‘Rudy Lied, Fire Fighters Died on 9/11’

IAFF ‘Fire Brigade’ Descending Upon Giuliani in Florida

9/11 FDNY Veteran Fire Fighters Fault Giuliani for Lack of Preparedness

Jacksonville First Stop, Thurs., Jan. 17

WASHINGTON, DC – The International Association of Fire Fighters is sending a group of retired New York City fire fighters and family members of IAFF fire fighters killed in the September, 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center to Florida to follow former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as he campaigns in the state.

The “Fire Brigade” will expose Giuliani’s trumped up 9/11 credentials as a myth.

“This is about the judgment of our country’s next President,” said IAFF General President Harold A. Schaitberger. “Voters in Florida, where Rudy has pinned his hopes for his election, need to know Giuliani’s record of poor judgment so they understand why we don’t believe he’s nearly qualified to be our next President of the United States.”

Jim Riches, a newly retired Deputy Chief of the Fire Department of New York, will lead the IAFF “Fire Brigade.”

“No one knows better than fire fighters who were at the World Trade Center that Giuliani failed to prepare first responders before 9/11 and that he is totally unprepared to become our commander-in-chief,” said Riches, who responded on 9/11 and lost his fire fighter son, Jimmy Riches, at Ground Zero. “We object to Giuliani using 9/11 as his calling card in this campaign. He was an utter failure that day, and in the days and months leading up to the attack.”

The first event will be in Jacksonville on Thursday, where he meets with members of Jacksonville Fire Fighters Local 122, retired and active, to discuss Giuliani’s record. Riches is scheduled to speak at 6 p.m. to a group of 100 fire fighters at Fire Fighter Hall, 618 Stockton St., in Jacksonville.

To explain Giuliani’s failed leadership, the IAFF created a 13-minute video, which can be viewed at www.rudy-urbanlegend.com, and on YouTube, where with more than 380,000 views it has become one of the most popular video in the news and politics category on the video sharing Web site. The IAFF is funding and assisting the “Fire Brigade” as it crisscrosses Florida.

“Rudy doesn’t know anything about fighting terrorism, as far as we are concerned he has terrible judgment,” Riches said. “He couldn’t even protect his own fire fighters, forcing us to use radios that didn’t work, placing the emergency command center in a known terrorist target that collapsed on 9/11 and then disrespecting fire fighters and families when he cut short the recovery effort and began scooping and dumping bodies in a trash dump.”

“I was in FDNY for more than 40 years, and was the Chief of Safety, so I know that Giuliani did nothing for fire fighters,” said Al Santora, a retired Deputy Chief who lost his fire fighter son, Christopher Santora, on 9/11. “His actions at the time and leading up to the attack, and during the day itself, showed a tremendous lack of judgment, and failure of leadership.”

“Rudy talks a big game about 9/11, but the fact is he was on the street that day, not in a controlled place making command decisions, because he had placed his emergency command center at 7 World Trade Center – the number one terrorist target in the world, which collapsed on 9/11,” Santora said. “That video that everyone has in their heads of Giuliani on the streets is him running away from the scene because he had nowhere to go because of his bad decisions.”

“Rudy continues to lie about his role on 9/11, but we’re not going to let him get away with it,” Riches said. “The IAFF and our Fire Brigade are going to be the conscience of 9/11, haunting Giuliani’s footsteps in this campaign. We will not forget his failures, and we want the American people to remember, as well.”

The International Association of Fire Fighters, headquartered in Washington, DC, represents more than 287,000 full-time professional fire fighters and paramedics who protect 80 percent of the nation’s population. More information is available at www.iaff.org.