Giuliani and 9/11 - four points to never forget

JackRiddler

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Sun Oct-21-07 10:04 PM
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Giuliani and 9/11 - four points to never forget

1) THE RADIO DEAL WITH MOTOROLA: Giuliani administration approved a sweetheart deal to purchase thousands of new radios from Motorola without taking bids, abusing the "replacement" clause of an old contract. These didn't work and were returned in early 2001. As a result, the firefighters went into the WTC Towers on 9/11 with the same badly functioning radios they had in 1993. Most of those in the North Tower never received warnings to evacuate after the South Tower went down. The difference in lives lost is in the dozens at the minimum. Firefighters' families staged a near-riot during the 9/11 Commission hearings in May 2004, when the Commission failed to ask Giuliani about the radios.

2) THE BUNKER: In 2000, Giuliani and the director of the Mayor's Office of Emergency Management, Jerome Hauer, chose to locate the high tech OEM command headquarters on the 23rd floor of WTC Building 7, despite objections from the Fire Department and general ridicule over the decision to place the the mayor's bunker in case of a mass casualty event at what was already jokingly called Ground Zero. The center included independent air and power supplies (diesel tanks on the 7th floor, in violation of the fire code). Hauer and Giuliani now blame each other for this move - a pox on both their houses. The choice was another sweetheart deal, with the owner of WTC 7 and the Towers, Larry Silverstein.

3) LIES ABOUT THE TOXIC AIR: After 9/11, Giuliani participated fully in the lie told by the EPA at the White House's insistence: that the air was safe to breathe in Lower Manhattan, that the rescue workers could go without masks. The resulting lack of insistence on basic safety measures is now costing more lives by the week.

4) ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH DICTATORSHIP: 9/11/01 was election day for the mayoral primary in New York City. This is postponed because of the attacks. A week later, Mayor Giuliani, saying he is the only man who can lead New York during the crisis, proposes he stay in office three months past the end of his term, in violation of the city's charter. If he does not get his way, Rudy threatens to push for an immediate repeal of term limits so that he can run again. Republican candidate Michael Bloomberg and one of the two Democratic primary candidates, Mark ("Spineless") Green, say they are ready to accept Il Duce's idea. Fernando Ferrer, the other Democratic candidate, refuses the deal and stares Rudy down, forestalling the establishment of New York City's first open dictatorship. Green edges out Ferrer in the rescheduled primary, amid allegations of vote fixing. Bloomberg reaches into his own pocket for a 15 million dollar ad blitz during the last week of the campaign and takes the general election from Green, amid allegations of vote fixing. Count Rudy returns to his crypt, to await his next chance.