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."
Isn't it due to be released on July 26 -- "coincidentally," the very day the Dem convention is scheduled to start?
Actually, I recall reading on FR in the week immediately after 9/11 that asbestos fireproofing was used up to about the 60th story, but then asbestos was banned and they had to go to a substitute. Whose fault was that? (Though, as I understand it -- and I could be wrong -- asbestos would simply have delayed the collapse, which might have helped but probably not enough.)
I also seem to recall reading on FR in those early days, that at the trial on the 1993 WTC bombing, plans for the building were introduced -- and so made public, making it easier for the terrorists to refine their plans for a second try.
They should shut the hell up and get off the stage and out of our lives.
Jerry Springer ought to have a special show devoted to these kooks and let them emote and act out to their heart's content. Or Oprah. They disgust me and I'm sure they disgust most of the 911 families who are sick at heart over losses but know who to properly blame.
I am tired of these people, what do they want a personal apology. No one had control over 911 except the terrorist. These professional victims need to get the **** over themselves. Stop blaming the fire fighters and the mayor, this was handles the best way possible, get over it!
What in God's name do these people want?? Their loved ones are gone, they cannot be brought back. They have received handouts from the government and public yet the complaining never ends. This happened three years ago and these professional mourners and victims are milking it for all it's worth. Sheesh! My ten year old newphew could tell you who was responsible for 9-11, yet these people are acting as if it's one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in the history of the world. Enough is enough! Get on with your lives and stop making fools of yourselves. I imagine Osama is sitting back in some cave laughing at these idiots.
I guess the fact that a terrorist flew an airplane into the tower does not matter. This woman is nuts. Lock her in a padded room and throw away the key.
They are liberals who lost loved ones who are complaining to make republicans look as bad as possible, but they`re transparent as hell and the ultimate hypocrites, because if they were this concerned about the handling of 911 they sure didn`t seem too concerned when the first WTC attack happened and their lord and master Bill Clinton did absolutely nothing about it, didn`t even bother to visit NYC, not to mention turning down Bin Laden from the Saudis 9000 times. Everyone knew these terrorist mutts were after the WTC, the city knew it which is why they checked every truck and screened every driver that entered that building, I even remember joking to a friend 3 years before while driving past the WTC "Imagine if those buildings fell? That`s what they were trying to do and probably still are" And that`s exactly what they did. And how was this treated by the BJ administration? Oh, lets just ignore the terrorists and just hope they don`t attack again. Let`s give the leader from the first WTC attack jail time with a nice huge private dorm room of a prison cell, when anyone else would have been given death (see Timothy McVeigh) But they just kept attacking and attacking and attacking, attacking our Navy, attacking our embassies, kidnappings, but there was Mr. Bill making pals with Arafat and turning down Bin Laden because "We had nothing to hold him on." Yeah appeasement worked real well didn`t it? Now they unbelievably want to appease again and "just hope" we aren`t attacked once more. They`re freggin idiots. "Oh so what it was only 3000 people."
My only regret is that the intended recipient will probably never see it.
> We didn't see too many of the complainers going up the stairs to save people!
Excellent point! Btw, are you going to the parade on Sunday?
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