Yes it will!
Not a comfortable thought at all.
Posted on 09/23/2001 10:30:38 AM PDT by Clinton's a liar
At the invitation of UPI, Jon Loose and I wrote this op-ed and submitted it a week ago. UPI told us that every single person who read it there said that this was not commentary but that it was news. They have told us they were assigning staff to cover this story.
Since Newsmax has broken the story, I thought it time to put out information that has not yet come to light.
Hindsight is always 20/20. You see causes and proactive avenues that could have altered the outcome. Sometimes these ignored actions are discounted as unreasonable. Other times, you point your finger at a deserved party.
In the wake of the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, the most compelling raison d'être is that we failed to take our own advice. More specifically, the weaknesses in airport security were largely identified a number of years ago.
In July of 1996, in the wake of the crash of TWA flight 800, President Clinton convened the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security by executive order 13015 to take place on August 22, 1996. He gave the commission 45 days to “study matters involving aviation safety and security, including air traffic control and to develop a strategy to improve aviation safety and security, both domestically and internationally,” then present their conclusions. He named Vice President Al Gore to head the commission. By special invitation of the President, Victoria Cummock was named to the commission. Ms. Cummock lost her husband in the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scottland some eight years prior. According to Newsday, Cummock held the reputation at the time of “the airlines’ most tenacious foe.”
Five years prior to September 11, 2001, Gore held a press conference to announce the commission’s preliminary report that promised, “to take the strongest measures possible to reduce the risk of terrorism and sabotage to airline passengers and crews.” Gore further stated that their upcoming proposed measures will, “be put into place quickly and effectively and will help ensure that airline travel remains as safe as possible for all travelers.” A solid and factual preliminary report backed up Gore’s comments.
Ten days later, just prior to the 1996 election, Gore penned a letter to airline lobbyist Carol Hallett, promising that the commission's findings would not cause the airlines any loss of revenue. The very next day the Democratic National Committee received a check in the amount of $40,000 from TWA. Over the next two weeks Northwest, United and American Airlines donated $55,000 more.
In the next two months the Democratic National Committee pocketed over $250,000 from American Airlines. United Airlines threw in an additional $100,000. Northwest Airlines added $53,000. That’s a grand total of over half a million dollars. According to the Washington Times, Whitehouse Spokesman, Ginny Terzano gave no denial when asked whether Al Gore solicited these airline donations personally.
Contributory advice and suggestions were being sought and incorporated into the draft(s) of the report by all sides of the aisle and divisions of government including intelligence agencies, transportation agencies and military personnel. The draft final form was presented to the 21 participating commissioners in January of 1997. According to the Washington Times, a significant number of security measures were removed from the proposed final draft of the report.
Victoria Cummock and CIA Director John Deutch were resolute in their opposition to the “softball” report. Gore was given no choice but to pull back the report. Reinstalled were sensible new procedures that would cost the airlines millions of dollars.
· Conduct airport vulnerability assessments and develop action plans
· Require criminal background checks and FBI fingerprint checks for all screeners, and all airport and airline employees with access to secure areas
· Deploy existing technology
· Signifi cantly expand the use of bomb-sniffing dogs
· Complement technology with automated passenger profiling
· Certify screening companies and improve screener performance
· Aggressively test existing security systems
· Use the Customs Service to enhance security
· Give properly cleared airline and airport security personnel access to the classified information they need to know
· Begin implementation of full bag-passenger match · Providing more compassionate and effective assistance to families of victims
· Improve passenger manifests
· Significantly increase the number of FBI agents assigned to counter-terrorism investigations, to improve intelligence, and to crisis response
· Provide anti-terrorism assistance in the form of airport security training to countries where there are airports served by airlines flying to the US
The security measures were in the final recommendation report. However, the implementation timetable was nowhere to be found.
In February of 1997, Victoria Cummock called the report “toothless.” She informed Gore that unless specific implementation dates were added in the report she would file a dissent, because the airline industry would not have to do anything until such measures were mandated.
On February 12, 1997, an open meeting was held on the commission’s final report. Gore made a point to inform Ms. Cummock that he would leave room for her dissent to the final report. NBC Dateline caught these comments on videotape. Also on videotape was Mr. Gore presenting the final report to President Clinton minutes later and pronouncing that the report had unanimous consent. But it didn’t.
Victoria Cummock filed suit claiming that Gore pressured her to abandon her call for counter-terrorist measures, the right to see commission files of which she was denied, and the right to file her 42-page dissent. It was her ambition to see the commission’s findings presented accurately within the final report. Gore painted Cummock, who had lost her husband in a terrorist act, as a disgruntled commissioner.
In mid 1999 Ms. Cummock won her case in the D.C. Court of Appeals. In the long drawn out and impeded discovery process a memo was discovered from a CIA staffer, specializing in psychological profiling. According to The American Spectator, the memo stated that Cummock could be "kept in line if she believes progress could be made" but "could become a major problem."
On September 11, 2001, those ultimately responsible for the destruction of thousands of precious lives were the terrorists who pulled the knives and steered the planes.
But playing politics and intentionally ignoring obvious safety and security voids in an industry that has been a target of terrorists for over thirty years is unconscionable.
Now the airlines are paying the price. We all are.
Even better, what will it take for the lamestream media to report the Clinton/Gore criminality and its effects? 6,800 dead and missing isn't enough?
The big media is the progaganda arm of our nation's domestic terrorists. If we could harness a small percentage of the 'nuke em all' passion our citizens are exhibiting toward fighting our external terrorists, and turn it toward fighting our internal terrorists, we could win both wars.
Personally, I feel much more threatened by the terrorists from within that operate through the courts, political correctness and media disinformation.
FOX has already had this noble lady on, I saw her interviewed only a day or two after the attack. She was on with the former head of the FAA Mary Schiavo (sp?) and they both were really HOT mad!
Ain't it just so typical of the whole Clintonista clan, have your enemies investigated and see what the dirtiest way of attacking them is. Just how long is it gonna take till we see all of our 'investigative journalists' turning their sites on this?
Some of those poor families Clinton goes and visits at the family center ought to spit in his rotten eye.
Not for commercial use. Solely to be used for the educational purposes of research and open discussion.
St. Petersburg Times
October 04, 1999, Monday NATIONAL; Pg. 1A
Gore cultivates close ties to airlines
(My title: "Follow The Friendly Money")
Bill Adair
WASHINGTON -- Some say the vice president's priority for the aviation industry has come in exchange for political support.
Time after time, Vice President Al Gore has proven to be a friend of the aviation industry.
He hosted a White House news conference so airline CEOs could announce they were putting smoke detectors in all jets. At another event, he acted as a spokesman for Boeing, unveiling rudder improvements for 737 planes.
Then, a few months ago, he announced a "passenger bill of rights" that went easier on airlines than other proposals. His praise of the industry has been effusive. At the smoke detector announcement, he said airlines were taking the initiative and "the winners will be the millions of Americans who fly on these planes."
The Boeing announcement, which came just four days before Dateline NBC was to air a story about 737 safety problems, helped Boeing soften the story.
Gore's work on behalf of aviation companies illustrates how aggressively he has courted powerful business leaders as he positions himself for a presidential bid. His ties with key American industries helped him become the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, and may help him stave off challenger Bill Bradley.
But his close ties with aviation represent a risky move at a time when the airlines are under fire from consumers. He could be blamed for being too soft if service and safety problems worsen.
Burdett Loomis, a political science professor at the University of Kansas, says the risk is that "you might take credit for something that will later come back and bite you."
Victoria Cummock, a member of Gore's commission on aviation safety and security, says the vice president has become a "mouthpiece" of the airlines in exchange for big contributions to his presidential campaign.
Likewise, Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, said Gore has "walked with the industry arm-in-arm. There are very few industries that have the luxury of White House press conferences."
Gore spokesman Chris Lehane strongly denies that the vice president is assisting the airlines in exchange for their political support, but he acknowledged that aviation is a high priority for Gore.
"This administration has shown for the last 6 1/2 or seven years that you can balance both the private sector interests and public sector interests in a way that's good for the country," Lehane said.
Promoting and regulating
It was about three years ago that Gore gave the airlines a boost on the White House stage.
In November 1996, the FAA announced it would begin the long rulemaking process to require smoke detectors on small jets, in response to the ValuJet crash in May near Miami. A month later, the airlines decided to begin the installation. Gore and President Clinton joined 15 airline CEOs to explain the plans.
"With this announcement, virtually all of the airlines are saying that they're not going to wait for the regulatory process to catch up, they're moving forward on their own," Gore said. "They're jumping over the regulatory and the financial hurdles. And the winners will be the millions of Americans who fly on these planes."
Cummock said Gore and the FAA were too quick to accept the industry's promises without setting a deadline, which allowed the process to take longer than it should have.
Ten months after Gore's announcement, the National Transportation Safety Board wrote to the FAA saying it was "disappointed" the agency was taking so long to get the smoke detectors installed. Another NTSB letter at that time said only one plane had been retrofitted since Gore's announcement.
Cummock, a Miami resident whose husband was killed in the 1988 explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sees this as an example of Gore's cozy relationship with the industry.
"It was, once again, to give everybody a placebo about safety," Cummock said. "That's what the administration has been doing for the last eight years."
Lehane, Gore's spokesman, said it's important to balance government's two roles with aviation: promoting and regulating it.
"A strong airline industry is good for America's economy, providing a valuable infrastructure as well as providing thousands of jobs," he said.
Federico Pena, a former transportation secretary in the Clinton administration and a member of the Gore commission, said Gore has been an advocate for safety, even when it was costly to the airlines: "I think the airlines probably felt he pushed pretty hard on them."
Would you please post the name of the specific Republican who, in the last ten years, took campaign cash in return for curbing recommendations intending to preserve human life?
Amen, jmp702!
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