Posted on 05/19/2004 3:17:54 PM PDT by stillnoprotestsagainstmuslims
Families Lash Out at Giuliani at Hearing
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By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - Outraged relatives of World Trade Center victims heckled former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (news - web sites) on Wednesday as their hopes that he would be grilled by the Sept. 11 commission faded in the face of gentle questioning and effusive praise from panel members. "My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" shouted Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the trade center. Seated three rows behind Giuliani, she jabbed her finger at the former mayor and waved a sign that read "Fiction" as he gave the city's emergency response a glowing review.
Giuliani finished his testimony and abruptly left the auditorium minutes later, leaving many family members upset that they received few answers. Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband, Richard, called it a "lost opportunity."
"This was not a time for Rudy Giuliani to talk about all the great things he did on 9/11," she said. "He can save that for his talking tours. He should have told us what went wrong and what we should do now."
The acrimonious hearing brought together the mayor, who became a symbol of heroism for his steady response to the attack, and the activist relatives who have become a voice of dissent over his administration's emergency planning and response.
Their complaints have been supported by a growing mass of critical findings on gaps in command, control and communications among New York's agencies in charge of emergency response.
The anger directed at Giuliani came on the second and final day of hearings in New York by the Sept. 11 commission, created by Congress last year to investigate the attacks and advise the country on ways to avoid future attacks. The hearings resume in Washington on June 8-9 and the final report is due July 26.
The commission released two reports that mark the most comprehensive probe to date of New York's response on Sept 11. The findings detailed a list of failings including poor communication, gulfs in cooperation between police and firefighters and grave deficiencies in the city's 911 emergency telephone network.
The report led to an aggressive interrogation of Giuliani's top fire, police and emergency management officials Tuesday, with Republican appointee John F. Lehman, a former Navy secretary under President Reagan, calling the failings "a scandal" and "not worthy of the Boy Scouts."
Ex-fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen later called Lehman's comments "outrageous" and "despicable."
The harsh questioning of Giuliani's former team was a sharp contrast to the universal praise that commission members heaped on the former mayor Wednesday. His positive assessment of such hotly debated topics as the 911 phone system and gaps in fire and police communications went virtually unchallenged.
"New York City, on that terrible day, in a sense was blessed because it had you as leader," said commission chairman and former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean. "It had somebody who was a great, great leader to take charge of a terrible, terrible event. You also had, as you've told us, some of the best people in the country to call on who worked for you and worked for the city."
Family members called the Giuliani questioning weak.
"A lot of these questions that the public has may die with this commission," said Patricia Casazza, whose husband died as the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald filled with smoke.
Giuliani began his testimony Wednesday with a call to focus on the nation's true enemies and not criticize each other.
"Our enemy is not each other but the terrorists who attacked us, murdered our loved ones and continue to offer a threat to our security, safety and survival," Giuliani said to applause.
Later, Giuliani was chastised by members of the public. A longtime city gadfly berated him and the commission, yelling, "Three thousand people murdered does not mean leadership!" He and another person were hustled out of the room.
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.
Giuliani began his remarks by describing a September morning that began at breakfast with two friends and quickly turned into unimaginable horror as two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, killing 2,749 people and rattling the city's psyche.
As Giuliani recalled watching a man leap from around the 102nd floor of the north tower, family members began to cry, clearly disturbed by the account.
The hearing was held at the New School University in Greenwich Village — about 1 1/2 miles from ground zero.
Giuliani also told the commission that warnings of a possible terrorist attack on New York contained in an Aug. 6, 2001, White House briefing paper never reached City Hall, but probably would not have changed local security precautions.
The intelligence briefing for President Bush (news - web sites) referred to evidence of federal buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists. 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," said Giuliani, who has become one of the Bush administration's most vocal supporters. "We were doing at the time everything we could think of ... to protect the city."
Current Mayor Michael Bloomberg later testified 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. Thinly populated states such as Nebraska, North Dakota and Wyoming receive several times more funding per capita than New York, he said.
"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."
What do they want him to do? All this screaming and outrage is not going to bring their relatives/loved ones back. I'm seriously beginning to think this is a leftist conspiracy.
They should shut the hell up and get off the stage and out of our lives.
Conspiracy is a strong word for this circus. IN any given situation there is going to be a group who is totally opposite of the others. Most 911 families are moving on and living life again. Sadly several families cant let go and are trying to pass blame onto the wrong people.
I thank GOD that Rudy was mayor that day and had the leadership to reform NYC for 8 years prior to 911.
Say what you want about him but he is a true leader.
They would give him a pass if he switched to the democrat party
I spit on the press for its dishonesty. (And I write this as Jamie Gorelick is on screen being sanctimonious about "searching for answers." What a pile of cr*p.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Congressmen, Humorists, Burglars -- All of Us in the Trade."
A vast one--the VLWC.
I watched Giuliani this AM. His presentation was candid and caring. He fully explained the radio problem but the Jersey Girls were too busy looking at their own navels to listen to the explanation!
The protesters were WAY out of line, and one of the other bereaved at the hearing told them to "sit down and shut up" because they were wasting time.
these were just democrat activists, not real people.
Any other questions?
Don't overestimate the enemy. It's only half vast.
Makes one wonder where we would be today, if, for example, widows and orphans from WW2 had the mindset of these people.
Ditto that.
Those people dishonor their dead. One woman was actually screaming "murderer" and "liar" at Guliani.
He is a class act and they are low life scum.
"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."
Perhaps you should take it up with YOUR senator Mayor Bloomberg, you DO have one don't you?
What's the matter, couldn't SHE bring home the bacon??
Last point, reporting these people's "outrage" as purely genuine is pure propoganda treatment.
It's just the Jersey Girls Jerks again.
John Podhoretz just wrapped up a segment on Brit's show explaining that yesterday and then today's "hearings" (I use the term lightly) crossed the line and forever damaged them and their credibility.
Some of us had dismissed them after watching them in Washington, but I have to agree with JP that they outdid themselves these last two days, and those protesters and families sealed the deal by their behavior and the way the commission chose to deal with that (being that they chose not to deal with it).
Disgraceful and shameful. As I said yesterday, they've gone into some weird realm and fancy themselves as a super tribunal of sorts, pontificating and pronouncing.
It's been plain they were not on a fact-finding mission. Now there can be no doubt and even those who wanted to pretend otherwise will be hardpressed to defend that absurd notion. IMO
That was Sally.
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