Giuliani Fears His Health Hurt on 9/11

[DoYouEverWonder]

September 12, 2006, 5:37 AM EDT

NEW YORK -- Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who led New York through the horror of the 2001 attacks, said his health and that of his wife and aides could have been affected from exposure to toxic smoke from the burning World Trade Center.

"I spent as much time here as anyone," Giuliani said Monday, the fifth anniversary of the attacks. He said others potentially at risk included his wife, Judith; his spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel; and two deputy mayors.

Giuliani said anyone whose health suffered from work at the trade center site is "entitled to the same support, the same assistance and the same help that the families got who lost loved ones here."

Giuliani spoke to reporters after presenting checks totaling $60,000 to trade center victims' charities from former New York Giants head coach Jim Fassel's foundation

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-ap-sept-11-giuliani,0,5830836.story?coll=sns-ap-nation-headlines


Well gee Rudy, I'm sure all the money you've made off of being a security expert since 9-11 will be more then enough to pay for any medical care you may need for the rest of your life. So now you donate $60,000 out of the millions you've made. How big of you.

[rman]

1. Could have known that 5 years ago, no thanks to the mayor

Democracy Now
Thursday, August 24th, 2006
Memo: NY City Hall Divided Over Handling of Post-9/11 Contamination
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/24/207231

...internal memo from a top official in the Health Department who was in charge of environmental hazards and who was coordinating the city's response to 9/11 on health issues, and also the deputy -- the commissioner of the Department of Environmental Protection, who was actually doing all the testing for asbestos throughout the city; both of them were very concerned about the air quality in Lower Manhattan and, in fact, were overruled by City Hall, by Mayor -- the Giuliani administration, their boss, who wanted to open up more areas around ground zero, because he was under pressure, according to the assistant commissioner, from the business community and building owners to allow more opening of areas around ground zero.

<snip>

But even more importantly, some of the data of the city's testing, which again has never gotten much attention and in fact the city withheld and is still withholding from public release some of those main tests, showed that in the five days after 9/11, before hundreds of thousands of people were given the all-clear to come back to work, that the city took 38 air tests in Lower Manhattan for asbestos and of those 38 tests, 27 of them, more than 70% of the tests that the city took, showed unsafe levels of asbestos in the air. And yet the city not only took months to post those results, but then when they did on their website, have still not posted the worst results that they got in the first few days. So there's real questions about actual withholding and burying of damaging air safety reports.
And yet the public was told everything is okay, it's okay to go back to work in that area.

<more>

--

Documents: Feds, City Knew Of Ground Zero Toxins
Critics: Lower Manhattan Was Reopened Despite Knowledge The Air Was Unsafe
A CBS 2 Exclusive
Sep 7, 2006
http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_249164937.html

[displacedtexan]

4. That's right, Rudy! Play the triumphant victim.

RUDY KNEW, DAMN IT!

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. FUCK YOU, Giuliani

That is all.

[Renew Deal]

15. What is wrong with you?

And some others here? He was doing his best on 9/11 even if politically he had been a scumbag. Maybe you and others don't understand how sick people have been or how much they have suffered. Nevertheless, you and others better take a hard look.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. He was doing his best on 9-11 looking good for the cameras

Instead of being were he was supposed to be at Command & Control coordinating the response to the attack. It was Rudy and Bernie Kerik who decided to separate from the FDNY, which they were not suppose to do, so when Kerik sent out the call to the police rescuers to abandon the 2nd tower, the firemen never got the word.

[Renew Deal]

18. So he deserves it?

Right?

[JVS]

34. He deserves it for being a fucking fascist mayor who did nothing while...

his police went around shooting people and anally raping them with plungers.

[bettyellen]

44. and for shipping off the homeless to Yonkers at Disney's behest

instead of maybe finding housing or replacing the hospital beds they were kicked out of.
the blood of the saddest NYers fed the rebirth of Times Square.
and he fucked over the NYPD who got him elected. rudy is a piece of shit. it's hilarious the republicans are blaming him now.

[krispos42]

50. Rudy WAS at the Command Center. It was at 7 WTC...

That is why he was there on the scene. Not because he was rushing to the strike zone, but because he was running to the command center. Rudy refused to put the command center in a building that the FDNY had built just across the Brooklyn Bridge which was their hardened communications center. He wanted his center to be close to Gracie Mansion, and some real-estate broker had a friend who knew Guiliani (or however it went), so the mayor's C&C center wound up in 7 WTC, complete with generators. All of which was rendered completely useless almost immediately as chunks of concrete and pieces of airplane sprayed across lower Manhattan.

[DoYouEverWonder]

51. Rudy never put one toe in his Command Center at WTC7

on 9-11. Neither did Bernie Kerik. Both went to 75 Barclay Street instead.

WTC 7 was evacuated before the 2nd plane hit. The OEM office was evacuated by 9:30 AM before the first tower fell.


BTW: Gracie Mansion is in Uptown Manhattan on the East River. The WTC is downtown at the southern end of the island. They are about as far apart as you can get and still be in the same borough.

[krispos42]

59. My bad...

Rudy was heading to 7 WTC when the shit hit the fan, I guess. I am surprised about Gracie Mansion. I thought I heard he wanted OEM by City Hall and Gracie Mansion, and I though they were both downtown. Apologies, apologies.

[DoYouEverWonder]

61. City Hall is downtown

Gracie Mansion is usually the Mayor's residence, except in Rudy's case his ex-wife kicked him out and she stayed until the end of his term. Mayor Bloomberg decided not to move in at all and just uses the mansion for ceremonies and parties.

On the morning of 9-11, Bernie Kerik was already downtown at Police Headquarters when the attack began. He left the building and set up a Command Center outside somewhere, he claims on West Broadway between Barclay and Liberty (which btw doesn't exist). This is where he hooked up with Rudy and at some point they moved to 75 Barclay. Then they abandoned that location and went further north.

At least three times they moved the Command Center and at one point decided to split from the FDNY which was a big no-no. Rudy and Kerik did not follow the proper procedures for an emergency, even though they wrote those procedures. Kerik managed to warn the police in WTC1, that the other tower had fallen and to get out. Unfortunately, he didn't bother to let FDNY know this and many fireman died has a result. If they hadn't split the Command Center in two, the fireman would most likely have gotten the warning too.

[krispos42]

64. Ah, I see Rudy will make a worth follower to Bush, then

Dear Jesus, please protect me from your followers.
Dear Allah, please protect me from your followers.
And dear God, protect America from a Rudy/Jeb Bush ticket in 2008!

[DoYouEverWonder]

65. LOL

May your prayers be answered.

[noonwitch]

55. He was doing his best to reassure the country because Bush was a mess

I don't like everything Guliani did as mayor of NYC, but the NYC voters seemed to like him enough.

He was amazing on 9-11. Bush couldn't put his sentences together that night, and Rudy was there, holding up the fort, helping boost the morale of all working at ground zero, and reassuring a frightened city and nation.

[Hoping4Change]

62. Read transcript of CBC's about toxic aftermath of 911 and you won't

be happy at all about Rudy. You will see without doubt that he is total scum.


http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/toxiclegacy/index.html

[nodehopper]

23. thousands of people are sick b/c Giuliani knowingly lied about air quality

so if he gets sick from 9/11 fallout, that's poetic justic, at the very least. Or maybe not poetic, just justice.

[Javaman]

28. The sad part is...

that repuke sychophant will get the health care he needs because he's loaded, while the regular joes will suffere all sorts of problems and MAYBE get the help they need. More than likely they won't.

He's part of the circle. He can rot in hell.

[lovuian]

57. He's interest was for money and not protection for his citizens

He didn't want to announce that it was an asbetos sest pool

and he was stupid and may die from it as well as his friends...

[krispos42]

60. Giuliani may or may not have lied...

But he was frantic about starting the clean-up after the buildings fell. Wanted everybody cleaning as soon as there were no more people to be found in the wreckage.

[Lindacooks]

39. He was more than a 'scumbag' politically. He made 9/11 worse

by situating the emergency command center in WTC 7 instead of elsewhere as experts recommended, by not updating police and fire communication equipment.

He made political gains out of that day and risked the health of the whole city because he bowed to financial pressures.

"A 2001 memo reveals then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani re-opened sections of downtown Manhattan weeks after the 9/11 attacks despite knowing the air was toxic.

The New York Post published a CBS News report that said the city's Department of Environmental Protection was overruled by the mayor after it said it was "uncomfortable" with the idea of reopening the area to the public.

"The mayor (Rudy Giuliani) is under pressure from building owners ... to open more of the city," a Health Department official wrote in Oct. 6, 2001."

Yes, he does deserve to have the same health problems that many other New Yorkers do.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060907-125022-2473r

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. For your information, I was below Chambers for all the events of 9/11

And I am on the WTC Health Registry. I went back to work in Lower Manhattan on 9/17/01, when we were assured it was safe, though it apparently was NOT. And Giuyliani didn't do shit for recovery worker health (much less for those who work and live in Lower Manhattan) until he realized his irresponsibility in September and October of 2001 will be a major issue for his $100,000 a pop speaking tour reputation.

I will probably die from what I breathed in during 9/11 and the subsequent months, so you can take a fucking hard look at THAT, pal.

I reiterate: FUCK YOU, Giuliani. You wanna be in his fucking camp, you know what I have to say to you, too.

[liberalcanuck]

66. I still haven't forgot about Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo. I've sat

back and watched this slimeball's opportunistic rise to supposed security czar with equal parts nauseation and confusion.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Rudy's actively trying to pin this on Christie Whitman

As a moderate Republican, the GOP is trying to threow her under the wheels of their short bus. But Rudy had better keep alert -- it could happen to him, as well.

And Whitman should have remembered that "when you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas".

--p!

[BlueManDude]

5. "I spent as much time here as anyone," Giuliani said. BULLSHIT. n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. That's probably why he went to every funeral

He didn't want to be anywhere near downtown.

[Punkingal]

25. Exactly what I thought when I read it...

Bullshit! What about the guy on KO last night who can't work anymore because he spent MONTHS there helping search for his friends and cleaning up the mess? Guliani is a piece of shit, and I hope that statement comes back to bite him in the ass.

[BootinUp]

7. He is still one of the biggest blowhards in the US

So he couldn't have been affected as much as he thinks!

[tom_paine]

8. Well, Rudy, your Bushevik Emperor lied to you "for your own good"

And now you are bitchin about the consequences? When you WILLINGLY gobbled his rod (as the Rude Pundit might say) and swallowed?

Fuck you Rudy.

[Kolesar]

9. Will the old horn-dog with the wandering eye be able to get it up?

[Eurobabe]

10. Oh boo-hoo, did the EPA lie to you too Rudy??

On your watch pal. Your GOP adminsitration. Cry to somebody else.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Captain Hilts]

24. NYDN called her "Twisty Whitman" because of her lies. nt

[calimary]

36. Ouch!

Good one. VERY much deserved.

[goforit]

45. LOL!!!.....Sweet justice and Karma. He's created his own misery

[mom cat]

47. Payback is a bitch.

[bertha katzenengel]

11. I feel for his wife & aides & everyone else in NYC that day -- except

for him. If he'd kept his mouth shut, I'd prob'ly include him in my sympathies for everyone hurt by the dust. But no. He had to say "boo hoo, woe is me, i got sick too." :eyes:

signed,
irritated this morning

[Vidar]

12. The mouth that roared has a toothache.

[Vinca]

13. So I guess that rules out running for president . . .

right??:sarcasm:

[Lerkfish]

14. well, we cant have the aristocracy suffer along with the peasants, now

can we?

btw, Guiliani was here in Dayton on 9/11 weekend with Ken Blackwell at a fire station, politiking for the oreo vote-stealer.

there wasn't a puke bucket big enough, I"m afraid.

[No Exit]

19. I saw the footage of him walking about on 9/11, and he was in this group

of people, with a larger group sort of behind him, and those who had them were all keeping those little masks on. Giuliani had one of the little masks, but he kept moving his aside because he wanted to talk.

I kept thinking, "why are you bothering to carry that mask when you keep moving it off your mouth and nose, and blathering on?"

Others "potentially at risk included his wife, Judith; his spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel; and two deputy mayors" and possibly a mistress or three...

[DoYouEverWonder]

21. While Rudy was running around doing interviews

he was supposed to be at the City's Command Center coordinating the response to the emergency. His job was very clearly defined in the NYC's Emergency Response Plan. Instead Rudy and Bernie kept relocating and caused more chaos and confusion because Bernie was supposed to be handling communications. Instead of worrying about the rescuers and victims of the attack, he was more concerned with being Rudy's bodyguard.

They decamped at West Broadway between Liberty and Barclay Sts. People were running past them, screaming hysterically. There were poor souls jumping from the burning towers. Seemed like a safe spot At that moment, the NYPD brass was still not thinking terrorist attack or building collapse.

"We were thinking it was a towering inferno, that it was just going to burn," said Deputy Inspector Chris Rising, a close aide to Kerik.

Then the unimaginable happened before their eyes.

"I was turning around to talk to when I heard the revving of an engine," Kerik recalled. "Somebody said the plane slowed down as it got to the tower. And then the explosion.

http://www.albany.edu/mumford/wtc/marzulli.htm

BTW: West Broadway between Liberty and Barclay Sts. doesn't exist. No wonder no one could communicate with Kerik or find him. He couldn't even get his location right.

[kskiska]

29. His "wife" WAS his mistress at that time

Remember how NY's mayoral election was held around that time and Bloomberg was elected, but Rudy wanted to be allowed to remain on the job for another 6 months?

[KurtNYC]

38. Giuliani re-opened Wall Street and the Battery 3 days after 9/11

the entire area was covered with about 4 inches of powderized glass. The Burger King off Wall Street re-opened and immediately started serving burgers. It was insane and so is Rudy.

CNN transcript from 9/14/2001:

We're going to try today to carve out another area south of Canal Street that we can open over the weekend and particularly to have it open for Monday, and it would be the Wall Street area.

And therefore we would ask businesses there to start considering the fact that over the weekend they may want to come in and clean out and make sure that their buildings are able to operate on Monday.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/14/se.14.html

It was Rudy - not Whitman who re-opened downtown.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

48. As a NJ resident I have no respect for Whitman, but thank you for

pointing that out. We had a water quality problem here during her reign and it was solved, by having the EPA up the parts per mil of radon permissible, no change to the actual water, just the acceptable levels of radon.

When she resigned from the EPA, I knew that there were really BIG problems, and I think the 911 air quality was just part of it, based on the timing. It scared the crap out of me!

[Hoping4Change]

63. CBC just aired a documentary about the toxic aftermath of 911.

There is a whole lot more than radon to be concerned about.

Complete transcript and video clips at

http://www.cbc.ca/documentaries/toxiclegacy/index.html

[mcscajun]

20. "I spent as much time here as anyone," Really, Rudy?

NFW.

Not as much time as any one of the rescue/recovery workers, who are more than likely outraged at your statement, no matter how they felt about you two days ago.

[eccles12]

26. A walk through is just not the same as working there on a daily basis.

For Rudi to even suggest this shows what a punk he really is.

[nodehopper]

22. oh no cry me a river, Rudy!

[leftofcool]

27. My heart just fucking bleeds for you, Rudi...........

asshole!!!!!!!!!

left of cool

[riona]

30. Probably inhaled a lot

of dust giving speeches for the TV audience

[tinfoilinfor2005]

31. What a shame that his chances for a presidential run are now dashed.

Destroyed. Kaput. Finished. Evaporated.

:evilgrin:

[UTUSN]

32. Awww, shades of John CONNELLY's wearking the JFK armsling forever n/t

[JVS]

33. Awww poor baby got sick posing as a hero on the rubble!

:nopity:

How about the health of all the people who your cops shot 42 times for reaching for their wallet!

[Tempest]

35. It wasn't his money he donated

It was Jim Fassel's foundation.

[calimary]

37. And how many "victims' charities" will that be spread out to?

Those "victims" are going to need a hell of a lot more than a sniveling 60-grand, especially if it has to be spread out among how many "victims' charities"?

Drop in the bucket. We're talking some really serious medical expenses here, and not for just one single "victim," either.

[warrens]

41. Wasn't even his $60K

Since I happened to catch a NOW show and another on NPR about how many of the responders have been denied added healthcare or any other help, and there has not been one word from Rudy about helping these people, you know,um. FUCK YOU RUDY.

[SoCalDem]

42. Gee Rudy.. It'r not just that they are SICK, it's the HASSLE

factor and the injustice of it all.. When they are at their most vilnerable, sick and in pain, THAT's the exact time when they are also unable to work, are unemployed, broke and have little energy to fight the system that tells them "it's all in your head...here..fill this paper out..in triplicate"..

A substantial potion of the "donated money" should have been set aside for people who were uninsured, and either worked in the rubble, or lived near it.. It should have been set up as a giant group health policy, and they should have set up a health study of those people..

but then , we all know that republicans only care about people when an election is looming..

[mitchum]

43. Grandstanding asshole

[Riddler]

46. Too bad this POS is still breathing...

while so many REAL heroes are in their graves is what's so disgusting about it.

[JI7]

49. yup, notice he only mentions himself and those close to him

fuck everyone else.

he did nothing when it was shown others were hurting. it's only himself that matters.

[Bragi]

52. Me too!

Except my health hurt comes from the way mega-flawed leaders like Rudy and Bush responded to 9/11.

- B

[jsamuel]

53. took you 5 years to get it? 5 years WAAAY to late

[zonkers]

54. Photo-ops are a bitch. Kerik shoulda tossed you the keys to the love shack

[librechik]

56. makes a great excuse for dropping out of the presidential Carousel

please use it, Rudy

[grasswire]

58. I guess that disqualifies him from the presidency, eh?

If his health was damaged in the same manner as the others now suffering lung diseases, I guess we don't have to worry about him making a run for the White House. Cool.

[DoYouEverWonder]

67. For all the Rudy lovers who think he was such a big hero on 9-11

Rudy's Grand Illusion
What Giuliani likes to remember about 9-11—and what he actually did (or didn't do)
by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins
August 29th, 2006 1:10 PM

<snip>

Ray Kelly, the police commissioner who preceded and followed the Giuliani years, said in an interview, "Sure, the separate command post was a violation of the protocols. The radios would have been no problem if they had been at the same command post, if they'd been face-to-face. The Office of Emergency Management was supposed to make that happen under the protocols, but Jerry Hauer wasn't there any-more. OEM had the power to direct that to happen. Giuliani had the power to direct that to happen."

The mayor's main mission, as he has put it in repeated accounts, was to gather the information he needed to tell a television and radio audience what they should do, especially people in jeopardy. By the time he talked directly to an audience, however, both towers had collapsed, and the message Ganci asked him to give occupants was moot. The mayor was, in the end, just one more dispatcher who failed to relay useful information. He said he went to Barclay for hard phone lines, but once he got there, his most pressing concern was reaching the vice president and that went nowhere—someone's phone line went dead, although it's unclear whether it was Giuliani's or Dick Cheney's.

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0635,barrett,74322,6.html