[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

there was no evdidence then or to this date establishing as fact that the gunman was anything other than a nut job.

All jihadis are nutjobs. And there absolutely was evidence this was a jihad:

In February 1997, Palestinian English teacher Ali Abu Kamal went to the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, pulled out a gun, and opened fire, killing one person and wounding six others before killing himself. Even though he carried letters ranting about the US and Israel, the media heavily promoted the story that he was despondent and suicidal after a financial loss.

Ten Years After Empire State Terror Attack, The Truth Comes Out

The Palestinian teacher who went on a fatal shooting rampage atop the Empire State Building carried a note blaming the United States for using Israel as "an instrument" against his people.

N.Y. killer carried political note

My recollection is that RG issued a press release within hours of the attack that identified shooter by name and origin

I meant "never" in the course of the Giuliani-McCarthy press conference. I should have been more specific. But he never did use the word "terrorism", even though the political motives of the shooter were glaringly obvious and NYC landmarks had been recently targeted and attacked by terrorists.

He made a political decision to exploit this incident in favor of a pet cause of his, instead of telling the truth about the growing threat of radical Islam.

[Labyrinthos]

All jihadis are nutjobs. And there absolutely was evidence this was a jihad:

I don't consider a blog written ten years after the fact as evidence that Guiliani covered up a jihad, particularly when the "diary" that his daughter cites as evidence of her father's jihad was convienently destroyed. Also note that in the second article you reference the letter found in his pocket is described as "rambling, angry stuff," which in my experience (I worked in a psychiatric hospital for several years) is often the trademark of someone who has had a nervous breakdown. Seems to me that his daughter and the rest of his family may have made up the jihad story after the fact to elevate their status among the real jihadists where she works at the United Nations and back on the West Bank. Indeed, I suspect that the ordinary run-of-the-mill, "one flew over the cuckoo's nest," psycho nut-job carries even a greater negative stigma in Islamic circles than it does in Western Civilizations, which is why they now claim that daddy was a jihadist rather than a candidate for the bug house..

You should also remember that Guiliani refused to seat Yassar Arafat at a New York City event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the United Nations. He obviously had no qualms about publically calling Arafat a terrorist, and so I doubt that Guiliani would have held back on this guy if he really thought the guy was sniping for virgins.