Posted on November
26, 2016 by Kevin Ryan
Rudy Giuliani is considered a
leading candidate for Secretary of State in the Trump Administration. Giuliani
is actively campaigning for the position and could be named
National Director of Intelligence if his appointment at State falls through. As
the public waits to hear the verdict on these matters, a review of Giuliani’s
history and qualifications is in order. In particular, his actions on and
before 9/11 should be carefully reviewed.
As mayor of New York City on 9/11, Giuliani was in a unique position to benefit from the attacks. That’s because he gained national notoriety for his presumed valiant response that day, and he received the kind of publicity that every ambitious politician desires. Immediately after 9/11, Giuliani’s approval rating rocketed to 79% among New York City voters, a dramatic increase over the 36% rating he had received a year earlier. At a 9/11 memorial service, Oprah Winfrey called him “America’s Mayor.” And on December 24, 2001, TIME magazine named Giuliani its Person of the Year for
2001.As mayor of New York City on 9/11, Giuliani was in a unique position to benefit from the attacks. That’s because he gained national notoriety for his presumed valiant response that day, and he received the kind of publicity that every ambitious politician desires. Immediately after 9/11, Giuliani’s approval rating rocketed to 79% among New York City voters, a dramatic increase over the 36% rating he had received a year earlier. At a 9/11 memorial service, Oprah Winfrey called him “America’s Mayor.” And on December 24, 2001, TIME magazine named Giuliani its Person of the Year for
In the years since, Giuliani’s public persona has unraveled as he has attempted to profit from 9/11. It has been revealed that he did more damage than good during his tenure as mayor and there are many reasons to suspect that he might have been involved in the 9/11 crimes. Some of the reasons include the following.
- He led enforcement actions against the terrorist financing network BCCI and then joined a law firm that represented that terrorist network.
- In the years between the first WTC bombing and 9/11, Giuliani’s administration ignored problems with the NYC fire department radios. Those faulty radios contributed to the deaths on 9/11.[1]
- He and his staff had foreknowledge that the WTC Towers would fall when no one could have predicted such a thing.
- He was responsible for the destruction of critical WTC evidence.
- He told people in the Ground Zero area that the air was safe to breathe, when it was not, in order to speed the removal of evidence at Ground Zero.
- Giuliani has a family history of organized crime, and he hired companies linked to organized crime to clean-up the WTC debris.
Considering
these things it is worthwhile to look at Giuliani’s past before looking at what
kind of Secretary of State he would make.
The History of Rudy
Rudolph W. Giuliani was born an only child in 1944. Rudy’s father, Harold Giuliani (alias Joseph Starrett), was a convicted hold-up man who served time in Sing Sing prison and was later employed as an enforcer for a Mafia loan shark operation. Rudy’s uncle (his mother’s brother), Leo D’Avanzo, ran a loan-sharking and gambling operation with Jimmy Dano, “who was a made man.”[2] Additionally, Rudy’s cousin Lewis D’Avanzo “was a stone cold gangster who was shot to death in 1977 by FBI agents when he tried to run them down with his car.”[3]
Of course, the sins of his father and his uncle and his cousin should not be used to judge Rudy himself. Although Rudy was close to his family (he was actually married to one of his second cousins for 14 years). that doesn’t mean that he inherited the family penchant for organized crime. These connections to the mob are worth considering, however, in that Rudy hired mafia–connected companies to cleanup Ground Zero after the attacks. Additionally, Rudy’s friend and close colleague Bernard Kerik, whose police department provided crucial 9/11 evidence, was also linked to organized crime.[4]
Despite (or perhaps due to) his family’s background, Giuliani’s career soared from the start as if he had friends in high places. At the age of 29, after graduating from law school and working briefly for a judge in NYC, Giuliani was appointed as the attorney in charge of the cases resulting from the Knapp Commission’s investigation of police corruption. The indictments and convictions of NYC police officers that followed did not end the corruption however and, in particular, drug-related corruption continued unabated.[5]
Two years later, in 1975, Giuliani was named Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Harold Tyler. A former judge from the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Tyler was the original choice to be the Watergate special prosecutor but he rejected the position. He was then brought into the Ford Administration, along with his young chief of staff Giuliani, specifically to restore the public trust after Watergate. Giuliani worked with Ford Administration officials, including Ford’s chief of staff Dick Cheney, during this time. As early as May 1976, Rudy was warning about domestic terrorism and recommending that intelligence collection policies be relaxed.[6]
In 1981, Reagan appointed Giuliani Associate Attorney General, the third-highest position in the Department of Justice. In this position he supervised several law enforcement agencies including the Department of Corrections and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Journalist Gary Webb reported that the DEA protected Norwin Meneses during this time while Meneses ran cocaine into the United States to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.[7]
While Giuliani was in the Justice department, he chaired a committee that provided oversight to the government’s use of a software called PROMIS. A database integration program, PROMIS was used by Oliver North to track terrorist threats and may have evolved into a tool for deep state uses.[8] The software was a precursor of tools used today for mass surveillance.
Giuliani was appointed U.S. Attorney for SDNY in 1983. It was in this position that he first gained national prominence by prosecuting high-profile cases, including those of Wall Street figures Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. As the U.S. attorney for the SDNY, from 1983 to 1989, Giuliani was not only handling drug and organized crime cases he was in charge of representing the Federal Reserve Bank in its enforcement actions against the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). These actions led to a RICO plea agreement and forfeiture of BCCI’s United States assets, valued at $550 million.[9] It was reported that Giuliani received documents during this time, about secret bank accounts related to terrorist financing that were held by companies like Citibank, Barclays, Credit Lyonnais, and the Japanese company Nomura.[10]
During Giuliani’s tenure at the Department of Justice in the 1980s, Kamal Adham and other high-level Saudis behind BCCI were allowed to gain control of several American financial institutions. BCCI was subsequently allowed to continue funding terrorism, without being prosecuted, for many years.[11]
Giuliani remained in the U.S. attorney position until January 1989, resigning at the end of the Reagan Administration. He then joined the law firm White & Case in NYC as a partner.
While working at White & Case, Giuliani ran for mayor of NYC in the 1989 election. In that failed campaign, it was revealed that Giuliani’s firm represented the Panamanian dictator and colleague of President George H.W. Bush, Manuel Noriega. Author Russ Baker stated that Bush, “as Ford’s CIA director and then as Reagan’s vice president, had fostered a relationship with the notorious drug trafficker [Noriega] during the seventies and eighties, even keeping him on the payroll at more than a hundred thousand dollars a year.”[12]
At the time, White & Case also had an office in Saudi Arabia. What is less well reported is that Giuliani’s firm represented not only Manuel Noriega but also represented BCCI, which was funded by powerful royals in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.[13] This should be of concern considering that “BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations.”[14]
Another fact of concern is that Giuliani’s reputation for being tough on crime was a false front. He actually did such a poor job in his prosecutions that many of his major convictions were later overturned.[15] The question of whether he was purposely placed in that position to undermine such cases, and thereby provide a door out for some of the accused, must be considered. His primary activities at the time included “publicly handcuffing mob bosses and business leaders on trumped up charges only to quietly drop the charges later,” demonstrating that, for his own part, Rudy was in it for the publicity.[16]
Nonetheless, with detailed knowledge of the terrorist funding bank BCCI, it is remarkable that Giuliani never mentioned terrorism as an issue in his second campaign for NYC mayor in 1993. In fact, he barely mentioned the 1993 WTC bombing that had occurred earlier that year, referring to it only once publicly. What’s more, when he won the election, and began looking for his first police commissioner, he never questioned the candidates about terrorism. For someone who had made a career both before 1993, and after 9/11, as a terrorist fighter, it was inexplicable that Giuliani would never talk about terrorism when running for his first elected office. Some have said that it was his relationship with BCCI, and questions that might arise about it, that kept him quiet about it.[17]
Considering that al Qaeda and 9/11 are commonly seen as a direct outgrowth and evolution of BCCI intelligence operations,[18] Giuliani’s link to that network is enough to justify investigating his possible role in the attacks. There are a number of other compelling reasons to do so, however.
Foreknowledge
In a televised interview with ABC News immediately after the 9/11 attacks, Rudy Giuliani stated that he was told the World Trade Center towers were going to collapse before they actually did. This is what he said of the warning, which occurred shortly before the first tower fell.
The History of Rudy
Rudolph W. Giuliani was born an only child in 1944. Rudy’s father, Harold Giuliani (alias Joseph Starrett), was a convicted hold-up man who served time in Sing Sing prison and was later employed as an enforcer for a Mafia loan shark operation. Rudy’s uncle (his mother’s brother), Leo D’Avanzo, ran a loan-sharking and gambling operation with Jimmy Dano, “who was a made man.”[2] Additionally, Rudy’s cousin Lewis D’Avanzo “was a stone cold gangster who was shot to death in 1977 by FBI agents when he tried to run them down with his car.”[3]
Of course, the sins of his father and his uncle and his cousin should not be used to judge Rudy himself. Although Rudy was close to his family (he was actually married to one of his second cousins for 14 years). that doesn’t mean that he inherited the family penchant for organized crime. These connections to the mob are worth considering, however, in that Rudy hired mafia–connected companies to cleanup Ground Zero after the attacks. Additionally, Rudy’s friend and close colleague Bernard Kerik, whose police department provided crucial 9/11 evidence, was also linked to organized crime.[4]
Despite (or perhaps due to) his family’s background, Giuliani’s career soared from the start as if he had friends in high places. At the age of 29, after graduating from law school and working briefly for a judge in NYC, Giuliani was appointed as the attorney in charge of the cases resulting from the Knapp Commission’s investigation of police corruption. The indictments and convictions of NYC police officers that followed did not end the corruption however and, in particular, drug-related corruption continued unabated.[5]
Two years later, in 1975, Giuliani was named Associate Deputy Attorney General and chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Harold Tyler. A former judge from the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Tyler was the original choice to be the Watergate special prosecutor but he rejected the position. He was then brought into the Ford Administration, along with his young chief of staff Giuliani, specifically to restore the public trust after Watergate. Giuliani worked with Ford Administration officials, including Ford’s chief of staff Dick Cheney, during this time. As early as May 1976, Rudy was warning about domestic terrorism and recommending that intelligence collection policies be relaxed.[6]
In 1981, Reagan appointed Giuliani Associate Attorney General, the third-highest position in the Department of Justice. In this position he supervised several law enforcement agencies including the Department of Corrections and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Journalist Gary Webb reported that the DEA protected Norwin Meneses during this time while Meneses ran cocaine into the United States to fund the Nicaraguan Contras.[7]
While Giuliani was in the Justice department, he chaired a committee that provided oversight to the government’s use of a software called PROMIS. A database integration program, PROMIS was used by Oliver North to track terrorist threats and may have evolved into a tool for deep state uses.[8] The software was a precursor of tools used today for mass surveillance.
Giuliani was appointed U.S. Attorney for SDNY in 1983. It was in this position that he first gained national prominence by prosecuting high-profile cases, including those of Wall Street figures Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken. As the U.S. attorney for the SDNY, from 1983 to 1989, Giuliani was not only handling drug and organized crime cases he was in charge of representing the Federal Reserve Bank in its enforcement actions against the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). These actions led to a RICO plea agreement and forfeiture of BCCI’s United States assets, valued at $550 million.[9] It was reported that Giuliani received documents during this time, about secret bank accounts related to terrorist financing that were held by companies like Citibank, Barclays, Credit Lyonnais, and the Japanese company Nomura.[10]
During Giuliani’s tenure at the Department of Justice in the 1980s, Kamal Adham and other high-level Saudis behind BCCI were allowed to gain control of several American financial institutions. BCCI was subsequently allowed to continue funding terrorism, without being prosecuted, for many years.[11]
Giuliani remained in the U.S. attorney position until January 1989, resigning at the end of the Reagan Administration. He then joined the law firm White & Case in NYC as a partner.
While working at White & Case, Giuliani ran for mayor of NYC in the 1989 election. In that failed campaign, it was revealed that Giuliani’s firm represented the Panamanian dictator and colleague of President George H.W. Bush, Manuel Noriega. Author Russ Baker stated that Bush, “as Ford’s CIA director and then as Reagan’s vice president, had fostered a relationship with the notorious drug trafficker [Noriega] during the seventies and eighties, even keeping him on the payroll at more than a hundred thousand dollars a year.”[12]
At the time, White & Case also had an office in Saudi Arabia. What is less well reported is that Giuliani’s firm represented not only Manuel Noriega but also represented BCCI, which was funded by powerful royals in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.[13] This should be of concern considering that “BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations.”[14]
Another fact of concern is that Giuliani’s reputation for being tough on crime was a false front. He actually did such a poor job in his prosecutions that many of his major convictions were later overturned.[15] The question of whether he was purposely placed in that position to undermine such cases, and thereby provide a door out for some of the accused, must be considered. His primary activities at the time included “publicly handcuffing mob bosses and business leaders on trumped up charges only to quietly drop the charges later,” demonstrating that, for his own part, Rudy was in it for the publicity.[16]
Nonetheless, with detailed knowledge of the terrorist funding bank BCCI, it is remarkable that Giuliani never mentioned terrorism as an issue in his second campaign for NYC mayor in 1993. In fact, he barely mentioned the 1993 WTC bombing that had occurred earlier that year, referring to it only once publicly. What’s more, when he won the election, and began looking for his first police commissioner, he never questioned the candidates about terrorism. For someone who had made a career both before 1993, and after 9/11, as a terrorist fighter, it was inexplicable that Giuliani would never talk about terrorism when running for his first elected office. Some have said that it was his relationship with BCCI, and questions that might arise about it, that kept him quiet about it.[17]
Considering that al Qaeda and 9/11 are commonly seen as a direct outgrowth and evolution of BCCI intelligence operations,[18] Giuliani’s link to that network is enough to justify investigating his possible role in the attacks. There are a number of other compelling reasons to do so, however.
Foreknowledge
In a televised interview with ABC News immediately after the 9/11 attacks, Rudy Giuliani stated that he was told the World Trade Center towers were going to collapse before they actually did. This is what he said of the warning, which occurred shortly before the first tower fell.
“I .. I
went down to the scene and we set up a headquarters at 75 Barkley Street, which
was right there with the Police Commissioner, the Fire Commissioner, the Head
of Emergency Management, and we were operating out of there when we were told
that the World Trade Center was gonna’ collapse. And it did collapse before we
could actually get out of the building, so we were trapped in the building for
10, 15 minutes, and finally found an exit, got out, walked north, and took a
lot of people with us.” [19]
Problems
with these remarks include that, at the time, no one familiar with structural
fires or tall building construction expected anything of the kind.[20] That is
because no tall building had ever suffered global collapse from fire before
and, moreover, none have experienced such a failure since that day. In fact,
many architects and engineers still consider it impossible.[21]
In this same interview Giuliani claimed that no one had ever predicted airliner crashes into the WTC, saying, “Oh there’s no question we were all caught totally off balance. No one, no one, no one could possibly expect, uh, large airplanes to crash into the, you know, the World Trade Center, uh, the way this happened.”[22] This stammering statement was not only unconvincing, it was patently false. Those in charge of securing the WTC in the decade before 9/11, specifically Brian Michael Jenkins of Kroll Associates, had considered exactly that scenario.[23]
On 9/11, staff at Giuliani’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) also had foreknowledge about the collapse of the buildings, and they warned some people. This was reported by Richard Zarrillo, an EMT at the scene, when he said: “OEM says the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get out,” and “I was just at OEM. The message I was given was that the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get our people out.”[24]
Fire department Captain Abdo Nahmod was with Zarrillo, just before they were warned, and both had been told to make the OEM functional in WTC7. But, Nahmod reported: “Moments thereafter we were advised by the staff at OEM that we were to vacate the building [and] that they believed there was another possible plane on its way and [we] proceeded down the stairwell of World Trade [7] all the way down to the ground floor.”[25]
In the lobby of Building 7, Zarillo and Nahmod apparently met with EMS Division Chief John Peruggia, OEM Deputy Director Richard Rotanz and an unidentified representative from the City’s Department of Buildings. Peruggia later said “..it was brought to my attention, it was believed that the structural damage that was suffered to the towers was quite significant and they were very confident that the building’s stability was compromised and they felt that the north tower was in danger of a near imminent collapse.”[26]
Richard Rotanz was later said to be the one behind the claim that a third plane was heading toward New York. Rotanz reportedly got that information from a Secret Service agent who was with him in WTC 7 at the time, and spread the information to OEM leadership.[27]
This is an incredible statement—that “they felt that the north tower was in danger of a near imminent collapse”—considering that no building had ever suffered global collapse from fire. Zarrillo learned just how incredible this information was when he tried to spread the word to the fire chiefs in other areas, none of whom had predicted any such danger. When Zarrillo told Chief Ganci about Peruggia’s startling news, Ganci’s response was, “who the fuck told you that?”[28]
Rudy and His Employees
While Zarrillo was trying to warn people, Giuliani and his Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik were wandering around the WTC site after the planes had hit the towers. Fire Marshal Steven Mosiello stated, “At that point the Mayor shows up. I was standing away from the command post, and the Mayor showed up… I remember the Mayor being with Commissioner Kerik and himself and a lot of their aides and escorts or whatever.”[29]
By the time the south tower did fall, Giuliani and Kerik had already moved away from immediate danger. As they were walking, they coincidentally happened upon a TV reporter who had, just the year before, published a flattering biography of Giuliani called “Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City.” This apparent coincidence is what led to Giuliani being portrayed as the heroic leader of the response to 9/11, through a series of “walking press conferences” on that day.[30]
Fire Chief Joseph Pfeifer, who was at the command post in the lobby of the North Tower, testified that, “Right before the South Tower collapsed, I noticed a lot of people just left the lobby, and I heard we had a crew of all different people, high-level people in government, everybody was gone, almost like they had information that we didn’t have.”[31]
Who were these high-level people in government gathering in the lobby of the North Tower that had information others did not have? Reports are that this group included Richard Sheirer, the director of the OEM. It was said that, “He’s the guy Giuliani calls the man behind the curtain.“[32] Others suggested: “Since September 11, Sheirer has taken charge of the biggest cleanup effort in American history.” Whether or not he helped with the cleanup, Sheirer did have significant responsibility in his role as director of the OEM, having at various times “briefed President Bush, Tony Blair, and Henry Kissinger”.[33]
It was reported that Sheirer and others spent a full hour in the north tower lobby, while the towers were burning, but no one knows what they were doing there. The OEM center in WTC 7 was shutdown early and Sheirer himself never went there. Instead, he and his staff went to the north tower lobby and apparently did nothing but waited. Although Sheirer later claimed to have made some calls, “no steps to coordinate the response were ever discovered.”[34, 35]
An Unprecedented Destruction of Evidence
Regardless of who had foreknowledge or what the imminent danger was, over the next few weeks and months there were heroic efforts made to rescue survivors. But those efforts were hampered by Giuliani’s drive to clean up the site rapidly. The commonly held story is that the government wanted to re-open Wall Street, and for that reason didn’t care about the health of New Yorkers and first responders or about facilitating the most careful rescue operations.[36] However, the facts also align with the hypothesis that authorities were in a hurry to remove evidence that pointed to the use of explosives.
The U.S. House Committee on Science reported, in March 2002:
In this same interview Giuliani claimed that no one had ever predicted airliner crashes into the WTC, saying, “Oh there’s no question we were all caught totally off balance. No one, no one, no one could possibly expect, uh, large airplanes to crash into the, you know, the World Trade Center, uh, the way this happened.”[22] This stammering statement was not only unconvincing, it was patently false. Those in charge of securing the WTC in the decade before 9/11, specifically Brian Michael Jenkins of Kroll Associates, had considered exactly that scenario.[23]
On 9/11, staff at Giuliani’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) also had foreknowledge about the collapse of the buildings, and they warned some people. This was reported by Richard Zarrillo, an EMT at the scene, when he said: “OEM says the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get out,” and “I was just at OEM. The message I was given was that the buildings are going to collapse; we need to get our people out.”[24]
Fire department Captain Abdo Nahmod was with Zarrillo, just before they were warned, and both had been told to make the OEM functional in WTC7. But, Nahmod reported: “Moments thereafter we were advised by the staff at OEM that we were to vacate the building [and] that they believed there was another possible plane on its way and [we] proceeded down the stairwell of World Trade [7] all the way down to the ground floor.”[25]
In the lobby of Building 7, Zarillo and Nahmod apparently met with EMS Division Chief John Peruggia, OEM Deputy Director Richard Rotanz and an unidentified representative from the City’s Department of Buildings. Peruggia later said “..it was brought to my attention, it was believed that the structural damage that was suffered to the towers was quite significant and they were very confident that the building’s stability was compromised and they felt that the north tower was in danger of a near imminent collapse.”[26]
Richard Rotanz was later said to be the one behind the claim that a third plane was heading toward New York. Rotanz reportedly got that information from a Secret Service agent who was with him in WTC 7 at the time, and spread the information to OEM leadership.[27]
This is an incredible statement—that “they felt that the north tower was in danger of a near imminent collapse”—considering that no building had ever suffered global collapse from fire. Zarrillo learned just how incredible this information was when he tried to spread the word to the fire chiefs in other areas, none of whom had predicted any such danger. When Zarrillo told Chief Ganci about Peruggia’s startling news, Ganci’s response was, “who the fuck told you that?”[28]
Rudy and His Employees
While Zarrillo was trying to warn people, Giuliani and his Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik were wandering around the WTC site after the planes had hit the towers. Fire Marshal Steven Mosiello stated, “At that point the Mayor shows up. I was standing away from the command post, and the Mayor showed up… I remember the Mayor being with Commissioner Kerik and himself and a lot of their aides and escorts or whatever.”[29]
By the time the south tower did fall, Giuliani and Kerik had already moved away from immediate danger. As they were walking, they coincidentally happened upon a TV reporter who had, just the year before, published a flattering biography of Giuliani called “Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City.” This apparent coincidence is what led to Giuliani being portrayed as the heroic leader of the response to 9/11, through a series of “walking press conferences” on that day.[30]
Fire Chief Joseph Pfeifer, who was at the command post in the lobby of the North Tower, testified that, “Right before the South Tower collapsed, I noticed a lot of people just left the lobby, and I heard we had a crew of all different people, high-level people in government, everybody was gone, almost like they had information that we didn’t have.”[31]
Who were these high-level people in government gathering in the lobby of the North Tower that had information others did not have? Reports are that this group included Richard Sheirer, the director of the OEM. It was said that, “He’s the guy Giuliani calls the man behind the curtain.“[32] Others suggested: “Since September 11, Sheirer has taken charge of the biggest cleanup effort in American history.” Whether or not he helped with the cleanup, Sheirer did have significant responsibility in his role as director of the OEM, having at various times “briefed President Bush, Tony Blair, and Henry Kissinger”.[33]
It was reported that Sheirer and others spent a full hour in the north tower lobby, while the towers were burning, but no one knows what they were doing there. The OEM center in WTC 7 was shutdown early and Sheirer himself never went there. Instead, he and his staff went to the north tower lobby and apparently did nothing but waited. Although Sheirer later claimed to have made some calls, “no steps to coordinate the response were ever discovered.”[34, 35]
An Unprecedented Destruction of Evidence
Regardless of who had foreknowledge or what the imminent danger was, over the next few weeks and months there were heroic efforts made to rescue survivors. But those efforts were hampered by Giuliani’s drive to clean up the site rapidly. The commonly held story is that the government wanted to re-open Wall Street, and for that reason didn’t care about the health of New Yorkers and first responders or about facilitating the most careful rescue operations.[36] However, the facts also align with the hypothesis that authorities were in a hurry to remove evidence that pointed to the use of explosives.
The U.S. House Committee on Science reported, in March 2002:
“In the month that lapsed between the
terrorist attacks and the deployment of the [FEMA] BPAT team, a significant
amount of steel debris—including most of the steel from the upper floors—was
removed from the rubble pile, cut into smaller sections, and either melted at
the recycling plant or shipped out of the U.S. Some of the critical pieces of
steel—including the suspension trusses from the top of the towers and the
internal support columns—were gone before the first BPAT team member ever
reached the site.”[37]
The steel
evidence, “a significant amount” of which was quickly removed before
investigators arrived, might have shown evidence of explosive damage, like
metal “pedaling.” But the steel was not the only evidence that was removed. For
example, the black boxes that contain the flight data recorders and cockpit
data recorders on every airliner were officially never found for either Flight
11 or Flight 175. This claim came from the FBI and was supported by the 9/11
Commission report, but was contradicted by a number of people who worked at the
site. Two Ground Zero workers claimed that they helped authorities find three
of the four black boxes in October of 2001. One of them, New York City
firefighter Nicholas DeMasi, described the recovery of the devices in a
book.[38] Additionally, a source from the National Transportation Safety Board
(NTSB), said, “Off the record, we had the boxes…You’d have to get the
official word from the FBI as to where they are, but we worked on them
here.”[39]
The idea that the indestructible black boxes could not be found also appears to be in contradiction to the official claim that a passport of one of the alleged hijackers was found. On September 12th, 2001, it was reported that the passport of Satam al Suqami, who was said to be aboard American Airlines Flight 11, was recovered.[40] Because Flight 11 crashed directly into the middle of the north face of the north tower, and was buried within the building, this passport would have had to stay intact throughout the crash event and then withstand the blast from the fuel fire and the ensuing fires fed by office furnishings (and thermitic materials). The rest of the spectacularly improbable path of the passport is not entirely clear, as the first reports said that it was found “in the rubble” but, later, 9/11 Commission staff member Susan Ginsberg testified that, “A passerby picked it up and gave it to a NYPD detective shortly before the World Trade Center towers collapsed.”[41] In other words, the passport was delivered through Bernard Kerik’s police department.
During the five-month cleanup effort, there were unprecedented measures taken to control access to the site. The site was restricted, and photographs were banned, by order of Rudy Giuliani.[42] Anthony Mann of E.J. Electric, one of the primary security companies for the WTC towers, said that, “Security is unbelievable. It’s really on a need-to-be-down-there basis.”[43]
Several people were reported to be in charge of the cleanup operation at Ground Zero. It was said that OEM was in charge, and that Richard Sheirer was the point person for the cleanup efforts. Others believed that Mike Burton, the executive deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), was in charge. Although Burton managed some of the demolition and cleanup operations, he later testified that, “Everything was coordinated through his boss Holden, deputy mayors and the mayor.”[44]
The City hired five construction companies to handle the cleanup and the site was divided up among them. The five companies were AMEC Construction Management, Bovis Lend Lease, Turner Construction, Tully Construction and Tishman Construction.
Other sub-contractors were hired to complete the actual debris removal. Most of these companies were suspected of being associated with organized crime. Some were reportedly linked to the Colombo crime family, including Civetta Cousins, and Yonkers Contracting. Others were associated with the Luchese crime family.
The cleanup operations were ultimately consolidated under the control of two of the primary contractors: AMEC Construction Management and Bovis Lend Lease. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, the CEO of AMEC Construction was Peter Janson, a long-time business associate of Donald Rumsfeld. Under Janson’s leadership, AMEC had just completed a $258 million refurbishment of Wedge 1 of the Pentagon, exactly where AA Flight 77 impacted the building.[45]
Debris Removal and Theft
The debris removed from Ground Zero was either hauled away on trucks or shipped away on barges. Despite the effort to rapidly dispose of the steel and sell it a bargain price, the WTC debris was considered highly sensitive. At first the trucks were tracked using a paper-based system, and later GPS devices were fixed to each truck with “antennas to monitor location, cellular wireless antennas to communicate, and multiple I/Os to track vehicle signals from engine systems.”[46] Apparently it was important for officials to know not only where the trucks were at any given time, but also the status of the engine. As for the barges, the process was setup “in record time,” in order to “transport debris to the city’s Fresh Kills landfill and to recycling sites, all scrutinized by the Corps of Engineers.”[47]
As the debris was received at Fresh Kills landfill, it was sorted carefully. This sorting process was supervised by federal agents, and described in this way: “Teams of officers and agents watch as the rubble is sifted down to a fine ashy silt that they then rake through by hand.”[48] More than a year later, FBI agents reported the theft of some of this debris at the Fresh Kills site. It was discovered that Evidence Recovery Teams (ERTs) involved in the sorting process stole pieces of debris, and kept or disposed of them. This removal of debris was condoned and encouraged by the FBI agents in charge.
Pat D’Amuro, later an employee of Giuliani Partners, was involved in the theft of WTC debris from the Fresh Kills site. D’Amuro had specifically requested that certain kinds of items be kept for his retrieval, ostensibly so that he could give them away as mementos to various dignitaries.
D’Amuro had been the counterterrorism chief in the FBI’s New York City office since 1997 and was put in charge of the PENTTBOM investigation just after the 9/11 attacks.[49] PENTTBOM stood for Pentagon/Twin Towers Bombing and was notable for the rapidity in which the case was solved. U.S. authorities claimed to have had no knowledge of or ability to stop the 9/11 attacks yet the FBI was able to identify all nineteen alleged hijackers within 72 hours.[50]
Questions About Giuliani’s Role
In the days following 9/11, Giuliani downplayed the health effects of the air in the areas surrounding Ground Zero. He said, in the first month after the attacks, “The air quality is safe and acceptable.”[51] That was not the case and thousands of first responders have paid for such false claims with their health and their lives.
Firefighter and police unions have since criticized Giuliani over the issue of protective equipment and illnesses after the attacks.[52] An October 2001 study by the National Institute of Environmental Safety and Health confirmed that workers in the clean-up operations lacked adequate protective equipment.[53] A letter from the International Association of Fire Fighters in 2007 suggested that Giuliani rushed to end the victim recovery effort after gold and silver had been recovered from World Trade Center vaults. The letter stated that “Mayor Giuliani’s actions meant that fire fighters and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever, with no closure for families, or be removed like garbage and deposited at the Fresh Kills Landfill.”[54]
During 9/11 Commission hearings, victims’ family members interrupted to demand answers on another Giuliani-related scandal. They wanted an explanation from Giuliani for the first responders’ lack of working radios. The radios used by firefighters in the WTC were a concern, and were actually known by NYC officials to be faulty as early as 1993.[55]
By April 2007, Giuliani had been forced to limit his appearances in New York City due to the increasing protests by family members of 9/11 victims, particularly police, fire and other emergency workers.[56] A general campaign sponsored by The International Association of Firefighters followed, aimed at exposing Giuliani as a fraud with respect to his 9/11 activities.[57]
All of this points to the need to investigate Rudy Giuliani with respect to the environmental crimes of 9/11. His actions and decisions related to the environmental crimes imply that he was hiding something greater, however. What needed to be hidden was evidence of the demolition of the WTC buildings.
During the cleanup of Ground Zero there were many indications that the public was being deceived. These included the discovery of foreknowledge about the destruction that originated with Rudy Giuliani and his OEM staff. Additionally, the steel was destroyed in an unprecedented manner and the black boxes were officially reported as not being found when it was clear that they had been. The restrictions on FEMA investigators and on photographers and the extensive site security are all indications that something was being hidden.
These facts provide additional reasons to suspect that explosive materials were being removed or destroyed during the cleanup. Those who were in control of Ground Zero certainly had the means and opportunity to dispose of any evidence of explosives. The opportunity came in the form of access to the highly secure site, as well as the authority to hire suspected crime syndicate companies to perform the actual cleanup. Theft of evidence by FBI agents at Fresh Kills landfill provides yet more suspicion that remnants of explosive devices were being removed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, those involved with the cleanup had strong links to Saudi Arabia. This included Giuliani, whose law firm represented the Saudi-funded BCCI shortly after Giuliani led enforcement actions against that terrorist network. It also included Bernard Kerik and the British construction companies AMEC and Bovis. Kerik worked for the Saudi royal family for years and AMEC and Bovis had done significant work for the Kingdom. AMEC also went on to win enormous contracts in Iraq.[58]
Rudy Giuliani can be brought up on charges today for his participation in the deception and negligence that led to the deaths and illness of so many workers at Ground Zero. However, his actions in that regard, and his personal history, point to the possibility that he was engaged in greater crimes related to 9/11.
There is no question that 9/11 provided this publicity-greedy man the ideal opportunity to grow a legend around his perceived response to the attacks. But Giuliani’s legend has faded into suspicions that he should be investigated for possible involvement in the crimes. His selection for a high-level cabinet post could re-invigorate interest in those suspicions.
[1] Wayne Barrett, “Rudy Giuliani’s 5 Big Lies About 9/11: On the Stump, Rudy Can’t Help Spreading Smoke and Ashes About His Dubious Record,” Village Voice, August 8–14, 2007, p. 35-36
[2] Wayne Barrett, Thug Life: The Shocking Secret History of Harold Giuliani, the Mayor’s Ex-Convict Dad, The Village Voice, July 4th 2000, http://www.villagevoice.com/2000-07-04/news/thug-life/1
[3] The Smoking Gun, Guiliani: The Hits Keep on Comin’, April 06, 2007
[4] William K. Rashbaum, .Kerik Is Accused of Abusing Post as City Official, The New York Times, November 16, 2005
[5] Dean J. Champion, Police Misconduct in America: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2001, p 15
[6] Timothy Naftali, “There’s Very Little We Can Do:” Gerald Ford and Counterterrorism, Version 1.3, Draft Section for Study of US Counterterrorism Strategy, 1968 – 1993, Washington Decoded, http://www.washingtondecoded.com/files/tngrf.pdf
[7] Gary Webb, Dark Alliance, Seven Stories press, 1998
[8] Christopher Ketcham, The Last Roundup, Radar Magazine, May 5, 2008
[9] Beth Kaswan describes her role as a Giuliani assistant managing the BCCI case in her bio at Scott & Scott, http://www.scott-scott.com/attorney-beth-kaswan.html
[10] Lucy Komisar, Tracking Terrorist Money — Too Hot For U.S. to Handle?, Pacific News Service, October 4, 2001, https://ac.home.xs4all.nl/11sept2001/amerika50.htm
[11] Rachel Ehrenfeld, Evil Money: Encounters Along the Money Trail, HarperCollins Publishers, 1992, pp 177-178
[12] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, Bloomsbury Press, 2009, p 430
[13] One case in which White & Case represented BCCI is listed here, http://openjurist.org/836/f2d/545/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international-sa-v-akhavan-and-n-na-bank-of-credit-and-commerce-internat
[14] David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin, Follow the Money: How John Kerry busted the terrorists’ favorite bank, Washington Monthly, September 2004, https://web.archive.org/web/20160329162912/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html
[15] James Traub, Rudy’s reversals: Giuliani’s lost convictions, The New Republic, September 9, 1991
[16] Biography, Rudy Giuliani, http://www.biography.com/people/rudolph-giuliani-9312674?page=2
[17] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, Harper Collins, 2006, pp 94-101
[18] David DeGraw, The Financial Puzzle Behind 9/11, Consortium News, October 22, 2010, http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/102210a.html
[19] Peter Jennings of ABC interview with Rudy Giuliani, 9/11/01 Rudy Giuliani warned of WTC collapse beforehand – Interview with Peter Jennings, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vCg8Fp8aw8
[20] Jim Hoffman, Giuliani Warned: Mayor Giuliani Had Privileged Warning of Unprecedented Collapse, 911Research.WTC7.net, http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/attack/giuliani.html
[21] See Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, http://www.ae911truth.org/
[22] Peter Jennings of ABC interview with Rudy Giuliani
[23] In 1993 Kroll Associates, an investigative and security consulting firm headquartered in New York, was asked by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner and manager of the World Trade Center at the time, to assist it in dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist bombing that took place in February of that year and to help design new security measures. This report’s Principal Investigator, Brian Michael Jenkins, was then Deputy Chairman of Kroll and led the analysis of future terrorist threats and how they might be addressed. The report specifically considered the possibility of “terrorists deliberately crashing a plane into the towers.” http://transweb.sjsu.edu/MTIportal/research/publications/documents/Sept11.book.htm
[24] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, EMT Richard Zarrillo, October 25, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110161.PDF?scp=1&sq=OEM%20wtc&st=cse
[25] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, Abdo Nahmod, October 11, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110061.PDF
[26] Graeme MacQueen, Waiting for Seven: WTC 7 Collapse Warnings in the FDNY Oral Histories, Journal of 9/11 Studies, January 11, 2008, http://www.journalof911studies.com/volume/200701/MacQueenWaitingforSeven.pdf
[27] History Commons Profile for Richard Rotanz, https://web.archive.org/web/20160806175620/http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=richard_rotanz
[28] Graeme MacQueen, Waiting for Seven
[29] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, Fire Marshal Steven Mosiello, October 23, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110141.PDF?scp=3&sq=OEM%20wtc&st=cse
[30] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, Harper Collins, 2006, p12
[31] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, Chief Joseph Pfeifer, October 23, 2001, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110138.PDF
[32] Testimony of Richard Sheirer to the 9/1 Commission, May 18, 2004 http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/hearings/hearing11/sheirer_statement.pdf
[33] History Commons profile for John Odermatt, https://web.archive.org/web/20160402154429/http://historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=john_odermatt_1
[34] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion, p 33-35
[35] History Commons profile for John Odermatt
[36] Suzanne Mattei, Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero: How the Bush Administration’s Reckless Disregard of 9/11 Toxic Hazards Poses Long-Term Threats for New York City and the Nation, Sierra Club, http://www.gothamgazette.com/rebuilding_nyc/sierraclub_report.pdf
[37] Report from the Committee on Science, US House of Representatives, March 6,2002, http://web.archive.org/web/20021128021952/http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/science/hsy77747.000/hsy77747_0.htm
[38] Gail Swanson, Behind-the-Scenes: Ground Zero, A Collection of Personal Accounts, available at this link: http://www.summeroftruth.org/groundzero.html
[39] Jim Hoffman, Black Boxes: Contents of Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorders Are Missing, 911Research.com, http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/evidence/blackboxes.html
[40] ABC News, Terrorist Hunt: Suspects ID’d; Rescue Efforts Go On; White House Originally Targeted, September 12, 2001, http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/disinfo/deceptions/abc_hunt.html
[41] Susan Ginsberg testimony to National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Public Hearing, Monday, January 26, 2004, http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/hearing7/9-11Commission_Hearing_2004-01-26.htm
[42] Jim Hoffman, Access Restrictions: The Closure of Ground Zero to Investigators, 911Research.WTC7.net, http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/restrictions.html
[43] Amy Florence Fischbach, E-J Electric workers survive tragedy, CEE News, Sep 20, 2001, http://ecmweb.com/cee-news-archive/e-j-electric-workers-survive-tragedy
[44] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion, p 257
[45] U.S. Department of Defense, News Transcript, Mr. Lee Evey, Pentagon Renovation Manager, September 15, 2001, http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1636
[46] Jacqueline Emigh, GPS on the Job in Massive World Trade Center Clean-up, Access Control & Security Systems, Jul 1, 2002, http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/groundzero/security_gps.html
[47] Debra K. Rubin
[48] NPR News, Sifting Through the WTC Rubble: ‘Ground Zero’ Effort Nears End, Search Continues at Fresh Kills, May 30, 2002
[49] Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bios of James T. Caruso and Pasquale J. D’Amuro, January 31, 2002, https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/bios-of-james-t.-caruso-and-pasquale-j.-damuro
[50] Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Announces List of 19 Hijackers, September 14, 2001, https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-announces-list-of-19-hijackers
[51] Anita Gates, “Buildings Rise from Rubble while Health Crumbles,” “New York Times,” September 11, 2006, reporting on the documentary, “Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11”
[52] Ben Smith, “Rudy’s Black Cloud”, New York Daily News, September 18, 2006, p. 14
[53] Wayne Barrett, “Rudy Giuliani’s 5 Big Lies About 9/11
[54] Fletcher Smith, Giuliani Criticized by Firefighters in Letter, Yahoo News Network, May 9, 2007
[55] Wayne Barrett, Rudy Giuliani’s Five Big Lies About 9/11
[56] David Saltonstall, “Rudy gets earful at stop here: Some FDNY survivors rally against him”. Daily News (New York). April 24, 2007
[57] See the website Rudy Giuliani, Urban Legend, http://www.rudy-urbanlegend.com/
[58] See AMEC website, Iraq webpage, and see AMEC description of just one of these contracts, worth $500 million, http://www.amec.com/page.aspx?pointerid=726e2a91da094026b46e1f3239f623b1
The idea that the indestructible black boxes could not be found also appears to be in contradiction to the official claim that a passport of one of the alleged hijackers was found. On September 12th, 2001, it was reported that the passport of Satam al Suqami, who was said to be aboard American Airlines Flight 11, was recovered.[40] Because Flight 11 crashed directly into the middle of the north face of the north tower, and was buried within the building, this passport would have had to stay intact throughout the crash event and then withstand the blast from the fuel fire and the ensuing fires fed by office furnishings (and thermitic materials). The rest of the spectacularly improbable path of the passport is not entirely clear, as the first reports said that it was found “in the rubble” but, later, 9/11 Commission staff member Susan Ginsberg testified that, “A passerby picked it up and gave it to a NYPD detective shortly before the World Trade Center towers collapsed.”[41] In other words, the passport was delivered through Bernard Kerik’s police department.
During the five-month cleanup effort, there were unprecedented measures taken to control access to the site. The site was restricted, and photographs were banned, by order of Rudy Giuliani.[42] Anthony Mann of E.J. Electric, one of the primary security companies for the WTC towers, said that, “Security is unbelievable. It’s really on a need-to-be-down-there basis.”[43]
Several people were reported to be in charge of the cleanup operation at Ground Zero. It was said that OEM was in charge, and that Richard Sheirer was the point person for the cleanup efforts. Others believed that Mike Burton, the executive deputy commissioner of the New York City Department of Design and Construction (DDC), was in charge. Although Burton managed some of the demolition and cleanup operations, he later testified that, “Everything was coordinated through his boss Holden, deputy mayors and the mayor.”[44]
The City hired five construction companies to handle the cleanup and the site was divided up among them. The five companies were AMEC Construction Management, Bovis Lend Lease, Turner Construction, Tully Construction and Tishman Construction.
Other sub-contractors were hired to complete the actual debris removal. Most of these companies were suspected of being associated with organized crime. Some were reportedly linked to the Colombo crime family, including Civetta Cousins, and Yonkers Contracting. Others were associated with the Luchese crime family.
The cleanup operations were ultimately consolidated under the control of two of the primary contractors: AMEC Construction Management and Bovis Lend Lease. At the time of the 9/11 attacks, the CEO of AMEC Construction was Peter Janson, a long-time business associate of Donald Rumsfeld. Under Janson’s leadership, AMEC had just completed a $258 million refurbishment of Wedge 1 of the Pentagon, exactly where AA Flight 77 impacted the building.[45]
Debris Removal and Theft
The debris removed from Ground Zero was either hauled away on trucks or shipped away on barges. Despite the effort to rapidly dispose of the steel and sell it a bargain price, the WTC debris was considered highly sensitive. At first the trucks were tracked using a paper-based system, and later GPS devices were fixed to each truck with “antennas to monitor location, cellular wireless antennas to communicate, and multiple I/Os to track vehicle signals from engine systems.”[46] Apparently it was important for officials to know not only where the trucks were at any given time, but also the status of the engine. As for the barges, the process was setup “in record time,” in order to “transport debris to the city’s Fresh Kills landfill and to recycling sites, all scrutinized by the Corps of Engineers.”[47]
As the debris was received at Fresh Kills landfill, it was sorted carefully. This sorting process was supervised by federal agents, and described in this way: “Teams of officers and agents watch as the rubble is sifted down to a fine ashy silt that they then rake through by hand.”[48] More than a year later, FBI agents reported the theft of some of this debris at the Fresh Kills site. It was discovered that Evidence Recovery Teams (ERTs) involved in the sorting process stole pieces of debris, and kept or disposed of them. This removal of debris was condoned and encouraged by the FBI agents in charge.
Pat D’Amuro, later an employee of Giuliani Partners, was involved in the theft of WTC debris from the Fresh Kills site. D’Amuro had specifically requested that certain kinds of items be kept for his retrieval, ostensibly so that he could give them away as mementos to various dignitaries.
D’Amuro had been the counterterrorism chief in the FBI’s New York City office since 1997 and was put in charge of the PENTTBOM investigation just after the 9/11 attacks.[49] PENTTBOM stood for Pentagon/Twin Towers Bombing and was notable for the rapidity in which the case was solved. U.S. authorities claimed to have had no knowledge of or ability to stop the 9/11 attacks yet the FBI was able to identify all nineteen alleged hijackers within 72 hours.[50]
Questions About Giuliani’s Role
In the days following 9/11, Giuliani downplayed the health effects of the air in the areas surrounding Ground Zero. He said, in the first month after the attacks, “The air quality is safe and acceptable.”[51] That was not the case and thousands of first responders have paid for such false claims with their health and their lives.
Firefighter and police unions have since criticized Giuliani over the issue of protective equipment and illnesses after the attacks.[52] An October 2001 study by the National Institute of Environmental Safety and Health confirmed that workers in the clean-up operations lacked adequate protective equipment.[53] A letter from the International Association of Fire Fighters in 2007 suggested that Giuliani rushed to end the victim recovery effort after gold and silver had been recovered from World Trade Center vaults. The letter stated that “Mayor Giuliani’s actions meant that fire fighters and citizens who perished would either remain buried at Ground Zero forever, with no closure for families, or be removed like garbage and deposited at the Fresh Kills Landfill.”[54]
During 9/11 Commission hearings, victims’ family members interrupted to demand answers on another Giuliani-related scandal. They wanted an explanation from Giuliani for the first responders’ lack of working radios. The radios used by firefighters in the WTC were a concern, and were actually known by NYC officials to be faulty as early as 1993.[55]
By April 2007, Giuliani had been forced to limit his appearances in New York City due to the increasing protests by family members of 9/11 victims, particularly police, fire and other emergency workers.[56] A general campaign sponsored by The International Association of Firefighters followed, aimed at exposing Giuliani as a fraud with respect to his 9/11 activities.[57]
All of this points to the need to investigate Rudy Giuliani with respect to the environmental crimes of 9/11. His actions and decisions related to the environmental crimes imply that he was hiding something greater, however. What needed to be hidden was evidence of the demolition of the WTC buildings.
During the cleanup of Ground Zero there were many indications that the public was being deceived. These included the discovery of foreknowledge about the destruction that originated with Rudy Giuliani and his OEM staff. Additionally, the steel was destroyed in an unprecedented manner and the black boxes were officially reported as not being found when it was clear that they had been. The restrictions on FEMA investigators and on photographers and the extensive site security are all indications that something was being hidden.
These facts provide additional reasons to suspect that explosive materials were being removed or destroyed during the cleanup. Those who were in control of Ground Zero certainly had the means and opportunity to dispose of any evidence of explosives. The opportunity came in the form of access to the highly secure site, as well as the authority to hire suspected crime syndicate companies to perform the actual cleanup. Theft of evidence by FBI agents at Fresh Kills landfill provides yet more suspicion that remnants of explosive devices were being removed.
Perhaps not surprisingly, those involved with the cleanup had strong links to Saudi Arabia. This included Giuliani, whose law firm represented the Saudi-funded BCCI shortly after Giuliani led enforcement actions against that terrorist network. It also included Bernard Kerik and the British construction companies AMEC and Bovis. Kerik worked for the Saudi royal family for years and AMEC and Bovis had done significant work for the Kingdom. AMEC also went on to win enormous contracts in Iraq.[58]
Rudy Giuliani can be brought up on charges today for his participation in the deception and negligence that led to the deaths and illness of so many workers at Ground Zero. However, his actions in that regard, and his personal history, point to the possibility that he was engaged in greater crimes related to 9/11.
There is no question that 9/11 provided this publicity-greedy man the ideal opportunity to grow a legend around his perceived response to the attacks. But Giuliani’s legend has faded into suspicions that he should be investigated for possible involvement in the crimes. His selection for a high-level cabinet post could re-invigorate interest in those suspicions.
[1] Wayne Barrett, “Rudy Giuliani’s 5 Big Lies About 9/11: On the Stump, Rudy Can’t Help Spreading Smoke and Ashes About His Dubious Record,” Village Voice, August 8–14, 2007, p. 35-36
[2] Wayne Barrett, Thug Life: The Shocking Secret History of Harold Giuliani, the Mayor’s Ex-Convict Dad, The Village Voice, July 4th 2000, http://www.villagevoice.com/2000-07-04/news/thug-life/1
[3] The Smoking Gun, Guiliani: The Hits Keep on Comin’, April 06, 2007
[4] William K. Rashbaum, .Kerik Is Accused of Abusing Post as City Official, The New York Times, November 16, 2005
[5] Dean J. Champion, Police Misconduct in America: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2001, p 15
[6] Timothy Naftali, “There’s Very Little We Can Do:” Gerald Ford and Counterterrorism, Version 1.3, Draft Section for Study of US Counterterrorism Strategy, 1968 – 1993, Washington Decoded, http://www.washingtondecoded.com/files/tngrf.pdf
[7] Gary Webb, Dark Alliance, Seven Stories press, 1998
[8] Christopher Ketcham, The Last Roundup, Radar Magazine, May 5, 2008
[9] Beth Kaswan describes her role as a Giuliani assistant managing the BCCI case in her bio at Scott & Scott, http://www.scott-scott.com/attorney-beth-kaswan.html
[10] Lucy Komisar, Tracking Terrorist Money — Too Hot For U.S. to Handle?, Pacific News Service, October 4, 2001, https://ac.home.xs4all.nl/11sept2001/amerika50.htm
[11] Rachel Ehrenfeld, Evil Money: Encounters Along the Money Trail, HarperCollins Publishers, 1992, pp 177-178
[12] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, Bloomsbury Press, 2009, p 430
[13] One case in which White & Case represented BCCI is listed here, http://openjurist.org/836/f2d/545/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international-sa-v-akhavan-and-n-na-bank-of-credit-and-commerce-internat
[14] David Sirota and Jonathan Baskin, Follow the Money: How John Kerry busted the terrorists’ favorite bank, Washington Monthly, September 2004, https://web.archive.org/web/20160329162912/http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.sirota.html
[15] James Traub, Rudy’s reversals: Giuliani’s lost convictions, The New Republic, September 9, 1991
[16] Biography, Rudy Giuliani, http://www.biography.com/people/rudolph-giuliani-9312674?page=2
[17] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, Harper Collins, 2006, pp 94-101
[18] David DeGraw, The Financial Puzzle Behind 9/11, Consortium News, October 22, 2010, http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/102210a.html
[19] Peter Jennings of ABC interview with Rudy Giuliani, 9/11/01 Rudy Giuliani warned of WTC collapse beforehand – Interview with Peter Jennings, Youtube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vCg8Fp8aw8
[20] Jim Hoffman, Giuliani Warned: Mayor Giuliani Had Privileged Warning of Unprecedented Collapse, 911Research.WTC7.net, http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/attack/giuliani.html
[21] See Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth, http://www.ae911truth.org/
[22] Peter Jennings of ABC interview with Rudy Giuliani
[23] In 1993 Kroll Associates, an investigative and security consulting firm headquartered in New York, was asked by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the owner and manager of the World Trade Center at the time, to assist it in dealing with the aftermath of the terrorist bombing that took place in February of that year and to help design new security measures. This report’s Principal Investigator, Brian Michael Jenkins, was then Deputy Chairman of Kroll and led the analysis of future terrorist threats and how they might be addressed. The report specifically considered the possibility of “terrorists deliberately crashing a plane into the towers.” http://transweb.sjsu.edu/MTIportal/research/publications/documents/Sept11.book.htm
[24] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, EMT Richard Zarrillo, October 25, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110161.PDF?scp=1&sq=OEM%20wtc&st=cse
[25] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, Abdo Nahmod, October 11, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110061.PDF
[26] Graeme MacQueen, Waiting for Seven: WTC 7 Collapse Warnings in the FDNY Oral Histories, Journal of 9/11 Studies, January 11, 2008, http://www.journalof911studies.com/volume/200701/MacQueenWaitingforSeven.pdf
[27] History Commons Profile for Richard Rotanz, https://web.archive.org/web/20160806175620/http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=richard_rotanz
[28] Graeme MacQueen, Waiting for Seven
[29] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, Fire Marshal Steven Mosiello, October 23, 2001, http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110141.PDF?scp=3&sq=OEM%20wtc&st=cse
[30] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11, Harper Collins, 2006, p12
[31] World Trade Center Task Force Interview, Chief Joseph Pfeifer, October 23, 2001, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/9110138.PDF
[32] Testimony of Richard Sheirer to the 9/1 Commission, May 18, 2004 http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/hearings/hearing11/sheirer_statement.pdf
[33] History Commons profile for John Odermatt, https://web.archive.org/web/20160402154429/http://historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=john_odermatt_1
[34] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion, p 33-35
[35] History Commons profile for John Odermatt
[36] Suzanne Mattei, Pollution and Deception at Ground Zero: How the Bush Administration’s Reckless Disregard of 9/11 Toxic Hazards Poses Long-Term Threats for New York City and the Nation, Sierra Club, http://www.gothamgazette.com/rebuilding_nyc/sierraclub_report.pdf
[37] Report from the Committee on Science, US House of Representatives, March 6,2002, http://web.archive.org/web/20021128021952/http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/science/hsy77747.000/hsy77747_0.htm
[38] Gail Swanson, Behind-the-Scenes: Ground Zero, A Collection of Personal Accounts, available at this link: http://www.summeroftruth.org/groundzero.html
[39] Jim Hoffman, Black Boxes: Contents of Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorders Are Missing, 911Research.com, http://911research.wtc7.net/planes/evidence/blackboxes.html
[40] ABC News, Terrorist Hunt: Suspects ID’d; Rescue Efforts Go On; White House Originally Targeted, September 12, 2001, http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/disinfo/deceptions/abc_hunt.html
[41] Susan Ginsberg testimony to National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Public Hearing, Monday, January 26, 2004, http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/hearing7/9-11Commission_Hearing_2004-01-26.htm
[42] Jim Hoffman, Access Restrictions: The Closure of Ground Zero to Investigators, 911Research.WTC7.net, http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/restrictions.html
[43] Amy Florence Fischbach, E-J Electric workers survive tragedy, CEE News, Sep 20, 2001, http://ecmweb.com/cee-news-archive/e-j-electric-workers-survive-tragedy
[44] Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Grand Illusion, p 257
[45] U.S. Department of Defense, News Transcript, Mr. Lee Evey, Pentagon Renovation Manager, September 15, 2001, http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/transcript.aspx?transcriptid=1636
[46] Jacqueline Emigh, GPS on the Job in Massive World Trade Center Clean-up, Access Control & Security Systems, Jul 1, 2002, http://911research.wtc7.net/cache/wtc/groundzero/security_gps.html
[47] Debra K. Rubin
[48] NPR News, Sifting Through the WTC Rubble: ‘Ground Zero’ Effort Nears End, Search Continues at Fresh Kills, May 30, 2002
[49] Federal Bureau of Investigation, Bios of James T. Caruso and Pasquale J. D’Amuro, January 31, 2002, https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/bios-of-james-t.-caruso-and-pasquale-j.-damuro
[50] Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Announces List of 19 Hijackers, September 14, 2001, https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-announces-list-of-19-hijackers
[51] Anita Gates, “Buildings Rise from Rubble while Health Crumbles,” “New York Times,” September 11, 2006, reporting on the documentary, “Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11”
[52] Ben Smith, “Rudy’s Black Cloud”, New York Daily News, September 18, 2006, p. 14
[53] Wayne Barrett, “Rudy Giuliani’s 5 Big Lies About 9/11
[54] Fletcher Smith, Giuliani Criticized by Firefighters in Letter, Yahoo News Network, May 9, 2007
[55] Wayne Barrett, Rudy Giuliani’s Five Big Lies About 9/11
[56] David Saltonstall, “Rudy gets earful at stop here: Some FDNY survivors rally against him”. Daily News (New York). April 24, 2007
[57] See the website Rudy Giuliani, Urban Legend, http://www.rudy-urbanlegend.com/
[58] See AMEC website, Iraq webpage, and see AMEC description of just one of these contracts, worth $500 million, http://www.amec.com/page.aspx?pointerid=726e2a91da094026b46e1f3239f623b1
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Suspects | Tagged Rudy Giuliani | 5 Comments
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