Having run a state emergency management agency, I know just how difficult disaster planning and response can be. I think its entirely unfair for folks to run around blaming Mr. Giuliani for the loss of life on 9/11. In the field of emergency managemnt one can always learn something from each new experience to better plan for the next one. But its impossible to be fully prepared for everything and anything. You can only reduce the odds.:

Families Heckle Giuliani at 9/11 Hearing

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN
Associated Press Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Outraged relatives of World Trade Center victims heckled former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani on Wednesday as their hopes that he would be grilled by the Sept. 11 commission faded in the face of gentle questioning and effusive praise from panel members.

"My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" shouted Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son died in the trade center. Seated three rows behind Giuliani, she jabbed her finger at the former mayor and waved a sign that read "Fiction" as he gave the city's emergency response a glowing review.

Giuliani finished his testimony and abruptly left the auditorium minutes later, upsetting family members who said they received few answers. Monica Gabrielle, who lost her husband, Richard, called it a "lost opportunity."

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