Opinion: Can 9/11 hurt Rudy?

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The ‘Swift boating’ of Rudy Giuliani has begun. As long promised, the International Association of Firefighters plans to premier a 13-minute video documentary, ‘Rudy Giuliani: Urban Legend,’ at 2 p.m. (PDT) today, accusing the former New York mayor of twisting the facts of his role before and after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in order to portray himself as a hero.

The video will be debuted at this site.

In an April story (which you can read here), our colleague Peter Wallsten laid out the union’s complaints about Giuliani and its plans to try to use 9/11 --- the centerpiece of the Republican’s campaign for president --- against him.

The union has long been hostile to Giuliani, and earlier this year its members gave a rousing reception to another New Yorker, Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential race, during a conference in Washington.

The new video uses interviews of family members of firefighters who died in the World Trade Center to blame Giuliani for an outdated radio communications system, for placing a key command center in a risky spot within the center itself, and for attempting to block the recovery effort before the firefighters’ remains were found.

-- Don Frederick