The Giuliani Papers

Giuliani's Ties to Terrorism

Wayne Barrett's blockbuster in the Village Voice this week:

The contradictory and stunning reality is that Giuliani Partners, the consulting company that has made Giuliani rich, feasts at the Qatar trough, doing business with the ministry run by the very member of the royal family identified in news and government reports as having concealed KSM—the terrorist mastermind who wired funds from Qatar to his nephew Ramzi Yousef prior to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, and who also sold the idea of a plane attack on the towers to Osama bin Laden—on his Qatar farm in the mid-1990s.

This royal family member is Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani, Qatar's minister of Islamic affairs at the time, who was later installed at the interior ministry in January 2001 and reappointed by the emir during a government shake-up earlier this year. Abdallah al-Thani is also said to have welcomed Osama bin Laden on two visits to the farm, a charge repeated as recently as October 10, 2007, in a Congressional Research Service study.

Abdallah al-Thani remains a named defendant in the 9/11 lawsuits that are still proceeding in Manhattan federal court, but his Washington lawyers declined to address the charges that he shielded KSM, insisting only that he never "supported" any "terrorist acts." Asked if Abdallah al-Thani ever supported any terrorists rather than their acts, his lawyer David Nachman declined to comment further.

So far, MSM has ignored this story. Joe Conason suggests some questions for Giuliani:

1. Are your company's security contracts with Qatar negotiated and administered through the Qatar Ministry of the Interior, as a government spokesman confirmed to the Village Voice?

2. Are you aware that the interior minister appointed in 2001 and reappointed this year by the emir of Qatar is Abdullah al-Thani, the former minister of Islamic affairs and a strict Wahhabi Muslim who has been identified in U.S. press and government reports as a protector of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?

3. Are you aware that Abdullah al-Thani, a strict Wahhabi Muslim, reportedly hosted Osama bin Laden on two visits to his Qatari farm?

4. Were you aware of that allegation against Abdullah al-Thani when you agreed to work for the Qatar government in 2005?

5. Are you aware that Abdullah al-Thani is a defendant in federal civil lawsuits brought by survivor families against officials deemed directly or indirectly culpable for the 9/11 attacks?

6. Are you aware that former CIA officer Robert Baer has accused Abdullah al-Thani of helping KSM escape from Qatar just before he was to be arrested in 1996 by the FBI?

7. Are you aware that Baer's account, based on the testimony of a former Qatari official, implicates the emir in KSM's escape as well?

8. Did you ever discuss Abdullah al-Thani's alleged terrorist ties with your friend Louis Freeh, the former FBI director, or with the two former FBI counterterrorism agents who work for Giuliani Security?

9. Were you aware when you agreed to provide security services to the emirate in 2005 that the U.S. State Department's annual report on worldwide terrorism released several months earlier had criticized Qatar for coddling Islamist extremists and permitting "members of transnational terrorist groups" to reside there?

10. Are you aware that the government of Qatar has hosted the leadership of Hamas and provides millions of dollars monthly to the Hamas authorities in Gaza -- and that the emir applauded Hezbollah's "victory" over Israel during last summer's war in Lebanon?

Giuliani's Pedophile Priest

It's a story that has been around for a long time: "Rudy Giuliani's close association with, employment of and loyalty to a priest credibly accused of child molestation."

Giuliani has known the now-defrocked Alan Placa since they went to Brooklyn's Bishop Loughlin High School together. In addition to "fixing" Long Island molestation cases in the church's favor, Placa also fixed the annulment of Rudy's first marriage to his cousin.

Now Placa seems to be relying on Giuliani to fix his own little problem:

In 2003 a grand jury report of Suffolk County, NY, accused Placa of sexually abusing multiple victims.

A spokeswoman for Giuliani Partners told Salon Magazine that the former New York City mayor believes Placa was "unjustly accused." The grand jury report contains accusations from three alleged victims, including two children (Placa is named as "Priest F" in the report.) According to testimony before the grand jury, "Everyone in the school knew to stay away from Priest F."

Placa has been suspended from his priestly duties for the past five years...

The grand jury report includes excerpts from a letter in which Placa brags about his ability to settle multi-million dollar clergy abuse claims for "$20,000 to $100,000."...

During the 1980s, Placa was the legal advisor to the House of Affirmation in Worchester, MA, which offered counseling services to priests accused of sexual abuse. One person who worked at this facility called it a "pedophile boot camp." An abuse victim referred to it as a "breeding ground for sexual predators."

How long can MSM give Rudy a free pass on this shit?

Giuliani's Newest Corrupt Buddy

The latest in Giuliani's endless stream of criminal associates and supporters is Bob Asher, who did time for a government bribery scheme (his co-defendant killed himself on TV).

ABC News reported:

Bob Asher, a major Pennsylvania Republican player as a national party committeeman, was one of four hosts for the $2,300-a-person event. Asher was convicted in 1986 on charges stemming from a bribery scheme intended to win a $300,000 state government contract. The case gained national attention when his co-defendant in the case, Pennsylvania state treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, committed suicide at a televised news conference. Asher was sentenced to serve one year in prison.

More Real Real Rudy

A very telling report on Giuliani was posted in the NY Times today. It should have been on the front page, but it was in campaign blog instead.

The "news" was about the bus(es).

The real news -- though anyone paying attention has known this since the campaign began -- is that Giuliani has NOTHING TO SAY.

First the "news.":

Three buses, actually. A snazzy white one, with loudspeakers on the roof that played Sousa marches and holiday songs, for the candidate and his inner circle. A pretty nice maroon one for the traveling press corps. (News organizations reimburse the campaign for the expense.) And a third, with a small painting of the New Hampshire State motto, “Live Free or Die,” for staff and supporters.

Then the truth (or some of it):

The only time Mr. Giuliani set foot on the press bus was to hand out slices of cheese cake from a diner in Concord and to wish the assembled hacks a happy Thanksgiving...Throughout two days of town hall meetings, stops at diners and shaking hands with voters at holiday events, the bus tour provided no formal opportunity for reporters to ask Mr. Giuliani anything.

The rest of the truth is that Giuliani is afraid to answer questions from the press unless the press are "favored news organizations" (Fox) who get "invites onto seats on his bus...Most of the pack waited in vain."

Giuliani is afraid to answer questions from voters too. That's why he puts a campaign worker shill in the crowd and calls on that "voter" first.

At one town hall meeting in Nashua, and then at a breakfast at a supporter’s house in Windham, N.H., he called first on the same campaign volunteer...In Nashua, the volunteer, Richard Florino, asked, “What makes the liberal Democrats so wrong about the threats that this country faces?’’ In Windham, he asked about the alternate minimum tax, and about why Mr. Romney had “basically disowned Reaganomics” when he ran for Senate against Senator Edward M. Kennedy in 1994.

Maybe David Brooks can tell us which of the real Rudys is afraid to answer questions.

The Real Real Rudy

Last Friday David Brooks titled his NY Times column "The Real Rudy." It was another attempt to paint Giuliani as a "moderate" at "heart," this time on immigration. Brooks used quotes from several speeches Giuliani gave prior to his reelection campaign in 1997. The only thing "real" about Rudy is his easy exploitation of politically expedient policy. He is not a "moderate" by any measure. And as for his "heart," that has never been a working part of his anatomy.

Brooks laments the passing of Rudy's "inner light" which, when shining, turns him "downright idealistic." Proof of this "compassion" rests on statements made in October 1996, such as:

"There are times,” he declared, “when undocumented aliens must have a substantial degree of protection.” They must feel safe sending their children to school. They should feel safe reporting crime to the police. “Similarly, illegal and undocumented immigrants should be able to seek medical help without the threat of being reported. When these people are sick, they are just as sick and just as contagious as citizens.”

Such enlightenment on immigration, Brooks says, was the reason "why Giuliani won 43 percent of the Hispanic vote in the mayoral race of 1997." What Brooks doesn't say is that Giuliani, along with his running mate Herman Badillo, had made a strategic decision in 1993 to divide the black vote from the Hispanic vote and thereby defeat a liberal (black) Democrat in a liberal (yet fearful) city.

Giuliani's "inner light" on immigration was simply the glare of cynical big city political expediency. The NY Times commented at the time: "Not since the heyday of Lee Atwater have we seen such devious artistry when it comes to stirring feelings of racial paranoia among whites."

After his recent column whitewashing Reagan's race-baiting, rewriting history seems to be Brooks' new beat.

Giuliani's Crazy Secular Messianic Paranoia

Somebody in mainstream media do his fucking job and report the reality of Giuliani!

From his speech to the Federalist Society over the weekend:

After proclaiming that "America has a special, even a divinely inspired role in the world," Giuliani vowed:
"It was this nation that saved the world from the two great tyrannies of the 20th century, Nazism and Communism. It's this country that's going to save civilization from Islamic terrorism."

The Giuliani threat:

There really hasn't been someone like Rudy Giuliani -- someone so drenched in plainly authoritarian impulses, merged with such wild-eyed militarism -- anywhere near the White House in modern American history, if ever. It's not some coincidence or political ploy that he chose the most bloodthirsty neoconservative militants to serve him; that is who Giuliani is and has been for a long time.

Giuliani's Arrogance of Supreme Ego

When Giuliani remembers 9/11 he mostly remembers himself. From an interview with (and cheerleading from) Charlie Rose:

GIULIANI: My very first feeling, when I first thought about it, maybe within an hour of the event -- was what a shame that I have to deal with this towards the end of my administration. And then immediately I said to myself -- No, that isn't the right feeling. Actually, thank God that I'm as experienced as I am. And this is what I know how to do. There are things I don't know how to do. But this is what I know -- I know how to organize an emergency.

ROSE: You know how to respond to a crisis.

GIULIANI: I know how to respond to a crisis. I've done that all my life and for some reason, I know how to do that. For some reason, that's something I've developed or it's a talent that I have.
ROSE: Did you believe at the time -- whatever my faults are -- at this moment, in this city, this is a thing that I can do better than anybody else?

GIULIANI: Yes. Yeah - I did. I did.

The Reality of a Giuliani Police State

It can happen here, and will, if Guiliani wins.

...a vote for Giuliani is a vote for a police state that uses torture. I put it that bluntly because I don't see how granting one man the right to seize and torture anyone anywhere is anything else. Let's be honest about that reality too, shall we? And it's in that context that you have to understand Giuliani's fondness for a certain kind of judge. Giuliani will appoint judges who believe that the executive branch should be granted carte blanche in wartime - and wartime is now defined as permanent and includes as potential "enemy combatants" anyone in the US or anywhere else liable to seizure and "aggressive questioning" by cops or soldiers. Just think about the consequences of that for a while, even in the hands of a man or woman with a record of restraint and level-headedness and magnanimity. Now imagine those powers handed to someone with a long history of vindictiveness, over-reach, and hot-headedness.

Giuliani's Promise of More War

This will be the ultimate deciding issue in the 2008 election. It just has to be. Doesn't it?

George Packer in The New Yorker:

Giuliani has surrounded himself with a group of advisers—from Norman Podhoretz to the former Pentagon official Michael Rubin—who, having got Iraq spectacularly wrong, seem determined to make up for it by doing the same thing in Iran. Giuliani approaches foreign policy in the same mood of barely restrained eagerness for confrontation with which, as mayor of New York, he went after criminals. He has essentially promised to go to war with Iran in order to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons, and he recently suggested that waterboarding is only torture when the wrong people are doing it, and blamed the “liberal media” for giving it a bad name.

Giuliani's Other Judith

Frank Rich on the threat Judith Regan might pose to the Giuliani campaign:

...how quickly and stupidly we forgot about the other Judith in the Rudy orbit. That would be Judith Regan, who disappeared last December after she was unceremoniously fired from Rupert Murdoch’s publishing house, HarperCollins. Last week Ms. Regan came roaring back into the fray, a silver bullet aimed squarely at the heart of the Giuliani campaign.

Ms. Regan filed a $100 million lawsuit against her former employer, claiming she was unjustly made a scapegoat for the O. J. Simpson “If I Did It” fiasco that (briefly) embarrassed Mr. Murdoch and his News Corporation. But for those of us not caught up in the Simpson circus, what’s most riveting about the suit are two at best tangential sentences in its 70 pages: “In fact, a senior executive in the News Corporation organization told Regan that he believed she had information about Kerik that, if disclosed, would harm Giuliani’s presidential campaign. This executive advised Regan to lie to, and to withhold information from, investigators concerning Kerik.”