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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: geode00 who wrote (198991)	8/24/2006 2:05:33 AM
From: stockman_scott	Respond to of 281500

Tarnishing the Aura of Giuliani on 9/11 ___________________________________________________________ by Ellis Henican Published on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 by the Long Island, NY Newsday It's the unexamined question of 9/11: What if Rudy Giuliani wasn't quite the hero everybody thought? For nearly five years now, we've all lived in the glow of "America's mayor," that soot-covered father figure who rose to meet the greatest challenge of all. Rudy standing firm in the terror aftermath. Rudy guiding a rattled city back to its feet. There was no denying this much in those early days of confusion: New York's grim-faced mayor looked a whole lot more in charge than America's deer-in-the-headlights president. But what if Rudy's take-charge image was mostly a load of bravado and PR? What if the actual decisions he made -- before, during and after the terror attacks -- were directly responsible for the city's inability to deal effectively with crucial aspects of the crisis? Well, it's about time someone opened that impolite inquiry. Hold on tight, now! One of the most carefully guarded myths of 9/11 is about to be shattered for good. "Grand Illusion," the book is called. "The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11." It is written by Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice and Dan Collins of CBS.com, two of New York's shrewdest investigative reporters. Published this week by HarperCollins, "Grand Illusion" will forever alter how the world sees Rudy Giuliani's place in America's deadliest terror attacks. You can bet national political reporters will be combing though these chapters as the 2008 presidential campaign season revs up. With dozens of exclusive and previously unreleased interviews, Barrett and Collins show how the ambitious ex-mayor has spent recent years revising his own truth of 9/11 -- and profiting handsomely from it. Casting himself as a prescient terror hawk who wisely prepared his city for the inevitable, Giuliani in fact ignored repeated warnings from the experts, including his own commissioners and aides. Instead of confronting the looming danger, they tell how he grew increasingly distracted by pet projects, political turf wars and an extraordinarily messy personal life. Slowly, the little decisions added up. Equipping the police and fire departments with incompatible radios from a politically wired vendor. Overruling the warnings of his subordinates and installing the city's emergency-command center inside the World Trade Center -- "the only bunker ever built in the clouds." "The facts -- depressing but unavoidable -- were that Giuliani had allowed the city to meet the disaster of September 11 unprepared in a myriad of ways," Barrett and Collins write. When the planes finally hit, the mayor was great on camera, the authors say -- but not so great marshaling a coordinated city response. Instead of directing his own confused troops, Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik was serving as Rudy's personal bodyguard. So who was actually in charge in the crucial early hours? "I don't know who was directing," current police commissioner Ray Kelly told Barrett and Collins. "I literally don't." Barrett and Collins got exclusive access to some eye-popping 9/11 Commission interviews that have never been publicly aired before and weren't supposed to be for another three years. And they convinced quite a few of the central players to talk on the record, amazingly frankly. Number two cop Louis Anemone recalled how he tried to get the mayor interested in a citywide anti-terror plan as early as 1998. "Rudy glazed over," Anemone said. "We never had any discussion about security at the World Trade Center. We never even had a drill or exercise there. ... There was just a lack of recognition of the problem at City Hall." It was probably inevitable, Collins and Barrett conclude, that America would go looking for a ready-made hero at such a difficult time. "The disaster had been so complete that there were remarkably few candidates for the role," they write. Bush's undisclosed-location fly-around "was hardly the stuff of legend." By contrast, the authors say, Giuliani "embodied the resolve of the nation." His "quick response and personal fearlessness ... provided a clean and reassuring narrative. ... When he assured New York that things would come out all right, he was blessedly believable." That was almost five years ago. Then a couple of journalists began to dig.

To: geode00 who wrote (198991)	8/24/2006 2:43:51 PM
From: Sdgla	Respond to of 281500

Geo, The scenario is playing out again. I am making you UN Secretary General, a very lucrative job as you know. All references to zoo animals aside, what will you do with Hezbo ? What will you do to prevent the war that is looming ? Hezbo is rearming via Iran... handing out big bucks and essentially rendering the Lebanese goverment irrelavent. The Israeli's will not make the same mistake twice and no doubt Iran will join the party this time as well. Hezbo is lining up all the baby strollers and innocent civilians once again as that strategy worked without flaw last month. What will you tell the Israeli's ? Stand by and watch Hezbo build up ? Stand by and watch Iran go Nuclear ? Since the neocons are nitwits I cannot wait to hear your scenario to solve this mighty issue.

To: geode00 who wrote (198991)	8/24/2006 10:59:33 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>>All you have to do is figure out which side is more powerful, according to you, and all your moral dilemmas are instantly resolved. The powerful are war criminals, and the less powerful are innocent. Them thar's a lotta conclusions...your imagination is very active today. When did I say anything of the kind? You say it every time you brush off references to Hizbullah war crimes by saying 'aw, the elephants are complaining because the pipsqueaks won't play by their rules.' If the 'rules' of not using civilians as body armor don't apply to 'pipsqueaks' then you have just said it. Be a 'pipsqueak' (which Hizbullah is not btw, they have grown into Iran's foreign legion), get a free pass on the rules. Can you really be so dense as to not understand your own words? Or is this just a pose to evade the issue? The latter, I think.