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Politics : Right Wing Extremist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sandintoes who wrote (26444)	5/26/2002 4:06:09 AM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 59480

In '96 Gore headed a panel on airline security. He dropped several things that would have cost the airlines money and in return got oodles of $$ flowing into the campaign coffers.

To: sandintoes who wrote (26444)	5/26/2002 9:50:58 AM
From: Glenn Petersen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 59480

Not one of Al's better efforts. The following article from a student newspaper recaps it nicely: Past mistakes, present solution: Airline security needs to be tightened by Mike Kong, Staffwriter thetartan.org The government has done a good job in responding to the tragedy on September 11. It has allocated money to help the victims and their families. A new cabinet position, Homeland Security, has been created. Our President has declared war on terrorism. And presently, Congress is debating over an airline safety bill to increase airport security and to prevent another occurrence of this disaster. Now that our government has taken care of the wounds, is carrying out justice in Afghanistan, and is safeguarding our country from another attack, can one now contemplate the question: Could it have been prevented? I, along with many other students out of state, fly to and from Carnegie Mellon each summer, winter, and spring. I always see flaws in their security procedures. Usually, I carry two carry-on bags with me. I put them in the x-ray machine and it goes through. Well this time they opened one of my bags up -- this was August, by the way -- and they went through that bag. They did not, however, check my other bag. Now, I could have easily carried a knife or some other dangerous thing in the unchecked bag. These are the small mistakes that may have contributed to the disaster. And to add to the matter, everyone knows about the cardboard door that separates the cockpit from the rest of the plane. Anyone can get through. I'm sure the hijackers knew all about these security flaws. The hijackers only had box cutters and nothing else, yet they were able to take control of four planes, three of which arrived at their targets. There were between 50 and 80 people aboard each plane but, somehow, no one stopped them, with the exception of the plane that crashed in western Pennsylvania, thanks to the heroics of the people on board. It seems that the security measures to prevent this scenario were non-existent. Some of the men were even on the FBI's wanted list, yet they were not apprehended. It seems like we were inviting terrorists to hijack the planes. From the descriptions of the hijacking, the terrorists had an easy time doing it. How can the most powerful country in the world not manage to keep its own territory safe? Certainly our country could have acted before this happened. Our country has tried to increase safety before, but with no results. After TWA Flight 800 crashed, Vice President Al Gore was placed on a aviation safety and security commission. This happened in 1996.The commission recommended procedures and security precautions. However, this entailed a cost to the airlines. Of course the airlines complained to the commission that the procedures would result in delays and would be inefficient. And lo and behold, a few days after their complaints, Mr. Gore sent a letter to these companies saying, quote, "I want to make it very clear that it is not the intent of this administration or of the commission to create a hardship for the air transportation industry." In other words, he backed down to the pressure of the airline companies. Soon after that, the Democratic National Committee received around $600,000 from American Airlines, Delta, United, and Northwest. These donations came close to the end of the Clinton-Gore '96 campaign, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics. Seems awfully suspicious to me. In the end, the commission did very little to increase safety and security in the airlines; but that's all in the past, let's concentrate on the present situation. The airline safety bill that I previously mentioned was introduced into the Senate around a month ago. Just recently, on November 1, the House rejected it with a 286 to 139 vote. Now the House and the Senate will go into a conference to edit the bill. One reason for the rejection is because of a Republican-sponsored measure that leaves airport screeners eployed by security companies contracted by the airlines but allows the federal government oversight. Hopefully, the airline lobbyists or unions won't influence our congressmen, nor will they involve politics in it. The bill is needed, not only for the peace of mind for the citizens, but because it will be effective in preventing anything like this from ever happening again. Lives have been lost and now our congressman must put aside their politics. The tragedy could have been prevented but nothing was done beforehand. We have a chance to correct that mistake and to prevent another reoccurrence. I'm sure that under the leadership of President Bush our policies will change. Mike Kong is a sophomore biology major. He welcomes all responsibe replies to his article.