Call Him '9/11 Profiteer'
Fire Families Torch Giuliani

By ARI PAUL

Family members of firefighters who died on 9/11 and other activists gathered in protest Sept. 24 outside of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign fund-raiser at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'SHAME ON RUDY': Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy speaks at a rally outside the Waldorf-Astoria Sept. 24, where Rudy Giuliani was holding a presidential campaign fundraiser. Along with family members of fallen firefighters, Mr. Cassidy accused the former Mayor of failed leadership before, during and after 9/11.

Sounding their recurring theme, they argued that firefighters in the North Tower of the World Trade Center did not hear evacuation calls because they were using the same inadequate radios that failed after the 1993 WTC bombing, even though Mr. Giuliani had received a report about the radios' problems in 1994, his first year in office. They also said Mr. Giuliani failed to give respirators to employees searching for remains in the wreckage of the Trade Center, causing many to contract respiratory diseases. Mr. Giuliani also is believed by many to have insisted that the city's emergency command center be placed in 7 World Trade Center, which was destroyed on 9/11.

 

To Take Message on Road

Norman Siegel, the attorney for the group, said that the families are looking for ways to travel to New Hampshire and Iowa to spread their anti-Giuliani message to American voters.

One retired Firefighter flew in from California to be at the protest

RUDY GIULIANI: An unwelcome entourage.

and vowed to travel to others across the country. Sean Hickey explained, "He's running on the deaths of everybody that died Sept. 11. He's treating that ash he's covered in like it's pixie dust with magical powers."

Rosaleen Tallon lost her Firefighter brother, Sean, in the North Tower. Standing in front of a mock symbol of the Fire Department containing a photo of the radios that did not work, the emergency command center that was destroyed and the respirators post-9/11 crews did not receive, she argued that Mr. Giuliani's record proved he was not worthy to be the nation's next commander-in-chief.

"If that makes you a terror expert, I'm a terror expert," Ms. Tallon said. "Mayor Giuliani said he read a book about Al Qaeda after 9/11. That's when he started reading up on Al Qaeda. After 9/11. He got a book."

'He's No Expert'

She went on, "That made him an expert? That prepared New York? That freaks me out. And I'm freaked out that New Yorkers don't know this. And I'm really freaked out that America doesn't know this. But they will."

Mr. Giuliani's campaign continued to reject the families' claims.

"Mayor Giuliani provided much-needed leadership during our city's greatest crisis, and not a day goes by where he doesn't think about the terrorist attacks from six years ago," First Responders for Rudy National Chair Howard Safir said in a statement.

'Rudy Counted on EPA'

Campaign spokesman Jeffrey Barker added, "Mayor Giuliani repeatedly encouraged everyone on site at the World Trade Center to wear respiratory masks. He and everyone in the city relied on the EPA to test and determine the quality of he air."

Many of the family members who spoke, such as Deputy Chief Jim Riches and Al and Sally Regenhard, also appear in "Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend," a video the International Association of Fire Fighters produced that challenges Mr. Giuliani's 9/11 record and the perception of him that emerged nationally in the days after the terrorist attacks. It was released July 11.

Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy and Uniformed Fire Officers Association John J. McDonnell also addressed the crowd of reporters and protesters. Paul Stein, Council Leader for Division 199 of the Public Employees Federation, led the protesters in a song he wrote about Mr. Giuliani, sung to the tune of "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."

'Giuliani, 9/11 Profiteer'

"His terror-fighting expertise is all a lie/Built his operations center in a target in the sky/Gave his firefighters radios that did not work up high/His bad decision-making caused hundreds to die," he sang while playing the accordion.

The protesters joined in the chorus, singing, "Rudy Giuliani, 9/11 profiteer." To conclude the protest, the crowd turned towards the hotel and shouted, "Shame on Rudy."

After the rally, Glenn Corbett, Associate Professor of Fire Science at John Jay College, told this newspaper that there were beneficial aspects to Mr. Giuliani's mayoralty, but that his handling of 9/11 and emergency planning were particularly inept. He stressed that Mr. Giuliani's alleged insistence on placing the emergency command center at the World Trade Center rather than in Brooklyn was troubling.

"If Rudy was running on anything but 9/11, you would not see the vociferous response you see here," he said.

FDNY Capt. Richard Patterson told the crowd, "We know who heroes are. I've also heard it said that a hero is nothing but a sandwich. Maybe there is some truth in that, because this guy's pure bologna."