Giuliani’s Terror Shame, Our Blog ShameSo we’ve been feeling guilty all week because we missed picking up on Wayne Barrett’s super-duper Village Voice report about Rudy Giuliani’s ties to Qatar, which in turn tie him to terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. It was a big story that we even read but then got caught up in other things and didn’t end up covering it. And then today, Joe Conason at Salon.com totally called us out on it.
Occasionally, as in the case of Rudolph Giuliani during this past week, the sudden appearance of not one but two juicy investigations overwhelms the system’s capacity to absorb and regurgitate. But when the nation’s news executives decided which of two highly embarrassing Giuliani stories to feature, nearly all of them made the wrong choice. While they lavished enormous attention upon a Politico story dealing with adultery and bureaucracy, they should be devoting at least as much time to yet another in the long series of Wayne Barrett scoops in the Village Voice, because this one involves business and terrorism.
Conason is right. Barrett is a little obsessed and maybe does push pins into dolls of Giuliani every night, but his reporting is accurate, smart, and in this case, important. Conason even comes up with ten questions that reporters can ask Giuliani about his Qatar connections so they don’t have to read the whole Voice story. So readers, go read the article. And Conason, thanks for giving us a bloggily self-referential way to assuage our own guilt.
Giuliani’s Terrorist Ties [Salon]
Rudy’s Ties to a Terror Sheikh [VV]
in other news
Rudy Giuliani, Nasty Man — Even to His Kids
Wayne Barrett, the professional anti-Giuliani, has a piece in this week’s Village Voice considering what might have made America’s Mayor’s daughter, Caroline, grow up to be a Barack Obama supporter. Some fun details of life at home with the Giulianis:
1. Rudy brought Caroline to City Hall on Take Your Daughters to Work Day in 1994 and 1995, his first two years as mayor, but never again — because by 1996 “the relationship between Giuliani and his twentysomething press secretary had so poisoned the marriage that all such family events were impossible.”
in other news
‘Voice’ Undercuts Giuliani’s Entire Candidacy, No One NoticesThis week’s Village Voice — yeah, we’re a day late, but, be honest, it’s not like you’ve read it already — carries a cover story by Voice vet and professional Giuliani antagonist Wayne Barrett titled “Rudy Giuliani’s Five Big Lies About 9/11.” In it, Barrett examines a speech the former mayor delivered in Maryland two months ago, arguing that he had the most and best terrorism-fighting experience of any candidate for president. But Barrett isn’t buying Giuliani’s claims; in fact, he says they’re a bunch of lies. How so?
