radios at Brave New Films

Giuliani: New York City Survived 9/11 Attacks Because Of Me

2008-03-22T21:54:51Z

Actually, no, you see your boneheaded moves actually cost some New Yorkers their lives. See our most recent video, and go to Think Progress who has Rudy's unbelieveable quotes on this. They were nice enough to re-post our video on Rudy's near-criminal negligence in not replacing radios for firefighters he knew wouldn't work in a chaotic situation...

Rudy: It was "impossible" to have working radios on 9/11

2008-07-09T15:30:14Z

Today, Rudy Giuliani tried to defend himself against charges made by firefighters in the Brave New Films documentary, "The Real Rudy: Radios."

Rudy claimed it was "impossible" to have working radios despite knowing for 8 years that they didn't work.

STEPHANOPOULOS: They make two main charges. Number one, that those firefighters in the north tower, many of them lost their lives because their radios didn’t work. They also say you ended the recovery efforts too soon.
GIULIANI: Well, the radios that you’re talking about weren’t put online for three, four, five years after. So, it would have been impossible for me to have those radios ready. It took the city two or three more years…
STEPHANOPOULOS: But they had malfunctioned in 1993.
GIULIANI: But even with the new equipment, it took another two or three years for those radios to be put online. So it would have been impossible for us to have gotten them online before that, given the fact that it took so long afterwards.

This is just ridiculous. The reason the radios didn't work on 9/11 was because he waited 7 years before getting new ones. Only then did he award a contract to Motorola. A $14 million no-bid contract. Shockingly, the radios Motrola delivered still didn't work.

And on 9/11, 121 firefighters died as a result.

Watch the video

Rudy's Love Letter To NY Firefighters

2008-03-22T21:54:41Z

What to do when you're Rudy Giuliani, and you know you're responsible for, at the very least, a gross act of negligence that contributed to the untimely deaths of 121 firefighters in the North Tower of the World Trade Center on 9/11?

Well, you ignore and lie about it for six years, for starters. But then when the firefighters' union and Brave New Films decide to expose your role in this tragedy with fact-based films, you write a love letter worthy of something you might have put together for your second wife while still married to your first wife. Or maybe it was your third wife when still married to your second wife.

I always get that mixed up.

Here is Rudy, on his hands and knees, hoping to stave off an inevitable investigation into his no-bid contract for radios that didn't work and were never field tested, the magical inflation of said contract by a factor of ten, and his ignoring the fact that the original radios, in many cases, DIDN'T WORK from 1994 (when he was sworn in as mayor) until 2001.

November 5, 2007 -- Rudy Giuliani has sent out a letter thanking cops and firefighters for risking their lives - and insisting he would be the president to help prepare them for future terrorist attacks.
"Firefighters and police officers have been my heroes since I was a little boy. I've had the honor of working alongside them during my career in law enforcement and elected office," he said in a "Dear Friend" note to public-safety officers.
The letter seeks to counter criticism Giuliani has faced from New York firefighters-union leaders and 9/11 family advocates who accuse the former mayor of doing a poor job of planning for such a disaster.

Isn't that cute. When he was a little boy he idolized firefighters and cops. Like every boy under the age of 12. Most, however, didn't grow up to ignore and imperil their safety.

Too bad a few nice words don't make the firefighters forget what he did to them:

The Giuliani letter doesn't change anything, said FDNY Deputy Chief James Riches.
"It's great he's starting to prepare us now. He didn't prepare us in 2001. He ignored all the warnings from the first 1993 attack at the World Trade Center," said Riches, whose firefighter son, James, was killed at Ground Zero.

That just about sums it up.

Thanks for the blog love

2008-01-12T20:32:36Z

Yesterday we announced that because 20,000 of you called for an investigation of the questions raised The REAL Rudy: Radios, NYC councilman Eric Gioa has agreed to "do everything I can to get answers." Since then, we've received an incredible outpouring of blog love on this developing story. Thank you!

A sampling of the blog love:

The Huffington Post: "Giuliani Faces Investigation Of 9/11 Radios"

Daily Kos: "Rudy gets called out for his 9/11 disaster"

MyDD: "The Real Rudy"

Think Progress: "NYC councilman calls for investigation of Rudy"

Crooks and Liars: "NYC to investigate Giuliani, faulty 9/11 radios"

Talking Points Memo: "Rudy Faces Probe Into 9/11 Firefighter Radio Fiasco"

Newsday Blog: "Probe Rudy on 9/11 Radios?"

The New York Observer: "Eric Gioa discusses Investigation of Rudy Giuliani's 9/11 role"

New York Daily News Blog: "Odds and Ends"

The Albany Project: "NYC Councilman Supports Investigation Giuliani's 9/11 Failures"

Michael Moore: The Real Rudy

Alternet: "NYC Councilman Calls For Investigation Of Giuliani's Performance on 9/11"

The Carpetbagger Report: "NYC to investigate Giuliani, faulty 9/11 radios"

Brilliant at Breakfast: "Debunking the Saint of 9/11"

The Ruth Group: "Rudy FUBAR"

Crimes and Corruption of the NWO: "Giuliani Faces 9/11 Investigation

Republic of Sestakastan: "Giuliani Faces Investigation"

"Rudy Giuliani Is Genuinely Not Qualified To Be President"

2008-07-24T12:48:56Z

I'm sure most of you have seen this already. But worth posting as many times as Rudy says 9/11 in a speech on taxes.

Don't worry Senator Biden. Once the NY City Council starts investigating the feckless fascist for ignoring the concerns of firefighters for seven years, up to and including on 9/11, the rest of the country will know how demonstrably unqualified he is to be President.

Then hem might not be so apt to remind them of that day ad nauseam.

Watch the video

NYC Councilman Supports Investigating Giuliani's 9/11 failures

2008-03-22T21:54:41Z

Chair of The Oversight and Investigations Committee, Eric Gioia, was thoroughly convinced by our fact-based film on Rudy's 9/11 negligence (in this case, faulty radios and no-bid contracts), that we need answers.

Now we're heading towards an investigation. Thank you to everyone who watched the film and signed the petition. You made this happen!

Just remember. This is about accountability in government. Which just happens to be Rudy Giuliani's worst enemy.

NYC Councilman: “My promise is I’ll do everything I can to get answers.”

2008-07-09T13:49:28Z

After receiving the names of over 20,000 people supporting your call for an investigation of the questions raised in The Real Rudy: Radios, New York City Councilman Eric Gioa pledged:

“I will do everything in my power to get answers, to get the truth. There needs to be accountability."

Councilman Gioia chairs the Oversight and Investigations Committee of the New York City Council. With his support, we can hold Giuliani accountable for his failure to equip firefighters with radios that could have saved lives on 9/11, and get answers to these questions:

Why was nothing done to improve FDNY radio performance for seven years after a clear need was demonstrated in the 1993 World Trade Center attack?
When new radios were finally ordered, why did the city award a contract to Motorola without a competitive bidding process?
Once Motorola was given the contract, why did its cost jump from $1.4 million to $14 million?
Why were these new radios never field tested?

UPDATE: Thanks for all the blog love!

Watch the video

NYC Councilman Calls For Investigation Of Giuliani's Performance Re 9/11

2008-07-09T15:29:16Z

Our friend Phillip Anderson, of the great New York blog The Albany Project, did the filming as our petitions were delivered to the Chair of The Committee on Oversight and Investigations, Eric Gioia.

As Phillip put it:

We were very pleased with Councilman Gioia's response and hope that he will indeed deliver on his pledge to get the answers to these questions that we all, most especially the families of those firefighters who perished on 9/11, so richly deserve.

It sounds like all of your activism may indeed pay off. Thanks so much my friends.

Oh, and on a side note, as I'm writing this at approximately 9:20 AM Eastern Time, we sit at 19,998 signatures on our petition to investigate Rudy (the video has been viewed just under 103,000 times).

Get on over there and be the 20,000th to sign!

Watch the video

Blog Action Day And The Environment

2008-06-15T15:30:46Z

We're a little slow over here at times...ok, I am. But my excuse is we were doing something on some former mayor, what's his name, Ghouliani or something?

In any case, the concept of this video is having all blogs unite to push an important issue, like the environment, for a day (Oct. 15th was the decreed day). I feel like we have recently had a perfect example of this, as blogs across the Internet linked to our Rudy Radios video and we've seen the results. Closing in on 90,000 views as of this minute and 18,000 petition signers.

In any case, give this video a view.

Watch the video

Hey Rudy, can you hear them NOW?

2008-07-09T18:56:30Z

In light of Rudy Giuliani's claim to be the ablest in the whole wide world to protect us from evil should he become the ::shudder:: Commander in Chief, I thought it might be interesting to look back at one facet of his esteemed record:

On September 11th, 2001, this was heard from a police helicopter hovering over the World Trade Center:

''About 15 floors down from the top, it looks like it's glowing red,'' the pilot of one helicopter, Aviation 14, radioed at 10:07 a.m. ''It's inevitable.''

Orders were given to evacuate. There was just one hitch. One fatal hitch:

Yet most firefighters never heard those warnings, or earlier orders to get out. Their radio system failed frequently that morning. Even if the radio network had been reliable, it was not linked to the police system. And the police and fire commanders guiding the rescue efforts did not talk to one another during the crisis.

At least 121 firefighters died as a result.

Now, after months of grief, both the Fire and Police Departments are approaching the end of delicate internal reviews of their responses to the attack. Those reviews have concluded that major changes are needed in how the agencies go about their work and prepare for the next disaster, senior officials say.

So, let's see...how could this have happened? Where do we begin? Got it! At the top. The management, maybe?

A six-month examination by The Times found that the rescuers' ability to save themselves and others was hobbled by technical difficulties, a history of tribal feuding and management lapses that have been part of the emergency response culture in New York City and other regions for years.

And who was in charge? Why, it's as if it were almost yesterday...

Although Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani created the Office of Emergency Management in 1996 and spent nearly $25 million to coordinate emergency response, trade center officials said the agency had not conducted an emergency exercise there that included the Fire Department, the police and the Port Authority's emergency staff.

How's that whole wrapping-yourself-in-9/11-thing working out for you, Rudy?

Sally Regenhart, whose firefighter son died at the World Trade Center, contended that one of the reasons so many firefighters died on 9/11 was the inadequacy of the radios they carried – a situation for which she blamed Giuliani. [...] "He died because of the failures of the Giuliani administration – numerous failures but the most glaring one that contributed to his death was no radios . The radios they was given, he had no idea that they didn't work. He had no idea that they were the same ones that didn't work in 1993. He had no idea that he couldn't communicate with anyone in the World Trade Center."

Thomas Von Essen, the city's fire commissioner from 1996 through 2001, and a former president of the main fire union:

''But you have to start thinking about the reality of the world that we live in today. And that demands better leadership, more accountable leadership, a better-trained leadership, a more disciplined leadership that then filters down to a better-trained and more disciplined set of troops.''

See, Rudy, just being in a city that gets hit by terrorists doesn't qualify you to lead the city...let alone an entire country. The father of another fallen firefighter:

"One hundred and twenty one firefighters in the north tower died that day. Giuliani now says he was a hero. But, all he did was run, that day."

Rudy was on the streets because he put the Office of Emergency Management's command center at 7 World Trade Center . He had nowhere to go. Now there's the kind of judgment I want to see in a world leader, don't you?

On Friday, Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta said the city intended to create a radio channel that could be shared by police officers and firefighters, among other changes. ''There is no question there were communications problems at this catastrophic incident,' ' he said.

Bernard B. Kerik, the police commissioner at the time, said he did not believe that any communication problems between the agencies had significantly affected their performance. ' 'I was not made aware that day that we were having any difficulty coordinating,'' he said.

This is the same Bernie Kerik who had ties to organized crime , been sued for sexual harrassment and had employed an undocumented alien as a domestic servant. The very same one who Rudy recommended for the job of Secretary of Homeland Security. Yeah, he's credible. About as credible as Giuliani taking a "spontaneous" phone call from his wife.

Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeifer was the first chief to reach the north tower after the first plane crashed. He sent fire companies, including one led by his brother, Lt. Kevin Pfeifer, up the stairs of the building, but when he went to use his two-way radio to communicate with them, guess what failed to work? His brother didn't survive.

After both planes had struck, Assistant Chief Joseph Callan called an order in to clear the building.

Virtually no one answered his call. It seemed that few people, apart from those standing near him, heard it. Chief Peter Hayden, who was at the scene, said: ''We had ordered the firefighters down, but we weren't getting acknowledgments. We were very concerned about it.''

Let's recap: The radios the firefighters used that day were identical to the ones they used at the trade center eight years earlier.

''It's a disgrace,'' he said. ''The police are talking to each other. It's a no-brainer: Get us what they're using. We send people to the moon, and you mean to tell me a firefighter can't talk to a guy two floors above him?''

No, a firefighter can't. But America's ~~Player~~ Mayor can talk to his third wife during a political speech. It's obvious that to Rudy, the only kind of communication that's important is the self-serving kind.

Standing Their Ground

2008-01-12T20:27:54Z

Brave New Films has released a powerful new film today about a subject that has the potential to knock Rudy Giuliani's campaign to its knees. Most of us know that the NY Firefighters are mad as hell at Giuliani, but this films starkly lays out one very serious reason why: the radios.

Giuliani came into office in 1994, shortly after the first WTC attack. He knew then that the radios didn't work properly and yet it took him seven years to deal with the problem. And when he finally got around to it, he gave Motorola a sweetheart, no-bid contract for radios that were never tested in advance. When the NYFD got them, they didn't work and they had to be reissued the same radios that had proved inadequate in 1993.

That's why, on September 11th, the firefighters didn't hear the warnings to get out of the buildings. The cops heard them. They mostly got out. Their radios could get the right frequency. The firefighters' old radios couldn't.

In perhaps the most chilling moment of the film, the audience gasps in horror as Giuliani unctuously testifies before congress that the dead firefighters were heroes for "standing their ground."

The Real Rudy: Radios

2008-03-22T21:54:37Z

I could write up a whole post about our new (and I think perhaps best) video released this morning by the crew at Brave New Films. I could, but the great Robert Greenwald already has.

So I'll block quote him, and simply ask you to watch the video:

Rudy Giuliani is running for office on how he handled 9/11 and here we have proof positive that firemen were killed because his administration did not fix the long-standing (since 1993!) problems with the radios.

This BNF investigative report calls attention to four key questions about Rudy's handling of the broken radios from firemen's families and experts:
Why was nothing done to improve NYFD radio performance for seven years after a clear need was demonstrated in the 1993 World Trade Center attack?
When new radios were finally ordered, why did the city block other companies besides Motorola from bidding on the contract?
Once Motorola was given the contract, why did its cost jump from $1.4 million to $14 million?
Why were these new radios never tested?
These questions should and must be investigated. New York City councilman Eric Gioia has the power to begin an investigation. If we can garner enough attention and signers, we have a major opportunity to help launch an investigation.

There you have it. Go sign our petition and ensure that an investigation of Rudy's negligence in the years leading up to 9/11 is thoroughly investigated.

The REAL Rudy: Radios

2008-07-09T13:49:19Z

Rudy Giuliani is running for office on how he handled 9/11 and here we have proof positive that firemen were killed because his administration did not fix the long-standing (since 1993!) problems with the radios.

This BNF investigative report calls attention to four key questions about Rudy's handling of the broken radios from firemen's families and experts:

Why was nothing done to improve FDNY radio performance for seven years after a clear need was demonstrated in the 1993 World Trade Center attack?
When new radios were finally ordered, why did the city block other companies besides Motorola from bidding on the contract?
Once Motorola was given the contract, why did its cost jump from $1.4 million to $14 million?
Why were these new radios never tested?

These questions should and must be investigated. New York City councilman Eric Gioia has the power to begin an investigation. If we can garner enough attention and signers, we have a major opportunity to help launch an investigation.