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Jan 8th, 2010


Media Matters for America, a Web-based research and information center dedicated to monitoring, analyzing, and correcting misinformation in the U.S. media has good reporting and analysis of misguided attempts to rewrite history for political gain by erasing the Bush administration’s responsibility for failures leading up to 9/11.

Giuliani falsely claims “We had no domestic attacks under Bush”

Greg Lewis
Media Matters for America
January 8, 2010

On Good Morning America, Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed that “we had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama.”

In fact, while Giuliani and other conservative media figures have recently downplayed the number of attacks on the United States under former President Bush, there were numerous terrorist attacks attempted during the Bush administration, including the September 11, 2001, attacks, the attempted detonation of an explosive device on an airplane by shoe bomber Richard Reid, and the anthrax attacks.

From the January 8 broadcast of ABC’s Good Morning America:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS (co-host): But President Bush said he wanted to close [the detention center at Guantanamo Bay] as well.

RUDY GIULIANI: Well, he did because of the pressure. It isn’t that President Bush did everything right. This whole thing is like — they say, well, you know, President Bush sent people to Yemen. Well, he shouldn’t have. He shouldn’t have sent people to Yemen. Obviously, now, if he can do it again — one in five people that have been released from Guantanamo have gotten involved in terrorist activities. At least — that’s what we can measure. Obviously it was a mistake. What he should be doing is following the right things that Bush did — one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama. Number two, he should correct the things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong. Not connecting — not getting this whole intelligence thing correct is both Bush’s responsibility and Obama’s.

Several domestic attacks took place under Bush, including 9-11 attacks

September 11, 2001 attacks. As CNN noted, “On September 11, 2001, four U.S. planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people in a matter of hours.”

2001 anthrax attacks. A March 2004 State Department report on “Significant Terrorist Incidents, 1961-2003” quotes then-Attorney General John Ashcroft saying of the letters containing anthrax mailed to various targets: “When people send anthrax through the mail to hurt people and invoke terror, it’s a terrorist act.” Five people were killed as a result of those letters in the autumn of 2001.

2001 shoe bomber attempted attack. In June 2008, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described Reid’s December 2001 attempt “to blow up a trans-Atlantic plane with a shoe bomb” as an attempt to “carry out terrorist operations for Al-Qaeda.”

2002 attack against El Al ticket counter at LAX. In July 2002, Hesham Mohamed Hadayet opened fire at an El Al Airlines ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport killing two people and wounding four others before being shot dead. A 2004 Justice Department report stated that Hadayet’s case had been “officially designated as an act of international terrorism.”

2002 DC-area sniper. The state of Virginia indicted Washington, D.C.-area sniper John Allen Muhammad — along with his accomplice, a minor at the time — on “an act of terrorism” for one of the murders he committed during a three-week shooting spree across Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Muhammad was convicted, sentenced to death, and subsequently executed for the crime.

2006 UNC SUV attack. In March 2006, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduate Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove an SUV into an area of campus, striking nine pedestrians. According to reports, Taheri-azar said he acted because he wanted to “avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world.” Taheri-azar also reportedly stated in a letter: “I was aiming to follow in the footsteps of one of my role models, Mohammad Atta, one of the 9/11/01 hijackers, who obtained a doctorate degree.”

Giuliani latest conservative to downplay terrorist attacks under Bush

Frederick: All domestic terrorist attacks since 9-11 took place “on Obama’s watch.” As Media Matters for America documented, Las Vegas Review-Journal publisher Sherman Frederick wrote in a January 3 column:

If this is what it takes to wake up Obama to the evils of this world, then he learned an easy lesson. But tell that to the personnel who lost their lives to terrorism at Fort Hood.

Then, as now, the Obama administration fails to swiftly acknowledge the threat. They demur in describing our enemy as radical Muslims. They plan to close the offshore prison for terrorists at Guantanamo Bay and transfer the prisoners to the United States. They give the enemy combatants who killed more than 3,000 people on 9/11 the privilege of a civilian federal trial in New York City when a military tribunal is more appropriate. And for three days our president failed to address his people directly on Abdulmutallab’s failed effort to blow up a commercial flight over Detroit on Christmas Day. All of this on top of President Obama’s noticeable refusal to characterize our struggle as a “war” on “terror.”

In the wake of fierce criticism, Obama now talks tough about keeping America safe. But in the two cases of domestic terrorism since 9/11 — both on Obama’s watch — red flags flew aplenty.

Matalin downplays attacks under Bush, falsely claiming “Bush inherited” 9-11 attacks. On the December 27 edition of CNN’s State of the Union, Republican strategist Mary Matalin falsely claimed that Bush “inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.” In fact, the September 11, 2001, attacks occurred eight months into Bush’s presidency and more than a month after he had received a Presidential Daily Briefing titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

Perino: “We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.” Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino falsely claimed on the November 24, 2009, edition of Fox News’ Hannity that “we did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”

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On MSNBC’s Countdown, Media Matters president Eric Burns discusses media response to Giuliani’s false terror claim

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Bush defenders now totally erasing his administration’s 9-11 failures

Brian Frederick
Media Matters for America
January 8, 2010

The first time it was uttered, it seemed so comical, so dumb. Bush White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told Sean Hannity on November 24, 2009: “We did not have a terrorist attack on our country during President Bush’s term.”

The second time was a little more nuanced, a little more slick. On December 27, Republican strategist Mary Matalin falsely claimed Bush “inherited the most tragic attack on our own soil in our nation’s history.” Nevermind that the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks occurred 8 months into Bush’s presidency and more than a month after he received a Presidential Daily Briefing titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”

But the third time was so definitive, so wrong, there could be no doubt it’s a conservative talking point. On Good Morning America today, Rudy Giuliani falsely claimed: “We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama.” Surely Rudy Giuliani himself couldn’t forget 9-11, could he? Of course not. Rather, there is something far more sinister going on.

At least up until recently, the Bush defenders portrayed his record as “no attacks on the U.S. under Bush’s watch after 9-11.” But now, with the passage of more time, the defenders are growing bolder in their attempts to rewrite history. Now they want to completely erase the Bush administration’s responsibility for the failures leading up to 9-11, to say nothing of the other terrorist attacks carried out or attempted during that time, including the anthrax attacks and the 2002 attack at the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport.

Forgetting 9-11 is bad enough. Rewriting its history for political gain is utterly shameful.

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The Political Personality of Rudy Giuliani

Aubrey Immelman
Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics
July 2007

Abstract

The report presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, contender for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon. Information concerning Mayor Giuliani was collected from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM-IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on the basis of interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC manual. Giulianis primary personality pattern was found to be Dominant/aggressive, with secondary features of the Conscientious/dutiful and Ambitious/confident patterns.

The combination of Dominant and Conscientious patterns in Giuliani’s profile suggests an aggressive enforcer personality composite. Leaders with this personality prototype are tough, uncompromising, and believe they have a moral duty to punish and control those who deviate from socially sanctioned norms.

Giulian’s major personality strength in a leadership role is a forceful, commanding personality style that permits him to take charge in times of crisis and inspire public confidence. His major personality-based limitation is a tendency to control and punish, which may foster divisiveness and animosity.

More information

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FROM THE ARCHIVES: One Year Ago — January 8, 2009

Iraq Deadliest for Media — Again

One-year retrospective: One year ago today, I reported that Iraq remained the deadliest country for journalists in 2008, followed by India and Mexico.





2 Responses to “Giuliani Doesn’t Remember 9/11”
  1. Immelman for Congress » Blog Archive » Sadr’s Triumphant Return to Iraq Says:

    […] Giuliani Doesn’t Remember 9/11 […]

  2. Immelman for Congress » Blog Archive » Why Mitt Romney Won’t Win Says:

    […] Rudy Giuliani Personality Profile (Jan. 8, 2010) […]

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