This week's Village Voice has a long article by Wayne Barrett titled "Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11". It's long because there are so many lies, and so much evidence to use to debunk them.
Rudy is a self-aggrandizing blowhard who is counting on voters and the media to let him waltz around in 9/11 hero drag without getting the real story.
This is a risky game for old Rudy. Because without 9/11, he's got nothing. He's weak and unknowledgeable on domestic issues, he out-Cheneys Cheney on foreign policy, and he will have problems with the evangelical wing of the Republic party once they learn that he's pro-choice and a serial adulterer.
In stump speeches, Rudy talks about his investigation of the Leon Klinghoffer murder and another terrorism case that he prosecuted. Even horrible Victoria Toensing disagrees with Rudy's characterizations:
....Victoria Toensing, the deputy assistant attorney general at the Justice Department in Washington who filed a criminal complaint in the Lauro investigation, says that no one in Giuliani's office "was involved at all." Jay Fischer, the Klinghoffer family attorney who spearheaded a 12-year lawsuit against the PLO, says he "never had any contact" with Giuliani or his office. "It would boggle my mind if anyone in 1985, 1986, 1987, or thereafter conducted an investigation of this case and didn't call me," he adds. Fischer says he did have a private dinner with Giuliani in 1992: "It was the first time we talked, and we didn't even talk about the Klinghoffer case then."
Giuliani brags about how prepared NYC was for an attack. Really? The article describes a number of areas where NYC was woefully unprepared, despite having been attacked in 1993, including the breakdown of communications between police and fire departments, 911 dispatch system not updated on his watch, and unbelievably:
But perhaps the best evidence of the Giuliani administration's lack of readiness was that no one at its top levels had a top-secret security clearance on 9/11.
Then there's Giuliani's command bunker at WTC 7. Since it was destroyed on 9/11, Rudy has been running away from his responsibility for putting it there. Read the article for proof that it was his baby all the way, right down to the decorations (with a bonus snark on Judi):
The mayor was so personally focused on the siting and construction of the bunker that the city administrator who oversaw it testified in a subsequent lawsuit that "very senior officials," specifically including Giuliani, "were involved," which he said was a major difference between this and other projects. Giuliani's office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fire hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced. He had his own elevator. Great concern was expressed in writing that the platform in the press room had to be high enough to make sure his head was above the cameras.
The last 2 lies are about Democrats being weak on terrorism, and the conditions for workers in lower Manhattan after the attack.
Wayne Barrett has been reporting on Rudy for years, and he knows his stuff. It's well worth reading the whole thing, and passing it on to all your friends who are flirting with a Rudy candidacy.