Ryan Chatelain, Associate Editor of amNewYork, is digging gently at a very sensitive spot when he writes: Rudy Giuliani is using his distorted reputation as a 9/11 hero as a springboard to the White House when it was his decisions that led to the deaths of more than 100 firefighters at the World Trade Center, a new video by a firefighters union argues.... or below, or here.
"Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend," a documentary by the International Association of Fire Fighters, includes interviews with firefighters and family members of firefighters killed on 9/11. The 13-minute video was released Wednesday and can be viewed at rudy-urbanlegend.com
Ryan Chatelain continues:
"Rudy Giuliani has used the horrible events of Sept. 11, 2001, to create a carefully crafted persona, but the fact is what Rudy portrays is not a full picture of the decisions made that led, in our view, to the unnecessary deaths of our FDNY members and the attempt to stop the dignified recovery of those lost," IAFF President Harold Schaitberger says in the video.The are a few more very interesting comments from Harold Schaitberger at the Urban Legend website, and we'll get to them in a minute.
But first, here's a bit more from Ryan Chatelain:
"Urban Legend" blasts Giuliani for equipping firefighters with defective radios, which didn't allow them to hear evacuation orders before the collapse of the north tower, which was the second to fall. As a result, 121 officers died in the tower, while no police officers, who had working radios and heard the command, perished.Here's the video; watch it and see what you think.
The documentary alleges Giuliani scaled back efforts to recover victims' remains after $200 million in gold was recovered from bank vaults under the towers, instead leaving some firefighters to be "removed like garbage" and sent to a Staten Island landfill.
"Urban Legend" also criticizes Giuliani's decision to place the city's emergency command center at 7 World Trade Center, knowing the area was the target of a 1993 terrorist bombing.
The Giuliani campaign issued a pair of pre-emptive responses before the video was posted online Wednesday evening, but neither addressed the documentary's direct allegations.Of course! They can't address the documentary's direct allegations, and they don't even want to start doing that, because once they start dealing with allegations of negligence and lack of respect for the fallen, they'll likely have to deal with much more serious allegations. Hold that thought.
From the Urban Legend website:
"Rudy has used the horrible events of September 11 to create a persona that is an elaborate fabrication," says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. "He is nothing more than a shameless self-promoter."Au contraire, mon ami! Rudy Giuliani is much more than a shameless self-promoter! As Harold Schaitberger says himself:
"What Giuliani showed following 9/11 is a disgraceful lack of respect for the fallen and those brothers still searching for them. He valued the money and gold and wanted the site cleared before he left office at the end of 2001 more than he valued the lives and memories of those lost."
Rushing to clear the site was the wrong thing to do on many levels. On a basic forensic level it's called destruction of evidence. You'll find it filed under obstruction of justice.Why would an innocent person destroy evidence? Why would an innocent mayor insist on all the evidence being destroyed before he left office? Do you find those questions disturbing? Good. Now we're getting somewhere.
When I mentioned serious allegations, I was talking about more than obstruction of justice. I was also talking about foreknowledge ... and complicity with other key 9/11 conspirators.
It's a can of worms the Rudy-For-President-Of-9/11 campaign can't afford to open.
Too bad it just got opened for them!