firefighters searching Ground Zero for the remains of nearly 300 fallen comrades. They also accuse him of expediting the cleanup of the site and sending rubble mixed with human body parts to a Staten Island landfill.

"He's portraying himself as a false hero of 9-11,"said Sally Reganhard, whose son, Christian Reganhard, was a probationary firefighter who was killed at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. "He's not talking about the story of the failure of his administration, and that has to be told, because we have to protect this country."

Monday's event in a small auditorium on the Dartmouth campus, hosted by a group called 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters, is one of the few attempts to challenge Giuliani's main campaign narrative, which he's controlled successfully thus far.

If it's successful, members of the organizing group said, they hope to take their story about Giuliani nationwide to counter what they say is an untrue narrative he's presenting on the campaign trail.

Criticizing Giuliani over Sept. 11 may prove to be a daunting task. Campaign experts say he's turned his 9-11 image into almost a trademark that makes him easily identifiable and likable to voters. His Republican presidential rivals have shied away from questioning his credentials on terrorism and national security and instead acknowledge him as a hero and "America's mayor."

"It was a big event, and his role was so big, it's been seared into people's memory," said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. "The attempts to criticize Giuliani over Sept. 11 have either been small enterprises or very hesitant."

Democratic presidential candidates seem more willing lately to try to pierce Giuliani's Sept. 11 mystique.

"Rudy Giuliani, there's only three things he mentions in a sentence," Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said last month during a Democratic presidential debate. "A noun, a verb and 9-11."

Still, Giuliani's handling of Sept. 11 gives him a certain amount of celebrity status on the campaign trail, where enthusiastic supporters bring copies of his book, "Leadership," or copies of newspaper front pages from the day after the attacks for him to autograph.

"He's created a persona that's different than the operating style when he was mayor of New York, (one) that is larger than life," Hank Sheinkopf, a New York Democratic political consultant, said of Giuliani's campaign. "Heroes are harder to 'get' to in the first place. Heroes have to do less explaining. They just have to show up, smile and not be annoying."

Sheinkopf said Giuliani's campaign moved quickly to protect his 9-11 image, mindful that the slow response of Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to the $22 million Swift boat ad campaign attacking his Vietnam War record helped doom Kerry's 2004 presidential bid.

When Jerome Hauer, Giuliani's former emergency chief, said last May that the mayor was responsible for locating the emergency center in the World Trade Center, Giuliani swiftly went on Fox News Sunday and said that Hauer had "recommended that as the prime site and the site that would make the most sense."

Giuliani's campaign has responded only mildly so far to the organizers of the Dartmouth event. It issued a statement from Lee Ielpi, a former New York City firefighter whose son was killed on 9-11.

"I understand the emotion surrounding September 11th, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it was the terrorists who attacked New York City," Ielpi said in the statement. "On that day and the days following, New Yorkers and the rest of the country were fortunate to have the steady and strong leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani."

Jimmy Riches, a New York deputy fire chief whose firefighter son, Jimmy Riches, Jr., died at the World Trade Center, hopes that the 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters event will lead to a Swift boat-like campaign against Giuliani.

"We're not going to let it go," Riches said. "We're thinking of setting up one of those 527 funds to tell the story of what happened and let the people decide who they want to vote for."

FDNY PARENTS, FAMILIES AND FIREFIGHTERS SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT ON RUDY GIULIANI'S RECORD OF FAILURE BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER 9/11

WHERE: Dartmouth College
Dartmouth Hall Room 105 Seats 180 people
Hanover , New Hampshire 03755

WHEN: Monday November 19,2007 at 5 PM
1 hour presentation
1 hour for questions from audience
Press and Media welcome

WHY: 9/11 families and firefighters are deeply offended how Rudy Giuliani has exploited a national tragedy for millions of dollars and is trying to parlay his failures of 9/11 into the highest office in the USA.

Leadership,proper equipment,coordination, and communcation capabilities were lacking on 9/11. This will be Rudy's legacy, along with thousands of sick and dying first responders because of improper respirators and human remains of 9/11 heroes still at a GARBAGE DUMP in Staten Island.

Families will arrive in Manchester, New Hampshire on Saturday Nov 17, 2007 at noon and will be staying in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Hilton Gardens Hotel. We will be available for interviews on request on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Sunday, a breakfast in Manchester is being arranged, details to follow.

For information Call: Deputy Chief Jim Riches FDNY 917-692-1199 father of 9/11 hero FF Jimmy Riches Engine 4

NEVER FORGET

9/11 Firefighters and Family Members Plot Anti-Giuliani Ad Campaign
Group Considering Swift-Boat-Style Television Attack

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3881195&page=1

By TAHMAN BRADLEY
Nov. 17, 2007

A group of 9/11 firefighters and victims' family members with eyes on derailing Republican Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign is close to a decision on forming an entity that would run issue ads in key early nominating states.

"TV made him a hero, and we'll use TV to take him down," New York Fire Chief Jim Riches told ABC News.

The final decision about the formation of an outside entity will happen sometime within the next few weeks after the group finalizes its plans at a meeting scheduled for after Thanksgiving. So far, though, under Riches' leadership, the group has sought legal guidance and help from political consultants.

If the group decides to move forward, it would set up a 527 committee -- or something similar to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which in 2004 helped sink Democratic Sen. John Kerry's White House bid.

This Monday, the firefighters and family members are holding a meeting at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire hoping to spread the word about what they say is Giuliani's "egregious" use of 9/11 for political gain.

The group also is considering additional trips to early presidential primary states Iowa, Florida and South Carolina.

Riches, who lost his firefighter son Jimmy in the World Trade Center's north tower, said, "We don't want him running on 9/11 or the bodies of all these dead people or my dead son saying that he did a great job that day."

He and other members of the anti-Giuliani group claim 9/11 first responders were given bad radios and that that prevented them from hearing evacuation orders when the World Trade Center buildings were about to collapse. They also contend Giuliani rushed cleanup work and misled people about air quality at Ground Zero, where recovery workers, including Riches, say they contracted illnesses.

Asked to comment for this story, the Giuliani campaign referred ABC News to a statement from Lee Ielpi, another firefighter whose son died on Sept. 11.

"I understand the emotion surrounding Sept. 11, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it was the terrorists who attacked New York City," the statement said. "On that day and the days following, New Yorkers and the rest of the country were fortunate to have the steady and strong leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani."

Like Ielpi, there are numerous firefighters and 9/11 family members who don't agree with the criticism leveled against Giuliani for his handling of the terrorist attack. They instead laud Giuliani for his leadership and resolve during the crisis. The Giuliani campaign has a team of "First Responders for Rudy" across the country who vouch for the mayor.

Claims that Giuliani has exploited and misled people about his 9/11 record are not new. A major union representing firefighters, The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), released a 13-minute film this summer focusing on what it describes as "failures" by Giuliani before, during and after 9/11. Chief Riches was featured in the union's video.

The IAFF has had ties to the Democratic Party. It has endorsed Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's 2008 presidential campaign and supported Sen. Kerry in 2004.

Comments Giuliani made back in August, in which he told reporters in Cincinnati that he was at Ground Zero "as often, if not more, than most of the workers," infuriated some 9/11 recovery workers. On that issue, Riches told ABC News Giuliani "was at Yankee Stadium more than he was down at Ground Zero." Giuliani later admitted he could have better articulated what he meant.

It is unclear what affect, if any, Riches and his group will have on the widely held perception that Giuliani is a hero of 9/11. But an issue ad campaign like the one they are contemplating would target what is believed to be one of Giuliani's greatest strengths -- that he is a proven leader who is strong on national security.

As a 527 entity, the group would be able to raise millions dollars from both low-dollar and large donors, seemingly enough money to run numerous ads.

The criticism of Giuliani doesn't seem to have affected his standing in the Republican presidential contest or his image overall. He's still widely admired by much of the country. Despite holding liberal views on abortion, guns and gay rights, polls still show the former mayor atop the GOP presidential field.

"Plot", and "Swift Boat"... gotta love the media.

9/11 group tries to punch holes in Giuliani's image
'America's mayor' no hero, they say

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a...711180669/1009

BY WILLIAM DOUGLAS
MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
November 18, 2007

WASHINGTON -- Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign was supposed to be toast by now, imploded by his hot temper, autocratic ways, tumultuous personal life and moderate views on social issues, which would turn off traditional Republican voters once they got to know the real Rudy.

Or so many of Giuliani's critics thought.

Instead, he remains atop the Republican presidential pack in national polls, powered in large part by his image as the steely hero who guided New York through the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

A small but vocal group of New Yorkers will try to puncture that image Monday when they host a town hall meeting at New Hampshire's Dartmouth College to discuss New York's disaster-preparedness under Giuliani before the attacks .

They say his administration:

• Failed to address firefighters' radio communication problems, which first surfaced in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
• Didn't provide proper equipment for rescue workers at Ground Zero.
• Showed poor judgment by putting the city's $13-million emergency center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, which was destroyed in the attack.

They also say Giuliani was callous in November 2001 when he limited the number of firefighters searching Ground Zero for the remains of nearly 300 fallen comrades, and they accuse him of expediting the cleanup of the site and sending rubble mixed with human body parts to a Staten Island landfill.

"He's portraying himself as a false hero of 9/11," said Sally Reganhard, whose son, Christian, was a probationary firefighter killed at the World Trade Center. "He's not talking about the story of the failure of his administration, and that has to be told."

A daunting task
Monday's event, to be hosted by a group called 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters, is one of the few attempts to challenge Giuliani's main campaign narrative, which he has controlled successfully so far.

Group members have said they hope to take their story about Giuliani nationwide to counter what they say is an untrue narrative he's presenting on the campaign trail.

Criticizing Giuliani over Sept. 11 may prove to be a daunting task. Campaign experts say he's turned his Sept. 11 image into almost a trademark that makes him easily identifiable and likable to voters. His GOP presidential rivals have shied away from questioning his credentials on terrorism and national security and instead acknowledge him as a hero and "America's mayor."

"It was a big event, and his role was so big, it's been seared into people's memory," said Dante Scala, a political science professor at the University of New Hampshire. "The attempts to criticize Giuliani over Sept. 11 have either been small enterprises or very hesitant."

Democratic presidential candidates seem more willing lately to try to pierce Giuliani's Sept. 11 mystique.

"Rudy Giuliani, there's only three things he mentions in a sentence," Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said last month during a Democratic presidential debate. "A noun, a verb and 9-11."

Mild response from Giuliani
Still, Giuliani's handling of Sept. 11 gives him a certain amount of celebrity status on the campaign trail.

But Giuliani's campaign has responded only mildly so far to the organizers of the Dartmouth event. It issued a statement from Lee Ielpi, a former New York City firefighter whose son was killed Sept. 11.

"On that day and the days following, New Yorkers and the rest of the country were fortunate to have the steady and strong leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani," Ielpi said.

Jimmy Riches, a New York deputy fire chief whose son, firefighter Jimmy Riches Jr., died at the World Trade Center, said he hopes the 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters event will lead a full-scale campaign against Giuliani.

"We're thinking of setting up one of those 527 funds to tell the story of what happened and let the people decide who they want to vote for," Riches said.

New York firefighters to oppose Giuliani

http://www.guardian.co.uk/internatio...213070,00.html

Ewen MacAskill in Washington
Monday November 19, 2007
The Guardian

A group of American firefighters opposed to Rudy Giuliani, the Republican front-runner in the 2008 presidential race, are planning to run damaging adverts expressing scepticism about his 9/11 leadership.

The deputy New York fire chief, Jim Riches, whose son, also a firefighter, was killed in the Twin Towers' collapse, said: "TV made him a hero, and we'll use TV to take him down."

Riches and other New York firefighters have been voicing opposition to Giuliani, mayor of the city on 9/11, since he launched his campaign for the Republican nomination earlier this year. But they are now seeking to set up an official organisation that will fund television adverts in a campaign similar to the one that undermined John Kerry in 2004, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which challenged his Vietnam record.

The organisation would also include the families of 9/11 victims.

Giuliani is running his campaign on the back of the largely favourable media he received at the time, with his leadership in New York contrasting with President George Bush's hesitancy. But the firefighters and victims' families complain that Giuliani failed to heed the warning of an attack on the World Trade Centre almost a decade earlier.

The firefighters also say the crews had poor radios and, as a result, some did not hear calls to evacuate the site.

Families accuse Giuliani of rushing the clear-up of Ground Zero, denying them the chance to exhaust the search for bodies. There is unease, too, that Giuliani is using 9/11 as a political platform.

Riches told ABC News: "We don't want him running on 9/11 or the bodies of all these dead people or my dead son saying that he did a great job that day."

The group is planning trips to Iowa and other key states voting in caucuses and primaries in January to campaign against Giuliani. The former mayor, who has a clear poll lead over his Republican rivals nationally, had initially decided to concentrate on big states such as California. But fearful of his main rivals gaining unstoppable momentum by wins in Iowa and other key places, Giuliani's team has been building up a network in the state.

Giuliani Ad Ignores Charges from 9/11 Firefighters and Families

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/314

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
BuzzFlash on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 4:51pm.

Washington, DC - On the same day 9/11 firefighters and families are in New Hampshire rebuking his failure to prepare New York City for a terrorist attack, Rudy Giuliani launched an ad that ironically touts his so-called leadership credentials. While Giuliani talks about "being tested" during "times of crisis" in the new ad, he has yet to answer questions from the 9/11 group who say he failed to protect firefighters and recovery workers from debilitating toxic air at Ground Zero.

According to the New York Post today, 9/11 families and firefighters who are holding a press conference at Dartmouth College this afternoon are outraged with Rudy Giuliani's leadership in the aftermath of 9/11. FDNY Deputy Fire Chief Jim Riches said, "He's misleading voters and distorting the truth. He didn't prepare the first responders for a terrorist attack. The Office of Emergency Management was a joke that day. There was a lack of communication. People died unnecessarily." [New York Post, 11/19/07]

"The testimony from the 9/11 families and New York's bravest speaks volumes about Rudy Giuliani's real leadership credentials," said DNC Communications Director Karen Finney. "It is disturbing that Rudy has yet to truthfully answer their concerns and take responsibility for his poor decisions before, during and after 9/11. No doubt voters will look past his flashy TV ad and seriously question Giuliani's judgment and his ability to lead during a time of crisis."

GIULIANI AD WATCH: "LEADERSHIP"
RHETORIC:
GIULIANI: "I believe I've had the most leadership experience of anyone that's running. It's not just holding executive positions, like Mayor of New York…

REALITY:

• New York Times: Giuliani Left Budget Worse Then He Found It. Giuliani's repeated claim that he "turned a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion dollar surplus" is "misleading," independent fiscal monitors said. In fact, Mr. Giuliani left his successor, Michael R. Bloomberg, with a bigger deficit than the one Mr. Giuliani had to deal with when he arrived in 1994. And that deficit would have been large even if the city had not been attacked on Sept. 11, 2001." [The New York Times, 8/27/07]
• Los Angeles Times: Giuliani Has "Poor School Marks" And "Problematic Record on Education." An article entitled, "Giuliani's poor school marks; His record in New York City includes four chancellors, angry teachers and an inferior educational system." The article referred to "his [Giuliani's] problematic record on education." [Los Angeles Times, 9/13/07]

GIULIANI:… or United States Attorney…

REALITY:

• "Extensive Work By Others And A Healthy Dose Of Luck." "Five months after Mr. Giuliani left the office, some of those who are best qualified to judge him say in interviews that not all of Mr. Giuliani's accomplishments were as impressive as his press clippings suggested and that his successes stemmed partly from extensive work by others and a healthy dose of luck." [The New York Times, 7/11/89]
• High Profile Cases Saw "Major Setbacks." In what The New York Times noted were "major setbacks," several key prosecutions started by Giuliani ultimately collapsed, were thrown out or reversed, including 7 of the 14 defendants in the Pizza Connection 2 heroine case, with many critics concluding Giuliani put ego ahead of sound legal work. Newsday wrote that among major cases ultimately lost or reversed were the John Mulheren Jr. stock manipulation case, lawyer-lobbyist E. Robert Wallach's racketeering conviction, and "the case against former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos for racketeering and fraud," finding at least 25 reversals from an appeals court that rarely granted them, particularly in cases were Giuliani made high-profile promises. [New York Times, 7/11/89; Newsday, 9/20/93]

GIULIANI:… or 3rd ranking official in the Reagan Justice Department.

REALITY:

• "Questionable Judgment." "Mr. Giuliani is also coming to be seen by some as an ambitious prosecutor who used questionable judgment in several episodes at the Justice Department, both before and during his tenure as United States Attorney," [The New York Times, 7/11/89]
• Controversial Stance On Political Refugees. Outsiders "have questioned Mr. Giuliani's role as the main defender of the Justice Department policy of detaining illegal Haitian immigrants while he was the third-ranking official in the department in the Reagan Administration, which focused on control of illegal immigration. Human rights groups criticized the detention camps, saying many internees were political refugees trying to escape the repression of Jean-Claude Duvalier." [The New York Times, 7/11/89]
• Ethics Snag On Meeting With Company Under Investigation. "He held a highly unusual meeting with the general counsel of McDonnell Douglas. The aeronautics corporation was under federal indictment on charges of fraud and conspiracy at the time and allegedly applied pressure to Republican lawmakers to get the Justice Department to back off." The career prosecutors handling the case wrote in a letter that he'd created the "appearance that certain influential defendants have access to senior officials." Giuliani lambasted the prosecutors and held a grudge against the prosecutors. [Newsweek, 3/12/07]
• Strong Advocate Of Patronage "He also freely used official department letterhead to pitch job recommendations for friends, including 92 letters for the husband of one of his aides." [Los Angeles Times, 8/23/07]

RHETORIC:
GIULIANI: It's having held those positions in time of crisis.

REALITY:

• Exaggerating Fiscal Crisis In NYC: Time asked, "was New York City in financial crisis? Well it had gotten a lot better since 1975 when the city was on the verge of declaring bankruptcy. In fact, some say the city's economic profile started to improve in 1990, along with the country's in general." Also, "Predecessors Ed Koch and David Dinkins and other city leaders had been working for years to rebuild from the fiscal crisis of the late 1970s, said Steven Cohen, a public affairs professor at Columbia University." [SwampCast, Time.com, 11/14/07; Associated Press, 11/14/07]
• Crime Capital Claim "Not Quite True." As for Giuliani's claim that New York was "crime capital of America," Time.com says "that's not quite true. Two Cities, Chicago and LA, had higher murder rates, and seven cities had higher property crime rates." And as the Associated Press noted, "Crime began dropping three years before he arrived at City Hall and was also dropping nationally." [Associated Press, 11/14/07] [SwampCast, Time.com, 11/14/07]
• 5th Highest Murder Rate: According to FBI data for cities with populations over 1,000,000, LA, Dallas, Chicago, and Philadelphia all had higher murder rates in 1993 than New York City.
• 3rd Highest Violent Crime Rate. The same FBI data shows Chicago and Los Angeles in 1993 with higher violent crime rates, with Chicago almost 1/3 higher.
• Eighth Highest Property Crime Rate. FBI data shows seven other major cities (1,000,000 or larger) with higher property crime rates in 1993. [Bureau of Justice Statistics]

RHETORIC:
GIULIANI: I've been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They're not going to find perfection, but they're going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results. And in many cases, exceptional results. Results people thought weren't possible. I'm Rudy Giuliani and I approve this message."

REALITY:

• September 2001: Giuliani Disapproval Almost 50%. Giuliani's job approval rating is 42-49. [Quinnipiac University Poll, 9/5/01, Conducted Aug 27-Sept 3]
• FactCheck.org: Giuliani's "Lengthening String of Exaggeration." "Giuliani added to a lengthening string of exaggerations and misstatements" wrote independent fact checking Web site FactCheck.org, which has repeatedly criticized Giuliani's false claims about his record as mayor. [FactCheck.org, 10/10/07]
• Giuliani Has "A Habit Of Making Sweeping Statements With Little Or No Factual Support." The mayor seems to be making a habit of making sweeping statements with little or no factual support. See our recent posts on his claims about Mikhail Gorbachev and the end of the Soviet Union, the cost of health care premiums, and his own record as mayor of New York." [Fact Checker, Washington Post, 10/30/07]
• Boston Globe: Giuliani "Exaggerate[s]" Fiscal Record. "Giuliani and his campaign exaggerate some facts and ignore many others to hone the point" about his fiscal record wrote the Boston Globe, finding holes in his claims about job creation, welfare reduction, tax reduction and the growth of government spending. [Boston Globe, 11/16/07]
• Fact Checkers: Giuliani "Exaggerates His Role" In Reducing Crime As New York's Mayor. "Rudy Giuliani touts his crime-fighting record from his days as mayor of New York, but many experts don't think he deserves all the credit he takes….independent experts and studies of the phenomenon suggest Giuliani exaggerates his role." [PolitiFact.com, 9/2/07]
• Boston Globe: Welfare Claim Questionable, Since City Lagged Nation. In an article headlined "Giuliani takes liberties on his NYC record" the Boston Globe wrote that "Giuliani's welfare overhaul was a success, reducing the number of New Yorkers on public assistance to the lowest in 35 years. But the results trailed those achieved by national welfare cutbacks. In eight years, New York's rolls plunged 54 percent, from about 1.1 million recipients to 493,000, compared with a 62 percent drop across the United States, according to the Citizens Budget Commission." [Boston Globe, 11/16/07]

9/11 Families Counter Giuliani

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i...3e5_gD8T13L380

By HOLLY RAMER – 1 hour ago

HANOVER, N.H. (AP) — New York firefighters, including two who lost sons in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, joined other victims' relatives Monday to argue that Rudy Giuliani's character and actions make him unfit to be president.

Members of the group, 9/11 Firefighters and Families, long have been vocal critics of Giuliani's performance as New York mayor, but Monday marked their first trip to another state.

For his part, Giuliani was in Mission, Texas, discussing border security.

"They deserve a legacy of the facts, a true story about what happened to them, our city, and really to our country. That's why we're not going to give up," said a tearful Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died at the World Trade Center. "We want people to know the truth about Rudy Giuliani running for president as a false hero."

The group accused Giuliani of politicizing the firefighters' deaths by making his post-9/11 leadership the centerpiece of his presidential campaign.

Jim Riches, a deputy New York fire chief, and Al Santora, who retired in 2000, said Giuliani ignored recommendations to equip firefighters with radios that would have allowed them to communicate with police and to set up a unified command center so both departments could share decision-making during big emergencies. Both men lost sons at the trade center.

"Lives were lost because of the lack of preparation and (Giuliani's) lack of leadership," said Riches, who spent 16 days in a coma after the attacks due to respiratory failure. "All he did was run that day, and get on TV and provide a calming influence for the United States of America. And they made him a hero."

Howard Safir, who served Giuliani as fire commissioner and later police commissioner, said the group has its facts wrong. He acknowledged some radio failures but said many also worked well.

"Anybody who lost a son or daughter in 9/11 has suffered a tragedy that is immeasurable. People grieve in different ways. Some get very biter, some do positive things," he said.

Safir also said he suspected the International Association of Fire Fighters, which opposes Giuliani's candidacy and has endorsed Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, of pulling the strings.

"There are many, many 9/11 families who lost relatives who are very, very supportive of Rudy and what he did before and after 9/11," Safir said. "It's sad when people get used politically."

Guilianni is a fool! If he becomes our next President (perish the thought) I'm moving to Greece to be with my husband's family!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...133061966949&q

US presidential hopefuls 'wrong' to play 9/11 card

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...30/2106412.htm

By Washington correspondent Kim Landers
Posted 9 hours 17 minutes ago

More than six years after the terrorist attacks on the United States, September 11 is playing a major role in the 2008 race for the White House.

New York's mayor on that day, current Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani, is touting his response to the attacks as an example of his ability to lead during a time of crisis.

But a small group of firefighters and their families say they are appalled that the presidential contender is playing the 9/11 card.

In the hours after the attacks, Mr Giuliani was on the streets of New York covered in dust and ash, holding a mask to his face.

Dubbed "America's Mayor", he won national praise for his leadership and resolve on that day and the ones to follow.

Now he is using his handling of the terrorist attacks as a launching pad for his presidential ambitions, constantly referring to the crisis on the campaign trail.

Quotes about September 11 are so frequent that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has begun to poke fun at them.

"Rudy Giuliani, there's only three things he mentioned in a sentence - a noun and a verb and 9/11. I mean, there's nothing else," he said.

But Mr Giuliani is not the only presidential candidate who refers to September 11.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton has woven it into her campaign ads too.

"She stood by Ground Zero workers who sacrificed their health after so many sacrificed their lives and kept," one campaign ad said.

The two New Yorkers are considered serious contenders for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations, meaning September 11 is set to play a part in the 2008 race for the White House.

Memorials to September 11 are scattered throughout New York, like at the fire station on the corner of Eighth Avenue and West 45th street, just blocks from Times Square.

On a sign which reads, "To our fallen brothers, you'll never be forgotten", are the names of 15 men who died at the World Trade Centre, just some of the 343 firefighters killed that day.

Giuliani 'no hero'
But a 10-member strong group of firefighters and their families are accusing Mr Giuliani of using those deaths to advance his presidential ambitions.

Jim Riches is the New York Fire Department's deputy chief, and his firefighter son Jimmy was killed on September 11.

Mr Riches says lives were lost because Mr Giuliani did not provide firefighters with adequate radios.

"He's politicised 9/11 from day one," he said.

"He's made millions, tens of millions of dollars speaking about 9/11, when the only thing he did that day was get on TV, calm the nation and tell everybody everything would be all right and we'd pull through this. That's all he did."

His group is now raising money to run TV ads against the former mayor in Iowa and New Hampshire - the two states which kick off the presidential nomination race.

"We are trying to let everybody know exactly what happened that day, to set the record straight on 9/11 that this man was no hero," he added.

"He ran up to the safety of the police academy, and then he got on TV and everybody saw his picture on TV, and that's what they think he's heroic."

Sensitive issue
Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, says criticising Mr Giuliani over September 11 may prove to be a daunting task because the image of the mayor on that day has been seared into people's memories.

"I think it's going to be very difficult to dislodge that image, or solely that image, in the eyes of most Americans, because Giuliani was so prominent in the events after September 11," he said.

"That's why this is a much more difficult challenge I would say than, for instance, what the swift vote veterans group had to do to sully the image of John Kerry."

While Mr Riches is targeting Mr Giuliani, he does not approve of any candidate who uses September 11 for political purposes.

"I think that day was a national tragedy, and I don't think anyone should use it. I think if Hillary Clinton, John McCain, anyone that uses it is wrong," he added.

"It should be left alone, it's a national tragedy, it was a date of infamy, and I don't think it should be brought into a presidential election like that, saying that they did a good job, or anyone."

But as the race for the White House heats up, September 11 could be turned into more of a political selling point than it has already become.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gold9472

New York Senator Hillary Clinton has woven it into her campaign ads too.

"She stood by Ground Zero workers who sacrificed their health after so many sacrificed their lives and kept," one campaign ad said.

---

So did Hillary's camp just admit that Manhattan was environmentally hazardous on and after Sept. 11, 2001? Great! Then let's move forward to EPA/Giuliani/Bush Admin. accountability, since she IS a New York U.S. Senator after all...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dMole

So did Hillary's camp just admit that Manhattan was environmentally hazardous on and after Sept. 11, 2001? Great! Then let's move forward to EPA/Giuliani/Bush Admin. accountability, since she IS a New York U.S. Senator after all...

---

Hillary's camp has done a few things over the years for the people affected by the environmental impact, but as the statement above indicates, it was probably just for 2008.

Proving criminality with regard to the environmental impact is not difficult. In fact, it's one of the easiest things TO prove. However, when you have a corrupt judicial system, a corrupt NY Medical Examiner, a corrupt Congress, and on and on and on... it's very hard to hold ANYONE accountable.

Giuliani out as head of firm

http://www.star-telegram.com/electio...ry/342408.html

The Associated Press
12/5/2007

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani has stepped down as head of his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners, after months of refusing to disclose the firm's clients or the role he played.

Giuliani has been replaced as chairman by Peter Powers, a longtime friend and former aide, Giuliani Partners spokeswoman Sunny Mindel said Tuesday.

The firm, started by the former New York mayor when he left City Hall, earned Giuliani around $4 million last year. Mindel said he would retain his equity stake in the company. While insisting that the firm's client list was confidential, Giuliani has noted that the media has named some of his clients.

Reports have identified one client as the Persian Gulf country of Qatar, which was accused of sheltering suspected 9-11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, although today it is a U.S. ally.

Giuliani aides said he has not been involved in day-to-day operations of the firm since last spring.

Stuck on 9/11

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...121501601.html

By Dana Milbank
Sunday, December 16, 2007; Page A23

The Rudy Giuliani campaign speech can be summarized in just three digits: 9-1-1.

In a speech in Chicago, the former New York mayor takes only eight seconds to get from "Thank you for having me here" to his first mention of the 2001 terrorist attacks on his city.

"I have a special fondness for Chicago because of all the help you've given us on and after September 11th," he inveighs. The applause is instant.

From there, he moves on to frame the election ("It's about who can offer the leadership to make sure we're safe against Islamic terrorism") and his own policy priorities ("The most important thing we have to fix is make sure we remain on offense against Islamic terrorists").

Almost everything, it seems can be viewed through the 9/11 lens. Immigration? "Just one person has to sneak in, and you have a horrible tragedy, you have a terrorist."

Iraq? "The strategic objective that would be best for America is a stable Iraq that will act as an ally for the United States in the ongoing Islamic terrorist war against us."

Military spending? "We have to rebuild it to a level where we can deal with the challenges of the Islamic terrorists."

Giuliani may be a one-trick pony in the 2008 presidential race, but in national opinion polls he has ridden the issue to a lead that has only recently begun to erode. The message -- that the crime-fighting mayor will protect us from the terrorists -- works well with his no-nonsense style and his confident presentation. The candidate, in a gray suit against a black backdrop, is severe -- so much so that he feels it necessary to provide a disclaimer before a joke. "I'm gonna leave you with . . . a story that has some humor to it so you'll remember," he discloses, "but then it has a punch line to it that isn't so humorous."
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Giuliani's gravity allows him to get away with some curious claims that might draw skepticism if uttered by a less serious man. He argues that "if we hadn't removed Saddam Hussein, we'd have to worry about him becoming a nuclear power right now" -- even though no evidence was found of an Iraqi nuclear program. He breezily submits that, under his health plan, "you would see the price of health insurance come down, I'm gonna say, 50 percent" -- even though FactCheck.org calls that "a statement unsupported by any evidence he's offered."

Then, with a certainty that echoes that of President Bush, Giuliani boasts: "My position on Iraq is the same today as it was in 2003, the same as it was six months ago." But this requires a bit of a detour around his remarks in July that "America is too consumed by Iraq" and should focus more on Pakistan and Afghanistan. In his stump speech, Pakistan and Afghanistan get one sentence, combined.

Giuliani devotes the last third of his speech to domestic issues such as spending, tax cuts and, oddly, the man who sued his dry cleaner for millions over his lost trousers. But the thrust of Giuliani's presentation is about his terrorist-fighting abilities. "This next election for president of the United States can be about leadership. . . . It's about leadership and results. . . . It's also gonna require someone who's gotten results in the area of safety and security before." His audience, a group of Italian Americans, has no trouble getting the message. "Mr. Mayor," says one of the first questioners. "I believe I'm speaking on behalf of all of us. In the wake of 9/11, we all admired your tenacity and the leadership you provided."

The candidate nods modestly then accepts with thanks the raucous applause that inevitably follows.

Giuliani doesn't live up to 9/11 hype

http://www.roanoke.com/editorials/commentary/wb/143752

H.C. Nash
12/17/2007

Nash is a teacher and writer who lives in Buena Vista.

Everyone recognizes that Rudolph Giuliani was a terrific prosecutor as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. And as mayor of New York City from 1993 to 2001, he delivered budget surpluses, moved more or less pitilessly to halve welfare rolls, cleaned up Times Square, beefed up "community policing" and cut crime rates dramatically.

But Giuliani's personal and political scandals and his refusal to discipline a widespread "bad-cop" mentality in the New York City Police Department alienated many, especially minorities. In October 2000 his approval rating in New York City was at 36 percent. A year later his approval rating was 79 percent.

Sept. 11, 2001 resurrected Giuliani.

Giuliani's purportedly heroic response to the 9/11 attacks gave him iconic status almost overnight. Time magazine named him "Man of the Year." Oprah Winfrey dubbed him "America's mayor." In 2002 he was honored with the Nancy Reagan Freedom Award, given to "those who have made monumental and lasting contributions to the cause of freedom." Queen Elizabeth presented him with an honorary knighthood.

But firefighters and many other New Yorkers have less roseate opinions. Some seven weeks into the epic clean up of the World Trade Center site, with the remains of hundreds of victims unrecovered, Giuliani ordered implementation of a quickened "scoop and dump" phase, during which the remainder of hundreds of thousands of tons of rubble would go to the Staten Island dump site without further ceremony.

New York City Fire Department members were especially incensed because they had reason to believe that the order to expedite had come only after a stock of gold, silver and other assets of the Bank of Nova Scotia were recovered. When FDNY members demanded a meeting with the mayor, their actions were denigrated publicly, and 15 of them were arrested.

Said a longtime Giuliani aide: "It [the emergency response] was so well orchestrated that you would have thought that he had prepared for it forever." But it wasn't at all "well orchestrated," as Wayne Barrett's "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11" makes unavoidably clear. Officials of the International Association of Firefighters estimated that 121 of its members died in the North Tower because compatible radios were not in the hands of both police and firefighters and sufficient training had not been provided for all "first responders."

This failure was grossly complicated by the fact that Giuliani had insisted on setting up his Office of Emergency Management Command Center on the 23rd floor of the World Trade Center's 46-story Building 7. "Rudy's bunker" was located only 300 feet from the North Tower in a building containing large fuel tanks whose placement violated city building codes.

Unable to get to their command center prior to evacuation of Building 7 due to debris damage and numerous small fires, Giuliani and his team were forced to resort to fallback venues from the outset. In this chaotic process, never once were top police and fire commanders gathered in one location to coordinate their evaluations and orders. As a result of such fragmentation, countless lives of WTC workers and heroic rescuers were lost.

Another explosive grievance is that Giuliani's administration had been almost totally negligent in ameliorating the hazards of toxic pollution in lower Manhattan. Men and women who worked at the site were encouraged but never required to don respirator masks. Having suffered life-threatening ailments, hundreds of them are now suing for compensation. (The Environmental Protection Agency was no less negligent.)

Monsignor Alan Placa, a controversial, longtime friend of Giuliani, said, "The [prostate] cancer [from which the mayor has recovered] made him face his mortality. September 11 made him face his immortality."

Now Rudy is selling his "immortality" to the Republican rank and file. Will his glib tongue, brilliant smile, unqualified support for Israel and headlong assertions about America's bullying rights overseas sustain his presidential hopes?

Will his boyish rejoinders about being "not perfect" in character terms contain the damage of his unseemly romantic relationships? Will his charm continue to elicit the donations he needs? (Why, you might ask, doesn't Rudy cough up some of his own money? He earned, after all, more than $11 million in speech-making in the year following 9/11.)

If the Republicans choose Giuliani as their nominee, we'll have definitive proof that the GOP is as bankrupt of moral vision as it has for so long appeared to be.

Rudy Giuliani is a con man. The Republican Party seems irrationally drawn to the choice of con men. The nation has suffered inestimably as a result, and the wreckage is rife.

Giuliani gets Big Apple chill
N.Y. City doesn’t exactly love ‘America’s Mayor’

http://www.buffalonews.com/180/story/230118.html

By Jerry Zremski NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF
Updated: 12/16/07 7:33 AM

NEW YORK — To deputy fire chief Jim Riches — who lost his son Jimmy, also a firefighter, on Sept. 11, 2001 — Rudy Giuliani is no hero, but rather the mayor who left firemen without the equipment they needed to be safe.

To Michael Meyers, Giuliani is the mayor who let the Police Department run amok.

And to Buffalo native Dave Czapla, Giuliani was the nanny mayor whose efforts to tame the city damaged its soul.

You’ll meet people like Riches, Meyers and Czapla all over the Big Apple. They’re living proof that, while Rudy Giuliani may be “America’s mayor” and a leading Republican candidate for president, he’s anything but New York City’s sweetheart.

Nearly six years after Giuliani left office, 57 percent of the city’s residents surveyed earlier this month have an unfavorable impression of him, a Siena College poll found last week.

Moreover, while Giuliani is competitive with the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, in national polls, the Siena poll found Clinton crushing him by 19 points in the city he used to lead.

“He couldn’t get elected dog catcher here now,” said Riches, who recently traveled to New Hampshire with a group of 9/11 survivors and firefighters to campaign against Giuliani.

Chalk it all up to the long memories of the residents of this city, who remember not just Giuliani’s much-lauded leadership after 9/11 but also the two tumultuous terms that preceded it.

“Folks in New York City know him the best — both the good and the bad,” said Steven Greenberg of the Siena poll. “And you have to remember that, despite the fact that he won twice, New York City is overwhelmingly Democratic.”

Giuliani’s supporters laud him for an all-out assault on street crimes that ended up sparking a sharp drop in offenses of all kinds. They say New York, absent the “squeegee men” and panhandlers Giuliani banished, is a far cleaner and safer place.

Giuliani’s critics said that as mayor, he was quite the opposite of the sunny-faced striver on the presidential campaign trail.

Riches — who voted for Giuliani for mayor three times — contends the mayor coldly ignored the firefighters’ needs both before and after 9/11.

He noted that even though the World Trade Center was first attacked in a parking-garage bombing in 1993, Giuliani opted to put the city’s emergency response center on the 23rd floor of a building near the Twin Towers — which had to be evacuated as the buildings nearby collapsed.

And despite a well-documented need for better communications equipment, firemen, including Riches’ son, died unable to hear the call to evacuate.

“We all know that those planes killed our kids,” Riches said, “but many died that day who didn’t have to die.”

The 9/11 Commission report called the radio failure “a contributing factor,” rather than the primary reason, firefighters were trapped in the World Trade Center’s North Tower.

But the firefighters’ complaints don’t end there.

Riches is furious that the city didn’t provide firefighters who worked on the rescue effort with proper respirators, and that Giuliani ordered the end of recovery operations before all body parts were recovered.

Harold A. Schaitberger, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters , also noted that many of Giuliani’s appointees, such as Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, were yes men undistinguished by anything other than loyalty to the mayor. Kerik, whom Giuliani later recommended for Homeland Security secretary, was recently indicted on several federal felony charges.

Giuliani’s support of his cronies “is a reflection of the kind of leader he is,” said Schaitberger, whose union backs Democrat Chris Dodd for president.

In addition, while Giuliani served as mayor, the Police Department faced increasing brutality complaints, and in two instances police officers shot and killed unarmed suspects, both young black men.

As a result, Giuliani’s relationship with the city’s black community went from cautious to dysfunctional, local leaders said. Meyers credited Giuliani for standing up to “racial arsonists” like Al Sharpton and for “pushing down crime in extraordinary ways, including in minority areas.”

But he noted that the mayor routinely backed the Police Department and ignored other voices.

He said a key moment occurred when Giuliani appointed a task force to deal with complaints about the police, then promptly gave up on it, attending a Yankees playoff game instead of a scheduled meeting with minority youths.

The Giuliani campaign did not respond to requests for comment for this story. But in an interview with McClatchy Newspapers earlier this year, former Deputy Mayor Rudy Washington defended Giuliani’s record on race.

“There was no race problem,” Washington said. “All that stuff, it’s from the usual suspects saying the same thing, and the press would run with it.”

Nevertheless, the Siena poll found that Giuliani is viewed unfavorably by 76 percent of the blacks surveyed statewide. And Meyers said the mayor’s insensitivity to the city’s racial tensions was tied to one of Giuliani’s great flaws.

“He had a record of contempt of civil liberties,” Meyers said. “Civil liberties were violated under his administration on a willy-nilly basis.”

The New York Civil Liberties Union took the Giuliani administration to court 27 times and won 23 of those cases.

The mayor tried to ban press conferences from the steps of City Hall. He tried to stop cab drivers from marching to protest city policies. And he harshly criticized a “million youth march” planned for the city.

Former Mayor Ed Koch and Norman Siegel, former head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, cited a 1994 Giuliani speech as summing up his views on civil liberties.

“Freedom is about authority,” Giuliani said. “Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.”

Taken in the context of a Giuliani presidency, that attitude is frightening, Siegel said.

“I call him: ‘America’s authoritarian’,” Siegel said.

At the same time, Siegel lauded Giuliani’s public leadership after 9/11, which pushed his approval ratings in many polls to close to 90 percent.

“I think he performed very well with dealing with the psyche of the city after 9/11,” Siegel said. “He rose to the occasion.”

Yet Giuliani’s massive popularity in the city post-9/11 proved to be a blip. The Siena poll found him to be more popular upstate and in New York’s suburbs, and that comes as no surprise to Fred Siegel, author of “Prince of the City,” a mostly flattering biography of the former mayor.

“The odd thing is, it’s the people who give up on New York who most like Rudy,” Siegel said. Except for the brief time after 9/11, “he was never overwhelmingly popular in the city. He ticked off every major interest group in the city, and that’s why he was able to accomplish so much.”

Conflict — and Giuliani’s personal problems, including a divorce he announced at a press conference rather than in person to his then-wife — dominated the tabloid headlines of Giuliani’s eight years in office.

It all proved wearying to New Yorkers like Koch, who wrote a book about Giuliani called “Nasty Man.”

“His major problem is that he doesn’t respect other people’s opinions,” Koch said.

And that produced a New York that was a bit too stultifying to Czapla, a massage therapist who left Buffalo for the Big Apple in 1986.

He cited the former mayor’s much-maligned campaign against jaywalking — and the barricades he erected on midtown streets to enforce it — and his relentless efforts to prevent protest as signs of Giuliani’s true nature.

“He’s like a farmer who only knows how to pull out weeds,” Czapla said. “He doesn’t know how to plant seeds.”

Giuliani faces 9/11 backlash
Some New York firefighters who lost sons in the attack plan to take on the former mayor in GOP primary states

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics...itics-campaign

By Stephen Braun, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON -- In an effort reminiscent of the bitter "Swift Boat" campaign during the 2004 presidential race, a group of New York firefighters who lost sons in the Sept. 11 World Trade Center attacks is organizing a political committee to take on former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani in Republican primary states.

A leader of the 9/11 Firefighters and Families group met Tuesday with union leaders and political consultants, readying plans to set up a tax-exempt committee that would fund appearances and a media drive against Giuliani.

Jim Riches, a New York deputy fire chief whose firefighter son was killed during the attack, said the group aimed to raise doubts about the central premise of Giuliani's presidential campaign -- his leadership role on Sept. 11. "If we have to follow him around all 2008 we'll do it," Riches said.

Lauded as "America's Mayor" for his blunt talk and compassion after the attacks, Giuliani's political stock soared, and he built a multimillion-dollar consulting group emphasizing his leadership skills.

"A majority of firefighters believe that Rudy was a great leader on 9/11," said Howard Safir, who ran the New York Fire and Police departments under Giuliani and now heads First Responders for Rudy, a group affiliated with Giuliani's campaign.

But the former New York mayor's frequent references to Sept. 11 on the campaign trail have infuriated Riches and about 20 activists who lost firefighter sons. The New Yorkers blame Giuliani for decision-making failures that they say contributed to the deaths.

After protesting near Giuliani fundraising events in New York to little fanfare, they now plan to raise their voices in Florida, South Carolina and other primary states seen as essential to Giuliani's path to the GOP nomination. "When he announced his plans to run for president we felt he was doing it on the backs of our dead sons," Riches said.

The 9/11 group is already being compared by some political observers to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth group that damaged the candidacy of Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 by impugning his Vietnam War service in the Navy. Both groups feature a self-sustaining constituency of passionate supporters and are aided by outside political forces eager to use them as vehicles in the presidential race.

"Starting small doesn't mean you can count them out," said Stephanie Cutter, a political consultant who countered the attacks as Kerry's press aide in 2004. "When the Swift Boat group started . . . they had no money and no plan. In a matter of months they had enough money to go up with an ad buy, and that triggered their relevance."

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth raised more than $25 million for media buys. Some of the money was donated in multimillion-dollar installments from reliable Republican fundraisers, including Texas businessmen T. Boone Pickens Jr. and Bob J. Perry. But last December, the group was fined almost $300,000 by the Federal Election Commission for exceeding spending limits and acting in concert with GOP campaign efforts.

The Swift Boat operation used an Internal Revenue Service exemption that allowed so-called 527 groups -- a reference to IRS code -- to raise funds and participate in political debate as long as they followed funding and election rules.

"To the extent that new 527 groups would like to do what the Swift Boat group did in 2004 may be subject down the road to much stiffer penalties than the Swift Boat people got," said Paul S. Ryan, associate legal counsel with the Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group.

According to several participants at Tuesday's discussions between Riches and his supporters from the International Assn. of Fire Fighters union, the 9/11 group is leaning toward using a 527 structure. Riches said the group had already been pledged nearly $200,000 and hoped to raise as much as $1 million for a website, media buys and campaign travel.

The Giuliani campaign, reeling in recent weeks from dropping poll numbers and running controversies, has already taken steps to blunt the firefighters' attacks. Heading the campaign's First Responders for Rudy, Safir has appeared on several political talk shows with Riches, but was careful not to engage him face-to-face, recognizing the delicacy of debating a Sept. 11 victim.

"We owe all families that lost loved ones on 9/11 an unpayable debt, but finally this small group is admitting that this is a political attack with no other objective than to tarnish Mayor Giuliani's good name," Safir said Tuesday.

Earlier this year, the union produced an ad for its website that featured Riches and other New York firefighters criticizing Giuliani for blunders before and after Sept. 11. The New Yorkers said that Giuliani failed to provide first responders with proper radio equipment before the attacks and sharply reduced recovery teams at the World Trade Center site afterward even though many firefighters' bodies had not been found.

Giuliani and his aides have long disputed the radios' role in the collapse of emergency communications on Sept. 11. In a recent interview, Safir said that the "radios worked" but the repeaters -- which can extend the range of the radios into high-rise buildings -- did not.

The 9/11 group's effort to raise questions about Giuliani's performance before and after the attacks "takes on Rudy's strength," said Republican consultant Tom Edmonds. "I'm not sure that will go over with an American public that was impressed with what they saw."

But Riches and fellow activists, seared by their losses and offended by Giuliani's emphasis on Sept. 11 as the crucible of his leadership, say they expect to travel to primary states early in the new year to turn up the heat on the former mayor.

"Stay tuned," Riches said.

Giuliani Claims It Would Have Been ‘Impossible’ To Give 9/11 Firefighters Working Radios

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/23/giuliani-radios/

Today on ABC’s This Week, host George Stephanopoulos pushed former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on why the radios for the 9/11 firefighters didn’t work. Giuliani dodged the question, claiming that it would have been “impossible” to have given them working radios:

STEPHANOPOULOS: They make two main charges. Number one, that those firefighters in the north tower, many of them lost their lives because their radios didn’t work. They also say you ended the recovery efforts too soon.

GIULIANI: Well, the radios that you’re talking about weren’t put online for three, four, five years after. So, it would have been impossible for me to have those radios ready. It took the city two or three more years…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they had malfunctioned in 1993.

GIULIANI: But even with the new equipment, it took another two or three years for those radios to be put online. So it would have been impossible for us to have gotten them online before that, given the fact that it took so long afterwards.

Watch it: Click Here (GooTube)

As Stephanopoulos pointed out, the firefighters on 9/11 were forced to use old equipment that had malfunctioned eight years earlier, during the 1993 attacks on the World Trade Center.

But it wasn’t “impossible” to get new radios to these firefighters, as Giuliani tried to claim. After the 1993 incident, Giuliani gave Motorola a $14-million no-bid contract. Despite this exorbitant sum, the radios were faulty and had to be taken out of service in March 2001, after a “distress call from a firefighter trapped in a burning house” went unheard. A New York City Council report on the fire department’s radio procurement process concluded:

Thus, despite its acknowledgment two years earlier that several manufacturers were developing technology that might meet FDNY’s CAI specifications, and in apparent disregard of its pledge to evaluate new technologies and products, the FDNY appears to have elected to accept a radio representing an entirely new communications technology from Motorola rather than conduct a competitive review of products and prices.

Brave New Films has put together a video on Giuliani’s record on the 9/11 radios HERE.

Transcript:

STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve also talked a lot about your record after 9/11.

There’s a group of pretty determined firefighters, who want to defeat you on this issue. They’re led by the deputy fire chief, James Riches, whose son died — also a firefighter — on 9/11.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES RICHES, DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF, FDNY: He’s the guy on the top. He’s the guy to yell at. He takes the hit. And my son is dead because of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANOPOULOS: He blames you.

GIULIANI: I feel very bad about that. And I feel very bad at the whole situation. I feel these people — all these people, myself and all the people that were involved in this — have been very hurt by this. And it creates a lot of pain. It creates a lot of suffering. And if they’re angry at me, so be it.

I did everything I — I did everything I could think of doing in that situation to help. I think I made mostly the right decisions. Probably didn’t make all the right decisions, but I tried very hard to alleviate the problem as much as I could, and to lift the spirits of the city.

And in most cases, I think I made the right decisions. In some cases I may not. And then maybe just some people that are angry at me for it, and I’m not going to argue with them. My gosh. They’ve gone through too much for anybody to be arguing with them.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They make two main charges. Number one, that those firefighters in the north tower, many of them lost their lives because their radios didn’t work. They also say you ended the recovery efforts too soon.

GIULIANI: Well, the radios that you’re talking about weren’t put online for three, four, five years after. So, it would have been impossible for me to have those radios ready. It took the city two or three more years…

STEPHANOPOULOS: But they had malfunctioned in 1993.

GIULIANI: But even with the new equipment, it took another two or three years for those radios to be put online. So it would have been impossible for us to have gotten them online before that, given the fact that it took so long afterwards.

Giuliani dogged by questions about 9/11 firefighter concerns

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/politics/221033

McClatchy Newspapers
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.18.2008

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — From debates to commercials to speeches, Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign revolves around his record preparing New York before and managing it after Sept. 11.

But there's one key detail he won't clearly explain: Why firefighters on Sept.11 had the same faulty radios that failed them in 1993, when the World Trade Center was first attacked.

When asked about the issue Thursday at an Associated Press appearance, Giuliani suggested it was an insurmountable technological hurdle that couldn't be cleared in his eight years in office that began Jan. 1, 1994, and ended just after Sept. 11.

Giuliani also scuttled his usual references to himself and "my city" in his answer, and shifted the focus to his successors, suggesting `they" in "the city" failed.

"A new radio system was purchased. And they tried to put the new system in. And they weren't able to accomplish it. That happened about five or six months before Sept. 11. It took them another three or four years to accomplish it," Giuliani said. "But the point that I'm making is: I could not have gotten it done in six months. The city wasn't able to get it done in a three- or four-year period after that."

The issue has begun to dog Giuliani on the campaign trail as the Democratic-leaning International Association of Fire Fighters dispatches Sept. 11 firefighters and families of victims to Florida events to highlight what they say is Giuliani's poor and distorted record on Sept. 11.

"Rudy Giuliani cashed in after 9/11 and made millions of dollars on speaking about what he did and lying," said Jim Riches, a recently retired New York firefighter whose son, Jimmy Riches, died in the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Riches said his son was one of numerous firefighters who probably didn't hear the call to evacuate because the radio system was broken and, when it did work, dispatchers didn't follow the proper protocols to repeatedly warn "Mayday." The 9/11 Commission noted the radio issue, but said the system's failure wasn't total and was a contributing — but not the only — cause of firefighter deaths.

The firefighter union and Riches also take Giuliani to task for insisting on placing an emergency response headquarters in the World Trade Center, even though he had been warned not to do so because it was a terrorism target.

Giuliani said Thursday that it was "the right decision" because it was located with federal intelligence agencies and that it didn't really matter because the city's disaster-management system was capable of being a "mobile" command center.

"It was a sound decision to put our command center in proximity with the CIA and the FBI," he said.

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Firefi...d_on_0122.html

Families of firefighters killed in the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center rallied in Orlando Tuesday in anticipation of the state's upcoming Republican primary. Unfortunately for Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, the firefighters are not in his corner. "We want America to know that [the Giuliani campaign] is lying to America and to the American pubic," said Jim Riches, a deputy chief in the New York Fire Department, "telling all of Florida that the New York City Fire Department backs him, when that's another lie."

Firefighters and their families vowed to dog the former New York mayor at all of his Florida campaign stops because the state figures prominently in Giuliani's big-state primary strategy. The protesters think that Giuliani was aware that firefighters who responded to the World Trade Center attack were carrying defective radios and did not hear the order to evacuate.

"He didn't prepare us before, during, or after," says Riches.

Giuliani has campaigned strongly on his leadership during the attacks on New York, claiming he is the best suited to prevent an "Islamic terrorist war against us." But the firefighters were quick to question that courage.

"Yeah, the decision he made was, which direction he was going to run," says Riches. "And he ran north, and that's all he did."

The Giuliani campaign labeled the display a misleading, partisan attack. The former mayor is also emphasizing his ability to deal with the economy, distancing himself from the 9/11 pitch.

http://nymag.com/nymetro/news/sept11/features/5270/
Man Behind the Mayor

Until September 11, Richard Sheirer, director of the Office of Emergency Management, was mostly sweating the small stuff: burst water mains, power outages, rodent-control problems. Then, with his command center destroyed and his friends missing, he became the unsung hero of the hot zone -- and one of the most powerful men in New York.

• By Amanda Griscom
• Published Oct 8, 2001

On the morning of September 12, Richard Sheirer, director of the mayor's Office of Emergency Management, was scheduled to conduct a biological-terrorism drill in a cavernous commercial warehouse on the Hudson. Known as tripod -- short for "trial point of distribution" -- the exercise was to test how quickly Sheirer's staff could administer treatments at the kind of ad hoc medical centers that would be set up all over the city in the event of an actual attack. For an audience, Sheirer had lined up Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the police and fire commissioners, and representatives of the FBI and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). He had hired over 1,000 Police Academy cadets and Fire Department trainees to play terrified civilians afflicted with various medical conditions, allergies, and panic attacks. He had even arranged for a shipment of 70,000 M&Ms to be delivered and divided by color into medical packets representing different prophylactics and vaccines. But the M&Ms never arrived.

On the morning of September 11, Sheirer got to City Hall at 8 a.m. for a meeting about the Jackie Robinson-Pee Wee Reese memorial planned for Coney Island. "I was in heaven, sitting between Ralph Branca and Joe Black," he remembers. "We were about to select the statue, and then we heard the pop." At first he thought a transformer had exploded in an underground substation. Then he got a flash report from Watch Command in OEM headquarters.

As his driver barreled down Broadway, Sheirer recalls, "my first move was to clear the streets so we could get emergency vehicles in and people out." He radioed the police department and told them to shut down traffic below Canal Street and close every bridge and tunnel in the city.

Down at the scene, he joined Fire Commissioner Tom Von Essen and his chiefs Pete Ganci and Bill Feehan -- old friends from Sheirer's 26 years with the New York Fire Department. They were establishing a command post at the base of the burning tower. Then the second airplane hit. "At that point there was no more doubt," he says ruefully. "We were under attack." He picked up one of the three cell phones strapped to his belt and started giving orders: to the Coast Guard to seal the harbor, and to the State Emergency Management Office to send backup search and rescue teams and get the Pentagon to freeze the city's airspace. Then he lost his signal.

As Sheirer helped move the Fire Department command post, he saw a cloud of smoke and debris engulf his own command center, on the twenty-third floor of 7 World Trade Center. His staff was inside sending alerts to representatives of nearly 100 organizations -- everyone from Con Edison to the Department of Health. One of his deputies radioed him to report that the OEM would have to evacuate.

Then his radio buzzed again: Giuliani was with Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik at an NYPD command post two blocks north, at 75 Barclay Street. Sheirer and Von Essen were needed at the mayor's side, so they bolted north, leaving chiefs Ganci and Feehan in charge.

Minutes after they arrived at Barclay, the second tower collapsed. "It was a tremendous whoosh, roaring like a train in a tunnel," Sheirer remembers. The doors were jammed with piles of debris, but a janitor led the mayor and his commissioners out through the basement. Their cars were crushed, so they trudged uptown to a firehouse at Houston and Sixth Avenue.

As soon as he had access to land lines, Sheirer ordered fuel reserves for the fire boats that pump water from the Hudson, called the Department of Buildings to send down a team of structural engineers, and made arrangements to establish a temporary command center in the Police Academy at Third Avenue and 20th. Then a retired fireman named Dennis Conway, whom Sheirer had known for decades, limped in. "He sat down next to me and said, 'Feehan and Ganci ordered me to go north, but they went south to get the other troops,' " Sheirer remembers. " 'Ritchie,' he said, 'they're gone. The tower swallowed them up.' It was so far beyond my wildest dreams. When I left the post at the scene, there was no thought in my mind that I wasn't going to see my friends again."

As Sheirer struggled to catch his breath, one of his deputies put a phone up to his ear. "He said, 'It's the missus -- tell her you're alive.' I could hear my wife crying. She knows when there's an incident, I'm down on the scene. I told her, 'I'm still here, baby. It wasn't my time.' "

Quiet and camera-shy, Sheirer makes most of his public appearances standing behind the mayor's left shoulder. He's the one who's not Kerik or Von Essen, the short, stout man who bows his head in the limelight, his eyes downcast behind huge square glasses, his jowls drooping as he whispers updates in the mayor's ear. He's the guy Giuliani calls "the man behind the curtain." He's the wizard of OEM.

Sheirer spent his earliest years in makeshift military housing made of corrugated metal. "When my dad came back from the service," he says, "they housed us in Quonset Hut City at the foot of Rockaway Parkway. I didn't realize how rudimentary it was until we moved into a Brooklyn housing project on Flatbush and Snyder. What a difference!" When Sheirer was in high school, his father, a truck driver, had a stroke (his mother died of cancer several years later). Sheirer took to hanging out in the Flatbush Boy's Club, where a friend who had a brother in the FDNY encouraged him to join the department.

After a short stint in the Navy, Sheirer became a Fire Department dispatcher, and worked his way up to deputy commissioner before Howard Safir named him Police Department chief of staff in 1996. That same year, Giuliani issued the executive order that created the Office of Emergency Management, placing terrorism expert Jerome Hauer at the helm. Starting with a 12-person division in the NYPD, Hauer built the OEM into a 50-person agency based in a controversial $16 million command center at 7 World Trade Center. But he quit soon after the bunker was completed, saying the long hours and high pressure were taking a toll on his personal life. In February 2000, Giuliani tapped Sheirer for the job.

Most of the time, Sheirer and his staff of 72 (many of them seasoned fire and police officers) prepare for hurricanes and earthquakes while dealing with a steady stream of quotidian problems -- derailed trains, water-main breaks, the city's rodent population. On a normal day, New York needs over 80 agencies to function smoothly; in a crisis, Sheirer's job is to conduct this orchestra, to ensure that every individual instrument plays its part, on time and in key.

Since September 11, Sheirer has taken charge of the biggest cleanup effort in American history, coordinating 100 federal, state, and local agencies, including FEMA. He's become, in effect, the CEO of a company with thousands of workers and a budget that could run up to $40 billion -- or, if you prefer, the mayor of the hot zone. He calls in the city's Department of Transportation to patch up the streets and has the Department of Design and Construction hang netting so broken glass won't fall on workers below. He orders Con Ed and Verizon to rehabilitate buildings without power or phone service, then gets the Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Design and Construction to make sure they're safe. If they pass the test, he signs the documents that open them up to the public. "OEM is in charge," says Mike Byrne, deputy federal coordinating officer of FEMA for this incident. "Sheirer gives the marching orders. So far, we're blown away by OEM's performance."


Late on a Sunday night, two weeks after the attack, Sheirer is riding shotgun in his silver GMC Yukon. He's heading down to the on-scene OEM command bus to coordinate supplies for debris removal -- wrecking balls, jackhammers, Tyvec suits, even tetanus shots. "Whatever the guys need down there to fight the devil," he says, "I make sure they have it."

As he flashes his badge out the window at one of the checkpoints, the Dixie Chicks are playing on the stereo. "Turn it up, Johnny," he says to his driver. "I need a calming influence. My favorite is Billy Joel, but I also go for the Dixies and Barenaked Ladies." Sheirer attributes his taste in music to the five sons he has with Barbara, his wife of 27 years.

Sheirer cuts off the music as he rolls through ground zero, glaring at the contorted remains like it's the first time he's seen them. "I do this trip three, four times a day, and still it turns my stomach," he says. "Some of the men buried in that pile I've worked with for 30 years. I know men out here who are digging for their sons, sons who are digging for their fathers." He sighs, then rolls down the window: "Hiya, Jimmy, Carlos, Lou. You boys are doing a yeoman's job!"

Parked near the remains of 7 World Trade Center, the OEM command bus is glossy blue, 50 feet long, and divided into two sections. Up front, the control room has dozens of wall-mounted monitors and a built-in Motorola radio center; in back, the conference room has track lighting, leather bunks, and a table piled with two six-foot subs, a platter of sausage dogs, and red binders labeled FEMA: classified.

Sheirer takes a seat, scarfs down a dog, and calls out a name: "Ray Lynch!" Responsible for coordinating the Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) teams, Lynch appears in full gear -- body suit, hard hat, face mask, rubber boots -- and offers an update: He's got teams in from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Arizona, California, Utah, and Florida, with more help on the way. Right now he's working with experts in structural collapse and confined-space rescue. "I don't want anybody in there for more than twelve hours," Sheirer tells him. "Make sure those guys get sleep."

"You got it, boss," Lynch replies. "There's still hope. We're only fourteen days into it. USAR teams have found survivors up to sixteen days after an incident without food and water."

Sheirer radios the on-site rep of the Department of Design and Construction to offer an update on the hundred-ton crane he had FEMA fly in from Germany. Then he reports that he was able to get permission to dredge the Hudson so the Department of Sanitation can send garbage barges closer to the scene instead of taking debris away by truck.

Then it's back to the conference room to meet with his senior staff. Schools near the scene need to be reopened, so he asks his deputy of planning to find alternative buildings to store supplies; volunteer ironworkers and machine operators need to be taken care of, so he reviews their food and housing situation. "These construction guys are like family," says Sheirer. "They consider this sacred ground just like we do."

Around midnight, Sheirer stumbles out of the bus, leans up against a chain-link fence, and flips open his cell phone. "Hiya, hon," he says. "I know it's Sunday, I know. I'm comin' home." Just next to where he's standing, there's a printed flyer pinned to a fence: "Tempest-tossed soul, keep your hand firmly upon the helm of thought. In the bark of your soul reclines the Commanding Master. Self-control is strength, Right thought is mastery, Calmness is power."

"Nobody understands his stamina," Sheirer's driver says, as he waits in the Yukon. "Last night, I took him home to Staten Island at 2 a.m. When I picked him up at six this morning, his wife met me at the door and said he'd been on the phone until four. Then he jumps in the car with a stack of reports to get ready for his morning meeting with the mayor. He's unbelievable. This has been going on for two weeks straight."

The night of Tuesday the 11th, Sheirer and his staff never left the Police Academy. "It was dreadful," says Henry Jackson, Sheirer's deputy director for administration, who was responsible for setting up the temporary command post. "The phones kept going down. The little computer network we jerry-rigged kept going down, so everything had to be done with pen and paper."

Sheirer knew he needed another building, one big enough to house a command center the size of a football field, but also secure enough to house the mayor. The location was obvious: He commandeered the facility on the Hudson where he had been scheduled to do his tripod drill the following day. It was a space Sheirer knew well -- when he was a rookie in the Fire Department, he had organized quilting and antique fairs there as a side job.

When Action Jackson, as the deputy administrator is known at OEM, got the order to build a new command center, it was 8 a.m. Wednesday morning; he had slept for two hours on a cot in the Police Academy gym and was still covered in a film of debris. "I loaded up on coffee and smokes," says Jackson with a Han Solo grimace, "and brought a team of ten guys from logistics, telecom, and security to check the place out." By midnight Wednesday, "there were 150 people crawling all over the place," he says. "We gathered the whole crowd of laborers and gave 'em a little Knute Rockne, a little Vince Lombardi speech -- some inspiration. Boom! We got the place up and running and functional in 32 hours." He pauses. "The mayor keeps saying it was 48, but it was 32."

Cement floors were carpeted, tablecloths stapled to tables, areas sectioned off with drywall. The ground level hummed with forklifts moving in mountains of computers, giant spools of cable, and bulk shipments of food and toiletries. The Navy sailed in the U.S.S. Comfort, a medical ship with 900 beds and a full kitchen, and docked it next to the warehouse to serve as a relief hotel.

"I could have asked for anything in the world and gotten it," says Jackson. "Everybody knew we were in charge." Compaq shipped hundreds of computers, Cisco sent servers, Nextel brought in a cell site to boost its signal. By the end of the day, vendors were vying to donate their products. "Now Microsoft is calling me and wants to know why we aren't using Microsoft," sighs Jackson.

Finally, there was the issue of décor: "I'm like, we don't have an American flag here," says Jackson, "I'm like, we need American flags here. I said get American flags! So I had some of the laborers run up and down the place hanging flags." By Friday night, 500 representatives from various city agencies had added their own personal touches, and aerial photographs of the site shared wall space with posters reading STRENGTH AND HONOR and hundreds of handmade cards from kids around the country.

The new command center is organized just the way the original was: FEMA and OEM officials sit on a raised platform known as Command and Control. Surrounding them are ten sections: Health and Medical, Logistics, Transportation, Infrastructure, Law Enforcement, Debris Removal, Aerial Imaging and Mapping, Machinery, Utilities, and Joint Information Center.

By the time Friday night rolled around, Jackson hadn't slept or showered in four days. "I literally hadn't been able to dust myself off," he says. "I
hadn't even been able to think. Then somebody gave me a box of Girl Scout cookies that had a little note on it, from some Girl Scout somewhere. And that's when I lost it. I just started bawling."

"One of the things I pride myself on," says Sheirer, "is that, for a short, round guy, I can be pretty invisible. I think it's very valuable to be invisible for the job I do. It's important to me to be prepared, to get in, get it done, and get out. My people understand -- we don't need fanfare. Invisibility enhances our ability to work with everyone because they know we're not looking to take the limelight." Of course, Sheirer's deference also helps keep the limelight shining on hizzoner.

Sheirer could easily step out from Giuliani's shadow -- he's briefed President Bush, Tony Blair, and Henry Kissinger, among others -- but he plans to retire when the mayor leaves office. At least in part, it's a lifestyle decision: "I haven't worked less than a twelve-hour day or had a normal schedule in 34 years." But political loyalty also comes into play. "Winston Churchill is the guy who did it for Britain and Rudy Giuliani is the guy who is doing it for New York -- and the country," says Sheirer, "because he's focused, he understands. That understanding and leadership permeates everything we do. There are other people who I don't think feel it the way he does. For them it's all political bullshit. And I'm really fearful for the city because of it."

There's even a risk that when Giuliani and Sheirer go, the OEM could go with them. Since the agency was created by a Giuliani executive order, it will be up to the next mayor to keep it alive, unless voters approve the initiative on the November 4 ballot that proposes to make it a charter agency.

Sheirer says the next administration will have to increase building security, step up drills to prepare for biological and chemical terrorism as well as natural disasters and day-to-day emergencies, boost the back-up electricity reserves and more frequently test the water supply. "It's not cheap to be prepared," says Sheirer. "But if there's one good thing to come out of this, it's political support to commit the necessary resources."

From a federal point of view, New York is already ahead of the rest of the nation. "It should be used as a model to build other urban OEMs across the country," says Byrne of FEMA. "There are not many leaders in the U.S. like Sheirer. There will be a boom in demand for these kinds of experts."