It was said that in the first 24 hours, you could measure the varied response using 20 blocks as a reference. On the upper east side, (rich republican) people were still shopping for their gucci and prada accessories.. lol.

Then it became politics, GOP used it turn the US into a police state and the democrats followed along..

One thing to note is that Herr Giuliani tried to cancel the Nov Mayor elections because he thought NYC needed him and he was the only one who could "lead" in the disaster.

In it he indirectly suggests that Powell (and Wilkenson) did not know that the intelligence regarding mobile chemical and biological weapon labs was false pre UN speech..

Thielmann understood that his posting had been mandated by Secretary of State Colin Powell, who thought that every important State Department bureau should be assigned a daily intelligence officer. "Bolton was the guy with whom I had to do business," Thielmann said. "We were going to provide him with all the information he was entitled to see. That's what being a professional intelligence officer is all about."

But, Thielmann told me, "Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear." Thielmann soon found himself shut out of Bolton's early-morning staff meetings. "I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, `The Under-Secretary doesn't need you to attend this meeting anymore.' " When Thielmann protested that he was there to provide intelligence input, the aide said, "The Under-Secretary wants to keep this in the family."

Hersh

On the other hand Powell did have evidence that Iraq had abandoned the Nuke program, although it is not inconceivable that he had doubts that that bit of intelligence was true. Quite a bit of false info was being spread about by Bolton and his gang.

Let me turn now to nuclear weapons. We have no indication that Saddam Hussein has ever abandoned his nuclear weapons program.

UN Speech

Greg Thielmann, after being turned away from Bolton's office, worked with the INR staff on a major review of Iraq's progress in developing W.M.D.s. The review, presented to Secretary of State Powell in December, 2001, echoed the earlier I.A.E.A. findings. According to Thielmann, "It basically said that there is no persuasive evidence that the Iraqi nuclear program is being reconstituted."

but that changed:

By early 2002, the SISMI intelligence--still unverified--had begun to play a role in the Administration's warnings about the Iraqi nuclear threat. On January 30th, the C.I.A. published an unclassified report to Congress that stated, "Baghdad may be attempting to acquire materials that could aid in reconstituting its nuclear-weapons program." A week later, Colin Powell told the House International Relations Committee, "With respect to the nuclear program, there is no doubt that the Iraqis are pursuing it."

Hersh

It is conceivable that Powell was convinced that Iraq had some nuke material, but certainly, in his speech, he denied on the fact that there was a great deal of evidence to the contrary.

The best school for dialectics is emigration. The most penetrating dialecticians are exiles.

See?