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Giuliani: ‘We Had No Domestic Attacks Under Bush’
The former New York City mayor who has sometimes been mocked for using "a noun, a verb and 9/11" in stump speeches appears to have forgotten -- or has mentally reclassified -- the worst terrorist attack on American soil. "We had no domestic attacks under Bush," Rudy Giuliani told ABC's George Stephanopoulos Friday.
Even if Giuliani doesn't consider the attacks on 9/11 a "domestic" attack then surely he forgot about the anthrax attacks of 2001.
While ABC's George Stephanopolous let Giuliani get away with his misstatement both during the interview and on his blog, ABC's Jake Tapper called the former mayor out. "Giuliani's comments that there were zero terrorist attacks under Bush, 1 under Obama, is false no matter how you slice it," tweeted Tapper.
Giuliani's remark came amidst a jeremiad against President Barack Obama's handling of the Christmas day Detroit airliner bombing suspect and appears at about 3:21 in the below clip.
"What he should be doing is following the right things that Bush did," Giuliani said. "One of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror -- we had no domestic attacks under Bush; we had one under Obama."
The former mayor criticized Obama for opting to handle the alleged bomber's case in civilian court, essentially saying that the problem with civilian courts is that suspects are given lawyers.
"If you put someone in a civilian court, within a short period of time a lawyer is appointed and the person shuts up," he remarked. "If you have a person in the military system, you can question him endlessly for as long as you have to to make sure you've got the full scope of information."
Giuliani then praised Obama for using the phrase "war on terror."
"I'm very hopeful that President Obama turned a corner yesterday," he said. "He first used the words, thank goodness, 'War on Terror.'"
In 2007, while campaigning for the Republican nomination for president, Giuliani told a New Hampshire crowd that America would ultimately prevail against terrorists but that if a Democrat was elected president the United States would suffer more casualties.
"But the question is how long will it take and how many casualties will we have?" Giuliani said. "If we are on defense [with a Democratic president], we will have more losses and it will go on longer."
"I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense," Giuliani continued. "We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense."
"The Democrats," he added, "do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us."
Curiously, Giuliani is the third high profile Republican to conveniently suggest that no domestic terror attacks occurred on President Bush's watch or to try to blame the Clinton administration for 9/11. Former White House Press Secretary Dana Perino and GOP operative Mary Matalin also recently said similar things during TV appearances blasting President Obama for allegedly ignoring terrorism.
112 Comments so far
Show AllWelcome to Orwell's '1984'.
Where lies are truth and war is peace...
Well, that's the thing really, isn't it? The ruling class has no shame at all, not even a smidgeon. They will say absolutely anything and rely on their noise machine to back them up.
Orwell's idea of re-writing the history books to support the 'truth du jour' seems positively archaic nowadays.
Time for the elite to crawl through the mud on the way to the block. Or shoulder their crosses on the way to be nailed up. Either way...
Let's start with a 90% tax on the top 1% of American wealthy. Frankly, that would be more effective than the gallows or the guillotine. That way they would have to live with it; life after death. Can't suffer when yer dead, unless you are religious I guess.
Let's be fair.
Make the tax 95%, cancel their credit cards, close their bank accounts so they are forced to carry their remaining money as hard cash, bulldoze their homes, burn their possessions, repo their cars and boats, chop up their private planes, revoke their passports, strip them of any remaining healthcare, relocate them to an urban wasteland like, oh, let's say Detroit, and issue them a shopping cart and old sneakers with holes in the soles.
Then I *might* be willing to let them walk away.
Galen, I think I love you.
I was just gonna suggest taxing them AFTER they were guillotined. You know, a death tax. But you! You are an artiste!
But instead of Detroit, let's make it downtown Fallujah. Naked.
Tease.
He was mayor of NYC when 911 happened and he is saying their were no domestic attacks under Bush? This man needs to be under psychiatric care. He is clearly delusional.
Giuliani has no credibility. He's a decrepit not too bright GOP hack. His latest remarks just show how far he is willing to go to prop up the failed neocon ideology.
Maybe we'll all get lucky and Rudy will die soon.
Giuliani's picture seems to indicate that he has all ready been dead for a few years now. Hopefully, his evil animus will soon fade away and leave the draculian corpse to decay unto the dirt from whence it came.
Muahahahahahaha !
Rudy is Pinocchio, and his nose is growing.
The article should be focused at George Stephanopolous for allowing such a remark to stated without challenge. As long as the press allows such misstatements, the Giuliani's of the world will continue to take advantage of the forum. Stephanopolous gets through the article barely scathed.
I agree that as long as the press ignores stupidity like that it will continue and there will be many idiots who will accept the rewrite of recent history. I am offended. (and just to name another, what about the "shoe bomber" ??? DUH!)
Richard Reid tried to light his shoes in international waters. That was not a domestic attack.
On December 21, 2001, he attempted to board a flight from Paris to Miami, but his boarding was delayed because his disheveled physical appearance was suspicious to screeners. He also did not answer all of their questions, and had not checked any luggage for the transatlantic flight. Additional screening resulted in his being re-issued a ticket for a flight on the following day.[10] He returned to the airport on December 22, 2001 and boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami, wearing his special shoes
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
I agree.
Joe
IMHO: Some of the reasons that they are afraid to challenge the sociopathic politicians is that they are afraid of loosing their access to the idiots. If they make one of the dumb-asses look too stupid then it will be, "No more Giuliani for you!" Then you got the whole right wing whine machine which will say that George-e was not being nice Giuliani who just made an "honest" mistake.
And finally you have the corporate whore Stephanopolous that desperately wants to continue in the life style he has become accustomed to, and does not want to jeopardize it by pissing TPTB off.
If I were doing that interview I would have sat there with my mouth open, and give one very long pregnant pause before bringing up, 9/11, The anthrax attack, and the shoe bomber. Then I would have hammered him for forgetting the 9/11 attack that happened in his city when he was mayor of it. What a hypocrite.
That's true regarding access, etc., NC-Tom January 8th, 2010 4:18 pm, but let's not forget that the Big Media (BM) were also instrumental in making Giuliani a national 'hero' by insisting on labeling him with such inanities as "America's Mayor" for just doing his job. If I'm not mistaken, Little George the Stepkid was part of the cheerleading squad hyping Rudy as a hero after 9/11.
The only good thing was that, even after the relentless promotion of Giuliani's 'heroism' by his pals in the NY-based BM, he only managed to get one vote during his campaign for the GOP nomination for president in 2008. If this buffoon had been mayor of any other city than the one where most of our BM is located, he'd be totally ignored,if not ridiculed.
As it is, if he runs for governor of NY, or for the US senate, as has been rumored, I think he's going to lose big -- according to people I know in NYS, he's just not that popular there, except among his 'base' -- the BM. It would be poetic justice if he ran and only got a single vote -- his own. Oh, and maybe Stephanopoulos'.
Giuliani has no credibility except for that conferred by the mainstream media which will feature him ad nauseum. Of course he's lying; it's all part of those "family values."
It would appear as if the Republican disinformation campaign regarding recent history is in full swing. Considering some of their prior success' with turning their spin into "fact" (soldiers being spit on returning from Vietnam, "welfare queens," etc.), and that they have a huge mess in every stage (before, during, and especially after) to obfuscate about, it is not surprising one of their few stars to emerge from that major mess-up make the talk show rounds spouting the latest line from whatever Goebbels is composing from the bowels of the GOP.
That George Stephanopolous allowed Guiliani's lies to pass unchallenged shows just how much of corporate shill he has become.
I agree. The Republicans have learned that if you keep saying something over and over, no matter how absurd, it will stick.
That's how human nature works. Today's repeated lies are tomorrow's truisms.
Amazingly, the Dims are too dim to repeat something like, "to be against health care is to be against the American worker." Whether or not you believe that, saying it enough would probably make it stick.
Wake up Dims.
Stephanopolous never was anything other than a shill -- he worked for Clinton as Official Liar.
A liar lying to a liar.
Heh, get over it. Move On. Nixon was a lost American "Hero" and CONINTELPRO was just an early form of Domestic Anti-Terrorism. You know, all those those 'Terrorists' we faced back then: those 'Uppity Black People' DEMANDING an equal starting place at the table and the Rights guaranteed under our Constitution; all those strident 'Females' DEMANDING an equal starting place at the table and the Rights guaranteed under our Constitution; and all those arrogant commie anti-war protesters DEMANDING we end our colonial wars of conquest among the brown skinned 'primitives'. So they were Ritually Defamed, Falsely Imprisoned, and Extra-Judicially Executed.
Of course Herr Bush vas our Fuhrer. He knew how to Rule properly. Damn the laws, laws are for wimps, laws are for the weak, real men RULE with the gladius and an AR15 (and a total surveillance society). Damn the laws, we know who our Heroes are - Full speed ahead. Next stop Armageddon.
Giuliani is a creep. I though that had already been established. He joins with former vice President Cheney in shooting off his mouth and stinking up the air. These guys are dinosaurs, even given the sad state of the Republican Party. We are living in a country where Democrats are conservative and Republicans are jiggy with insanity.
We had no domestic attacks under Bush? What we didn't have was a president that followed any of the rules that our constitution is supposed to map out for the executive branch. What we did have was torture, domestic government surveillance, financial irresponsibility, and the list goes on and on. What we did have was a cheerleader playing at cowboy, a man who evaded military service wearing army drag on an air craft carrier, a goof ball sitting on his ass while twin towers collapsed and New Orleans was destroyed.
Giuliana, if you weren't so dangerous, you could be a clown in Cirque du Soleil.
He's too stupid to be in charge of anything. Remember, he is the one who insisted on putting the anti-terror command center in the World Trade Center ignoring advice to the contrary by more thoughtful people. That cost many lives as rescuers could not get warnings and information on Sept. 11. He is the one who appointed corrupt fellow pit bull Bernard Kerik to be Police Comissioner.
The fact that Brazil hired RG to do security for the Olympics portends an awful prospect. It makes me suspect that the plan includes a brutal razing of shantytowns on the hillsides, targetting Rio's poor. Rudy is not too bright but he is plenty cold and mean.
Joe
?!
Don't forget Richard Reid on American Airlines 63.
Don't forgot the anthrax attacks
Oh thats because the GOpers and neo-cons believe that the 9/11 attack was on Clinton's watch because BV$Hhadn't been Pres. fro a yr. yet. What a bunch of assholes these people are.
Guiliani or Cheney criticizing Clinton or Obama, or vice-versa, only helps to sell the illusion that there's any type of difference between these criminals. The more attention is given to these phony feuds on TV, the deeper we get in the mess we're in.
The fact that Obama's not investigating and imprisoning who in the CIA and other agencies deliberately allowed the Xmas bomber to board the flight is proof that Obama's indeed soft on terrorism, and by terrorism I mean the one sponsored by the CIA all over the world & domestically.
I completely agree, Ardath,
I see this with jon stewart, for example, whom i do appreciate as a writer/comedian. And if i can stomach rachel maddow once in a while. She did have Jeremy Scahill on the other night.
Going with the need to protect Obama against the horrible republicans who are, etc, etc. As if there is a difference. And Obama knows how to throw a bone into the fray of culture war here. Enough to keep the discourse on transgendering and not about genocide, etc. , etc......
And everyone can always react to fox and friends. I wouldn't be surprised if they are all connected. If they didn't already exist, the democrats would need to invent them. It exudes the one perspective so flagrantly psychotic, that they can speak against it. And pretend they are 'liberals'. Whatever that even means.
The biggest difference between Bush, Clinton and Obama is that Bush was commander in chief on the day of the deadliest attack on American soil.
Correct, but did the Clintons, Obama and the Democrats investigate 911 and Bush's failure/will to prevent/accomplish it?
Democrats aided & abetted. Willing participants.
imsloan sez: "The biggest difference between Bush, Clinton and Obama is that Bush was commander in chief on the day of the deadliest attack on American soil."
***
Back when the U.S. Constitution still functioned, this was not the case.
The "president" became the commander-in-chief only in a time of declared war. And then, was commander-in-chief only of the armed services, NOT of all the U.S. people.
This business of corporate-sponsored candidates campaigning every four years for the post of "America's Commander-in-Chief" is a post-democracy development.
Its called The Big Lie. Hitler described it in Mein Kampf. This is part of the Right's destruction of language. Words like "happened", "domestic" and "attack" suddenly become imprecise. Corner Giulliani and he would say "What happened on 9/11 was not a domestic attack but an international crime". And so, he would get a pass from the lapdog press that would respond with a shrug and a "Gee, I thought it was an attack, but I guess that was the wrong word".
Welcome to the Machine
Oh, and did the reporter challenge Rudy on his assertion? Lap dogs? Being compared to such sniveling cowards is an insult to all dogs everywhere.
It is republican. It is a liar. It is a traitor to the people of the U.S. It should be dealt with as such.
Why do people listen to dumbasses like Giuliani and Cheney anymore? I realize they are wealthy and powerful, but they are so passe. They are like the drunk uncles who occasionally show up at the family Christmas parties, expel gas, tell offensive jokes, and pass out on chairs by the fireplace. These morons need to be in jail, not on public television!
Sioux Rose
GRACCHUS: Good one! I love the imagery!
GOP Talking Point: The Dems are trying to have it both ways: First they insist that Al Gore won the 2000 election, and then claim that 9/11 occurred under the Republican's watch.
Perino, Matalin then Giuliani..This is obviously not a coincidence. GOPs are probably banking that Obama and the Dems' urge to be civil and "look forward, not back" combined with the MSM's kow-towing to the fringe right will eventually create a memory-hole big enough for the American Sheeple to fall through
I suppose 9/11 happened under the Pope's watch, not under Bush's.
Giuliani, you jackass, go back to your office and leave us alone.
Why does geography matter when we're talking about attacks on American citizens?
Cheney/Bush declared a 'war on terror.' Which means our 'enemy' in this 'war' is the Terrorist Army.
Our 'enemy,' the Terrorist Army, has killed 5325 American military personnel, at least a 1,000 PMCs, they've wounded over 350,00 Americans, and have forced us to borrow trillions.
Why would the Terrorist Army bother trying to infiltrate and attack us 'domestically' when they're shooting American fish in a barrel 'over there'?
Wanna get technical? In 2004, 'an explosion in a US Army mess tent at lunchtime in a base near the northern city of Mosul killed at least 26 people and wounded 60 others.' Technically, that is a domestic terrorist attack, because an Army base is considered American Territory.
Another technical example? The Green Zone has been attacked, like, 10,000 times or something, each a 'terrorist attack' on American soil.
The truth is, 'terrorists' killed nearly 10,000 American citizens on the Cheney/Bush watch...
Also: go f**k yourself, RG.
And the so-called 'Terrorist Army' is in the pay of *which* nation, exactly?
In Iraq alone the US military (the real 'Terrorist Army') has killed ONE MILLION civilians (according to the British medical journal The Lancet) and driven 3.5 million from their homes as refugees. It's soldiers and mercenaries have committed acts of rape and murder.
Frank said:
"Technically, that is a domestic terrorist attack, because an Army base is considered American Territory."
Nobody in business or government refers to overseas bases as "domestic". Nobody. Domestic refers to the CONTIGUOUS 48 states. Both Airlines and the military operate from this perspective. Since you fly over international waters and airspace to get there, airlines consider even Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico as international operations when it comes to flight planning.
Presumably, RG meant a "domestic" attack from a foreign enemy or individual. Liars eventually slip up sooner or later, and now he's letting us know that 911 was not an attack by Al Queida, but rather an attack on ourselves via CIA ops with Hekmatyar who funded the aircraft simulator rental by the 19 hijackers in Florida. 911, in RG's mind doesn't count as a "domestic attack", since it was a false flag operation to raid the Gulf in accordance with the Carter Doctrine.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone
Criticism
The U.S. government has been criticized for allowing Pakistan to channel a disproportionate amount of its funding to controversial Afghan resistance leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar,[18] who Pakistani officials believed was "their man".[19] Hekmatyar has been criticized for killing other mujahideen and attacking civilian populations, including shelling Kabul with American-supplied weapons, causing 2,000 casualties. Hekmatyar was said to be friendly with Osama bin Laden, founder of al-Qaeda, who was running an operation for assisting "Afghan Arab" volunteers fighting in Afghanistan, called Maktab al-Khadamat. Alarmed by his behavior, Pakistan leader General Zia warned Hekmatyar, "It was Pakistan that made him an Afghan leader and it is Pakistan who can equally destroy him if he continues to misbehave."[20]
In the late 1980s, Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, concerned about the growing strength of the Islamist movement, told President George H. W. Bush, "You are creating a Frankenstein."[21]
The U.S. says that all of its funds went to native Afghan rebels and denies that any of its funds were used to supply Osama bin Laden or foreign Arab mujahideen. It is estimated that 35,000 foreign Muslims from 43 Islamic countries participated in the war.[22][23][24][25]
All of the Above, as all my posts are, are just my opinions only.
TJ
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." - Thomas Jefferson
I think Rudy is *technically* correct...
After all, the events of 9/11, the Anthrax Mailer, the Shoe Bomber, Captain Underpants et al. all took place at exactly the right time to push the MIC and security agendas in the direction of suppressing your rights and freedoms.
So while the events were decidedly 'domestic', as in having originated on home soil, I would bet they are far from 'terrorist'. Rather I would call them successful black ops perpetrated by elements of the government, military and intelligence communities for the furtherance of economic and social control.
Oh brother....not another 911 'truther' I hope.
So you admit that the other events could have been carried out by government agencies?
There are still many unanswered questions about the events of 9/11. One of them being why has the SEC *still* not revealed the names of the people who dumped the stocks of the airlines involved the day before 9/11 and made a killing in profits?
How do you get free flowing, uncompressed jet fuel to melt solid steel?
And BTW, wasn't good ol' Rudy one of the stockholders in the World Trade Center who got a fat insurance company payout?
Hey, "physicscitizen," I think you need to bone up on your physics.
If you believe the three towers came down on their own, you might as well believe Giuliani's preposterous statement. It is part of the same lie.
Yes, exactly, Galen. I was waiting for someone to say this. That is, Mr. Giuliani spoke the truth--that is, the "deep truth" of "deep politics." That, and, perhaps, the truth of the collective unconscious, rising up from the putrid depths of his soul.
On a less profound level, however, Rudy's statement echoes Bush's own astonishing assertion at the 2004 repug convention in NY, when, on the podium, with an image of the Twin Towers burning behind him, the chimp said:
"This will not happen on my watch!"
Reality is so far out of the reach of the Western masses, nobody bats an eyelash anymore. Recently many people I know, in the wake of the already legendary crotch-bomber incident, are all in a tizzy again about the "terrorist threat." When I point out that the US government, and other governments like Israel, and the U.K. are far far more of a threat to the world than a few unhinged militants, and therefore to us, they look at me as if to say: "Okay, he's off on one of his crazy rants again."
This is why Stephanopoulos didn't bat an eyelash. Everything is its opposite in the masses' brainwashed minds.
Since Giuliani pinned my bogometer at the turn of the century, I simply can't find him any more despicable than I already do. I'm maxed out.
But as long as we're being outraged by idiotic, truthless, and irresponsible statements spewed by former mayors of New York City, it's only fair to include senescent closet-queen Ed Koch, who told Fox News' Neil Cavuto on Thursday that "hundreds of millions" of Muslims are terrorists.
I don't see the attraction myself, but when you throw in a pompous blithering jackass like the incumbent Bloomberg, it's impossible not to conclude that the office of Mayor of New York City is filled by means of a popularity contest... in fact, a sort of Ugly Contest. No mimbos need apply.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Amen!