Rudy’s Glass House
In Rudolph Giuliani’s narrative of his own life, as confided to rapt Republican voters along the presidential primary trail, he has been fighting the lonely twilight struggle against “Islamic terrorism,” as he insists on calling it, since sometime in the 1970’s. Like President Bush, Mr. Giuliani is vain enough to compare himself with Winston Churchill. Both the former mayor and his supporters often suggest that his understanding of the terror threat is visceral and almost mystical. Only he, among all the candidates of both parties, truly grasps the issue and possesses the fortitude to confront the threat.
As part of the same spiel touting his 30 years of experience battling terrorism, Mr. Giuliani often attacks the Clinton administration for failing to comprehend the nature of the problem following the first major attack on New York, which occurred shortly after he became mayor.
“Islamic terrorists killed Americans. Slaughtered Americans. Bombed the World Trade Center. Bombed it,” he said in a typical speech last summer. “You know what the reaction of the Clinton administration at the time was? It was a crime. It was another group of murders. … Well, it wasn’t just another group of murders.”
While that description of President Clinton’s response to the February 1993 bombing is hardly fair or accurate, the tone of curt disdain serves a specific partisan purpose, by warning that a Clinton restoration in the White House will endanger America. His unrelenting attacks are aimed at portraying Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, as too weak to serve as commander in chief. But his biting words also invite closer scrutiny of Mr. Giuliani’s claims about himself.
Unfortunately very few mainstream media outlets will take up that invitation. Although cable channels and newspapers devote endless amounts of space and time to consider the authenticity of Mrs. Clinton’s laughter, they seem unable to cover an extraordinary scoop that raises questions about Mr. Giuliani’s authenticity.
Published in the Oct. 23 issue of The Village Voice—the New York alternative weekly that has excelled in covering the former mayor for many years—that scoop revealed the contents of his private testimony before the 9/11 Commission. The previously sealed memoranda summarizing Mr. Giuliani’s testimony, obtained by reporter Wayne Barrett, show profound contradictions between his stump speech and what he admitted to the commission behind closed doors.
For reasons that remain unclear, the minutes of his private testimony, marked “commission sensitive/unclassified,” were nevertheless to be locked away until the convenient date of December 2008. According to Mr. Barrett, nobody associated with the 9/11 Commission could explain how or why that decision had been made.
The Voice article discloses the embarrassing contents of a 15-page “memorandum for the record,” prepared by a commission attorney on April 20, 2004, which quotes Mr. Giuliani explaining that he knew little about Osama bin Laden’s organization until “after 9/11,” when “we brought in people to brief us on al Qaeda.” He recalled no such briefing earlier, which was “a mistake,” he acknowledged, since “if experts share a lot of info,” that would mean a “better chance of someone making heads and tails … [of the] situation.”
When a commissioner inquired about his knowledge of al Qaeda threats during the three years preceding 9/11, Mr. Giuliani replied, “At the time, I wasn’t told it was al Qaeda, but now that I look back at it, I think it was al Qaeda.” He noted that soon after the 9/11 attacks he had brought in Yossef Bodansky, author of the prophetic 2001 book Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, to brief him and his staff. (In his own book, Leadership, he discloses that he read Bodansky’s book at the urging of his wife, and covered the text in “highlighter and notes.” No wonder he regards himself as an expert.)
Asked how he might apply the city’s crime-fighting strategies to the “war on terror,” Mr. Giuliani said, “Bernie knows more than I,” a reference to former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, the extremely dubious character whom he almost succeeded in installing as secretary of Homeland Security. All in all, America’s Mayor appears clueless and uninformed in his private remarks, even though the commissioners, by their own admission later, went easy on him.
None of that will surprise anyone who has read Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, the 2006 book by Mr. Barrett and Dan Collins that delves into many of the errors and falsehoods behind the Republican front-runner’s facade. More puzzling—but alas not so surprising—is the reluctance of the mainstream media to follow up on Mr. Barrett’s story, to demand the release of Mr. Giuliani’s private testimony and to determine how and why those documents were to be locked up for the duration of the presidential campaign.
When Mr. Giuliani observes that national security will be the chief concern of many voters this year and next, he is correct. That is why he deserves the scrutiny he has escaped so far.
9/11 is most likely the worst thing Giulini can use to distinguish himself as a "presidential" canidate...9/11 bought him little in the way of support to remain the re-relected Mayor of New York...
In fact every time Guiliani evokes 9/11 a lot of us see more than the fall of two towers, we see a "fall from grace" that Republicans have used an excuse to destory our individual freedoms and took our country to war with what was at best a sterile enemy..
I guess there are some who do not consider Giuliani's actions on 9-11-2001 as heroic.
These are the kinds of people who take Joe Conason seriously.
But most Americans, even many Democrats, believe that Giuliani acted with heroism on that day.
Joe probably has a point with this article. The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Miami, etc. probably knew very little about Al Quaeda prior to 9/11. It's just not something most mayors concerned themselves about.
I do not blame 9/11 on Clinton or Bush and certainly not a Mayor! Rudy showed leadership on that infamous day and the weeks that followed. He also made New York City a much nicer place to live and visit. Those accomplishments can't be taken away by some small minded little attack piece like this. I did find the admission that Conason was using The Village Voice as source material very amusing, however.
JUST what heroic thing did Guiliani do..on 9/11? Not panic? Not charter a private jet and get the hell out of New York?
A REAL hero is very reluctant to take credit for a heroic act..however, it takes a REAL scoundrel to make himself more the "hero" than he is (or was)...
Give me a 9/11 New York fireman running for President and I'll show you a REAL hero!.....At this point that's the only persons that have any right to bring up 9/11...
Using 9/11 as a "vote getter" makes Guiliani anything but a "hero"!
Rudy is a hero like GW Bush is an intellectual. Bush is a nincompoop and Rudy is an arrogant, ignorant, corrupt ass.
Heroism is defined in several ways. One way is the way in which firefighters charged into the World Trade Center. The other way is that of a leader whose calm leadership and resolve in a time of crisis brings people together, and makes them more resolute.
Rudy Giuliani is that kind of hero, in the mold of Winston Churchill. This is one of those inconvenient truths that the left wing haters will never get over.
It will force them to demonize Rudy, call him petty names, and continue to embarass themselves as Joe Conason has so skillfully done.
I'm one of those who watched all of 9/11 unfold and I personally didn't see anything "heroic" about Guiliani on that day, or any day since. And furthermore even if he was "heroic" on that one day, since when does that qualify him to be president?
you, of all people, should NOT be talking about people embarassing themselves. All GOP wingnuts should be embarassed........ just ask the families of the 3000 dead at the World Trade Center, or the 2000 or so dead in New Orleans, or the 4000 dead in the "war on terror"........ all happened on W's watch.........disgraceful...... this administration is either the most stunningly incompetent or maliciously dishonest to hold office at ANY level of government.
TThis is not intended as "name calling" but Guiliani is not a hero by any stretch of the imagination, except in his own mind. He is an opportunist and that makes him the same as just about every other candidate on both sides. Ego driven, attention starved, opportunists that will do whatever is expedient to achieve their goals. What is troubling about Guiliani is how he exploits an event where so many suffered, and so many really did demonstrate great courage, heroism amd selflessness. Yes, Rudy walked thru the streets, but he was careful not to get to close to real peril and he made sure a working TV camera was always close at hand.
I base my judgements of Rudy as a potential president on having lived in NJ for most of his mayoral terms and thus hearing a lot about him. Would he better then Bush? Of course, but that is a historically low, low standard. But what worked in NYC will not work on the world stage or in Washington and when it doesn't, Rudy's arrogance and temperment could, and probably will be disasterous in ways we can't even imagine.
BTW, before there is too much screeching by some erstwhile posters about hate-filled left wing radical nut jobs irrationally attacking all those good, clean, honest and reasonable conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, he of the reasoned and informed argument, it should be pointed out that it was conservative dogma that afflicted the world with GW. right now, you all don't have license to criticize given that record, despite your honorable and oh so benevolent nature.
Some people might confuse heroism with images of Mayor Giuliani walking the streets after the attacks. The sad truth is the reason why he was forced to walk those streets. Mayor Giuliani chose 7 World Trade Center as the location of the emergency response center against the recommendation of his aides. Even though the truck bomb attack had occurred just a few years prior to his decision. So he had nowhere to go but to walk around. He also received a $100,000 donation to his campaign from the building owner after making the dubious choice.
Mayor Giuliani was asked to be one of the leaders on the 9/11 Commission, but instead chose to go on speaking tours. So rather than learn from the experience, he chose to go around bragging a false heroism and cashing in on his celebrity.
The fact that it has been glossed over that he was married to his cousin for 14 years and then moved his mistress into the Governor's Mansion while still married to wife number two also disqualifies this man from our highest office. His kids won't even support him.
Richmond sounds a bit like someone on Rudy's payroll. Crime was already falling under Dinkins. Rudy demonized people of color and those who like pot. He made the city safe for drivers from some squeegee men. He Disneyfied mid-town and he shorted the firemen with no new radios. He put a disaster command center in #7, which became a mysterious disaster. He ran downtown for a little while to be filmed for the news on 9/11. Rudy is full of crap right up to his eyeballs. Churchill my ass.
Put a dress on him, give him a plane ticket to Waziristan and let's see him do his stuff. Enough with this putz.
Joe, it was only a matter of time before you attacked the leading Republican presidential candidate. Rudy is a great communicator and inspires with his assertive demeanor.
To Richmond: I'm honored to read your posts. I like what you offer to this forum.
To all the GWB detractors: GWB is an awesome leader who leads rather than panders; who is resolute rather than needy; who is loyal to a fault rather than overly pragmatic; who acts rather than blabbers in incoherent effete flowery nostrums that mean nothing (ala, the Clintons), who is fearless rather than non-committal; and, who is honest rather than evasive.
Calling him names and dismissing him as a failure is small-minded and reveals your eye on the future and/or the past is dead. Today, during their time, our best presidents were the ones under siege, despised, dismissed as lightweights, deemed unworthy, etc., i.e., Lincoln, Truman, and Reagan to name a few.
Mark my words, GWB will be in that elite presidential group 25 years from now. Especially, after it is proven that his premptive strikes against islamic fascism today precluded a monstrous Nazi-like rise in the future.
To those who hold up ongoing suicide blombings as evidence that GWB's actions created such aggressive acts, I ask, why are you so sure these acts would not have taken place in any event? Is it plausible to you that these fanatics, like those who came before them, (i.e., Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, the Confederacy, all of which were unstoppable until their will was thoroughly broken in humiliating defeat), would act with or without our militaristic obstructions? It's a matter of belief. I, GWB, and many others believe the answer is "Yes." This enemy is just as driven and in just as much need as those I mentioned earlier of defeat. Let's do it now before they have the power to defeat us in the future.
Rudy was a deer in the headlights on 9/11 and the only thing he knew how to do was give a press conference.
Rudy's pre-9/11 failures regarding the command center, Bernard Kerik, Thomas Von Essen, the Motorola defective radio equipment, etc... prevented several hundred lives from being saved. With even an average mayor, the death count would have been substantially less.
Then Rudy decides to piss on the graves of firefighters, take money from the widow's fund, conceal the environmental dangers from the workers, profit off the victims, + cheerlead Bush as he ignores Osama Bin Laden, the man New Yorkers who aren't partisan Republicans want dead.
People here know his crime record was below the national avg. + based on manipulated statistics and that his time as prosecutor was huff and puff as Giuliani blew major cases by showboating instead of being a good prosecutor and getting the evidence first before you shoot off your mouth.
NOt only won't his children vote for him, 75-85% of NYC won't either. What do we know? Everything.
Dear Richmond,
I am a survivor of the 9/11 attack by members of the Bush Crime Family. I thank God that I survived the attack and I thank God for surviving the 1993 WTC attack. I give no credit to George W Bush who read "My Pet Goat" and looked clueless while 2,800 innocent NYers were murdered by his cadre of black operations experts.
Needless to say, I have a personal stake in whether Rudy Guiliani protected me on those days. Frankly, I found Rudy Guiliani irrelevant to the protection of myself and my fellow NYers in those attacks.
In fact, it was the FBI that fell down on the job in 1993. They could have apprehended the bombers before they bombed the WTC. They were too lazy to read Meir Kahane Al Qaeda murderer's plans for the WTC bombing seized in 1990.
Unfortunately on 9/11, there was no defense against the Bush sponsored demolition experts that planted the thermate charges on the weight bearing columns inside WTC buildings 1, 2 and 7. Likewise, there was no defense against the Bush sponsored Air Force hitting the Pentagon with a cruise missile.
If Bush/Guiliani supporters are true patriotic Americans, then why don't they support the United States Constitution's separation of Church and State; Right to Free Press; Ban on torture, etc...? Why don't Bush/Guiliani supporters question the $Billions of taxpayer dollars that have been wasted in Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina Relief and Homeland Security without any substantive positive results? Why are Bush/Guiliani supporters quick to attack those who question the motives of Bush/Guiliani.
The answer is quite simple. Bush/Guiliani supporters are as morally bankrupt and corrupt as George W Bush and Rudolph Guiliani. They would love to murder innocent people and steal their belongings. They love to rape and pillage their neighbors' wives and houses.
Dear Richmond, you would as quickly murder a Arab as walk across the street. You would as quickly steal the last loaf of bread from a starving man as read your morning newspaper. You are a mean immoral person who idealizes your fellow mean immoral leaders.
Most Americans who would get to know you would spit in your face.
This is to Dewey_M, et al,
Thank you for helping to prove my point. The name calling personal attacks that you exhibit in these posts is very characteristic of the left wing hit squads, led by people like Joe Conason.
It is impossible to argue with people who resort to name calling. It is this kind of flame throwing hate speech which will cripple the Democratic Party in 2008.
We as a nation can do better, and even most Democrats are embarrassed by the type of speech.
F**k Giuliani ask Diallo how he's doin'
Dewey - Well said. Right on the money!!!
OK, Richmond, Ignore the "name calling" in Dewey's post, and respond to his points regarding "W" and the unmitigated disaster that is the GOP. Please forgive me if you consider "unmitigated disaster" namae calling.
You folks are missing the point. Giuliani headlines himself as an expert on terriorism. But when he had the opportunity to prove it when it mattered, he came up empty. It might be that he became one after the fact, but it's certainly not a reason to elect him president.
Oh, do we waste effort responding to the rethug hired hands like richmond, who must sit at the 'puter all day for a few shekels (from the RNC?) and try to distract those who see the criminality of the present-day GOP.
We should really be out there in the streets working on voter registration or learning the rules of voting (how the precincts work, who counts the votes, etc.), rather than responding to these types.
Richmond, the only thing you have proven is that is you are vulnerable to your own failings..."It is impossible to argue with people who resort to name calling." For example...
- "weak, silly arguments."
- "radical left wing hate mongers. But to anyone with a brain and an ability to think..."
- "..these angry little men"
- "...nut-job."
- "...left wing hit squads"
So why aren't your comments, in your own words, "flame throwing hate speech?"
Is this how you "treat all people with dignity and respect?"
I would love to see the Democrats who believe Giuliani "acted with heroism" on 9/11/01. It's nice to believe in fairy tales.
Giuliani did NOTHING that day, except hide like a litle girl (along with your other two heroes, Cheney and Bush).
I can't believe you take yourself seriously, Richmond. Joe Conason is an affective writer who just delivers the fact sans personal attacks - something right-wingers know absolutely nothing about.
Here is the Rudy New Yorkers know: On the coldest night of the year he sent cops into homeless shelters to arrest the homeless with outstanding misdemeanor warrants and took them out in handcuffs.
Here is the Rudy African-Americans know: When an unarmed African-American was shot Rudy responded by releasing his sealed juivenile record and claiming "He was no choir boy." In fact, he actually had been a choir boy.
Here is the Rudy firemen know: Not a single police officer was killed when the WTC south tower collapsed because they heard the order to get out on working radios, while 121 firemen died because after 8 years Rudy did not supply them with radios that worked.
Here's what NY Women know: If elected, Judy will become America's First Mistress
As a 64 year young New Yorker who has seen it all Rudy is nothing but a pig. He made his name by picking on the weak, infirm and disadvantaged people in our town. His arrest record is that of squeege people, pot smokers, jaywalkers, small store owners and dog owners.
When the Brooklyn Museum had a jesus character on display his christianity was insensed so he threatened the museum with less funds but the museum was able to fight back and they kicked his ass.
His christianity was ok with marrying his cousin and having his mistress sleep at Gracie Mansion while he was married to another woman. His christianity is also ok with lying about 9/11.
He's a power hungry little twerp who if elected will try to turn the United States into another pre wwII Germany. Hitler will look like a saint compared to him
Gee...wonder what Winston Churchill would have said to anyone who insulted the WWII widows the Anne Coulter did the 9/11 widows..no Guiliani is no Winston Churchill!
Guiliani is as phony as that so called great President Ronald Reagan
I do think the hate that the left seems to marinate in continuously will sink it. Americans do not respond well to vitriol.
I respect your right to believe that Rudy Giuliani is the Anti-Christ. I will not sink to your level and call you names just because I disagree. The names I have used to describe the haters on this site are references to the behavior of those hateful writers.
I do not call politicians names. But I can argue policy with anybody, and still be friends afterwards.
The problem with using hate as a political weapon is that it is counter productive. The greatest politicians of the last century, FDR, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, etc. were all men who brought hope.
Hate, as exhibited by the lefties who read and support Conason, is indicative of one who is obsessed with attaining power. They believe those who disagree are the enemy, and must be defeated at all costs. Thankfully, the majority of Americans see this as clearly as I do.
anyone of the posters here who think that joe is being unfair to rudy really need to read "grand illusion," which lays the rudy as terrorism fraud reality bare.
"But most Americans, even many Democrats, believe that Giuliani acted with heroism on that day."
Oh, yes. He managed remain coherent and not to wave his arms in the air while speaking for the television cameras. I, for one, am awed. And those 29 hours over the next three months, that he toiled on the site, must have really impressed those rescue workers...I guess that's why he has such great support from the firemen's union? Oh. Wait.
After reading the pure vitriole spewed forth on this page, I realize that some not only suffer from Bush Derangement Syndrome but from "Any Republican Who Can Win" Derangement Syndrome. Or maybe it's "We scared to death Hillary can't win" so we attach any worthy opponent. I am not sure but it is going to be fun. Fortunately, I haven't read many intelligent arguments - just juvenile venom.
The fact that Rush Limbaugh is the de facto spokesman for the Republican Party says a lot about the party and those who belong to it. I read what Joe Conason wrote and I don't remember him calling Giuliani any names but he did point out that Giuliani is an opportunistic poser. Republicans can't handle the truth that Bush is the worst President in our country's history and Giuliani is following in his steps by trying to appeal to the same crowd. As far as name calling and personnal attacks, how about Limbaugh and others attacking a 12 year old kid and his sister who survived a horrific auto crash because of SCHIP's. Many in the Republican party are sub-human.