Politics Roil Observance Of Sept. 11

Washington Post: Giuliani's Role At Event In New York City Is Challenged

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Anthony Faiola.

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Few things united this wildly diverse city more than the devastating events of Sept. 11, 2001. But, as the sixth anniversary of that dark day approaches, that sense of unity is being seriously tested amid a cacophony of controversies that has left some New Yorkers sniping at each other like family members at a funeral.

Perhaps the biggest target: former mayor and Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose planned appearance near Ground Zero on Tuesday to deliver a short reading is being assailed by critics. His decision to speak while running a presidential campaign sparked a scathing New York Times editorial and infuriated a smattering of family members of victims and firefighter groups, particularly those who have long blamed Giuliani for not doing enough to upgrade emergency equipment before the attacks. Those critics, in turn, are being assailed by Giuliani supporters for suggesting that he would use such a reverent moment for a vote-grabbing publicity stunt.

It happens at a time when New York, the city most directly affected by the 9/11 attacks, is experiencing an echo of the horror of that day. Last month, two firefighters were killed while fighting a mega-inferno inside a condemned building that was damaged in the twin towers' collapse. That the blaze, apparently caused by a cigarette smoker, claimed two more of New York's first responders so close to the emotional anniversary has reopened wounds here and set tempers raging.

Local, state and federal officials - along with the contractors hired to dismantle the building - are bearing the brunt of public wrath for allowing the damaged structure to stand for so long as a safety hazard. Three fire department officials have been suspended while the state and the Manhattan district attorney's office launch investigations. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I), also widely discussed as a possible presidential candidate, despite his repeated denials, has bluntly admitted to "failures" in the fire department's handling of the site.

"We just didn't need this now, not now," said Jim Riches, a deputy fire chief who lost his son, also a firefighter, in the North Tower on Sept. 11. "We have two more dead firefighters for no reason. And now we have Giuliani out there grandstanding. This isn't the way to mark this day."

That Sept. 11 has become something of a political football this year is perhaps not surprising, given the ongoing presidential campaign.

Emotions have generally run high in New York during earlier markings of the attack's anniversary. Yet emotions have run especially high this year among the "9/11 community": victims' family members, volunteers and first responders personally affected by the attacks. Many have lashed out at recent suggestions in the New York media that some people have Sept. 11 "fatigue" amid the flurry of tributes and exhibitions planned for Tuesday.

"It is the most outrageous suggestion I can imagine," said Lee Ielpi, president of the September 11th Families Association, who lost his son, a firefighter, in the World Trade Center that day. The group helped inaugurate an audio tour this month at the Tribute WTC Visitor Center near Ground Zero. Visitors can rent headphones and walk through the center and the Ground Zero site as they listen to narration by survivors and eyewitnesses of the attacks.

"Fatigue?" Ielpi said. "What, are we supposed to forget that day? No, that is unacceptable."

Family members also butted heads with Bloomberg over the city's decision to move this year's tribute from the World Trade Center site to a nearby park because the Freedom Tower project is under construction. After a meeting with family members who have grown accustomed to paying respects in the "pit," the cavernous footprint at the base of the World Trade Center, Bloomberg struck a compromise that allows them to enter the construction site in single file to offer brief remembrances on Tuesday. It will probably be the last time they will be able to do so for years to come.

"Mayor Bloomberg understood our concerns," Riches said. "He listened to us and decided to let us have this moment. Maybe it isn't a full ceremony, but at least we can be there one last time."

But some have been less generous with Giuliani.

Giuliani was invited by Bloomberg to give a brief reading at Tuesday's main tribute event in New York, something he has done for the past five years. New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the front-runner in the Democratic presidential campaign, is also scheduled to attend but not to speak. Some say Giuliani should do the same to avoid even the hint of politics.

Bloomberg and Giuliani's camp have insisted there will be nothing political about the moment. "He'll be there just as he has before; he's not doing anything different," said Anthony V. Carbonetti, a senior Giuliani adviser. Asked about the criticism, Carbonetti said Giuliani "is not even going to respond to that."

Adding to the tension are the deaths on Aug. 18 of the two firefighters in the Deutsche Bank Building, dubbed the "toxic tower" because of its poisonous cocktail of asbestos, dioxin and other materials blown in by the dust of Sept. 11. Investigators have concluded that part of the standpipe used for pumping water throughout the building had been removed during complicated demolition preparations. It left the two firefighters - Robert Beddia, 53, and Joseph Graffagnino, 33 - stranded without water until they ultimately ran out of air as the fire blazed.

Bloomberg has said that the fire department was responsible for serious lapses, including not conducting required inspections and failing to draw up specific plans for battling a fire there despite internal recommendations that it do so.

Speaking about the two deaths, Bloomberg recently told reporters that firefighters operate in a risky line of work, but that the city had "an obligation to them to reduce those risks wherever possible. As a city, we failed to do that."

[kansas1946]

I just think everyone is a little tired of Rudy''s grandstanding about 9/11, and now that he is no longer mayor, this REALLY looks like political grandstanding.

[likeitis5050]

It''s difficult enough to make it to and beyond September 11 year after year, reliving all the horrible videos, listening to the recordings, remembering exactly where you were, what you were doing, and how unbelievably helpless you felt, without throwing in self-promoting Rudy on top of it all. To the nation 9-11 was our heartache and our grief for eternity. To Rudy it was an opportunity for him resurrect his career and make-over his public image. He relished in it. Leave him out of the memorials.

[zootallures2]

Socialtheists and Monotheists should separate into different lands. We cannot live together. For Monotheists, it''s like being caged up with monkeys. And to Socialtheists, we are ruining your social conscience with rules and laws. We don''t need police and survailence. God watches us. If I would do the slightest of what you do, God would torture me 10 times over what the CIA would do. We learn to behave very early and very quickly. You Socialtheists are just animals or you follow the stars or something. We separate and you will be free to do whatever you want and we will be free of being your brain police and mothers. We are the chosen people. Why? I dunno? Born that way. And defend ourselves from you? We got God so we''ll kick your arse 100 times over. You''ll get the message. So, we get Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. You get the rest. You can blow each other up, down, or how ever you like. Sacrafice your children to idols, have your perverted activities, and so on. You''ll have plenty of time for your fun that you now waste on trying to fool us with your massive media machine to stop our consciences from effecting yours.

[realpatriot1]

Rudi should mark the occasion by breathing in a heavy dose of toxic fumes.

[prinzowhales]

Cross-dressing, Mafiosi, adulterous, cousin-marrying betrayer of the first responders... returning to the scene of the crime...Will he lie about WTC-7 again? Will he try to hawk his security firms services? What lies will he tell New Yorkers about the crime that killed nearly 3,000 of them on 9-11 and many of the first responders in the aftermath?

It would be fitting if Christine Dodd Whitman appeared with him and devoured one of the victim''s children...she was quite willing to see all of their parents perish--as was Mayor Mafiosi, who, after using them to find the Bank of Nova Scotia''s gold, stopped the hunt for the remains of the firefighters.

The 9-11 Truthers will be there! Alex Jones has already been arrested and released by the New York Police Department of 9-11 Body Looters... the vultures of Gotham. Events are being held to benefit the victims of 9-11...tens of thousands of first responders betrayed by the Regime and needing help. The New York vultures were called by Geraldo Rivera and his employers at FOX NEWS--the employers of phone *** pervert O''Reilly, who next to the drug-addled and impotent Limbaugh, is one of the leading lights of the remaining War Pig foot soldiers.

[lars008-2009]

it is fascist nazi terrorislam stupid%u2026.

non muslims of the world unite... fight against the tyranny of the fascist nazi terrorslam imperialist empire of the darkside...

I was a fanatic...I know their thinking, says former radical Islamist
By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair''s bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.
More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=465570&in_page_id=1770

Bless the Beasts and Children
Fascist nazi terrorslam kills every man woman and child in the village again%u2026 typical mo for terrorslam%u2026
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/bless-the-beasts-and-children.htm

Our Prophet commanded us to fight the kaafirs when we are able and to attack them in their homelands and to give them three choices before we enter their lands: either they become Muslim and be like us, sharing our rights and duties; or they pay the jizyah (poll tax) and feel themselves subdued; or they fight, in which case their wealth, women, children and homes become permissible as booty for the Muslims.
http://islamqa.com/index.php?ref=13759&ln=eng&txt=before%20islam%20arabia%20pagan

the truth about fascist nazi terrorislam...
http://www.terrorismawareness.org/what-really-happened/

[micma-2009]

BUSH ON BIN LADEN:


"I don''t know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don''t care. It''s not that important. It''s not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

"I am truly not that concerned about him."
- G.W. Bush, repsonding to a question about bin Laden''s whereabouts,
3/13/02 (The New American, 4/8/02)

[undermyboot]

Rudy and his neocon cabal want POWER at ANY COST. They will wrap themselves with a flag, hold up a cross, and decry the "enemies" - FOR POWER. Nothing else.

%u201CIt was, as one of his colleagues confirmed, almost a happy day for him when famous buildings were destroyed, because at such time he put into his speeches that ecstatic hatred which aroused the fanaticism...%u201D - Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister

Cheney''''s closest adviser David Addington said,
"We''''re one bomb away from getting rid of that obnoxious [FISA] court."

These people want to systematically tear down every institution of checks and balances in this country. If it takes a terrorist strike or 20, then that''''s OK with them. Just more lessons they learned from the NAZI playbook on power:

"it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Hermann Goering, Nazi leader

A fascist is a fascist, even wearing a suit and standing under a "Rudy for President" or "Republican" banner.

[nyckate]

No politician, elected or otherwise, other than Mayor Bloomberg should be speaking at the ceremonies.

Rudy, Hillary and all the others should be seated with the rest of the crowd - they shouldn''t speak, read or sing.

If Rudy doesn''t have the decency to know that he shouldn''t be speaking while he''s campaigning then he needs to be told.

This day is about the those we lost, their families and loved ones and that''s it.

[pilgrimsway-2009]

Dear voiceosanity,
And to everyone else. Where was God on sept 11. He was glued to the TV set to the horror that was unfolding. His heart was breaking to the scenes that where taking place. He was unable to dictate what man should do. He was open to the hearts that responded to the truth that they are loved. He was opened to the people wanting His will. There are some who want there own will and you see where that gets us a 911!