A group of New York City firefighters and their families traveled to New Hampshire yesterday to try to collapse the image of "America's Mayor" heroically leading New York City in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The group, 9/11 Firefighters and Families, contends that former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani made poor decisions before the day of the attack that left firefighters ill-prepared to respond when two planes hit the World Trade Center. They fault him for the deaths of their firefighter colleagues and sons, who perished when the towers collapsed.

"There were needless people that died that day," said Jim Riches, deputy chief of the New York City Fire Department, whose son died in the attacks. "And to see this man turn around now and say he did a great job preparing us and having leadership that day? It was lacking, and there was none. . . . Now he's trying to parlay it into the presidency of the United States. . . . He did nothing, and it doesn't qualify him to be president of the United States."

Five members of the group met with the Monitor yesterday morning before holding a town hall style meeting at Dartmouth College in the evening.

This isn't the first time New York City firefighters have publicly criticized Giuliani since he started campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination. The International Association of Fire Fighters, a union that represents 281,000 firefighters, produced a 13-minute video last summer that blamed Giuliani for the deaths of 121 firefighters killed when the North Tower collapsed. The IAFF says Giuliani knew the department was using faulty radios and says the firefighters died because they could not receive evacuation orders before the tower collapsed.

Giuliani's campaign has dismissed the attacks on his 9/11 record as partisan smears, adding that the IAFF historically backs Democrats. The union endorsed Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd this campaign. Howard Safir, former New York City police and fire commissioner and now chairman of First Responders for Rudy, said 9/11 Firefighters is just another group trying to second-guess Giuliani's leadership during an unprecedented attack on the United States.

"Seven years later, it's easy to dissect it and be critical," Safir said. "Look at the results: Over 20,000 people were rescued from those buildings; 99 percent of those beneath the impact points survived."

Two members of 9/11 Firefighters appeared in the IAFF video: Riches and Alexander Santora, retired chief of safety at the New York City Fire Department. Both lost their firefighter sons in the World Trade Center towers.

But the IAFF says 9/11 Firefighters is acting on its own.

"These are the accusations that have been leveled by the people who were on the ground that day. They aren't the IAFF's accusations," said Jeff Zack, a spokesman for the firefighters union.

The group that traveled to New Hampshire said it doesn't want to be considered this year's Swift Boaters, referring to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that attacked the Vietnam War record of John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. Members of 9/11 Firefighters said they plan to keep their efforts at the grassroots level and won't endorse a candidate for president.

They said they are frustrated that outside New York City, Giuliani is best known for his actions in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. And although they believe Giuliani made grave errors leading up to Sept. 11, 2001, it is his use of the attacks to bolster his national security credentials that made them want to "set the record straight."

"Had he come after 9/11 and said, 'Listen, I've made terrible mistakes. We did the best we could under the situation. I tried my best,' we would probably not be here today," said Maureen Santora, whose 23-year-old son, Christopher, was killed in the South Tower. "But it is his arrogance and it is his insistence that he was the savior of 9/11 that has driven all of us to kind of come out and say, take another look at really what the facts are."

Riches said, "He's cashed in on a national tragedy, and I think it's disgusting."

The group faults Giuliani for not replacing firefighters' handheld radios, which were vulnerable to dead spots, a fact revealed following the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. A new radio model was introduced in March 2001 but recalled the following month, after a firefighter's Mayday call inside a building went unheard by fellow firefighters. On Sept. 11, firefighters were using the old radios.

Single page