May 19, 2004

Giuliani Lauds 9/11 'Heroes' Amid Angry Hecklers
HEROES RAGE AT WTC PROBE

The 9/11 commission hearing yesterday in Manhattan turned into a series of angry finger-pointing exchanges — and one panel member ripped the city's response to the World Trade Center attack as "not worthy of the Boy Scouts."

The over-the-top charge from commissioner John Lehman drew a furious response from former Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who branded it "outrageous" and "despicable."

Von Essen and ex-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik fiercely defended the city's response to the terror attack — and the heroism of the cops and firefighters who gave their lives that day to save others.
[...]
The unusually harsh attack by Lehman, as well as biting comments from other commission members, touched a raw nerve with firefighters, many of whom lost friends and colleagues on Sept. 11, 2001.

"These people are Monday-morning quarterbacking," Lt. Dennis Stanford of Engine Co. 44 on the Upper East Side told The Post at the firehouse.
[...]

The fire union also came to the defense of Von Essen.

"I think he was offended they were questioning our ability to work together when we effected the greatest rescue in history," said Uniformed Firefighters Association President Steve Cassidy.

Commissioner Slade Gorton directed his fire at the city's 911 system when he grilled both Von Essen and Kerik.
[...]
In another testy exchange during the hearing, commissioner Bob Kerrey asked former WTC director Alan Reiss if he was angry about not being told enough before Sept. 11 by the FBI about the al Qaeda terrorist network.

"Things might have been different had they trusted you enough" with information about the terror group, Kerrey suggested.

Reiss shot back that he was angry at "19 people in an airplane" — the hijackers — not the FBI.

But Kerrey, who has been mentioned as a possible Democratic vice-presidential candidate, won the biggest round of applause from victims' relatives at the hearing when he said, "19 people . . . defeated the INS, they defeated the Customs [Department], they defeated the FBI, they defeated the CIA."

Sadly, this is exactly what happened which is why Al Queda planned it this way and why it succeeded.
Even President Bush said as much and not with any happiness either.
We won't be fooled again, though.
This whole 9/11 Commission has been a disaster and almost as agonizing for all of us as 9/11 itself.
It's like the dad of poor Nick Berg blaming President Bush for his son's beheading when it was the Al Queda killers, led by al-Zaqarwi, who did it.
One's grief when a loved one dies, especially when they're murdered, is hard to live with.
These family members of 9/11 victims are picking on the Bush Administration, the FDNY, the NYPD and even beloved Rudy Guiliani because they're handy and they're here, whereas the real perps, the 19 highjackers and Bin Laden, are not.
It's time for this "commission" to fold up their tents and go home.
We know who did the 9/11 attacks and as President Bush promised "they're now hearing from all of us."
The NYPD and the FDNY, under Rudy's able direction along with Von Essen and Kerik, saved thousands of people on 9/11.
The only thing that I can tell that needs some work is for the police and fire departments to improve their communications systems--that seemed the worst thing that failed on that black day.
Truth to tell, there was not much hope to save the poor people that were trapped in the fires above where the planes hit, even though there were firemen who died trying to get there.
The new Freedom Tower, whose groundbreaking will be this July 4, is designed with better emergency stairwells and fireproofing (which was a problem also.)
The Department of Homeland Security, together with the Patriot Act, is working to see that undocumented immigrants whom we have reason to believe are Islamist terrorists don't come here from troubled Islamic regimes to attack us again, coodinating the FBI, CIA, Customs (including the Coast Guard) and INS, which due to Commission member Jamie Gorelick wasn't possible before 9/11 due to her "wall."
For the commission, some of whose members are seeking partisan political gain, and certain crazed-with-grief relatives like inconsolable Sally Regenhard to blame Rudy or the firemen or the cops is "despicable and outrageous" when it's clear that all of them put their lives on the line--and 343 gave their lives--trying to save as many people as possible and that all of them would have given just about anything to have saved every single person.
We still grieve with you, Mrs. Regenhard, but blame the terrorists, not your fellow Americans.
And enough of the 9/11 Commission!