Posted on 05/19/2004 11:00:38 AM PDT by snooker
NEW YORK - New York officials probably would not have changed security priorities even if they had knowledge of an August 2001 White House briefing paper that warned of terrorists casing city buildings, former mayor Rudolph Giuliani told the Sept. 11 commission Wednesday.
Giuliani's testimony was interrupted with angry outbursts by victims' families, including chants of "One-sided!" and "Put us on the panel!" One man, a longtime Giuliani adversary, was tossed out of the hearing after shouting at the panel to "ask some real questions!"
The heckling was a sharp contrast to some of the questioning from commission members, who gave Giuliani a warm welcome and praised his leadership following Sept. 11.
The Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing for President Bush (news - web sites) — titled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike in U.S." — referred to evidence of buildings in New York being looked by terrorists as possible targets. It mentioned New York or the World Trade Center three times.
"If that information had been given to us, or more warnings had been given in the summer of 2001, I can't honestly tell you we'd do anything differently," Giuliani testified.
"We were doing at the time everything we could think of ... to protect the city."
Giuliani said the briefings he received from federal officials indicated that New York's bridges, tunnels and subways were more likely targets.
"I do think the interpretation would have been more in the direction of suicide bombings than aerial attacks," Giuliani said one day after his top commissioners were grilled over their Sept. 11 response.
It was about 90 minutes into his testimony that Giuliani was shouted down by family
members of the trade center victims.
"My son was murdered!" yelled Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son in the attack. Others in the audience shouted about the failure of Fire Department radios, shouting, "Talk about the radios!"
"You're simply wasting time at this point," commission head Thomas Kean told the family members.
"YOU'RE wasting time!" came the angry reply.
Just as Giuliani finished testifying, Christopher Brodeur — a New Yorker who became one of Giuliani's most ardent critics during his two terms in City Hall — jumped out of his seat.
"Three thousand people are dead!" Brodeur yelled before security guards escorted him out. "They were not killed because he's a great leader. ... Let's ask some real questions!" A second spectator was also ejected.
The former mayor and his commissioners were widely hailed for their efforts after two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, killing 2,749 people and rattling the city's psyche.
But on Tuesday, commission member John Lehman said the failure of city agencies to communicate effectively on 9/11 was a scandal "not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city."
Giuliani said in his opening statement that the commission's priority should be preventing a new attack, not assigning blame.
"Our enemy is not each other, but the terrorists who attacked us," Giuliani said. The mayor acknowledged there were "terrible mistakes" made on Sept. 11, but attributed that to the unprecedented circumstances.
After testifying, Giuliani suggested that Lehman owed his staff an apology.
"I was upset about that comment and the Boy Scout thing," Giuliani said outside the hearing. "They did the best job that anybody could."
Commission member James Thompson, before questioning Giuliani, said the panel was "not engaged in a search for blame, not engaged in a search for villains." Instead, he said, the commission hoped to save the lives of other Americans — a comment that drew more applause.
Giuliani pointed out that the bravery and quick thinking of city rescuers under brutal conditions had saved thousands of lives.
"Maybe 8,000 more, maybe 9,000 more than anyone could rightfully expect" were brought to safety before the towers collapsed, Giuliani said. About 25,000 people were evacuated from the World Trade Center.
He began by describing his actions and feelings on Sept. 11, recounting a morning that began at breakfast with two friends and quickly turned into unimaginable horror. He recalled his final meetings with several victims, and he described the scene when the first tower collapsed.
"It first felt like than earthquake, and then it looked like a nuclear cloud," Giuliani said. As Giuliani remembered watching a man leap from around the 102nd floor, family members began to cry, clearly disturbed by the account.
Just before Giuliani took the stand, the commission released a 10-page staff report saying that basic flaws in the city's emergency 911 phone system denied people inside the World Trade Center potentially lifesaving information.
The 911 phone system's operators and dispatchers were unaware that fire chiefs were evacuating the doomed twin towers because the city had no way of relaying that information, the commission staff concluded.
With the buildings' public address systems out of service, workers inside the buildings called 911 for help but were not told to evacuate, according to the report, which was the second part of the most comprehensive probe to date of New York's response to the attacks.
An unknown number of victims in the south tower might have had a better chance of survival if 911 operators had instructed them not to flee upward, where some found locked roof doors and no hope of escape, the report concluded.
"In several ways, the system was not ready to cope with a major disaster," the report said.
Current Mayor Michael Bloomberg also testified, complaining that New York was recently advised by Congress that its homeland security funding for the 2004 budget year would be cut by nearly 50 percent.
"This is pork barrel politics at its worst," the mayor said. "It also, unfortunately, has the effect of aiding and abetting those who hate us and plot against us."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
As far as I can tell GoreLick didn't testify about how she prevented Giuliani from getting the intel that might have prevented the attacks.
The mayor came out looking like a champ, the commission went back to chump status.
What a joke. Is anyone really paying attention to this anymore.
And the "9-11 Families" came out looking like the shrill, ghoulish communist professional agitators they are.
And if Guiliani had received a report stating specifically that terrorists would hijack a plane in another city and fly it into the WTC on 9/11 and gave the exact time it would happen, what exactly was he to do??? AFAIK, the NYPD had no ability to force a jet to alter its flight path. Admittedly, we should be looking into improving emergency response to future attacks, but this just seems like playing the blame game to me.
The whole hearing was just about as ridiculous.
Sounds like the panel has truly descended into a partisan joke.
After testifying, Giuliani suggested that Lehman owed his staff an apology.
Viva Rudy. He has more cajones in his little finger than Trent Lott and Arlen Specter combined.
Sounds like the panel has truly descended into a partisan joke.
After testifying, Giuliani suggested that Lehman owed his staff an apology.
Viva Rudy. He has more cajones in his little finger than Trent Lott and Arlen Specter combined.
The whole nation is degenerating into a ludicrous orgy of irrationality aimed at unelecting the president. At least Giuliani confronted them all with the obvious, something the president is not doing. Why is the debate about my country's security being hijacked by a ghoulish cadre of left wing family memebers? These people want to respond to the terror attacks by targeting AMayor Giuliani, the police and fire depts, etc. Meanwhile, they want to stop all actions against the terrorists.
I still cannot believe we have a commission on this matter...
The most unprecedented attack ever committed on US soil, and somehow the city of New York is now responsible? And what could ANYONE have done to prevent this? Hell, even if every known agency in the US knew that the planes were hijacked after take-off, what would they do - order them shot down? And kill inncocent US passengers? I don't think so...
Why is no one pointing the finger at the 19 or so SOB's that did the plane hijacking?
That might have worked. They might have been afraid of ending up with Hil's undies on their heads if they didn't divert.
I think it's just an isolated case.
Dims are mentally affected by global dimming.
You just reminded me of the time Rudy told the Arab prince to shove his $10 million check. For that I will always respect that man.
This commission is dead on arrival! What a farce! Disband these fools immediately! A third level political sideshow made up of total morons. Any American that believes a word of the 911 Commission report is not hitting on all eight cylinders. As for the 911 victim families, they have now reached the status of official trailer trash, and belong right in lock-step with 911 causer and murderer Bill Clinton! What a bunch of idiots! Bin Laden must be laughing his butt off. This country is headed into the black hole of obscurity!
This commission is dead on arrival! What a farce! Disband these fools immediately! A third level political sideshow made up of total morons. Any American that believes a word of the 911 Commission report is not hitting on all eight cylinders. As for the 911 victim families, they have now reached the status of official trailer trash, and belong right in lock-step with 911 causer and murderer Bill Clinton! What a bunch of idiots! Bin Laden must be laughing his butt off. This country is headed into the black hole of obscurity!
One sad fact of this whole matter is that had Gore been elected President and was in office now and on 9-11, we would not be having all these commissions and charges. The Democrats would have blocked it all and the country would still be unified in the War on Terror. As it is, they have put party before country and you see the result. Sad.
He hasn't said one intelligent or noteworthy thing since the hearings began. It doesn't make any difference if he's Republican, Democrat, Rhino, liberal or conservative.....he gets an F-minus in probity and an A-plus in vacuity.
Leni
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