View this email in your browser 'Giuliani Did All the Wrong Things on That Day' Janine Jackson interviewed the Village Voice’s Wayne Barrett about Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 for the August 17, 2007, episode of CounterSpin; that conversation was rebroadcast for the November 29, 2019, show. This is a lightly edited transcript. Janine Jackson: “It was so well-orchestrated that you would have thought he had prepared for it forever.” That was how the secretary of former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani described Giuliani's performance on September 11, 2001. Certainly that has become media's memory of the then-mayor on that horrible day—calm, focused, effective—and consequently much of the public's memory as well. Once media get hold of a storyline, they tend to run with it, and by the end of 2001, Time magazine had it that “Giuliani's performance ensures that he will be remembered as the greatest mayor in the city's history.”  The troubling truth, according to a new book, is that the story that Giuliani has told, and that the press has repeated, about September 11 and his actions that day, doesn't square with actual events. The book is called Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11. It's co-authored by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins. Wayne Barrett is senior editor at the Village Voice; he joins us now by telephone. Welcome to CounterSpin, Wayne Barrett. Wayne Barrett: It’s so good to be here. JJ: We're talking about the historical record here. So what to you are the most significant differences between the Time magazine picture of Giuliani as “taking on half a dozen critical roles and performing each masterfully,” and the reality of his role on that day? WB: Well, on that day, he said all the right things; I think he hit a chord with the American public generally, and of course, he was filling a void, because the president couldn't be located. But he actually did all the wrong things on that day and in the lead-up to that day, in terms of preparing the city for any form of terrorist attack. Remember, we were attacked once already in 1993, and it was a city that should have been ready, and should have understood the threat, particularly to the World Trade Center, since the terrorists said they were coming back.  So what he did wrong that day in particular was that he violated his own protocols, which it's not just Wayne Barrett saying that. John Farmer, who was the head of the 9/11 Commission unit that worked on the chapter that dealt with the city's response, I interviewed him, and he said that everything Giuliani did by splitting the command posts that day was in violation of his own command-and-control protocols.  What Giuliani did—and this story has been told a thousand times—is when he arrived in the vicinity of the World Trade Center complex, he met the police commissioner, Bernie Kerik, and with Bernie Kerik and almost the entire top-ranking uniformed officers of the police department, he walked over to West Street, on the far side of the towers, where the fire chiefs had set up their command posts.  It was, after all, a fire, so the fire chiefs are supposed to be in charge, and under any unified command system anywhere in the United States, the fire chiefs and the police chief should have been at the same command post, working together.  Instead, Giuliani spent about five minutes there, and then proceeded to leave and take the entire police brass with him, to another location on the far side of the towers, a safer location in the Barclay Building, an office building much further away from the towers.  If he had left a single high-ranking member of the police department there with the fire chiefs, then everybody would have had, the fire chiefs would have had, all the police communications that were coming in from the helicopters; the police pilots were saying the towers were going to collapse, and the dysfunction of the fire department radios would have meant far less.  But in fact, there were no police chiefs at the fire chief command post; there wasn't any unified command, and that was a direct result of what Rudy himself did. That was his principal error that day; he made a few others, but that was his principal error. And in the lead-up to 9/11, why were they even going to a command post? Why weren't they going to the command center, which the city had spent up to $70 million creating and operating? And that's because he put the command center in 7 World Trade, in the complex that had already been attacked, and it was vacated early in the day. So it was dysfunctional throughout the day, and that was a very costly error. Because there was no functioning command center, it heightened the importance of establishing a unified command, at this much more makeshift thing that occurs in all major events, this command post. JJ: So let's be clear: It's not so much that what Giuliani did in the midst of this chaotic situation turned out to be a mistake. It really was that he didn't follow existing rules on paper, about how something should be done. WB: Rules that he himself created. Yes. JJ: Now you indicate that Giuliani has never really been forced to explain, by reporters or anyone, this splitting-the-post decision. Did journalists just not want to sully the icon, or what's going on there? WB: Well, I don't think anybody really examined it the way you can in a book. I know this is one of the best-covered news events of all time, but still, the National Institute of Standards and Technology did a 10,000-page study of the city's response. It was a significant chapter in the 9/11 Commission Report. And both of them observed that there was a split command post, and that it was detrimental. But they didn't hold anybody accountable for it: They never mentioned the mayor's name, they never reviewed the circumstances that led up to that day. So that the media didn't have some official body telling them how to figure this one out. And apparently they couldn't figure it out themselves.  I mean, I quote everyone, including the current police commissioner, Ray Kelly, as saying that this was a violation of the protocols. No one else had ever asked them. JJ: You're kind of shifting, well, you're very much shifting the memory, the public's and the media's memory, of a significant event. What kinds of responses are you getting from reporters, in particular, to this book? WB: You know, the book is five years after the event. And it's not just a focus on this kind of a mistake. Most of the book is really about the lead-up to 9/11, and all the mistakes that were made. And I think there's a very receptive media audience to it in New York.  Nationally, there hasn't been much of an audience for it yet. You know, the myth still is driving much of the anniversary spin about this event. As Giuliani emerges, more and more in time, as a presidential candidate, the national media may be more receptive to looking at the true facts, of not only what happened that day, but the failure to prepare for any form of a terrorist attack, that characterized the Giuliani administration for seven and a half years prior to 9/11. JJ: Let me just ask you, finally, if you could characterize--media have had some time to cover follow-up, particularly here in New York, the environmental cleanup; it's not like the story of September 11 is just what happened on that day. Do you feel that media are up to the task of really doing the first draft of history on this? WB: There seems to be a fixation about the EPA and Christie Whitman and their role, which was certainly a culpable role, in the toxic aftermath of 9/11. But our book focuses very squarely on what we think is by far the more responsible party, and that is the city of New York.  Again, it's ironic, because all of the media coverage in the aftermath of 9/11 stressed how Giuliani was the king of Ground Zero, that he ran it from top to bottom. That was at a time when everyone thought it was going so smoothly, that they were getting rid of the debris, they were clearing the site so fast.  Now, when everyone understands that this was a toxic nightmare, and an unnecessary toxic nightmare, especially after the first week or two, when it was clear that no rescues could be done--now no one seems to be saying, Giuliani was running that toxic nightmare, wasn't he? Well, we certainly make the case that he was, that he made all the critical decisions.  Just as an example, we cite a letter on October 5, that the EPA wrote the city's health department, saying, Nobody's wearing a respirator down there. There are no cleanup stations for anybody to get rid of the toxins as they leave. This letter was completely ignored by the city. The city did nothing about it. Christie Whitman, whose agency is certainly responsible for misrepresenting the condition of the air generally there, although the city did its own tests, tests that were never made public , that we reveal in the book, 87 test results, most of them positive, that were never released, and never put up on any website or anything by the city. Christie Whitman actually once saw on CNN, in the dead of night, that none of the firefighters and none of the construction workers were wearing respirators, and got on the phone herself calling city agencies.  So, Giuliani was running Ground Zero. And the toxic aftermath, it continues in the courts, will haunt his presidential prospects, because these suits are going forward, and the city's culpability is becoming clearer every day in federal courts, not just involving the workers at Ground Zero, but the thousands of people who live down there, and Giuliani essentially said, “Clean your own apartments.” JJ: That was reporter Wayne Barrett, speaking with CounterSpin in September 2006. Known as the first reporter to take Donald Trump seriously, describing him in 1979 as “a user of other users,” Barrett died the day before Trump's inauguration in January 2017. © 2018 Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. All rights reserved. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting Our mailing address is: FAIRNESS & ACCURACY IN REPORTING 124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201 New York, NY 10001 FAIR's Website FAIR counts on your support to do this work — please donate today.

Wayne Barrett on Rudy Giuliani, Melissa Goodman on the PATRIOT Act MP3 Link Mayor Rudy Giuliani at the WTC site. CounterSpin this week revisits two interviews from the past, on topics very much of today. First up: Now that Rudy Giuliani is known as Donald Trump's rabid fixer, whom we learned none other than John Bolton described as “a hand grenade” who would “blow everyone up,” the former New York City mayor has fallen out of elite media's good graces. To which New Yorkers say, what took you so long? Much of media's story around Giuliani was about how cool and effective he was on September 11, 2001. And much of that story is myth. In 2006, CounterSpin spoke with the late journalist Wayne Barrett, then at the late Village Voice, about his book, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, co-authored with Dan Collins. We'll hear that interview today. MP3 Link (cc photo: Ralf Roletschek) Also on the show: Another thing we can't miss because it won't go away: the PATRIOT Act, signed in 2001. House Democrats, unbelievably to some, just put through a reauthorization of the Act, in the midst of proceedings to impeach the person to whom it hands such incredible power. The PATRIOT Act was opposed from the very beginning, but did media do enough to reveal and resist the way it impedes the public's right to know? In 2005, we heard from the ACLU's Melissa Goodman about a particular case that showed just how draconian and anti-democratic the PATRIOT Act is. We'll hear that conversation again today. MP3 Link Plus Janine Jackson takes a quick look at recent coverage of the "strong economy." MP3 Link

© 2018 Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting. All rights reserved. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting Our mailing address is: FAIRNESS & ACCURACY IN REPORTING 124 W. 30th Street, Suite 201 New York, NY 10001 FAIR's Website FAIR counts on your support to do this work — please donate today.

FOCUS: Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain | The Iran Cables: From the Rubble of the US War in Iraq, Iran Built a New Order

19 November 19

---

What Will You Do to Preserve Reader Supported News?

There is no way this organization can survive and function with out reasonable support - from our readership. Right now we are not getting that.

What will you do?

We need a grand total of 700 donations/mo. So far we have 183.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Update My Monthly Donation

---

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611

19 November 19

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

We Still Only Have "5" Donations for the Day, Help Please - With so few donations there have to be serious problems. There are. Who out there can make a donation they can afford? It would be greatly appreciated and very helpful. Thank you sincerely in advance. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

FOCUS: Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain | The Iran Cables: From the Rubble of the US War in Iraq, Iran Built a New Order

Jeremy Scahill and Murtaza Hussain, The Intercept
Excerpt: "About a month before the United States invaded Iraq in March 2003, Tariq Aziz, one of Saddam Hussein's most trusted comrades, sat in his office in Baghdad in an olive green uniform, cigar in hand, wearing house slippers."

EXCERPTS:

“The U.S. can overthrow Saddam Hussein,” said Aziz, an Iraqi Christian and one of the most senior figures in Saddam’s government. “You can destroy the Baath Party and secular Arab nationalism.” But, he warned, “America will open a Pandora’s box that it will never be able to close.” The iron-fisted rule of Saddam, draped in the veneer of Arab nationalism, he argued, was the only effective way to deal with forces like Al Qaeda or prevent an expansion of Iranian influence in the region.

When the U.S. invaded, Aziz was the eight of spades in the card deck the Pentagon created to publicize its high-value targets. He was ultimately captured, held in a makeshift prison at the Baghdad airport, and forced to dig a hole in the ground to use as a latrine. He died in custody of a heart attack in June 2015. But Aziz lived long enough to watch exactly what he warned of come to pass, accusing U.S. President Barack Obama of “leaving Iraq to the wolves.”

The 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq marked the moment when the U.S. lost control of its own bloody chess game. The chaos unleashed by the U.S. invasion allowed Iran to gain a level of influence in Iraq that was unfathomable during the reign of Saddam. Secret documents from the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, obtained by The Intercept, give an unprecedented picture of how deeply present-day Iraq is under Iranian influence. The sovereignty once jealously defended by Arab nationalists has been steadily eroded since the U.S. invasion.

The Disaster of De-Baathification

A little over a decade before George W. Bush decided to overthrow the Iraqi government, his father’s administration had taken a very different path. After mercilessly destroying Iraq’s civilian and military infrastructure in a bombing campaign during the 1991 Gulf War, George H.W. Bush was persuaded that it would be too dangerous to march on Baghdad. Not because of the potential human costs, or deaths of U.S. soldiers in combat, but because Saddam was a known quantity who had already proven valuable in the 1980s when he attacked Iran and triggered the brutal Iran-Iraq War. During that eight-year conflict, the U.S. armed both countries but overwhelmingly favored Baghdad. More than a million people died in trench warfare reminiscent of World War I. Henry Kissinger put a fine point on the U.S. strategy in that war when he quipped that it is “a shame there can only be one loser.”

Even after the war had ended, the American fear of Iran outweighed any appetite for regime change in Iraq. So Saddam remained.

Bush’s son took a different view. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, high-ranking figures in his administration began falsely connecting Saddam’s regime to Al Qaeda. In reality, the religious extremists were mortal enemies of the Baathists. But the process for Saddam’s removal had already been determined by neoconservatives who had been bent on waging war against Iraq years before 9/11.

For more than six decades, the U.S. has played a central role in fomenting disasters that have destroyed the lives of entire generations in Iraq and Iran. Any criticisms of Iran’s role today cannot efface this ugly record. How Iraqis respond to the information about Iran’s secret dealings in their country is their business. Perhaps there are international organizations and countries whose advice and counsel would be welcome. But given its atrocious legacy in Iraq, the United States should not be among them.

READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Update My Monthly Donation

Paul Krugman | Republicans Don't Believe in Democracy

18 September 19

---

Free of Corporate Influence, But Not Free

Yes we have succeeded in building a great information source - free of shady financing. We do however have to pay the bills, (the honest way.) Join the many who support this wonderful project.

Get behind RSN.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Update My Monthly Donation

---

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts, CA 95611

18 September 19

It's Live on the HomePage Now:
Reader Supported News

FEED THE GREEDY CORPORATION, STARVE THE TRUTH-TELLER: The vast majority of our readers are far more likely to hand their money to the very Corporations whose abuses they rely on us to monitor than they are to give us - any money at all - to monitor them. It's not that you do not come to RSN, it’s that most of you do not help out. As a result the abusive corporate entities thrive while smaller honest organizations are left without means. Stop funding the problem and start funding the solution! Now would be a good time. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Paul Krugman | Republicans Don't Believe in Democracy

Paul Krugman, The New York Times
Krugman writes: "Last week Republicans in the North Carolina House used the occasion of 9/11 to call a surprise vote, passing a budget bill with a supermajority to override the Democratic governor's veto. They were able to do this only because most Democrats were absent, some of them attending commemorative events."
READ MORE

Former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. (photo: Jabin Botsford/WP)

Corey Lewandowski Caught in Lie to MSNBC During House Testimony
Matt Wilstein, The Daily Beast
Wilstein writes: "Corey Lewandowski was caught in a lie during his House testimony when Democratic counsel Barry Berke played him a clip from an interview he gave to MSNBC's Ari Melber in February of this year."
READ MORE

Nominee for director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Joseph Maguire, looks on during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill on July 25, 2018. (photo: Marcus Tappan/AFP/Getty Images)

Intelligence Chief Joseph Maguire Won't Turn Over Whistleblower Complaint to House Committee
Ken Dilanian, NBC News
Dilanian writes: "Acting DNI Joseph Maguire acknowledges he is overruling the intelligence community's independent watchdog, which thinks the complaint should be turned over."
READ MORE

Elaine Chao. (photo: Tasos Katopodis/Getty/Uber Elevate)

Congress Is Finally Investigating McConnell's Wife Elaine Chao
Paul Blest, Splinter
Blest writes: "Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, who is married to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has largely stayed under the radar during her time in the Trump administration due to her focus on more conventional grifts, rather than the transparent looting that others such as Scott Pruitt and Ryan Zinke partook in. On the surface, at least, that appears to be changing."
READ MORE

People gather at a makeshift memorial honoring victims outside Walmart in El Paso, Texas. 22 people were killed in the Walmart during a mass shooting on August 3, 2019. (photo: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Walmart Shootings Prompt Retailers to Change Their Open-Carry Policies
Hilary George-Parkin, Vox
George-Parkin writes: "Walmart, Kroger, CVS, and more are asking customers to leave their guns at home."
READ MORE

Ecuador's Parliament Votes Down Abortion in Cases of Rape Bill
BBC News
Excerpt: "Ecuador's parliament has rejected a controversial bill to allow abortion in cases of rape, a proposal that exposed divisions in the traditionally Catholic country."
READ MORE

Whistleblowers. (illustration: Máximo Tuja)

The Silenced: Meet the Climate Whistleblowers Muzzled by Trump
Oliver Milman, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Six whistleblowers and ex-government scientists describe how the Trump administration made them bury climate science - and why they won't stay quiet."
READ MORE

---

Contribute to RSN

Update My Monthly Donation

How the FBI Increased Its Power After 9/11 and Helped Put Trump in Office

16 September 19

---

A Special Funding Appeal From Mark Twain

“The liberty of the Press is called the Palladium of Freedom, which means, in these days, the liberty of being deceived, swindled, and humbugged by the Press and paying hugely for the deception.” - Mark Twain, 1870

You have your own news source, beholden to you. What does it take to preserve it? Precious little.

Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News

Sure, I'll make a donation!

---

Update My Monthly Donation

---

If you would prefer to send a check:
Reader Supported News
PO Box 2043
Citrus Hts
CA 95611

15 September 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News “THE RICH PEOPLE SHOULD PAY FOR RSN” - An actual comment from a reader. Guess what folks the “rich people” pay for CNN, the NRA, most of the politicians in Washington and a whole lot of other things that destroy the fabric of the country. RSN has always had support from large and small donors alike. That’s big part of what makes us unique. Do what you can do. But please do something. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! How the FBI Increased Its Power After 9/11 and Helped Put Trump in Office Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept Devereaux writes: "While the FBI has devoted enormous time, energy, and resources to filling unconstitutional watchlists with Muslim names and directing its agents to focus on bogus national security threats such as 'black identity extremists,' important crimes that the bureau is supposed to enforce have fallen by the wayside." EXCERPT: As a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, German has been a go-to source for journalists (The Intercept included) on the civil liberties beat, consistently providing nuanced analysis on matters of law enforcement and justice, often as they pertain to his old employer. In his new book, “Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy,” German brings his insights to a wider audience, telling the story of how FBI leadership capitalized on the September 11 attacks, escaping a much-needed internal reckoning to become the most powerful and secretive domestic intelligence agency the country has ever known. READ MORE Mitch McConnell, Brett Kavanaugh and Mike Pence. (photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Kamala Harris and Julían Castro Among Democrats Calling for Kavanaugh's Impeachment Martin Pengelly, Guardian UK Pengelly writes: "Donald Trump came storming to the defense of Brett Kavanaugh on Sunday, after the publication of new allegations about the supreme court justice's behaviour while he was a student at Yale led to renewed calls for his impeachment." READ MORE The White House. (photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP) Dahlia Lithwick | What Happens if Trump Won't Step Down? Dahlia Lithwick, Slate Lithwick writes: "In February, Georgetown Law professor Josh Geltzer began to ponder aloud what would happen if President Donald Trump refused to leave office were he to be defeated in 2020. It sounded far-fetched, but Geltzer isn't a conspiracy theorist." READ MORE Smoke is seen following a fire at an Aramco factory in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia, September 14, 2019. (photo: Hamad I Mohammed/Reuters) Iran Denies Carrying Out Crippling Attacks on Saudi Oil Facilities Kareem Fahim, Erin Cunningham and Steven Mufson, The Washington Post Excerpt: "Iran on Sunday rejected U.S. accusations it was responsible for devastating attacks on two oil installations in Saudi Arabia that struck at the heart of the kingdom's oil industry and forced Aramco, the state oil company, to suspend its production output by half." READ MORE This May 16, 2014, file photo shows the General Motors logo at the company's world headquarters in Detroit. The United Auto Workers union is letting its contract with General Motors expire just before midnight Saturday, Sept. 14, 2019, increasing the likelihood of a strike as early as Sunday night. (photo: Paul Sancya/AP) UAW Says Its 49,000 Members at GM Plants Will Go on Strike Tonight Tom Krisher, Associated Press Krisher writes: "The United Auto Workers union announced Sunday that its roughly 49,000 workers at General Motors plants in the U.S. would go on strike just before midnight because contentious talks on a new contract had broken down." READ MORE Michael Kozak. (photo: Department of State) Coup Master: Michael Kozak, New US Envoy for Latin America teleSUR Excerpt: "In par with its belligerent policy towards Latin America, United States President Donald Trump appointed Thursday Michael Kozak as Acting Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, a U.S. diplomat known for his expertise in regime change." READ MORE 'But if no one speaks in terms that Christians, especially conservative Christians, care about, then climate activists are only going to be talking to themselves.' (image: Getty Images/Daily Beast) Climate Activists Don't Know How to Talk to Christians Jay Michaelson, The Daily Beast Michaelson writes: "Religious Christians are the key to America taking action on global warming. And yet, the way climate activists frame the issue often alienates the very people they most need to persuade." EXCERPT: Which is exactly what’s happened. Levels of understanding and concern about climate change have more or less plateaued in the last few years. On the political level, nothing is happening. Thirty-four percent of Americans still do not “believe” that global warming is being caused by humans, and only 44 percent of Americans say they “worry a great deal” about it. Another recent Yale study found that voters rank it just 17th among issues of concern. Given the extreme likelihood of an unprecedented refugee crisis brought on by rising seas and changing crop patterns, mass extinctions, and global food shortages, all of those numbers are shocking. According to the World Health Organization, 250,000 people will die each year from 2030-2050 because of increased rates of malnutrition, malaria, diarrhea, and heat stress. Climate denial, meanwhile, is now a billion-dollar industry, with energy-funded think tanks, pseudoscience, lobbying, and media campaigns. The energy industry is using the most persuasive, most effective methods to persuade people about global warming. Why isn’t the environmental movement? READ MORE Contribute to RSN Update My Monthly Donation