“We can fool ourselves with this memorial and museum and everything else into thinking this is over. This isn’t Pearl Harbor. You know there’s a museum there, and that war’s over. This war is still. Every single reason for that attack is festering in parts of the world right now,” said Giuliani, adding that the threat is “intensified and diversified." “The Islamic terrorist threat to America is greater today than it was before September 11,” he said. As the nation marked the 14th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, Giuliani reflected on what he called the “worst day” of his life and the “worst day in the life of the history of the city, and maybe the greatest day, because of all the heroism and terrific acts of kindness and the unbelievable things people did to save each other.”
He said an hour after the 9/11 attacks began, he was told by the White House that more attacks were coming and there were specifically seven planes that were still unaccounted for. Giuliani, who has been dubbed “America’s mayor,” said at the time, he was informed by the FBI and the police department that “this might trigger smaller suicide attacks, meaning that this might be a trigger for a whole massive number of attacks.” Before 9/11, the city “expected a terrorist attack,” Giuliani said. “We were even warned of terrorist attacks that turned out not to happen. We had a terrorist attack that was thwarted by the police department by shooting the terrorist, who was headed for a toggle switch,” which took place two years prior to 9/11.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Although Giuliani had established an office of emergency management, specifically in case of a terrorist attack, the city did not expect an attack of that magnitude. “We thought of I think every scenario possible, but not airplanes being used as missiles, crashing into our buildings. We expected terrorist attacks like the ones that in those days were going on Israel,” he said. Giuliani expected that someone might try to blow up the World Trade Center again. “We arrested many terrorists. We would find them with plans, plans for the Brooklyn Bridge, the George Washington Bridge, the subways, the tunnels, plans for the Stock Exchange, and the World Trade Center, but the idea was more like there would be a suicide bombing, and we had drills preparing for that kind of attack. We had a drill once right in front of the World Trade Center preparing for a sarin gas attack on a political rally,” he said.
The former mayor said when he arrived on the scene of the 9/11 attacks, he saw a man jumping from the 101st floor. “I grabbed the commissioner’s arm, and I said: ‘Gosh we planned for everything, but we don’t have a plan for this one, and we’re just going to have to pray to God that we got it right,’” he said. “September 10, the world was one way and by September 11, we’re in a new world, and the unfortunate part of it is we’re still in it. We’re still in that war,” Giuliani said.
Giuliani on 9/11 Anniversary: This War Is Not Over
