First, please look at this section in the future for any comments and thoughts about the blog and your postings.  Also, news about future postings.

Let me just give a quick impression on the last few days.  There appears to be significant interest for what I am posting and that is of course more gratifying than there being no interest.  But as I made plain, whether one person reads this or a million I am doing this because I feel it is important both personally and historically to get as much clear, concise - hopefully verifiable - information about the eight years of the Giuliani Administration out there as possible.  It was an extraordinarily important time in the life of our city; whether you loved Rudy or hated him.  I believe that more facts, regarding the issues debated or just nuances as to the players, helps broaden the historical record. 

As for the negative comments, I am frankly not surprised.  I am surprised, however, at one aspect.  If you are hostile to this blog because you are a huge Rudy fan and you believe that in some way this damages him, I can understand the vehemence.  He's your guy and any negative comment, real or perceived, diminishes him.  I played in that arena with a vengeance, so I get it.

What puzzles me is the extreme nature of some of the hostility towards me from those of you who are not Rudy fans.  If this blog were being beamed into your homes every Thursday night by the networks, I could understand that.  But you have to actually make a conscious effort to find and read this.  If it offends you don't type in rudyveritas.com.  It is even easier than changing the channel. As for the argument that it stills finds its way to you through the newspapers and therefore it is in your face none-the-less, all I can say is after spending years in public relations, both privately and on behalf of NYC, it is no easy task to get a story that has zero credibility in the New York Times.  Notwithstanding Jason Blair and Judith Miller, if the Times felt this was meritless regardless of any sensationalistic value, they would not print it.  Moreover, they confirmed the story and in a relatively short amount of time. 

I am smart enough to know that the negative comments will keep coming and I'll keep posting them (the guy who keeps calling for my death, well I'm not 100% sure about those).  But I've promised to tell the truth, all of it.  Both the easy and the painful.  Barring any unforeseen events, that is what I
intend to do.

As for the numerous posts about 9/11 and RWG's possible involvement or any possible foreknowledge, all I can say is this: I have no personal knowledge as to whether or not Rudy Giuliani knew or didn't know about 9/11 before it happened.  But here is what I am sure of.  I know with absolute certainty that his Chief of Staff Anthony Carbonetti did not know.  Moreover, had he discovered that Rudy had known I would have learned that from him.  You are just going to have to trust me on that.  I do not believe it is possible for Rudy to have engaged in any conspiracy before or after the events to cover-up any pre-existing awareness that Tony Carbonetti would not have become aware of.  And if he had, I would have known.  There was nothing, absolutely nothing, he withheld from me back then.  As for Rudy's actions relating to the clean-up or the deployment of forces on that day and days after, reasonable people can claim it was a masterful job or full of errors.  There has been and I am sure will continue to be a debate on those issues. 

I had my own personal experience two years before 9/11 with the Housing Bureau of the NYPD and their radios not being equipped to talk to non-Housing Bureau NYPD.  This was years after the merger.  I even had a conversation with Tony about how ridiculous I thought it was.  My driver was involved in a minor fender bender near City Hall.  We waited for the police.  Driving by were two housing cops who agreed to wait with us for a police car and cops that could fill out the report.  After 40 minutes I asked them why they couldn't just radio the local precinct and have someone sent.  They explained their radios didn't work with non-Housing NYPD staff.  I finally had to get Tony to call the local precinct to have someone sent as I was late for a meeting uptown.  Should that have been a warning of serious deficiencies?  I suppose.  But September 11th  was a bad day and lots of things went wrong that, with hindsight, could have been prevented.

Comments

[RAH]

Steve,
The greatest regret Tony had in those eight years was his inability to get Rudy to appoint Chickie, Tony's mother, to one of the three plum NYCHA member posts. He tried and tried. He so desperately wanted to do that for her. But Rudy would never agree. He thought the PR hit would be just too great. I know that hurt Tony tremendously.

RAH

[steven cawley]

what if any comment or info do you have regarding the placement of carbonetti's mother to a very high posision within the nycha.talk from the getgo was that she was a clerk typist from housing presevations (h.p.d).with a major rabbi,hook,at city hall. i'm a retired city employee,30 years,and what your saying is very very often business as usual from the shit that somehow rises to the top.( defying basic physics). good luck, don't give up