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

[Gold9472]

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."

[Gold9472]

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

[Gold9472]

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.

[Gold9472]

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

[Gold9472]

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.

[Gold9472]

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.

[Gold9472]

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]

[Gold9472]

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."

[Laura]

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!

[Gold9472]

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