Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[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
--- Begin Message --- -Caveat Lector-Whatever Happened to Journalistic Integrity?
Commentary by William D. Kiss
August 2, 2004
It used to be that when an investigative reporter ‘uncovered’ an obvious scandal or ‘sell-out’ of the public trust by elected officials or other government agencies sworn to ‘serve and protect’, it would be front-page-news… Pulitzer Prize Winning material… not so apparently anymore! When I approached a local reporter his quote was, ‘political hot potato’ and he ran the other way…
Where’s the integrity of the press?
Is the “third time the charm” I have been asking myself? This is the THIRD White House / Presidential Commission in as many administrations (within 15 years) to “examine” and make “suggestions” to ‘correct’ Airline and Airport Security as it pertains to Terrorism attacks on the flying public and the citizens of the United States.
Will “THIS TIME” be any different or just another mish-mash of ‘suggestions’, to be watered-down and subdued by subverting federal agencies and pay-offs to both parties from political lobbyists to keep them from becoming rigid laws to be enforced with stiff fines or suspension(s)?
Where’s the integrity of our elected officials?
Most people have forgotten that there were TWO previous Commissions…
The FIRST was created by Executive Order (E.O.) 12686 and was named the “President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism”. It was signed into law by then President George H.W. Bush (41) August 4, 1989. This Commission was created after the downing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. It was modified by E.O. 12705 (Mar.3, 1990) and revoked (terminated) by E.O. 12774 (Sept. 27, 1991).
The SECOND was created by Executive Order (E.O.) 13015 and was named the “White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security”. It was signed into law by then President William J. Clinton (42) on August 22nd, 1996. This Commission was created after the downing of TWA 800 over Long Island (the 90-some-odd eyewitness surface-to-air missile reports and the surface radar report of the boat that launched the missile were ‘swept under the carpet’ in an effort to re-assure the public that air travel was ‘safe’ as not to damage the airline industry or our economy).
Curiously, the Letter of Dissent by one of the Commissioners (M. Victoria Cummock) was virtually ignored by its Chairman, then V.P. Al Gore and President Clinton. In this letter, Ms. Cummock warned the Commission and the public that the Commission was a poor attempt to reassure the flying public that they were more secure after the ‘recommendations’ when in fact, they were not... due to the fact that there was no mechanism in place to implement the ‘suggestions’ nor was there any responsibility of any government body to ensure that the ‘suggestions’ would be implemented... Sure enough – 4 ½ years later,
9-11-01 occurred and cost us over 3,000 lives and almost a trillion dollars to our economy. She hit the “nail on the head”.
“Stonewalling” (arrogance) also occurred when the FBI refused to accept the 60 some-odd affidavits of the eye-witnesses that observed an individual who was subsequently identified as an Iraqi intelligence officer meeting with Timothy McVeigh some six months before the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing from a courageous newspaper reporter in OK.
Why am I writing this? Well, I lost a friend in the South Tower on 9-11-01,
Daphne Pouletsos. She worked on the floor where the second plane went in. Another friend of mine, a Flight Attendant for United, lost 5 of her best friends on what was her usual flight – United Flight 93 in a Pennsylvania field. There have been so many countless others – Servicemen and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice in the protection of our country. I can’t stand the thought that they might have died for nothing – no changes to our national security to prevent what the terrorists are bent on doing – destroying our country,
our way of life – and I don’t believe these religious fanatics will stop until they destroy one of our major cities, probably New York or Washington and with it, 10’s of millions of people, cascading our economy like a row of dominos.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to scare or incite individuals to do anything they might regret, but I am seriously concerned that the integrity our founding fathers exhibited has been seriously eroded over the two centuries our country has existed and that the press has become a political tool / weapon to “get” one party / person “OUT” or another “IN” political office.
Years ago, there were icons of investigative journalism at the NY Times,
LA Times and Washington Post… (to name just a few)… all Pulitzer Prize winning publications. Where are they now? The Federal Election Laws have recorded donations from 1996 through 2000 of in excess of $64 Million from the Airlines through their Lobbyists to both political parties – money to “make it” so that the necessary changes to secure our airlines were not implemented. Everyday we hear how the airlines are in financial trouble and how this one and that one has failed to get government guaranteed loans to re-structure their companies… Maybe if they contributed less to the politicians, they’d have more money to support their own businesses.
Ms. Cummock suggested in 1997 that an Airport Security Surcharge of $4-5 per ticket would generate over $2 Billion a year in revenue and would be more than enough to help finance needed security measures to improve our transportation system… a recommendation that was “thrown under the bus” until after 9-11, when the current administration immediately implemented a $10 per ticket Security Surcharge. By these rough estimates, that should be a minimum of
$4 Billion a year for improving Airline and Airport Security… So tell me this… How many commercial airports in the United States have the minimum of a secured perimeter with armed guards patrolling this 24x7? Can anyone guess??? I have yet to see one! Where is all the money going??? Thermal imaging, motion sensors and video / infrared surveillance cameras for complete control of airport perimeters are not only possible but again, altogether doable and much less expensive than they were seven years ago – TODAY… So where are they???
The technology exists to implement an improved Passport and Visa identification system using retinal scans and attach the retina identification to the individual’s passport. For individuals with retinal problems, fingerprint biometrics could be easily substituted. This is technology that has existed for years – no counterfeit passports or visas would then be possible. Passenger profiling systems have been in existence since well before 1996 – but when terrorists have been apprehended by immigration, why have they been ‘released’ only to disappear into our society? Why then haven’t these systems already been implemented? It is the political ‘will’ that has been lacking, the “it’s always the fault of the other party’s candidate”, why these things never get implemented.
Besides the airlines, there are other terrorist’s targets that currently have woefully inadequate security protection. There are 160+ chemical plants with lethal agents in production / storage in our country today (remember Bhopal, India?-3,800 dead). Then there are our nuclear power facilities and the cooling water intakes for the reactors (remember the USS Cole? [single boat loaded with plastic explosives]– and - Chernobyl, Russia? – over 7 million people suffered death or damage from the radiation poisoning resulting from the melt-down of one reactor). If the Iranian agent sleeper cell penetration into our country is as pervasive as the news has reported lately because of the lack of adequate border security we should be seriously concerned for our safety. These individuals have the expertise to make enough C4 to do serious damage in a focused attack on our nuclear energy infrastructure. We cannot afford the arrogance, which leads to inaction where our national security is concerned. Enough is not being done to ensure the safety of the American public.
Our country has done the ‘stand-up’ thing for the 10s of millions of people of Afghanistan and Iraq with a surprisingly low death toll to our military and their civilian population(s). Now we need to stand behind the men and women of our armed forces and support their efforts to bring terrorism to an end… before it hits us at home … again. We must have the political will to make the hard choices and change; implement a more secure Passport / Visa system, implement passenger profiling / screening and full passenger bag-match, implement real – airport and airline security, secure our chemical plants and nuclear power facilities… it’s a start. The new port security, just implemented is a great start! Now about those 6 million containers…
We MUST start taking this terrorist threat seriously, or we won’t have a chance to recover when the next terrorist attack hits. It will deliver a knockout blow to our nation and it’s economy. We believe that opening the access to the information needed to scrutinize the government’s progress in implementing the security changes is a good start / first step – there needs to be a watchdog agency and a Congressional / Senate oversight committee to make accountable the individuals whose responsibility it is to make these things happen… we have to start moving towards a goal, together or we won’t have a country to come home to. There also needs to be fixed timetables and clearly defined functions and goals for each of the actions that need to be implemented or the next attack will cost us dearly.
Our population didn’t want to get involved in WWII, neither did they think our entire Pacific Fleet was capable of being destroyed in one day, let alone a quiet Sunday morning in December 1941. We looked the other way when the atrocities in Poland and other parts of Western Europe occurred in the late 1930’s. If we do not act now to preserve our Freedoms and secure our nation, our country’s future is undoubtedly at risk. History will repeat itself as it has done so very many times before. We have already lost too many lives of too many good people.
Definition of Integrity:...1) The state of being unimpaired, soundness. 2) The quality or condition of being whole or undivided; completeness.
Time to wake-up, America, your children and grandchildren are depending on you!
William D. Kiss (Bill) is the Executive Director of U.S. Citizens for Open Government. www.USCOG.org Bill has over 38 years in the Information Technology field with a focus on Systems Architecture, Internet Security and Disaster Recovery. He is also President of Secure I.T. Systems, L.L.C. of the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Philadelphia chapter of InfraGard.
© Copyright 2004 The Washington Dispatchpeace,Tom
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out!
Please let us stay on topic and be civil.-Home Page- www.cia-drugs.org
OM
Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
ADVERTISEMENT
Yahoo! Groups Links
www.ctrl.org DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
- To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cia-drugs/
- To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/[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
--- End Message ---
