A couple of weeks ago, Brave New Films released a devastating six-minute clip about a Rudy Giuliani’s Achilles heel: his decision to ignore (and lie about) concerns over the FDNY’s radio equipment, which ultimately cost so many lives on 9/11.
Thanks to the film and 20,000 petition signatures collected in response, the city is going to launch an investigation.
In the midst of his presidential candidacy, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani now faces a looming government investigation into his handling of the radios used by firefighters on 9/11.
The investigation, which will examine how the FDNY ended up using faulty equipment during the terrorist attacks and why Giuliani gave a no-bid contract to Motorola for that equipment, has been endorsed by New York City Councilman Eric Gioia, chair of the city’s oversight and investigations committee. […]
Calls for an investigation were first proposed by filmmaker Robert Greenwald who has documented Giuliani’s handling of 9/11 in a series of shorts for Brave New Films. In The Real Rudy: Radios, Greenwald documents how radios used by the FDNY on 9/11 were the same ones that malfunctioned during the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers. When – eight years later – Giuliani finally purchased new communications equipment for $14 million from Motorola, it was never field-tested. A week later, the equipment was recalled after a firefighter’s mayday went un-heard. Giuliani reissued the old batch of radios. And on 9/11 when a police helicopter warned that the North Tower could collapse, more than 120 firefighters remained inside.
“I will do everything in my power to get answers, to get the truth,” Gioia said. “These families deserve answers and really the entire city and our country deserve answers…. To watch this documentary and see the important questions that were asked and seemingly unanswered and ignored for so many years, it’s disturbing.”
This probably isn’t what the Giuliani campaign was hoping for. As Greg Sargent put it, “At the very least, such a probe could reveal more unflattering facts about his allegedly heroic 9/11 performance.”
And speaking of Giuliani’s many scandals, Bernie Kerik’s legal troubles are getting worse.
Bernard B. Kerik, the former police commissioner of New York who pleaded guilty last year to state misdemeanor charges and will probably face federal indictment this month, was sued last week by his former lawyers for more than $200,000.
The lawsuit was filed on Oct. 22 in State Supreme Court in Manhattan by the Houston-based law firm of Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P., which until April represented Mr. Kerik. It accuses him of failing to pay $202,384.04 in legal fees.
The NYT noted that a “legal defense trust” for Kerik has been established, prompting Josh Marshall to ask a good question: “Considering that Giuliani’s candidacy can probably only survive if Kerik keeps quiet, it’d be very interesting to know who’s contributing to that fund. People who were just fans of his public service?”
What a tangled web they weave….