Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11

This book does an excellent job of examining how Giuliani, now running as the President of 9/11, and an expert on Homeland Security, dealt with the challenge of preparing New York City to cope with another terrorist attack, after the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. The authors' conclusion, heavily sourced and thoroughly argued, is that Giuliani failed to do much of anything to make the city safer. Despite all that was learned about the city's inadequate response in '93, Giuliani failed to get the firefighters new walkie-talkies, so they could communicate with the police, failed to establish a chain of command in the event of an emergency, and, most inexplicably, built, at great expense, his Emergency Command Post at the Trade Center itself, across the street from the '93 attack, rendering it useless on 9/11. These and a host of other mistakes almost certainly led to significant loss of life on 9/11, and seriously undermine Giuliani's claim to be the man we should trust with the nation's security. This is surely a must-read for journalists, and for anyone who wants to understand the events of that horrible day, and the character of this man who is running for President.

In New York City they call the police New York's Finest and firefighters New York's Bravest. But as journalists Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins explain in their book GRAND ILLUSION, former mayor Rudy Giuliani was New York's Lamest. GRAND ILLUSION reviews the public record of Giuliani's failure to prepare New York City for the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center terror attacks even after the February 1993 W.T.C. bombing left the writing on the wall. As authors Barrett and Collins point out, Giuliani should have been nowhere near the twin towers as they burned and collapsed. Ironically, the media made his inappropriate presence that morning into something heroic. And Giuliani let the people worship him when, in good conscience, he should have refunded his mayor's salary and apologized to the survivors of everyone who would not have died that day had New York City properly organized its emergency management. The Giuliani administration's atrocious lack of preparation for the kind of attack that would be 9/11 rivals that of FEMA and Hurricane Katrina. As you read GRAND ILLUSION, the film BEING THERE may come to mind. Both tell the story of a bumbler whom others misinterpret as someone great. While BEING THERE is fiction, GRAND ILLUSION is a sad, tragic truth. If you can handle the truth, read GRAND ILLUSION by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins.

In New York City they call the police New York's Finest and firefighters New York's Bravest. But as journalists Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins explain in their book GRAND ILLUSION, former mayor Rudy Giuliani was New York's Lamest. GRAND ILLUSION reviews the public record of Giuliani's failure to prepare New York City for the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center terror attacks even after the February 1993 WTC bombing left the writing on the wall. As authors Barrett and Collins point out, Giuliani should have been nowhere near the twin towers as they burned and collapsed. Ironically, the media made his inappropriate presence that morning into something heroic. And Giuliani let the people worship him when, in good conscience, he should have refunded his mayor's salary and apologized to the survivors of everyone who would not have died that day had New York City properly organized its emergency management. The Giuliani administration's atrocious lack of preparation for 9/11 rivals that of FEMA and Hurricane Katrina. As you read GRAND ILLUSION, the film BEING THERE may come to mind. Both tell the story of a bumbler whom others misinterpret as someone great. While BEING THERE is fiction, GRAND ILLUSION is a sad, tragic truth. If you can handle the truth, read GRAND ILLUSION by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins.

I just finished reading the book, Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11 by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, Harper Collins, 2006. Barrett and Collins are local writers/reports who compiled the information contained in this book through their observations and the Report of the 9/11 Commission. They state incontrovertible proof that this is a dangerous man! He was warned, on more than one occasion, by more than one of his advisors, that after the 1993 WTC bombings, setting up his Office of Emergency Management Control Center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center was impractical and foolhardy! Yet he ignored the warnings of his staff to put the Control Center in Brooklyn because he "couldn't walk there from City Hall!"! His staff was already (1996) calling the World Trade Center "Ground Zero" because of the implications of the 1993 WTC bombing. Giuliani wanted his presence felt, in an emergency, and think of all the great "photo ops" we saw of his walking amongst the rubble! Can you believe he took advantage of this catastrophe? Also, right after the collapse of the towers and having conferred with his aides, he contacted a public relations specialist and met with him through the first night so he would know what to say and how to act! He ignored pleas from his consultants, for six years, to unify command and control and use the same radios for "first responders" (FDNY and NYPD). He hired cronies and hangers-on to be his advisors and Commissioners and he still ignored them! Barrett and Colllins, state, event after event, that almost every viable suggestion to coordinate the responses of both emergency services fell on deaf ears! They site his ambition and arrogance as the only things that guided many of his decisions! They attribute the deaths of 343 firefighters, brave and honorable as they were, to the illusions of this egomaniac! After 9/11, the press deemed Rudy Giuliani as "America's Mayor". He was more like "America's Murderer!

Of the many results of the 9/11 attack, I find the elevation of Rudy Giuliani to be wholly undeserved. "Grand Illusion: The Untold Story of Rudy Giuliani and 9/11", is a welcome...if somewhat tardy attempt to set the record straight - which it does exceedingly well. Keep in mind, by the day before 9/11 Rudy Giuliani had earned the scorn of most New Yorkers, and was limping toward the finish of his final term as Mayor. He had abandoned a run for the Senate against Hillary Clinton, and would soon disappear into relative obscurity. Then Tuesday morning, September 11th, 2001 dawned, bright and clear... After the planes struck, Giuliani had no way of communicating with his administrators as his Office of Emergency Management (OEM) was immediately rendered useless. It was Giuliani, over loud protests, who had insisted the OEM be placed in the Trade Center complex. Like building it in a bull's-eye. As Giuliani rooted around the streets of lower Manhattan - looking for a place to plug in his telephones - the first responders didn't need to hear his orders or exhortations. They responded selflessly. That he was a divisive mayor is without question. That he left his first responders vulnerable is tragic. That he has profited personally and politically is obscene.