NEW YORK
- Families of World Trade Center
victims say the Sept. 11 commission and former
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani failed them by
"sugarcoating" their questions and answers in a
public hearing.
Relatives jumped out of their seats and shouted
at the panel and the former mayor, who testified
Wednesday on the second and final day of the
hearing examining the city's emergency response.
They said the commission feebly addressed
crucial issues like malfunctioning firefighter
radios and what they see as the city's lack of
disaster preparation, failing to push Giuliani as
he testified that New York was "unbelievably
capable" and "terrifically effective."
"He could have been a great source for what
needs to be changed," said Wells Noonan, whose
brother died in the north tower. "The panel didn't
press hard enough."
Monica Gabrielle, whose husband was killed,
said the panel and Giuliani spent the morning
"cloaking everything in heroism."
When asked on NBC's "Today" show Thursday
morning about addressing specific problems, like
inadequate fire drills, Giuliani said, "All of
those things should be reviewed."
"All of those things in the future should be
changed. All of those things should be worked on,"
he said, citing the inability of people to make
telephone calls on overloaded bandwidths as a key
problem.
The former mayor said he had "a real
understanding and empathy with the anger" of
victims' relatives but restated the cornerstone of
his testimony before the commission: that blame
for the attacks should fall on the terrorists
alone.
"Here's the mistake: Nobody anticipated a
catastrophic attack, planes being used as
missiles, being driven into those buildings, and
that's the reason for the losses," he said.
During Wednesday's hearing, commission members
repeatedly saluted Giuliani's leadership and
refrained from challenging his positive portrayals
of the Sept. 11 rescue operations.
"There was not a problem of coordination on
Sept. 11," Giuliani said. "We got a story of
heroism, we got a story of pride, and we got a
story of support that helped get us through."
Several relatives of victims said they were
disgusted that the 10 members of the commission,
each allowed about five minutes to question
Giuliani, wasted time with redundant praise. One
statement thanking Giuliani should have been
enough, the families said.
"The commission members don't press hard at
all," said Beverly Eckert, whose husband was
killed.
"We leave frustrated," Gabrielle said. "They
made a huge faux pas in letting Rudy Giuliani
polish his crown."
Targeting Giuliani is a reversal for many of
the victims' relatives, who since the attack have
generally praised him as a steady leader through
the chaos. After leaving office at the end of
2001, Giuliani has consistently sided with family
coalitions on issues involving the trade center
site, once even calling for the entire 16 acres to
become a memorial.
Asked after his testimony about the outbursts
from the victims' relatives, Giuliani said he
expected that reaction. "I attribute it to the
stress and the trauma that they're going through,"
he said.
Lee Ielpi, a retired firefighter whose son died
in the attack, said he understood the emotional
reaction some families had on Wednesday, but he
said he thought Giuliani was "solid and stayed to
the point."
"We have to keep a clear mind that the job at
hand of the commission is to make suggestions so
that the events of 9/11 will not happen again,"
Ielpi said. "I can't change the past."
In the most comprehensive probe of the issues
to date, reports by the commission's staff
released this week detailed a list of failings
including poor communication, gulfs in cooperation
between police and firefighters and grave
deficiencies in the city's 911 emergency telephone
network.
The findings led to an aggressive interrogation
of Giuliani's top fire, police and emergency
management officials by the panel on Tuesday, the
first day of the hearings.
Giuliani, who has become one of the Bush
administration's most vocal supporters, also told
the commission that warnings of a possible
terrorist attack on New York City contained in an
Aug. 6, 2001, White House briefing paper never
reached City Hall, but likely would not have
changed local security precautions.
The intelligence briefing for President Bush
referred to evidence of federal buildings in New
York possibly being cased by terrorists. It
mentioned New York or the World Trade Center three
times.
"If that information had been given to us, or
more warnings had been given in the summer of
2001, I can't honestly tell you we'd do anything
differently," Giuliani said. "We were doing at the
time everything we could think of ... to protect
the city."
The commission's hearings resume in Washington
on June 8-9 and its final report is due July 26.
The panel was created by Congress last year to
investigate the attacks and advise the country on
ways to avoid future attacks.
Associated Press writers Devlin Barrett and
Michael Weissenstein contributed to this report.
