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Revisiting Rudy's Record as Terror-Fighter

Impressive after 9/11, Giuliani underplayed the threat before

By Jonas Oransky, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 24, 2007 4:25 PM CDT

(Newser) – Candidate Giuliani is pitching himself as a terrorist-slayer, but until 9/11 he downplayed threats and offered traditional law enforcement as the solution, the Washington Post reports—an approach he now condemns. In an analysis of the former mayor's track record on terror before the attacks, the Post notes decisions that underplayed the threat. i

Most conspicuouly, Rudy placed his emergency command center at the World Trade Center just a few years after the 1993 attack. And he declined to label a 1997 Empire State Building shooting death as terrorism—despite the killer’s stated intention to strike “Zionists…at their own den.” The Post asserts that terrorism “was a narrow aspect” of Giuliani's agenda, and he was less than prescient about the event that turned him into America’s Mayor.

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Then New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, center, leads Sen. Charles Schumer, R-N.Y., second from left, New York Gov. George Pataki, second from right, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., far right,... (Associated Press)

Then-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani laughs as he finishes his final radio show at his City Hall office in New York in this Dec. 28, 2001 file photo. As mayor, Giuliani imposed civility on New York,... (Associated Press)

Giuliani and Pataki Pray (Getty Images)

Then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, left, gestures as he announces that New York City appears to be leading the nation's fight against crime, Sunday, Jan. 5, 1997, at a New York City police precinct. Figures... (Associated Press)

New York Gov. George Pataki, left, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, center, and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., tour the site of the World Trade Center disaster, in this Sept. 12, 2001, file photo.... (Associated Press)

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Revisiting Rudy's Record as Terror-Fighter