Standing Their Ground

by digby

Brave New Films has released a powerful new film today about a subject that has the potential to knock Rudy Giuliani’s campaign to its knees. Most of us know that the NY Firefighters are mad as hell at Giuliani, but this films starkly lays out one very serious reason why: the radios.

Giuliani came into office in 1994, shortly after the first WTC attack. He knew then that the radios didn’t work properly and yet it took him seven years to deal with the problem. And when he finally got around to it, he gave Motorola a sweetheart, no-bid contract for radios that were never tested in advance. When the NYFD got them, they didn’t work and they had to be reissued the same radios that had proved inadequate in 1993.

That’s why, on September 11th, the firefighters didn’t hear the warnings to get out of the buildings. The cops heard them. They mostly got out. Their radios could get the right frequency. The firefighters’ old radios couldn’t.

In perhaps the most chilling moment of the film, the audience gasps in horror as Giuliani unctuously testifies before congress that the dead firefighters were heroes for “standing their ground.”

This man is basing his entire candidacy on the fiction that he is a great “wartime” leader who can keep the country safe. But it’s clear that although he had eight years to do it, he couldn’t even provide necessary equipment for the first responders in NY. Why would anyone want him to lead the most powerful country on earth?

These firefighters’ families are tired of waiting for an explanation and they are asking for an investigation. The Real Rudy reports:

New York City councilman Eric Gioia has the power to begin an investigation. If we can garner enough attention and signers, we have a major opportunity to help launch an investigation.

Go sign the petition. This could lay bare the false premise of Rudy Giuliani’s candidacy once and for all.

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