NEW YORK, Sept. 9, 2007
Politics Roil Observance Of Sept. 11
Washington Post: Giuliani's Role At Event In New York City Is Challenged
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Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, center, with Sen. Hillary Clinton and former New York Gov. George Pataki appear in lower Manhattan, in this Sept. 18, 2001 file photo. (AP)
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Timeline In Terror's Wake A look at the major developments following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
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."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 32 CommentsIt 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.
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/
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)
%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.
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.
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!
the Third Stage - good 9/11 overview - 20min ..
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-5224963246223576086&q=%22third%20stage%22
Former Chief of NIST%u2019s Fire Science Division Calls for Independent Review of World Trade Center Investigation
Tuesday Aug 21, 2007
James Quintiere, Ph.D., former Chief of the Fire Science Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has called for an independent review of NIST%u2019s investigation into the collapses of the World Trade Center Towers on 9/11.
Dr. Quintiere made his plea during his presentation, %u201CQuestions on the WTC Investigations%u201D at the 2007 World Fire Safety Conference. %u201CI wish that there would be a peer review of this,%u201D he said, referring to the NIST investigation. %u201CI think all the records that NIST has assembled should be archived. I would really like to see someone else take a look at what they%u2019ve done; both structurally and from a fire point of view.%u201D
%u201CI think the official conclusion that NIST arrived at is questionable,%u201D explained Dr. Quintiere. %u201CLet''''s look at real alternatives that might have been the cause of the collapse of the World Trade Towers and how that relates to the official cause and what''''s the significance of one cause versus another.%u201D
Please read my previous post. Sir, you are a fool and a disgrace. Hang your head in shame.
You''re the type of scum I refer to. It doesn''t matter if you''re elected scum or nerd scum. But scum you are.
hahahahahaha
moonbat alert lol
WTC
New Three-D study supports federal finding in 9-11 tragedy
http://www.fox19.com/Global/story.asp?S=6683593&nav=0zHF
Study Supports Fed''s Finding On WTC Collapse
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=nation_world&id=5401655
Simulation Finds 9/11 Fireproofing Key
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4905202.html
Debunking The 9/11 Myths - Mar. 2005 Cover Story
PM examines the evidence and consults the experts to refute the most persistent conspiracy theories of September 11.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/1227842.html
Study Backs Up Feds'' Theory of Why World Trade Center Collapsed on Sept. 11
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,284816,00.html
The reason that September 11 didn''t effect your life in the least is becuase your sorry *** wasn''t in the twin towers. Your self centered attitude and lack of empathy is just as disgusting as Rudy''s efforts to use other Americans'' suffering to further his own self interest.
You''re both scum as far as I''m concerned.
Karma really DOES come back to you, and if you support dictatorships like Egypts for 25 years, you are at risk of being targetted.
I don''t mean the U.S. ''deserved'' 9-11: of course not!! I do mean the U.S. must always observe (even in the wake of an atrocity such as 9-11), what Freeman Dyson meant when he said:
''In war, HOW you fight is eventually more important than WHY''
By colluding with foreign dictatorships, and funding them, to enslave their home populations, the U.S. has NOT served her own defense, the defense of Israel, or the defense of Western access to OPEC oil. We can, indeed MUST, do better. It won''t prevent 9-11 events (there are crazies out there, after all), but it''ll keep the moral ball in our court. Stop funding contra guerilla''s, Mideast dictators, and other assorted bad actors (like our funding of Saddam when it suited us). Use our monies to fund politics-neutral civil and medical infrastructure, and general economic development in these countries: and trust that democracy is a WORLDWIDE aspiration, not merely something we ''enlightened'' Westerners can ''teach'' the rest of the world at the end of a gun. That''ll prevent blowback onto American soil and remain true to democracy-asprations of all earths peoples.
Even here in the UK, we were glued to our TV screens, stunned as the horror of that day unfolded. And we wept for the people who, as the day slowly turned to night, scoured the streets looking for loved ones amongst the chaos. Cried with them as they held up photographs, and spoke to the media, desperate for any news.
Anyone who uses that terrible day for political gain is scum. Pure and simple scum.
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