| -Caveat Lector-
This is so crazy it sounds like Alice in Wonderland. The only time the
pilots' weapons will not be locked up is when they don't need them. The outrage
should not be about the "weakness" being disclosed, but about the insane policy
itself.
Jim
Pilots' Alliance 'Shocked Beyond
Belief' by TSA Disclosure
By
Jeff Johnson
CNSNews.com Congressional Bureau Chief
February 25,
2003
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - Airline pilots supporting the
law that allows them to carry guns to defend against potential terrorist
hijackings said Monday they are "shocked beyond belief" that federal aviation
security officials have publicly revealed weaknesses in the Bush
administration's plan to implement the law.
As CNSNews.com previously
reported, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
acknowledged Friday that pilots who participate in the program will only be
allowed ready access to their guns when they are inside the cockpit with the
door locked.
"The jurisdiction of use of the weapon is in the cockpit and
the cockpit only," explained TSA spokeswoman Heather Rosenker. "The weapon needs
to be re-secured in the locked box if the cockpit door opens."
Capt.
Tracy Price, a commercial passenger airline pilot and chairman of the Airline
Pilots Security Alliance (APSA), was livid upon learning that the TSA had
disclosed the vulnerability.
"[T]he TSA is advertising that to would be
terrorists and telling them and pointing out to them that the best opportunity
that they will have to take over the cockpit is just then, when the cockpit door
is open because they know that the weapon will not be accessible to the pilot,"
Price said.
The disclosure caused Price to "seriously question the TSA's
motives" for allowing the information to be made public.
"Are they truly
concerned about airline security, or are they concerned about building their own
empire?" he asked. "If they had a serious concern with airline security, they
would have never let that information out like they did. We're shocked beyond
belief."
TSA has justified the decision based on its interpretation of
the legislation that mandated the arming of qualified commercial airline pilots.
The law calls for the creation of a "Federal Flight Deck Officer
Program."
"They are called 'Federal Flight Deck Officers,'" Rosenker
explained. "If somebody tries to intervene into the cockpit of that aircraft,
they have the right to use their weapon."
Asked if there were no other
circumstance, under which a pilot would be justified in using the weapon, she
replied, "That's correct." Rosenker acknowledged that the regulation would
include times during flights when one of the pilots leaves the cockpit to use
the restroom or get food.
Price rejected Rosenker's
explanation.
"We agree that our jurisdiction is strictly in the cockpit,"
Price acknowledged. "Just because we don't have federal law enforcement officer
jurisdiction and liability protection when we're carrying the firearm to and
from our homes, doesn't mean we're not authorized to carry the
firearm."
The Homeland Security
Act of 2002, which created the Department of Homeland Security and mandated
that TSA create the armed pilots' program, supports Price's claim. Section 1402
(f) of the law states that: "Notwithstanding any other provision of federal or
state law, a federal flight deck officer, whenever necessary to participate in
the program, may carry a firearm in any state and from one state to another
state."
The law also states that: "In consultation with the Secretary of
State, the Under Secretary may take such action as may be necessary to ensure
that a Federal flight deck officer may carry a firearm in a foreign country
whenever necessary to participate in the program."
Price believes TSA's
narrow interpretation of the statute and their public disclosure of that
information amounts to a serious threat to the safety of pilots.
"It's a
massive, huge hole and it's a huge problem, and it's something we had hoped and
everyone had agreed, we thought, that it would be something that we wouldn't let
out," Price explained.
Cargo Planes Vulnerable Due to Exclusion from
Program
But the firearm storage and transportation requirements are
not the only problem that pilots have with the federal flight deck officer
program, as Price explained.
"At the 11th hour, cargo pilots were removed
from the legislation that authorizes pilots to be armed, and they were removed
by simply inserting the word 'passenger' before the word 'airline,' so passenger
airline pilots only are the ones that are authorized to carry firearms," Price
said. "We've got serious, grave concerns about that because cargo pilots have at
least as strong a requirement for being armed, or maybe even stronger than
passenger airline pilots."
There are a number of differences between
passenger and cargo airliners that Price believes support his argument,
including:
- Cargo planes never have Federal Air Marshals on board;
- Cockpit doors of cargo planes have not been retrofitted to make them
stronger, some cargo planes have no cockpit doors at all;
- Stowaways on cargo flights are not as rare as the public might
imagine;
- Cargo ramp areas are not as secure as passenger ramps; and
- Thousands of people, many of whom are unknown to one another, work on
cargo ramps during nightly sorting of cargo, creating a ready opportunity
for
terrorists to stowaway on a cargo flight.
"The
airplanes are ... as big as passenger airliners and they're carrying very, very
large quantities of fuel," Price elaborated. "So it's a very attractive target,
it's a very soft target - as far as a terrorist would be concerned - and it will
do just as much damage crashing into a building as a passenger
airliner."
APSA believes the exclusion of cargo pilots should be removed
from the law and they have already found support in Congress.
House
Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and Aviation Subcommittee
Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) have introduced a bill, (H.R.
765), to allow cargo pilots to participate in the federal flight deck officer
program. The legislation simply removes the word "passenger" from in front of
the word "airline" throughout the relevant sections of the law.
"America's airline pilots - both commercial and cargo pilots - know best
that they can both control their aircraft and defend their cockpits when
necessary," Mica
said while introducing the legislation. "They have asked for the ability to
defend themselves and their aircraft from terrorist attacks.
"Cargo
pilots often carry passengers on flights and fly some of our largest aircraft
like 747s," he added. "Our legislation will increase aviation security by
closing the loophole that excluded thousands of qualified cargo pilots from
protecting their aircraft from terrorist takeovers."
Young
agreed.
"We've already passed legislation allowing 60,000 commercial
airline pilots to seek qualification for this program," he said. "It's time we
allow cargo pilots to have the same protections for their aircraft."
Rep.
Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), a licensed pilot and ranking minority member of the
Aviation Subcommittee, is also an original cosponsor of the bill. The proposal
has been sent to Mica's committee for consideration.
E-mail
a news tip to Jeff Johnson.
Send a Letter
to the Editor about this article.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http://archive.jab.org/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
|
