TV Documentary – “Giuliani 9/11”

The terrorist attacks on 9/11 was the worst tragedy in American history. But America's Mayor,
as Rudy Giuliani has come to be known, was on the job immediately, assessing the situation and
exercising amazing characteristics of leadership, not seen in American politics since the attacks.
As we approached the 9th anniversary of the attacks, the National Geographic Channel aired a
remarkable documentary entitled “Giuliani 9/11,” on Monday night 9/6 at 9pm. It was repeated again
at midnight. In the documentary, Giuliani explains the blow-by-blow timeline of events on that tragic
day, from his perspective as major of New York City. This documentary will be shown again on
Wednesday night 9/8 at 11pm and on Monday night 9/13 at 5pm.
That faithful morning, Giuliani had breakfast at the Peninsula Hotel with Bill Simon, a
longtime friend. Simon, a business executive and the son of a former Treasury secretary, was
contemplating a 2002 California gubernatorial bid.
“As I was leaving the hotel, someone tapped me on the shoulder and told me that a twin engine
plane has hit the south tower of the World Trade Center,” Giuliani said. “I walked out of the Peninsula
Hotel and I saw a beautiful blue sky – a perfect day. I thought to myself, this can't be an accident. No
plane could have gotten off course on a day like today and crashed into the Twin Towers. This must be
some kind of deliberate act.”
Giuliani immediate rushed to the scene to assess the damages and was later criticized for
putting himself in danger.
“I have a theory about managing an emergency,” Giuliani said, “which is you have to see it. It's
one thing for somebody to describe something to you. It's another thing to actually see it.”
On the way to the scene by car, Giuliani contacted the police and fire departments and the
Office of Emergency Management to ensure they had everything they needed to react to this
emergency. By the time his entourage reached blocks from the scene, a second plane had already hit
the north tower. A wall of people blocked their progress three blocks from the World Trade Center, so
they rushed from the car and traveled the rest of the distance on foot.
“It would have been impossible for me to make decisions about this if I hadn't seen it,” Giuliani
said. “I'd have made all the wrong decisions. I wouldn't have realized how vast it was; wouldn't have
realized how many resources were needed.”
As they started walking toward the scene, Giuliani looked up and saw a man jump from near
the top of the World Trade Center to his death below.
“As soon as I saw that man jump to his death, from the 101st, or maybe 102nd floor, I knew we
were faced with something we had never see before,” Giuliani said. “We had no response in place for a
plane flying into one of our buildings.”
A few blocks from the scene, Giuliani met Father Michael Judge, the Chaplin of the New York
City Fire Department, and Fire Department Chief Peter Ganci.
“I put my hand on Father Judge's shoulder and said Father please pray for us,” Giuliani said.
“He said he always did. He had terror on his face I never seen before.”
Before Father Judge rushed into the north tower, he administered the last rites to people lying
on the streets. When he got into the tower, he continued offering aid and comfort to victims. But when
the south tower collapsed at 9:50 am, debris flew into the north tower lobby, killing many people there,
including Father Judge.
 At the scene, Giuliani asked Chief Ganci to help him asses the situation. “The Fire Chief told
me we could save the people below the fire, but not the people above the fire,” Giuliani said. “And
because of the fire, we couldn't land a helicopter on the roof. So that meant the people above the fire
were doomed to die a horrible death.”
Chief Ganci told Giuliani that he must try to clear the street so that emergency vehicles could
get to the scene. “But I could see Chief Ganci was not heeding his own advice,” Giuliani said. “He
was standing in a dangerous area, where debris was falling.”
Chief Ganci also died soon after. He was standing in front of One World Center, barking out
instructions on his multi-channel radio, when the building collapsed on top of him.
The mayor's first command center was at 75 Barclay Street, in the offices of Merrill Lynch.
“We took over their office,” Giuliani said. “We basically threw them out. We needed land lines to give
out and receive messages.”
As soon as he dropped anchor in the Merrill Lynch office, Giuliani heard some shocking news,
“Almost immediately, I heard the Pentagon was hit,” Giuliani said. “I thought they were taking the
President out to a secure area. I didn't know he was in Florida.”
Suddenly, the towers collapsed and the mayor was forced to evacuate the building. “We figured
that if we stood where we were and our building was hit, about 90 percent of the city's leadership
would be wiped out all at once,” Giuliani said. “So I decided to go back into the streets, where some of
us might get killed, but not all.”
A maintenance man took the mayor and his crew down through the basement to 100 Church
Street. After several basement doors were found to be locked, they finally found one that could be
opened. “You could hear the collective sigh of relief when that door opened,” Giuliani said.
At 10:15 am, the Mayor finally got outside and he saw a terrible sight. “It was like a nuclear
cloud coming at us,” Giuliani said. “I immediately thought we had gone from bad to worse.”
Giuliani knew he couldn't function as mayor while walking the streets, so he decided to make
his command center at the firehouse on 6th Avenue and Houston Street; Engine 24, Ladder 5. He and
his group started walking north as the cloud of smoke seemed to be chasing them from behind.
“Someone put his hand on my shoulder and we started running,” Giuliani said. “But then I
realized, if the people of New York City saw me running, it might cause panic in the streets. So I
stopped and we walked the rest of the way to the firehouse.”
When he got to the firehouse, he got a phone call from Governor Pataki. “Governor Pataki
thought I was missing,” Giuliani said. “He thought he had to make decisions without me.”
The governor and the mayor decided to move their base of operations to the Police Academy
on East 20th Street. “I told the Governor, I'd meet him there in 20 minutes,” Giuliani said.
Things were happening so fast, the mayor didn't have time to grasp the full enormity of the
situation. He was making 3-4 decisions at a time and praying to God he was making the right
decisions.
At 10:56, the mayor appeared on television Channel One, via telephone hookup, to assure New
Yorkers he was doing the best he could to sort out the situation.
“I was angry, but I didn't want the city to over-react against any group of people,” Giuliani said.
“And I wanted to assure them that everything possible was being done to save lives down at the World
Trade Center.”
By early afternoon, Giuliani, his suit covered with white ash, appeared at the podium at the
Police Academy with the cameras rolling. Governor Pataki was standing solemnly behind him, taking a
back seat to the man who was obviously in charge. “I wanted the people of New York to be an example
to the rest of the country, and to the rest of the world, that terrorism can't stop us,” Giuliani said. “I
didn't think we knew yet the pain that we were going to feel when we find out who we lost, but the
thing we had to focus on now was getting the city through this, and surviving and being stronger for
it.”
Now almost nine years later, the pain still has not gone for most New Yorkers, especially those
who lost family, or friends on 9/11. But thanks to Mayor Giuliani, at least we were able to move on to
the next level and get on with the rest of our lives.
Think and say what you want about Giuliani. He's not the most popular person in some circles,
but there's no doubt he was the face of that terrible disaster, who calmed the masses and became not
only the quintessential take-charge mayor of New York City, but America's Mayor as well.
Thank you Rudy for getting us past that horrible time.

Editor's note:
After watching “Giuliani 9/11” on Monday night, I am even more outraged that someone could
even consider putting a mosque near Ground Zero. That would be like Organized Crime putting one of
their “members only” clubs next to Police Headquarters.
Just plain dumb and insensitive.