The Republican Media- No. 3

On January 20, 2007 CNN analyst Bill Schneider said Republican primary voters "admire Rudy Giuliani's record on terrorism..."

So let's go over the record. On September 11, 2001 Mayor Giuliani rushed to the scene of the second World Trade Center bombing, the first having taken place in 1993. He would have gone to the city's Emergency Command Center, but that was in the World Trade Center, notwithstanding the 1993 attack and the recommendations of his security advisers to move it out of there. (His successor has moved it to Brooklyn, as Giuliani's top security man had advised Rudy.) So Giuliani, the Fire Department brass, and the Police Department brass met briefly at the FDNY command post near the World Trade Center, whereupon Giuliani and his entire 25-member inner circle headed uptown until, one hour after the attack, they finally found a command center. Of course, according to current requirements of the Department of Homeland Security and the mayor's own protocol, a unified command post was necessary. But if one had been quickly established, the Mayor wouldn't have had all that time to walk the streets of lower Manhattan, charming the press, reassuring the public, and making no significant decisions, while Police Commissioner (and former Giuliani bodyguard) Kerik was concerned with little other than keeping the Mayor safe.(Two-time NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly: "I don't know de facto who was in charge.") Admittedly, it would not have been so critical had the police and fire officials been able to communicate with each other, but they couldn't, a failing which apparently had never disturbed the mayor. Giuliani had replaced the Fire Department's radios, which had failed in the 1993 attack. Replaced them in early 2001 with other radios, which were promptly found not to work. So, according to the International Association of Fire Fighters, some firefighters never heard the two orders on the morning of 9/11/01 to evacuate the North Tower- and 121 firefighters died as a result while all police officers safely made their way out. Then when the Mayor appeared before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Against the United States, he told Kean, Hamilton, et al. that the firefighters disobeyed the command to leave.
Leadership. That's Rudy.