NEW YORK, May 19 (UPI) -- Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said better intelligence would probably not have helped city police prevent the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
Speaking Wednesday before the commission investigating the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, Giuliani said further information about Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida, such as the information given to President Bush Aug. 6, would probably not have been enough to defuse the attacks.
"If that information had been given to us -- and more warnings had been given to us in the summer of 2001 -- I can't honestly say we would have done anything differently," Giuliani said. "We were doing everything we could think of."
Giuliani said New York City agencies were already receiving large amounts of intelligence in 2001 and had been for several years. He said the volume of information the city was receiving meant that a further warning, even a more specific warning, would likely not have made much difference.
Giuliani said city agencies were focused on the threat of a suicide bomber, rather than the threat of an aerial attack.
