Giuliani testifies at stormy 9-11 panel hearing ..booed,heckled

[Katie]

Giuliani testifies at stormy 9-11 panel hearing

Hecklers disrupt session, call on commission to ask ‘real questions’


NEW YORK - Warnings of a possible terrorist attack on New York City contained in an August 2001 White House briefing paper never reached City Hall

The Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing for President Bush referred to evidence of buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists. It mentioned New York or the World Trade Center three times.

Giuliani's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission was interrupted several times by angry outbursts by victims' families. Among other things the audience members yelled "one-sided!," "Put us on the panel!" and "Let's ask some real questions!"

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!"

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.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5012645 & http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5004042

[wubbathompson]

1. What exactly did Giuliani do wrong?

I've never heard of him being implied in anyhting sinister. I always thought he did a wonderful job as mayor and an exceptional job in the 9/11 aftermath. Am I wrong?

[bedtimeforbonzo]

3. Brodeur has been after him for years

If Giuliani was at a traffic hearing, Brodeur would be there yelling at him.

This is going to make Giuliani look unfairly persecuted, imho.

[Katie]

23. bedtimeforbonzo and rightfully so

Where is it written that if you're a republican, you get a free ride? There were alot of NY'ers that werent thrilled with what Rudy did in his 8 year reign. If it hadn't been for 9/11, Rudy was about to depart with anything but glowing ratings.

Perhaps you didn't see the hearings? Brodeur wasn't the only one expressing outrage, by any means. This has been going on for 2 days, people all over this city are filled with rage, and finally they are getting a chance to express it.

And you know something else? Finally Brodeur said aloud what so many of us feel, since when is 3,000 dead "great leadership"? That applies to both bush & rudy.

Kerick announced last week, that if Kerry is elected we will certainly have more 9/11's. Sorry, but this happened on bush and rudy's watch to begin with. Something, none of us are about to forget here.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

7. It didn't help when Giuliani said the time to fix blame is past...

...and that unity is needed.

That's bullshit. No wonder the victims' families/survivors were pissed.

Giuliani also stated that NYC never received any information in regards to a potential terrorist threat. That is also a major heap of steaming horse-dung.

[Cocoa]

8. maybe he did nothing wrong

I think these families don't think he's being asked hard enough questions.

[Katie]

9. he consistently denied funds to upgrade equipment

thats why the families wanted him to talk about the radios, not to mention putting a command center in WTC#7, right in the center of the the WTC complex- stupidest thing anyone could have done in an area that was previously attacked.

[truthspeaker]

11. Guliani was NOT a wonderful mayor

Unless you think throwing homeless people in jail and giving the cops carte blanche to harass non-whites is effective urban renewal.

[markses]

12. Yes. You are wrong

As a mayor he prided himself on exacerbating racial tensions and excluding a large segment of the NYC population from the public discourse. He sold out the city to the highest bidder, and left a financial mess of incredible proportions for Bloomberg to clean up. His stewardship was marked by division and irresponsibility.

As for 9/11, I must admit - as a lifelong New Yorker who was in Lower Manhattan that morning - that Mayor Giuliani acted with dignity and honor on that day. The contrast to the cowardly Mr. Bush was striking.

That said, none of this is the problem. As a New Yorker who had to return to work the following Monday, and breathed in the noxious air of Ground Zero for months - every day - I would have liked to see Mr. Giuliani show an allegiance to the people of New York and their safety, rather than to the market bigwigs and their bottom line. And I would like him to be honest about both the air quality issues (will I die young of cancer as a result of the false "all clear"?), and the organization of the emergency services that left so many firefighters in WTC 1 despite the collapse of WTC 2, even as the police in WTC 1 were in full evacuation mode. Of course, to be thus honest would be to smash the veneer of infallibility that Giuliani, Kerick and Bush have wrapped around themselves.

Kerick's answers on the communication problems yesterday were indiciative of such dishonesty. When Wolf Blitzer asked him about the problems, Kerick noted that "protocol had been followed," so he didn't know what the commissioners were talking about. Needless to say, the question is asking about the protocols, so the fact that they'd been followed is of little use. Disgusting.

[Katie]

20. markses.. Rudy & Bush Sold this city out

Couldn't agree with you more. If Rudy felt anything for this city in the aftermath of 9/11, he hasnt shown it. He's too busy kissing bush's behind. He should have been outraged that the city received no warnings. He should have been outraged that aid promised the city never arrived. In a city, where almost 3,000 people died, we are placed #80 on homeland security's list for funding. There have been several incidents where security has been breached, including a plane flying thru a restricted zone and circling the Statue of Liberty, how could that be allowed to happen in a city where 3,000 died?

Its costing the city a million dollars a week with all these red, and orange alerts, not to mention footing the bill for security for the RNC convention in Sepetember. Fed isnt picking up the tab, we are. Thats another thing that infuriates me, the republicans haven't had a convention in NY in a 150 years, suddenly they want to be in NY, moving the convention up to coincide with 9/11. Its exploitation of the cruelest kind.

While bush was hiding soldiers coffins, he was using the remains of 9/11 victims in his ads. Rudy was right there defending bush for doing it. Disgraceful. Not a word out of Rudy's mouth when bush was running around telling his 9/11 joke "Lucky me, I hit the Trifecta" at GOP fundraisers. Heartless.

You mention the air quality. I'm worried to, they sent us all back, knowing full well that the air and water wasn't safe.http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3076626/ I just read yesterday, it's even more toxic: 'Significant Adverse Effects' http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5006568/site/newsweek/site/newsweek We have so much to look forward to, don't we?

Did you hear Kerick's bs about Saddam Hussein? I felt like throwing up. And his "great" friendship with John O'Neill? More BS. Anything to change the subject and not accept responsiblity.

Rudy is planning another run, and all I hear is how it will effect his "legacy". Who the hell cares about him? The family members have been effected for life.

I also noticed only the local stations carried yesterday's hearings. Guess we must protect Rudy& Bush's "legacies" at all cost.

I'm totally disgusted. Thanks to those at hearings who finally let Rudy have it today, they spoke for alot us. Thanks to people like Kristen Breitweiser too. Rudy has gotten all the mileage he can get off the 9/11 dead. And so has bush..enough!

[saracat]

18. Giuliani also tried to throw his wife and children out of

Gracie Mansion and install his mistress.Hi scandal ridden lifestyle was dominating the news prior to 9-11 and his reputation was in the toilet.He was MUCH WORSE than Clinton and Monica. And suprise ,surprise ,he was thought by most NYers of being involved in the corruption of the Police and Fire Depts for his own advantage. The joke was the only people who thought he was a great mayor didn't live in NY.Lucky he became America's Mayor because he wasn't popular in NY.

[mulethree]

19. rather authoritarian for NYC

In hindsight his security blockade around city hall may have been more valid than it seemed at the time.

Hate what he did to washington square. Surveilence cameras and police command centers in a university park?

He increased the oppressiveness of police in general and in minority areas especially. False arrests, police brutality, racial profiling, stop & search, arrest quotas, police killings of unarmed civilians and road checkpoints went way up. Cracked down on jaywalking, adult businesses, street drug dealers (tho not so much on 'discreet' dealers) and panhandling.

Closed up city government much as Bush has done - even the City Council, the Public Advocate and the NY State government had a hard time getting records out of Guiliani's administration. He had his own people cooking up numbers and then refused anyone else access to the un-cooked data. When he left office he took a lot of this data, which should be public, with him.

He made sweetheart deals galore. Most of the times square renovation, Taxpayer-paid stadiums at universities and for private professional sports teams, Corporate tax breaks galore without any justification, rent stabilization and control weakened.

He gave his mistress a sweetheart city job - not to mention the cheating on his wife publicly.

He sprayed poison from helicopters all over the city to respond to the West Nile Virus mosquito problem. Problem is the poison had all kinds of warnings like don't spray on people and keep people away for 12 hours after spraying. A primitive nerve gas chemical from WWII era chemical weapons.

And thats when he was mayor. Numerous shady dealings before he became mayor and since. Hopefully he's keeping busy with the hundred or so lawsuits he was able to postpone when he was in office.

If you like what Bush has done with his 9/11 'terror' leverage then you would have enjoyed what Rudy did in NYC.

[JoFerret]

25. Wonderful job as mayor????

You have to be joking.
Arrogant, imperious, over-bearing, moralistic, self-righteous, highhanded. Knee -jerk support of bad policing.
And that's just for starters.

[Generator]

26. Just being a Bush licker is enough

for me to caste blame. Guiliani has tied his coatails to Bush and will be out there stumping for him and touting how everything he has done has been great for our security.

That's our great leader-Bush who sat on his ass in classroom for many minutes and DID NOTHING not one fucking thing to save any life on 9/11 and NOW IS RUNNING for re-election on his "great leadership". If you're not outraged, you are not paying attention.

(DID I mention he DID nothing before 9/11 to stop it from happening or haven't you read that either) The DAY OF 9/11 is ENOUGH for Bush to not be re-elected in my opinion.

There is a name for him here at DU-Bunnypants, because he spent that day scurring around the country, while the rest of us took our chances.

Fuck it, not only should they not be re-elected they should be jailed for life for being traitors.

But, hey, he's a hero, right? No, you support those that get your fellow Americans killed, you are no hero.

[CO Liberal]

31. Up Until Sept 10, 2001, Rudy Was Scum

After the attack, he was elevated to sainthood.

[frankly_fedup2]

32. Seems to me people have forgotten

How much everyone dispised Giuliani. Just like they did Bush; and then after 911, suddenly they are our heros.

[cestmoi]

35. Why he was booed.

I agree that he was a tower of strength on 9/11 but there were serious problems that weren't resolved from the first attack in 1993.

Salon had an interesting article which reported amoung other things the following:

"Newsday reported that, several years ago, a prominent World Trade Center safety expert suggested that the city's fire, police and emergency medical agencies stage a training exercise for the scenario of an airplane slamming into the twin towers. The training session was never staged."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/08/20/fdny/index1.html

[saigon68]

2. A day in the Big Apple

Nothing to see--- Move along

[SoDesuKa]

4. A Great Republican Victory

Giuliani, and later Tom Ridge, portrayed September 11th as a great Republican victory. It was very hard to listen to, and I was sitting at home. The distress of the victims' families who were sitting in the same room with Ridge and Giuliani provoked their outburst.

Giuliani, who has been on a speaking tour for two years, probably believes his own rhetoric. I can't explain Tom Ridge and his effusive praise of Bush's "bold" leadership.

It isn't enough that the families lost loved ones in a national tragedy. The Republicans have enlisted the dead in the Bush re-election campaign.

[Doosh]

5. Giuliani has been a major Bush ass kisser and is positioning himself for

a run in 2008.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

13. I suspect that Ridge did more when he was in the service in Vietnam...

...than he has publicly stated. I think he may have somehow been involved in Operation Phoenix. If true, that makes him a definite NeoCon in my book.

[struggle4progress]

22. "9/11 shows we're winning the war on terrorism"? eom

[frankly_fedup2]

34. Tom Ridge lost to a dead man . . .

why should we care what he says. He has given us a color-coded warning and told us to use duct tape and plastic on our windows. Great ideas . . . maybe for a 10-year-old child but realistically, we're all dead. Just a matter of time really.

[LibDemAlways]

6. It was heartbreaking to see and hear the

anguish of those family members, knowing they've waited almost three years for this, and then having to sit there while a bunch of political hacks lavished praise on Rudy. Lee Hamilton (D?) was supposed to be the final questioner, but asked nothing. What a complete farce.

I hope someone lights a fire under Kerry and gets him to appoint a real 9/11 commission - with family members - who will publically get the facts out. Those 3000 families deserve no less.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

14. Let's get Kerry elected first, okay?

[fryguy]

10. scapegoating

first off, I think Giuliani is a complete and total a**hole and did more horrible things for this city than good. but that said, blaming him, or the NYPD & FDNY for what happened on 9/11 is ludicris. hindsight is 20/20, blaming them for decisions made at the time of crisis and utter confusion does no good except to distract from discovering the real failures - the failures of national leadership and intelligence - prior to that awful day.

once the planes hit the buildings, the first responders acted bravely and professoinally as they were trained to do. they ran into the buildings while comonsense would dictate to anyone else to run away. they proceeded as they were trained to do, to get to the scene, contain the fire and rescue those trapped. who could have imagined that the time to do their job would abruptly run out less than 2 hours after the first plane hit?

[Katie]

28. fryguy no is blaming the NYPD& the FDNY

Those officers & firefighters did their jobs admirably, heroically, we can't thank them enough. But the leadership that left them open to equipment that didn't work and poor planning? They have to answer for that.

The picture in my original post, the woman holding the sign "LIES" is Sally Regenhard, she is the mother of a firefighter, who died on 9/11. So, I'm quite sure she isn't bashing firefighters. Her son is dead, she has questions, and that's her right.

When someone asks Bernard Kerick a question as to why communications failed between these poor guys, I dont want to hear about how great it is we captured Saddam Hussein. That's absolutely ludicrous, and I'm so glad everyone booed him for trying to sell bush's propoganda.

In order for to learn, in order to prepare, qustions have to be asked. If something was done incorrectly, we have to learn from it and fix it. If someone is at fault,, they have to take some responsibilty too.


If I live to be a 1,000 I will never understand how Rudy and I quote: "Didn't know how to close off the airspace above NYC" Why the hell not? He should have. Nor will I ever understand how jets werent scrambled to intercept and surround those hijacked planes. Lots of questions, we need and deserve some answers.

[fryguy]

30. understood

forgive me for ranting about the NYPD & FDNY bashing that the pannel did the day before - wrong venue for it....I'm also in 100% agreement with you about how many are using the hearings as a means to tout the WH's propoganda.

[Katie]

36. fryguy thank you

Nothing to forgive, it's such an emotional and sad time for us all. You have every right to rant, we are all hurting. Maybe Kerik ,Von Essen,& Sheirer would like you to think that people r bashing the NYPD & FDNY, but its the leadership of these 3 men that was being called into question. And they deflected the criticism by acting like it was attack on our cops & firefighters.

Don't you ever wonder where Rudy& Kerik & VonEssen & Sheirer , (who are now all employed by Rudy's company), were, when FDNY firehouses were being shut down? I sure do.

[MrBenchley]

15. On September 11

When Rudy was the only Republican anywhere in the country who could be seen....he was asked again and again by the press, "Have you spoken to the pResident?" "Have you heard from the White House?" and his answer was always "no"....

I've heard it said he was personally on the phone trying to get through and that Chimpy's aides wouldn't tell him where the unelected drunk was...much less patch him through. Reports to that effect appeared in some of the NY papers in the days that followed.

Bet people wondered why that wasn't asked about.

[phoebe]

16. Major news media doesn't appear to want to report this story

correctly. The young man was removed for saying "your government trained Al-Queida" to the commission and the audience members who were trying to get him to sit down. It was only then that he was removed from the hearings by police. In their defense, CNN Headline News is reporting this but the main CNN outlet doesn't appear to be.

The entire thrust of the last 2 days of hearings appears to have been that all participants, with few exceptions, are there merely to pat each other on the back while completely failing to address any of the real issues. Family members are seeing through this and are rightfully furious.

[Doosh]

17. that man was probably sent to Abu Ghraib

[MnFats]

21. my understanding is that Rudy was well on his way...

...to being a widely hated figure in NYC when sept. 11 hit.

[JoFerret]

27. Yes. However, one thing in his support

...he did guide the city away from scapegoating the very first day. He did offer leadership after 9/11 but I don't think he has a clue what it was he did. He was mourner in chief and helped people through that.

[Just Me]

24. I love that photo of the woman holding up a card reading "LIES"!!!

I saw the outburst.

It was pretty evident to me that the frustration level of these poor people has been pushed beyond limits. The guy that stood up said something like, "let us ask the questions,...you never ask the important questions".

Of course, he is right.

[Disturbed]

29. Another phoney Rght Wing Jerk.

"the air and water wasn't safe."

This azzhole said nothing while the EPA stats were changed to
give advantage to Bushco and people of NY were subjected to toxins.

[cestmoi]

33. WHY HE WAS BOOED

"Newsday reported that, several years ago, a prominent World Trade Center safety expert suggested that the city's fire, police and emergency medical agencies stage a training exercise for the scenario of an airplane slamming into the twin towers. The training session was never staged."

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/08/20/fdny/index1.html

THIS IS AN INTERSTING ARTICLE ABOUT THE CRAPPY RADIOS IN WTC ETC.

[Katie]

37. cestmoi you are exactly right!

Thank you for providing that link! It's excellent! And who decided the training session wasn't necessary? And who didn't care about the crappy radios? Bush's biggest supporter, Rudy G. Two incompetent clowns.

[cestmoi]

38. A woman mentioned in the article, Regenhard, was one of the vocal

protesters at todays' hearing. I thought that was an interesting tid-bit.

[robbedvoter]

39. Imagine a dem mayor who put the emergency bunker in WTC AFTER

the 1993 bombing - think how heroic would the media made him look!
W was AWOL, Il Duce did his jon that day - so they lionized him.
He was an a*hole the day before (broke the city's budget0 and the day after (closed Union Square - our mourning place). In between fed from the 911 donations trough and saddled the city he bankrupted with the onligation to build 2 stadiums the last day of his job (after he tried to use 911 to hang on a little longer)

[sandboxface]

40. Is there a video online?