Giuliani speaks for GOP on 9/11 experience

NEW YORK, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani made the Republican Party's weekly media address Saturday on the eve of the 2001 terror attacks anniversary.

"People often ask me, 'Is America safer now than it was before September 11?' The answer is: 'Yes, but not as safe as we should be,'" he said. "We have not significantly improved port security and our state and local governments range from very well prepared to not prepared at all."

The former mayor's address was a break in Republican tradition in that it's always been given by an elected party member.

Regardless, Giuliani gave a political criticism of President Barack Obama's plans to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan next year, but didn't mention the president by name.

"American security requires a long-term military presence in the part of the world where people and organizations are plotting to kill us. The timetable should not be based on a politically expedient calendar, but on when we've eliminated the threat of domestic attacks being generated in that particular part of the world.

"We must not allow impatience to prevent our military from achieving its objective in Iraq and Afghanistan and the objective is the elimination of the threat to our nation."