U.S. firefighters union Wednesday blasts Rudy Giuliani about September 11

["Robert L Bass" <RobertLBass@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0DA1_01C7F720.C7C74D10
Content-Type: text/plain;
	format=flowed;
	charset="iso-8859-1";
	reply-type=original
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The country's largest U.S. firefighters union
Wednesday blasted former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's performance
in the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center, aiming a
blow at the cornerstone of Giuliani's presidential campaign.

Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is under attack by firefighters
questioning his 9/11 record.

"Mayor Giuliani twisted the heroism of my brother to suit his own
mistakes of that day," Rosaleen Tallon, whose brother Sean was killed
in the attack, said in a video the International Association of Fire
Fighters released on its Web site.

Survivors of the attack and relatives of some of those who died in
the twin towers blamed Giuliani for a lack of radio gear they said
could have saved the lives of more than 100 firefighters who had been
ordered to evacuate the north tower before it collapsed.

And they criticized Giuliani for placing his emergency command center
in the World Trade Center complex before the attacks, after the
towers had been the target of a previous bombing in 1993.

"He's not a leader," said retired Deputy Chief Jim Riches, whose son
was killed in the 2001 attack. "He's running on 9/11, and it's all a
fallacy."

Giuliani's campaign responded by accusing the union of being a
partisan group, with a history of supporting Democrats. The campaign
released a statement from a retired firefighter, Lee Ielpi, who
accused IAFF leaders of being "clearly out of step with their
membership."

"In 2008, I expect these same union bosses to endorse Hillary
Clinton, Barack Obama or John Edwards, so today's comments are just a
first step in that process," Ielpi said. "Fortunately, rank-and-file
firefighters know the difference between politics and leadership."
Don't Miss

* What voters want in '08

The 13-minute video is reminiscent of the television ads run by Swift
Boat Veterans for Truth, a Republican-backed group that accused Sen.
John Kerry of lying to obtain combat decorations in Vietnam during
Kerry's 2004 Democratic presidential campaign. Though contradicted by
Navy records and Kerry's former crewmates, the group's allegations
damaged a pillar of the Massachusetts senator's presidential bid --
his background as a decorated Navy officer.

The al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington left nearly 3,000
dead. Most of that toll came from the destruction of the World Trade
Center, where 2,750 people -- including 343 firefighters -- were
killed.

At the time, Giuliani was nearing the end of his second term as
mayor, could not run again and had given up a planned Senate campaign
amid a battle with prostate cancer and a messy divorce. His efforts
to rally New Yorkers in the aftermath of that bloody day revived his
public stature and led admirers to dub him "America's mayor."

The IAFF was already critical of Giuliani's decision to remove
firefighters and other rescue workers from the task of recovering
remains from the wreckage of the trade center. In the new video, the
union argues that 121 firefighters in the north tower could have
survived if they had been able to receive orders to evacuate after
the south tower fell.

Firefighters reported problems with their radio gear after the 1993
bombing. Union leaders argue in the new video that Giuliani, who took
office later that year, failed to solve those problems in the eight
years between attacks.

"He gave us nothing when we needed a life-saving radio," says Peter
Gorman, a former local president.

Giuliani told the independent commission that investigated the
attacks that police and fire departments should have radio systems
that allow them to communicate on the same channel, but that the
systems are designed to operate differently "90 percent of the time."

He said new radios introduced in early 2001 were withdrawn because
they were "too complicated to use" -- but union officials say they
were introduced without proper testing and firefighters were unable
to communicate with them.

During the same testimony, he defended his decision to build the
city's emergency operations center in the 7 World Trade Center
building, which collapsed on September 11. Local offices of the CIA,
the Secret Service and other law-enforcement agencies were located in
the same building.

But he told commissioners, "In retrospect, obviously, you wouldn't
want to put it there if you had known what was going to happen."

Some of those in the video accused Giuliani of blaming the victims by
telling the 9/11 commission that many firefighters decided to "stand
their ground" when ordered to evacuate. The commission's staff
reports partially support his testimony, concluding that some
firefighters put off evacuating to help injured or handicapped
civilians.

But while some firefighters, including at least two battalion chiefs,
received the evacuation order, "other firefighters did not receive
the transmissions." The system was overwhelmed by radio traffic, and
some of the firefighters had rushed to the scene while off-duty
without their radios, the report states.

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

=============================>
Bass Home Electronics
941-925-8650
4883 Fallcrest Circle
Sarasota · Florida · 34233
http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
=============================>

------=_NextPart_000_0DA1_01C7F720.C7C74D10
Content-Type: text/x-vcard;
	name="Robert L Bass.vcf"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Content-Disposition: attachment;
	filename="Robert L Bass.vcf"

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:2.1
N:Bass;Robert;L
FN:Robert L Bass
ORG:Bass Home Electronics
TEL;WORK;VOICE:941-866-1100
TEL;HOME;VOICE:941-866-1100
ADR;WORK:;;4883 Fallcrest Circle;Sarasota;FL;34233;USA
LABEL;WORK;ENCODING=3DQUOTED-PRINTABLE:4883 Fallcrest =
Circle=3D0D=3D0ASarasota, FL 34233=3D0D=3D0AUSA
ADR;HOME:;;4883 Fallcrest Circle;Sarasota;FL;34233
LABEL;HOME;ENCODING=3DQUOTED-PRINTABLE:4883 Fallcrest =
Circle=3D0D=3D0ASarasota, FL 34233
X-WAB-GENDER:2
URL;HOME:http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
URL;WORK:http://www.bassburglaralarms.com
EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:robertlbass@xxxxxxxxxxx
REV:20070915T024416Z
END:VCARD

------=_NextPart_000_0DA1_01C7F720.C7C74D10--