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He's sorry - sort of. A week after saying that communication failures between the Police and Fire departments on 9/11 were "not worthy of the boy scouts," 9/11 commission member John Lehman apologized in person to former Mayor Rudy Giuliani this week. At least, that's the version offered yesterday by Giuliani, who said Lehman came to his Giuliani Partners office on Wednesday to meet with him and two top aides, former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen and former Office of Emergency Management Chief Richard Sheirer. "He said, 'I am sorry if it was looked at as a criticism of the...

<p>May 22, 2004 -- Jamie Gorelick, one of the Democratic Party's workhorses on the 9/11 Commission, now regrets her relatively low-key approach at Wednesday's public hearing: She says she and her colleagues were too easy on Rudy Giuliani, and should have hammered him instead of "wasting a lot of time in complimenting the mayor."</p>

BY THOMAS FRANK WASHINGTON BUREAU; Staff writers Graham Rayman and Dan Janison contributed to this story. May 21, 2004 WASHINGTON - A member of the Sept. 11 commission expressed regret yesterday over the questioning of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Wednesday and said the panel should have pressed him on failures in the city's response to 9/11 instead of praising him so lavishly. Commissioner Jamie Gorelick said she was "disappointed in us in a way that I haven't been in the past" after the hearing Wednesday. Many relatives of people killed in the World Trade Center criticized and...

NEW YORK (AP) - Outraged relatives of World Trade Center victims heckled former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani 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...

<p>A solid morning of fighting the good liberal fight for The Today Show.</p> <p>The opening highlighted doubts about a US bombing raid in Iraq and an Israeli attack in Gaza.</p> <p>Then, in the first interview, Matt Lauer was on the attack with Rudy Giuliani. The thesis: Rudy was not treated harshly enough in his appearance before the 9/11 Commission yesterday.</p>

Giuliani Offers Tough Defense to 9/11 PanelBy N. R. KLEINFIELDPublished: May 20, 2004 t was perhaps the most pivotal moment for Rudolph W. Giuliani since the day that reconceptualized him as a national hero and shaped his public persona as the maestro of public safety. The former mayor's appearance yesterday before the independent federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks was the first time that, under public inspection, the finely wrought legacy that he had acquired could be called into question.But Mr. Giuliani's measured and courtly performance, unruffled by conspicuously gentle questioning from the commission, left his reputation essentially unscathed....

<p>May 20, 2004 -- Rudy Giuliani yesterday delivered a passionate defense of the city's response to the World Trade Center attacks - and denounced finger-pointing by members of the 9/11 commission. "We have to channel our anger," the former mayor calmly told the panel as it wound up two days of hearings in Manhattan. "Our enemy is not each other, but the terrorists who attacked us."</p>

Giuliani describes 9/11 rescue efforts Giuliani: 'Could not conceive of the entire tower coming down' Wednesday, May 19, 2004 Posted: 1541 GMT (2341 HKT) NEW YORK (CNN) -- One day after former New York fire and police department officials drew criticism over communication problems that plagued rescue efforts during the World Trade Center attacks, the boss of both agencies has told the 9/11 commission Wednesday that the rescuers' performance demonstrated a "superb command structure." Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is speaking on the second of two days of public hearings at Manhattan's New School University looking at how the...

...Twice during questioning, Giuliani was jeered and heckled by members of the audience (pictured, right), many of whom are family members of some of the 2,700 victims of the Manhattan phase of the Sept. 11 attacks. It echoed a similar scene during Kerik and Von Essen's testimony. A longtime critic jumped out of his seat, yelling "Three-thousand people are dead!" As guards escorted him out, he continued: "They were not killed because he's a great leader" and "Let's ask some real questions!" "One-sided!" shouted one woman, who said her son died in the attacks. Others joined her in shouting protests...

THE 9/11 HEARINGS [Andy McCarthy] A friend sent me this last night: "Not helpful was today's hearings. The questions usually began with some rheorical grandstanding and then dissolved into broad assertions that missed most of what happened. Listening to Kerrey for instance, you'd think that the NYPD would have been unaware of Al Qaeda without warnings from the White House." NB: If this is right, it suggests that some Commissioners (can you, ahem, possibly guess which ones?) are planning to skew their report in favor of Richard Clarke's nonsense about how, when he led the Clinton Admin to "battle stations"...

Families Lash Out at Giuliani at Hearing 2 hours, 11 minutes ago Add Top Stories - AP to My Yahoo! 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...

NEW YORK – One day after his police and fire chiefs were grilled over their Sept. 11 response, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told members of a national commission Wednesday that their priority should be preventing a new attack, not assigning blame. "Our enemy is not each other, but the terrorists who attacked us," Giuliani said in his opening statement to the panel. The mayor acknowledged "terrible mistakes" were made on Sept. 11, but attributed that to the unprecedented circumstances. Giuliani, whose steady, reassuring presence after Sept. 11 led some to dub him "America's mayor," appeared to be trying to deflect...

Giuliani Heckled by Families of Sept. 11 Victims as He Testifies Before CommissionBy Devlin Barrett Associated Press Writer Published: May 19, 2004 NEW YORK (AP) - 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...

Interrupted twice by outbursts from angry family members of Sept. 11th victims today, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said "their anger should be directed at the terrorists and compassion showed for all others." While members of a federal commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks lobbed mostly softball questions at the mayor during his testimony, audience members shouted: "One-sided!" and "Put us on the panel!" "Three thousand are dead, does that make a great leader? .... Let us ask the mayor some good questions. Give me two minutes to ask a couple of real questions. ... "I want to know why...

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...

Does anyone know if, and when, there will be a transcript of Rudy G's gripping testimony this morning? If so, please post it here for the benefit of all of us FReepers. Thanks!

Christopher Brodeur (Rudy's Heckler) - His Letters to the EditorChristopher Brodeur is the jerk who heckled Rudy at the 9/11 O-Mission hearing today.  Here are some of his "letters to the editor" over the years -- and snippets of a few larger articles on the guy.  You will find these quite revealing.Newsday, February 12, 1993How can the City Council consider the proposed law that would permit police to confiscate bicycles if their owners are caught riding on a sidewalk ["City Targets Cyclists," Feb. 5]? It's completely unfair. The pedestrians, the motor vehicles and the bicyclists in New York City are...

Protesters overshadow Giuliani's testimony Angry protesters interrupt former mayor SARA KUGLER ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK - The simmering anger of the relatives of those killed on Sept. 11 bubbled into the open today as audience members interrupted former mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s testimony with shouted insults. Giuliani, his testimony over, abruptly left the auditorium after the brother of a New York fireman who was not killed in the attack interrupted a paean to the former mayor’s leadership by yelling, ``Three thousand people are dead! They were not killed because he was a great leader!’’ It was the second time today’s hearing...

Rudy is testifying. Speaking some common sense to these people.

Giuliani set to testify at 9/11 hearings Saturday, May 15, 2004 - 12:00 AM Timothy Williams THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK -- More than two years after leaving office, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will testify before the Sept. 11 commission next week in an appearance that could put him in the awkward position of criticizing fellow Republicans in the Bush administration just as he is seeking a more prominent role in the party. For instance, Giuliani will probably be asked by the commissioners whether the city was aware that President Bush had reviewed an intelligence briefing a month before the...