Despite pimping himself, Rudy Giuliani's actions on 911 were far from heroic...
Time to downsize Rudy 9/11 myth
Ny Daily NewsThe images and their accompanying story line are, by now, the stuff of legend, seared into memory. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a lame-duck local pol, becomes the take-charge, already prepared leader of a stunned city and nation on Sept. 11, 2001, striding through the streets of lower Manhattan with his top commanders to rescue, rally and reassure the populace.
Five years later, Giuliani is a pop-culture superhero ("I didn't have time to be afraid, Oprah") and has unabashedly converted 9/11 into wealth, fame and a shot at the White House.
But a new exhaustively researched and unsentimental peek behind the mythology strongly suggests that Giuliani and his top deputies committed many errors that did grave, even fatal, harm to citizens, emergency responders and recovery teams before, on and after that terrible day. Investigative reporters Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, the co-authors of "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11," think the time has come for the public to trade in myth for some hard, uncomfortable truths.
They could be wrong: Given a choice between a well-told heroic tale and a catalogue of faults, humans instinctively choose fable over facts. But Barrett and Collins hammer away at Giuliani and leave his mythic armor dented.
They tell the story of 9/11 failures like Giuliani's decision to locate the city's command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center over the objections of police and fire brass. The bunker went unused, and its 6,000 gallons of fuel may have destroyed the building.
Operational shortcomings like the FDNY's famously obsolete radios get reviewed in detail, along with low-tech communications failures like the creation of separate police and fire command posts at Ground Zero on 9/11, which prevented firefighters from sounding a Mayday evacuation order even after cops saw the south tower fall and began evacuating the north tower 25 minutes before it, too, collapsed.
Giuliani's top team comes in for criticism: Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik essentially served as Giuliani's personal bodyguard on 9/11 instead of running the NYPD. "I don't know who was directing. I literally don't," current Commissioner Raymond Kelly told the authors.
Those failures, perhaps understandable in the chaos of 9/11, are compounded by much less forgivable decisions in the attack's wake. Construction workers and firefighters were allowed to work and eat meals in the still-smoldering ruins without protective respiratory gear despite dire warnings - and as the Daily News has reported, thousands of Ground Zero veterans are now afflicted with upper respiratory illnesses.
Equally inexcusable is Giuliani's rewriting of history to hide his failures. Barrett and Collins describe forum after forum in which the mayor, relying on his mythic glow, says that even obvious mistakes - from the siting of the emergency bunker to the creation of separate police and fire posts on 9/11 - represented wise, intentional strategy. Already, the legend is beginning to fray: The chairmen of the 9/11 commission recently expressed regret at letting America's Mayor off the hook too easily. There will be more such second looks in the future, as America amends the moral of the Giuliani fable to read that even heroes need not be perfect - or pretend to be.
"triding through the streets of lower Manhattan with his top commanders to rescue, rally and reassure the populace."
In the situation where the main action was the disaster itself, I found it weird that RG had made sure the cameras were rolling on himself and his lieutenants as they marched down the middle of the street.
sort of like John Kerry taking his 16mm camera with him to nam???
Not even close......
The guy is a fool to run for president. Right now he is a hero. If he continues this campaign for president, articles such as this are only the beginning.
Whatever happened to debating the issues? Let the smear campaign begin.
Maybe there's more in the article that Nbadan didn't post but, what's posted here all seems like Monday morning quarterbacking to me.
It discounts the calming and reassuring effect his commanding presence had on that day and plays up failings that, in reality, were the result of either committee decisions (i.e., where to locate the emergency bunker and communications equipment design and purchase) or command decisions made on the fly (rescue and recovery operations immediately following the atrocity, in the face of hazardous conditions and the presence of hazardous materials).
Truth be told, you couldn't have drug most of those rescue workers off of Ground Zero, in the immediate aftermath, to save their lives. They had friends and coworkers in that pile of rubble.
Like I said, it's all hindsight.
I believe you're thinking of Gore.
That's okay, we've come to recognize you're wrong on a whole bunch of other too.
You're a wise man then. Just ask the guys at tk421.net.
True Wisdom Consists In Knowing That You Know Nothing.
Using your definition, how would you know that to be true?
True Wisdom Consists In Knowing That You Know Nothing.
Politics aside...this s funny.
Even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then.
Despite being a NeoCon, Giuliani is a minority, kinda, and he's pro-choice. No way wingnut strong-hold states like Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho would put up with either of these characteristics.
Abortion isn't a swing issue...it's just one that has a lot of loudmouths making a whole lot of noise on the right...kinda like well, you know, on the left.
I'd be willing to be that the majority of Americans are pro choice...it's not the big issue here...it's not the deciding factor. There are millions of Americans that are not ideologically mind ed into an extremist worldview like yourself Dan...true, most Democrats are like you now...but obviously, those are the minority of voters...
elpimpo got slapped as badly as I have ever seen anyone get slapped on a message board...I'd refrain from posting for a few weeks if I were you.
If you want an ideological mind you need to tune no further than FAUX News or any of the M$M News channels. I, on the other hand, bring readers truth and logic. This is why detractors like yourself haven't been able to bring me down after 2.5 years. My being consistently proven right has got to get to you guys.
Dan...you're the most subjective, biased and close minded poster on the forum. Period.
You are so closed minded and biased that your stance on any issue or controversy can be predeterimined with no need of considering common sense or objective factors.
Yes, this is you Dan.....
Then where does that put boutons?
Anyways, everyone knows he wasn't a complete hero. But in desperate times people looked for a leader and he was there, even if he was just a figurehead.
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