Runnin’ Scared
Rudy’s Pants On Fire

Secret testimony shows that Rudy’s stump speech is inflated, at best
by Wayne Barrett

October 23rd, 2007 9:25 PM

In a recent broadside deriding the Clinton administration’s response to Al Qaeda, Rudy Giuliani told an audience at Pat Robertson’s Regent University: “Bin Laden declared war on us. We didn’t hear it. I thought it was pretty clear at the time, but a lot of people didn’t see it, couldn’t see it.” Other tenets of his standard stump speech include the assertion that he’s been “studying terrorism” for more than 30 years, and that “the thing that distinguishes me on terrorism is that I have more experience in dealing with it” than the other presidential candidates.

However, in private testimony before the 9/11 Commission in 2004, Rudy gave a very different version of how much he knew about terrorism when the World Trade Center was attacked. That testimony isn’t scheduled to be released publicly until after the 2008 presidential election, but the Voice has obtained a copy of it. And it reveals a New York mayor who was anything but an “expert on terrorism.”

A 15-page “memorandum for the record,” prepared by a commission counsel and dated April 20, 2004, quotes Giuliani conceding that it wasn’t until “after 9/11″ that “we brought in people to brief us on al Qaeda.” According to the memorandum, Giuliani told two commission members and five staffers: “But we had nothing like this pre 9/11, which was a mistake, because if experts share a lot of info,” there would be a “better chance of someone making heads and tails” of the “situation.” (Such memoranda are not verbatim transcripts of the confidential commission interviews, but are described on the cover page as “100 percent accurate” notes taken by staffers, stamped “commission sensitive/unclassified” on the top of each page.)

Asked about the “flow of information about al Qaeda threats from 1998-2001,” Giuliani said: “At the time, I wasn’t told it was al Qaeda, but now that I look back at it, I think it was al Qaeda.” He also said that as part of one of his post-9/11 briefings, “we had in Bodansky, who had written a book on bin Laden.” Giuliani was referring to Yossef Bodanksy, the author of Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, which was published in 1999 and predicted “spectacular terrorist strikes in Washington and/or New York.” Giuliani wrote in his own book, Leadership, that Judi Nathan got him a copy of Bodansky’s prophetic work “shortly after 9/11,” and that he covered it in “highlighter and notes,” citing his study of it as an example of how he “mastered a subject.” Apparently, he also invited Bodansky to address key members of his staff.

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Issues of Accountability and Brave New Films’ “The Real Rudy: Radios” by Joan Brunwasser Page 1 of 2 page(s) http://www.opednews.com

reddit_url=’http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joan_bru_071023_issues_of_accountabi.htm’; reddit_title=’Issues of Accountability and Brave New Films\’ “The Real Rudy: Radios”‘

digg_url=’http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_joan_bru_071023_issues_of_accountabi.htm’; digg_title=’Issues of Accountability and Brave New Films\’ “The Real Rudy: Radios”‘; digg_bodytext=’This documentary from Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films is less than seven minutes long.Within that small package,the case against Rudy is efficiently and effectively laid out using interviews and film clips.Remarkably free of hysteria considering that the grieving families are among those interviewed, the film poses questions that need answers.’; digg_topic=’politics’;

http://therealrudy.org/radios

I saw Michael Clayton last night. The issue of accountability, or the lack thereof, threads its way throughout the movie. Simply put, no one is willing to take responsibility for anything. And, depressingly true to life, there seems to be an inverse correlation between taking responsibility and the rich and powerful, as those with more power run away from it the fastest. There’s the Westchester big wig who calls in Clooney, the fixer, to clean up the mess he left behind at a hit and run. And Don Jeffries – the CEO of UNorth, the agrobusiness giant – who signs and then suppresses a report laying out the health hazards of their product. And don’t forget UNorth’s top lawyer who sweeps the problems under the rug by outsourcing wiretapping, surveillance, and eventually murder. Even the title figure Clooney portrays does not eagerly don his superhero cape. He is dragged in after his friend and colleague is murdered, and he himself barely survives a car bombing. While Clooney’s character sticks up for the little guys in the end, it’s only once he begins to question what has become of his life that his values start to shift and realign. These days, we are so desperate that we’ll take any hero we can get, even one who only inadvertently does the right thing. Machiavelli is the new American idol, everyone has a price, and whistleblowers are an endangered species. Look around. This is the poisonous atmosphere that the current administration has perfected.

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Cheers and Jeers: Monday

by Bill in Portland Maine

Mon Oct 22, 2007 at 05:43:32 AM PDT

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

What Do They Have On You, Dems?

I figure it must be some sick perverted sex thing. Involving sheep or chickens. Maybe horses.

Sure, it could be some money scandal or shady land sale or quid pro quo campaign-contributions-for-favors deal. But I doubt it.

I suspect the gutless and the gullible Democrats in Congress gather at one of their apartments every night, strip down, grease up, and have orgies with hookers, barn animals, toys of every shape and size, and each other. And if they don’t keep doing what Republicans tell them to do inside Congress, their “little secret” will be leaked to the press and that’ll be that: rehab for everyone.

As you may have heard (it was on the teevee), Congress is at eleven percent approval. Eleven percent—hockey sticks. That’s less than half the approval of the worst president in U.S. history, who stands at a mind-blowing 24 percent (as bad as Nixon’s numbers got during the darkest days of Watergate). But eleven percent? That’s even worse than the last congress, in which the GOP literally banged their gavel and then called Bingo for a whopping 23 days out of the year. How hard could it be to top that??

There must be something pretty twisted going on behind closed doors, because raising their approval rating is as easy as getting off their trapezes, removing their fur-lined handcuffs and spiked collars, sending Bessie the “wonder mule” back to the stable and doing something as simple as saying the magic word: “No.”

Retroactive immunity for the telcos? “No.” War funding for anything other than the redeployment of our troops out of Iraq? “No.” Continuing to deny Habeas Corpus rights? “No.” Illegal wiretapping? “No, no, no.”

And how about doing something about all those witnesses—like Karl Rove and Harriet Miers—who gave you the middle finger by not showing up for congressional hearings?

But no. They just follow the Yellow Brick Road until they get to the GOP poppy field and pass out. Republicans must have something pretty scandalous on their “friends and colleagues across the aisle.” I figure it’s gotta be sex, because that’s the only thing politicians are capable of being embarrassed about these days (the ultra-flamboyant Larry Craig excepted). Rove must’ve dug up some really kinky dirt when he worked at the White House. I’m thinking scuba gear and branding irons.

I hate to talk this way about our leaders in Congress. But when they get so many chances for easy lay-ups on critical constitutional issues, yet never seem to get the ball in the damn hoop, all I can think is: sex sex sex sex sex.

I’d love to know what Republicans have on you, Nancy and Harry and all you button-down blue dogs. Next time I’m in D.C. I intend to interview all the livestock within a twenty mile radius. One of ‘em will talk, I’m sure…if properly motivated.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There’s Moreville… [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

http://www.dailykos.com/