Posted on 05/21/2004 4:37:54 AM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
BY THOMAS FRANK WASHINGTON BUREAU; Staff writers Graham Rayman and Dan Janison contributed to this story.
May 21, 2004
WASHINGTON - A member of the Sept. 11 commission expressed regret yesterday over the questioning of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Wednesday and said the panel should have pressed him on failures in the city's response to 9/11 instead of praising him so lavishly.
Commissioner Jamie Gorelick said she was "disappointed in us in a way that I haven't been in the past" after the hearing Wednesday. Many relatives of people killed in the World Trade Center criticized and in some cases jeered the commission for not asking Giuliani about problems they say may have led to the deaths of hundreds of civilians and firefighters.
"This commission would not exist but for these families, and they fought for these hearings and they deserved to hear themselves the answers to the questions," Gorelick said in an interview. "They deserved to have the questions asked, and we did not do that."
Commission chairman Thomas Kean suggested the criticism may be valid.
"It's not that we didn't find the facts. We have them," Gorelick said, referring to commission disclosures about problems with police and fire communications and coordination. "We should have recognized the importance of asking the four or five critical factual questions, not wasting a lot of time in complementing the mayor."
Gorelick, a former deputy U.S. attorney under President Bill Clinton, added, "I regret that we did not ask the hard questions about the [Fire Department] radios, about the command structure, about the incident management, about the placement of the OEM offices."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Who cares what Gore-Lick and Kean think?
If they tried to get rough with Rudy he would have handed them
their heads.
Gorelick thinks the commission spent too much time complimenting the mayor? Yeah, we certainly wouldn't want to give him any praise for how he handled such a disaster! It would have been much more dignified to say his response wasn't worthy of the Boy Scouts.
The dog and pony show continues in the attempt to damage Rudy in a run against That Woman.
Gorelick has a lot of explaining to do that hasn't been addressed.
BTW, if they have all the current information, why can't they predict and take steps to prevent the next attack? I assume that this is what this is all about, isn't it? Not getting the facts down to handle things better, but to blame and prognosticate?
"We should have recognized the importance of asking the four or five critical factual questions, not wasting a lot of time in complementing the mayor."
This whole commission has been a joke. They should not have been spending ANY time on complimenting or criticizing or attacking anyone, the whole thing through.
Everything should have been researched and conducted in private, and a report released at the end. The temptation to grandstand has been too much for these people, instead of really constructively addressing what problems did exist.
At least Rudy testified... UNDER OATH.
Which is more than Gorelick did.
"GORELICK: WE WERE TOO EASY ON RUDY [KEAN AGREES]"
No, Rudy was too easy on you.
""This commission would not exist but for these families, and they fought for these hearings and they deserved to hear themselves the answers to the questions," Gorelick said in an interview. "They deserved to have the questions asked, and we did not do that.""
First question would be, "Chairperson Gorelick, please explain your irresponsibility in creating a wall between the CIA and the FBI after the 1993 bombing of the WTC."
I think if we start from there and move forward we can probably get the answers to the question sof the relatives.
info@9-11commission.gov
Good point! Gorelick should be a witness, not a commisioner.
"In fact, I wrote them," Gorelick added.
Throwing garabage on the NYPD, the FDNY or Rudy is about as politically tone deaf as one could be. It shows how completely out of touch these people are with even NYC, let alone the nation.
It should be pointed out that Kerrey runs the New Scool for Social Research which is openly and extrememly hard left - perhaps the most hard left academy in the nation. It makes Berkeley look like a slightly left of center institution.
This commission is driven by the hard left and the Clintonistas's funtionaries.
Perhaps Bush was right after all to put such weak Republicans on it in the first place. I for one think that they have discredited themselves to the American people. Rudy needs to get on the media soon and say his peace about this.
Gorelick is pretty much an A$$ wipe
Jamie Gorelick said she was "disappointed ..."
Jamie, I am disappointed too -- disappointed that YOU haven't been put under oath and made to testify.
The commission has degenerated into an obscenity and I'm still waiting for the GOP to grow enough balls to say that out loud.
But..., there's no doubt that any report this "august" body produces will be discredited from the get-go.
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