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How low does Rudy go?
Jerry Mazza
Online
Journal
Monday October 01, 2007
Let’s start with Rudy Giuliani having eight years to correct
the non-working radios of firemen and not getting it right by
9/11. So, 131 firemen died in the World Trade Center's north tower
alone because their radios did not work. Others couldn’t
communicate with the police or helicopters because the Emergency
Command Center at the WTC proved useless when it was needed most.
The ECC was housed on the 23rd floor of Building 7, right where
Rudy demanded it should be against experts’ advice.
But then, Larry Silverstein, owner of Tower 7, who called for
his building to be pulled at 3:30 that day, watched it sail down
into it’s footprint two hours later. So did the Rudy bird
know what was happening? He was on the street the morning of 9/11.
At 9:15 a.m. he told ABC’s Peter Jennings, “We were
operating out of there (Tower 7) when were told that the World
Trade Center was gonna collapse.”
When recently a young black woman asked him face to face why
didn’t he warn the people in the other towers, and call
the media, and asked if he had foreknowledge, Rudy did a 180,
a big smile on his face, and denied he ever said that. You have
to see it to believe it as captured on YouTube.
(Article continues below)
Rudy also received a $100,000 fund-raiser aboard a yacht owned
by his buddy Larry Silverstein, perhaps a little bit of payback
for renting in his Building 7. Silverstein was also holder of
the lease on the WTC that paid back $4.45 billion in insurance
monies on Larry’s $14 million piece of the original 99-year,
$320 million lease. Larry had also upped the insurance to $3.5
billion a month before 9/11, then asked to have it paid off twice
because there were two separate “events,” i.e. plane
hits. The insurance companies balked and after years of litigation
Silverman settled for $2 billion of the $4.5 award to build the
Freedom Tower.
All told 343 firefighters died that day. And the International
Firefighters Union went on to officially dump support for Rudy.
Part of it was for Rudy’s “scoop and dump” call,
to end hunting for bodies because Rudy thought it slowed the work
down. After an all out physical brawl between NYPD and NYFD, the
hunt resumed and more bodies were found. But the cadaverous Rudy
never lost a beat. In fact, the cleaning of Ground Zero, which
was allotted 30 months to complete, was finished by a relentless
pushing in eight months.
Workers dying from tasks at Ground Zero
The tragic result was that Rudy didn’t push at all for
the workers to wear protective masks. Today, thousands of the
workers are severely ill or have already died from cancers, respiratory
disorders and other toxic waste-related illnesses. Just so all
the evidence could be removed ASAP from the largest crime scene
in the history of America. That’s how low he goes and lower.
Both Giuliani and Silverstein had foreknowledge of the fact that
the Twin Towers were asbestos “bombs,” that is they
were loaded with the lethal insulating material when they were
built in the early 70s. The towers were not permitted to be leveled
by internal demolition because they were part of a public trust,
The Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey. Nevertheless,
the towers had to come down by order of the City Council by about
2007. Unfortunately, they would have had to be disassembled piece
by piece at a cost of billions of dollars.
Giuliani knew all this. Silverstein knew this when he leased
the buildings less than two months before 9/11. Perhaps that’s
why Silverstein upped the insurance to $3.5 billion, with provision
for coverage from “terror attacks.” He later tried
to double the benefit, which would have given him more than $7
billion. As of, March 24, 2003, the The New York Times reported
on the final settlement in Insurers Agree to Pay Billions at Ground
Zero. A second contract, which provided for the double payment
had not been fully completed when the acts occurred, and thus
triggered the six years of litigation. Yet consider how prescient
it was of Silverstein to ask for it in the first place. But Rudy
(and friends) go lower . . .
Rudy and Judy and the National Rifle Association
On September 21, Hizzoner took a cell call from his third wife,
Judy, in the middle of an address to the National Rifle Association.
He interrupted his talk for a chit-chat with the little woman
on his cell. Then he continued, with that big smile, to flip-flop
on his past advocacy for tougher gun laws. When asked if he still
supported those laws to their full extent, he replied, “At
the time, what I was doing during that time that I was mayor was
taking advantage of every law and every interpretation of every
law that I could think of to reduce crime,” he said. “Some
people call it excessive; I call it intense.” I call it
flip-flopping. But he goes lower . . .
Rudy’s ex-wives
His first wife was his second cousin but he waited six years
to get an annulment, claiming he didn’t know she was his
second cousin. Okay. His second wife, TV anchor Donna Hanover,
the mother of his two children, was notified he was leaving her
via a press conferencer. It’s no wonder that neither his
son nor daughter talks to him. But he goes lower . . .
Rudy and the Iraq Study Group
Rudy managed to get himself kicked out of the prestigious group
because he never attended meetings. He was too busy reaping in
millions giving speeches on what a hero he was on 9/11. He skipped
one meeting to hustle $200 grand for a keynote speech at an economic
conference in South Korea. The next month he played hooky from
a second meeting to make a $100 grand speech at a “leadership”
meeting in Atlanta. That same day he went to a $100-a-ticket political
fundraiser for conservative activist Ralph Reed. But he goes lower
. . .
Rudy meets with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
That happened at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan on September
26, where most of the gang from the UN General Assembly hang out.
Actually, Talabani and Giuliani not only rhyme. They are birds
of a feather, since Talabani, a source reports, and his government
are facing a Henry Waxman Senate investigation committee regarding
internal corruption, Blackwater USA, and the State Department.
No less than Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to
control what information can be released, questioned in public,
et al. It’s another job of stonewalling Congress and the
public. Rudy should have been right at home talking strategies
with Jalal. Of course, Rudy was all for the war. And he didn’t
have a speaking engagement on this day. He said he skipped the
other Study Group meetings because (as a possible presidential
candidate) he didn’t want to inject politics into the Group’s
findings. But he goes lower . . .
Rudy opens a bank
Steven Oesterle, who ran Rudy’s bank, Giuliani Capital
Partners, had this to say, “There are a lot of high-class
investment-banking boutiques out there, but we really thought
there was room for another one that we could build off the back
of this brand.” This brand would be, er, brand Giuliani?
According to the New York Daily News, “court filings show
Giuliani Advisors has collected millions of dollars in fees and
expenses from bankrupt companies. The filings open a rare window
into the former mayor’s new empire, which includes a law
firm and the consultancy Giuliani Partners [more of the same].”
I’m waiting for the restaurant, Rudy’s Windows on
the World. But then, maybe that would leave a bad taste.
Rudy’s business interests and I quote the News, “are
vast and absorbing. Even his political trip to Iowa [was] scheduled
to coincide with a paid speech in Des Moines.” And guess
what? “Much of Giuliani’s work is confidential.”
Giuliani aide, Sunny Mindel, said, “We’re in the
private sector. We have clients about which you may not know anything.”
But their tasks include “high-profile work for Mexico City
and the pharmaceutical industry.”
In the end, the bank was sold with the help of Giuliani’s
partnered Texas law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani. They were
receiving six-figure sums for lobbying Congress on behalf of Citgo
Petroleum, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company,
despite Rudy’s criticism of President Hugo Chavez’s
regime.
The big R also profited on the sale of his bank to Cintra. As
Australian journalist Mark Coultan points out, Cintra is a financial
partner with an Australian company, Macquarie, on a toll-road
project in Indiana. It seems that Macquarie acquired the business
and assets of an investment bank known as Giuliani Capital Advisors,
which sold, according to the Washington Post, “for an undisclosed
amount as Giuliani was preparing his run for president.”
The amount is between $76 and $100 million, Coultan writes. This
for a bank that ran up a net loss of $1.4 million after generous
salaries to partners. The senior staff, who own about 30 percent
of the stock, “will come with the deal.” But Rudy
goes lower . . .
Giuliani & Bracewell law-busters
Does it surprise you that a candidate for the Republican presidential
nomination is a partner in the Dallas law firm, Bracewell &
Giuliani? It’s among the nation’s largest, with 400
attorneys and nine offices worldwide. And now B&G is exclusively
representing the Spanish company Cintra through the privatization
of Texas State Highway 121. Does anybody like to call Congress
and let them know about this quid pro quo? The full story, linked
above, is in the March 26, 2007, Dallas Business Journal.
Yes, Rudy’s milking the old cash cow, the 9/11 sheriff
routine again to those sympathetic (rich and wannabe richer) Texans.
The client, Cintra, has signed an agreement with the Texas Department
of Transportation to finish the State Highway 121 toll road by
2011, a quarter century faster than possible through traditional
sources (i.e. American workers), according to the Texas Department
of Transportation (TxDOT). What you should also know is that the
toll road is part of the NAFTA Superhighway and construction of
the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC).
Independent Journalist Cliff Kincaid nails it in his article
Giuliani Linked To “NAFTA Superhighway”: “Evidence
shows that NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement involving
the U.S., Canada and Mexico, is being expanded without congressional
approval or oversight as part of a plan to create an economic
and political entity known as the North American Union.”
This is “the project that has people in Texas and around
the nation up in arms.”
Kincaid quotes freelance writer Dianne M. Grassi, who originally
broke the story of Rudy’s law firm on the TTC toll-road
project.
She comments, “Most interesting to the whole story is not
only has Giuliani’s involvement in the NAFTA Superhighway
not ever having been publicly addressed, but how a foreign company
is awarded the building of a mass highway system, versus maintaining
it, for the first time in U.S. history, and negotiated by the
law firm of the top Republican candidate running for President
of the United States.”
Grassi also points out that “Cintra joined with San Antonio,
Texas-based Zachry Construction Corp. to help land the contracts,
in which Zachry owns a 20 percent interest. The Cintra-Zachry
proposal for TTC-35 includes a private investment of up to $6
billion in upfront payments for the complete construction, design
and operation of a 316-mile toll road between Dallas and San Antonio,
giving Cintra the right to set tolls and keep toll road profits
for a period of 50 years, as it will for each road it has contracted
. . ."
Grassi goes on to say, “The NAFTA Superhighway and its
corridors will run from Southwestern Mexico through Laredo, Austin
and Dallas, TX, into Kansas City, KS, serving as an inland customs
port. The corridor will split in Kansas with one leg going to
Winnipeg, Canada, through Omaha, NE. The other leg goes to Toronto,
Canada, through Des Moines, IA, Chicago, IL, and Detroit, MI.
. . ."
Additionally, Terry Hall, founder and director of Texans Uniting
for Reform and Freedom (TURF), notes that “Giuliani clients
with an interest in acquiring Texas roads and infrastructure have
also invested in his presidential campaign.
“This could explain why Giuliani has spent so much time
fundraising in Texas. The monied proponents of the Trans-Texas
Corridor, of which there are many, would like to see this man
become President.” The big irony here is that Giuliani was
opposed to NAFTA, that is, before he became a private business
dude with global clients. But Rudy goes lower . . .
Rudy raising his lifestyle
Additionally, Dan Collins and Wayne Barrett pointed out in an
Alternet article, Why Rudy Giuliani Can’t Stop Cashing in
on 9/11” that “Giuliani had never seemed particularly
concerned about money -- he wouldn't have been scheming so desperately
for a third $195,000-a-year term as mayor if wealth had been his
top priority. But his sudden riches came in handy. His settlement
with his former wife, Donna Hanover, in the summer of 2002 called
for him to pay her $6.8 million over three years as well as child
support. Hanover's lawyers estimated that Giuliani's income in
2002 was $20 million, a little more than half from speaking fees
and book advances . . ."
Yet once Rudy got a taste of living large . . ."he quickly
adapted to his new lifestyle, demanding first-class flights and
accommodations for himself and his posse when he traveled and
purchasing a $4 million summer house in the Hamptons for himself
and Judy Nathan, whom he married in 2003. The couple also have
an apartment on Manhattan's East Side worth more than $5 million,
complete with Rudy's Yankee diamond rings displayed in wooden
boxes, a lithograph of Winston Churchill above the fireplace,
two white Churchill porcelain figures and a Joe DiMaggio shirt
encased in glass. . . ."
So it all runs together. Rudy’s profiting from a great
tragedy, selling out American interests to foreign interests,
major conflicts of interest between his law firm activities and
the funding of his potential run for the presidency, etc. A half
dozen writers point out a common theme: Giuliani’s insatiable
greed as a last step into a bent American Dream. But it goes lower
. . .
Giuliani fundraiser charges $9.11 per person
This is the idea of a fan, Abraham Sofaer, presumably okay with
Hizzoner, to have a fundraiser at the fan’s Palo Alto, California
home. It’s for his old friend, Rudy Giuliani, and Sofaer
is suggesting it is the prototype for an “independent, non-denominational
grass-roots campaign to raise $10,000 in small increments to show
how many individual, everyday Americans support America’s
Mayor.” How about that for sacrilegious?
And how about the people who died on 9/11, nearly 3,000 of them?
Do we throw in nine bucks and 11 cents for each of them? After
all, a buck is a buck, right Abe, you slime. And it goes lower:
about how Rudy as mayor didn’t like criticism . . .
Rudy falsely arrested satirical street artist 40 times
Robert Lederer, the street artist, insisted on reminding people
of the police and racist state that Rudy created as mayor. And
so Rudy had him falsely arrest some 40 times. Read all about it.
But Rudy goes to the bottom of the barrel with the police beating
and sodomizing of black man Abner Louima, which occurred on Rudy’s
watch as the law and order Mayor . . .
“Giuliani Time” and the beating of Abner Louima
Wikipedia reports that on August 9, 1997, Louima visited "Club
Rendez-Vous", a popular nightclub in East Flatbush, Brooklyn.
Late in the night, he and several other men interceded in a fight
between ‘two women.’ The police were called and several
officers from the 70th precinct were dispatched to the scene.
There was a confrontation between the police and the patrons and
bystanders involved in the scuffle outside the club. The responding
patrol officers included Justin Volpe, Charles Schwarz, Thomas
Bruder, and Thomas Wiese, among others. In the ensuing scuffle,
Officer Volpe thought he was struck by a ‘sucker-punch and
for reasons that remain unclear, identified Louima as his assailant.
Volpe arrested Louima on charges of disorderly conduct, obstructing
government administration, and resisting arrest.
“The arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks,
and hand-held police radios on the ride to the station. On arriving
at the station house, he was strip-searched and put in a holding
cell. The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being
raped in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn.
Officer Justin Volpe kicked Louima in the groin, then, while Louima's
hands were cuffed behind his back, sodomized him with a [broomstick],
causing severe internal damage to his colon and bladder that required
several operations to repair. Volpe then walked through the precinct
holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand,
indicating that he had "broke a man down."
“Louima's teeth were also badly damaged in the attack by
having the [broomstick] jammed into his mouth. He testified to
the presence of a second officer in the bathroom helping Volpe
in the assault but he could not positively identify him. The identity
of the second attacker became a point of serious contention during
the trial and appeals. Louima also initially claimed that the
officers involved in the attack called him a 'nigger' and shouted,
'This is Giuliani-time' during the beating. Louima later recanted
this claim, and the reversal was used by defense lawyers to cast
doubt on the entirety of his testimony.” Check that last
link for the Giuliani philosophy.
“The day after the incident, Louima was transferred to
the Coney Island Hospital emergency room. Escorting officers explained
away his serious injuries being a result of 'abnormal homosexual
activities.' An emergency room nurse, Magalie Laurent, suspecting
the nature of Louima's extreme injuries were not the result of
gay sex, notified Louima's family and the Police Department's
Internal Affairs Bureau of the likelihood of sexual assault and
battery. Louima was hospitalized for two months after the assault.”
Unfortunately, Rudy’s low-brow behavior began right at
home with his pop, a bartender/knee-breaker for collection of
mob debts. Add some gangster cousins, one a murderer, and more
ties to the mob. But let’s leave that for another day. For
now, the above should give you some serious food for thought about
whether or not you want this 9/11 profiteer as president.
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