Just a days before the Florida primary, someone gave the New York Times a 1998 NYPD memorandum advising Mayor Giuliani that the department felt locating the city's emergency command center in 7 World Trade Center was not a very good idea. The eight page memo was written by a panel of police experts with help from the Secret Service. Its conclusions were overruled by Giuliani and the command center was destroyed on September 11 as the building where it was located burned and then collapsed.
There were numerous reasons given for why 7 World Trade was a poor choice for a command center:
- The ability of the public to gain access to the building
- The location of the command center on the 23rd floor
- The large supply of diesel fuel stored in a sub-level of the building
- The building's large garage and delivery bays
- Its proximity to a previous terrorist target
- Its location above and next to a ConEd substation that supplies most of the electricity to Manhattan
The commander of the NYPD's intelligence division wrote to the police commissioner to tell him, “This group’s finding is that the security of the proposed O.E.M. Command Center cannot be reasonably guaranteed." The memo's conclusions were disregarded, and Giuliani says that he wanted to go along with the recommendation of his emergency management director Jerome Hauer, portraying it as a turf battle between the NYPD and the OEM. Haueur denies this though, saying that he originally wanted the command center placed in Brooklyn and only picked the site at 7 World Trade after mayoral aides informed him that it must be located within walking distance of City Hall.
With Giuliani's Presidential aspirations pinned to the perception that he has the judgment and skill to govern in a state of crisis, the appearance of the memo continues to question his credentials. The Times specified a law enforcement official who provided the almost 10-year-old document was not affiliated with a Giuliani rival - a possible necessary note given the paper's editorial eviscerating a Giuliani presidential candidacy yesterday.
Some family members of those who died on 9/11 recently pledged to conduct a "Swift Boat"-like campaign against the former mayor, discrediting him on a perceived strength.
