We did all that we could, Giuliani says

His testimony was interrupted by angry outbursts.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Warnings of a possible terrorist attack on New York City contained in an August 2001 White House briefing paper never reached city hall, but likely would not have changed local security precautions, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said today.
Giuliani's testimony before the Sept. 11 commission was interrupted with angry outbursts by victims' families, with one yelling "One-sided!" and "Put us on the panel!"
The Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing for President Bush referred to evidence of buildings in New York possibly being cased by terrorists. It mentioned New York or the World Trade Center three times.
"If that information had been given to us, or more warnings had been given in the summer of 2001, I can't honestly tell you we'd do anything differently," Giuliani testified.
"We were doing at the time everything we could think of ... to protect the city."
What briefings indicated
Giuliani said the briefings he received from federal officials indicated that New York's bridges, tunnels and subways were more likely targets.
"I do think the interpretation would have been more in the direction of suicide bombings than aerial attacks," Giuliani said one day after his top commissioners were grilled over their Sept. 11 response.
It was about 90 minutes into his testimony that Giuliani was shouted down by family members of the trade center victims.
"My son was murdered!" yelled Sally Regenhard, who lost her firefighter son in the attack. Others in the audience shouted about the failure of Fire Department radios, shouting, "Talk about the radios!"
"You're simply wasting time at this point," commission head Thomas Kean told the family members.
"YOU'RE wasting time!" came the angry reply.
The mayor, in his opening statement to the commission, said that its priority should be preventing a new attack, not assigning blame.
"Our enemy is not each other, but the terrorists who attacked us," Giuliani said. The mayor acknowledged there were "terrible mistakes" made Sept. 11 but attributed that to the unprecedented circumstances.
'One source'
"The blame should clearly be directed at one source and one source alone, the terrorists who killed our loved ones," Giuliani said as family members broke into applause.
Commission member James Thompson, before questioning Giuliani, said the panel was "not engaged in a search for blame, not engaged in a search for villains." Instead, he said, the commission hoped to save the lives of other Americans -- a comment that drew more applause.
Giuliani pointed out that the bravery and quick thinking of city rescuers under brutal conditions had saved thousands of lives.
"Maybe 8,000 more, maybe 9,000 more than anyone could rightfully expect" were brought to safety before the towers collapsed, Giuliani said. About 25,000 people were evacuated from the World Trade Center.
The former mayor and his commissioners were widely hailed for their efforts after two hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers, killing 2,749 people and rattling the city's psyche.
But Tuesday, commission member John Lehman said the failure of city agencies to communicate effectively on 9/11 was a scandal "not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city."
Ex-fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen shot back that Lehman's comments were "despicable."
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