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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (187113)	9/26/2001 5:37:30 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

What Was Al Gore's Role? Did Al Gore let the airlines off the hook so he and Bill Clinton could have a little more campaign cash? Here's the story, according to NewsMax.com and the Boston Globe. After TWA Flight 800 crashed in 1996, Al Gore was named chairman of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety. It came to be known as the "Gore commission." So, on Sept. 9 of that year, the Gore commission produced a preliminary report – one that proposed several measures to improve security at airports. The proposals included matching every piece of baggage to a passenger and better training for airport screeners. But the airlines complained. They said the new procedures would cost too much money. They said that more rigorous screening and baggage matching would take too much time, causing more delays and missed connections. Ten days after the preliminary report came out, Gore sent a letter to Carol Hallett, an airline lobbyist. He promised her that the commission's findings would not result in any loss of revenue. Within the next two weeks, the Democratic National Committee received a series of contributions from the following airlines: TWA: $40,000 American: $265,000 Delta: $120,000 United: $115,000 Northwest: $87,000 That's a total of $627,000 for the 1996 Clinton-Gore presidential campaign. The Boston Globe notes that "over the preceding 10-week period, the airlines gave the Democrats less than half that sum." Then, after the election, Gore issued a draft of his final report. All of the security measures from the preliminary report were gone, according to one insider. Two members of the Gore commission balked. So did CIA Director John Deutch. Gore pulled the draft final report. The final report came out a month later. It included the tough security requirements of the preliminary report – but gave no deadline for meeting them. Basically, without a timetable, the report wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. It doesn't end there. Gore capped his commission's report with a lie. In a meeting with other commission members in 1997, Gore said he would allow room for dissent by those who disagreed with the report. But, minutes later, he announced to Bill Clinton and the public that the report was the work of a unanimous commission! The true Clinton-Gore legacy is starting to emerge, my friends, and it ain't pretty. It's a legacy that includes gutting intelligence budgets and letting the airlines off the hook in exchange for political contributions. Would 6,700 people be alive today if the CIA had the necessary resources and the airlines weren't so damned lax on security? We'll never know. Airline Bailout It's a total of $15 billion. Of that total $10 billion is in the form of loan guarantees and $5 billion is in the form of a cash grant. Now … remember the idea (not mine) I presented last week? Just why didn't this catch hold in Congress? What would have been wrong with the airlines providing the federal government with $5 billion in travel vouchers for government employees and military personnel in return for the cash? It seems that some good ideas just don't get off the ground. newsmax.com tom watson tosiwmee