APSA Armed Pilots Update

We are now in the crucial final rounds of our fight to secure our cockpits. While we just scored an impressive victory over staunch opponents, much remains to be done. PLEASE read this carefully so that you understand where we-and our sworn enemies-are. If ever we needed strong grassroots support, now is that time. BEGIN BY GIVING THIS UPDATE ABSOLUTELY MAXIMUM EXPOSURE. Forward it to everyone in your address book, and ask them to do the same. Print it out and take it to work with you.

We are this close to victory; now is not the time for relaxing. If you need to skip to the Action Items, see the last page and pick up the phone.

This is HUGE. On Wednesday, July 10, the House of Representatives passed two crucial amendments to the weakened HR 4635 Bill by approximately a two-thirds majority. More importantly, the bill itself, with the Amendments, passed with a veto-proof three-quarters majority. Kudos and thanks aplenty go out to Representatives John Hostettler (R-IN) for his amendment and Peter DeFazio (D-OR), John Thune (R-SD), and Joe Barton (R-TX) for their joint amendment.

The week began much differently, with only a modicum of optimism. The Arming Pilots Against Terrorism bill, HR 4635, that began as a well-crafted attempt, mutated into a less-than-worthless compromise because of weak advocacy on the part of one group that was afraid of offending its pro-labor (and anti-gun) allies, and even admitted as much. The grisly details of this compromise are a story for another time (we promise). Fortunately, APSA and the Allied Pilots' Association (APA) stood in the gap. As of Monday, our allies barely hoped to get a couple of luke-warm amendments attached; we started to fear that our only remaining hope was in the Senate. Then APSA Chairman Tracy Price and Board Member Bob Lambert spent two long days visiting specific key Representatives along with APA CADC leadership Al Aitken and Rob Sproc, shoring up support for real amendments with teeth. These were probably the two most productive days spent by APSA activists. Backing them up were thousa nds of you APSA members and millions of G. Gordon Liddy (www.liddyshow.us) listeners who jumped into the fight en masse. APSA and Liddy activists absolutely inundated the House with calls; and folks, that got their attention, and they let us know about it. Suddenly, the House came alive and Congressmen were fighting for the opportunity to floor amendments.

Remember, just a couple of weeks ago APSA was told by House Transportation Committee staff that we had ZERO chance of changing the language of the poor bill, because of extensive compromises that had been arranged earlier. Because of YOUR grassroots activism, urged on by APSA and the G-Man, WE WON BIG where nobody thought we could. Together, we changed history.

More importantly, we carry this freight-train like momentum into the Senate. More on that later.

GIVE YOURSELVES A PAT ON THE BACK. CONGRATULATIONS AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR PHONE CALLS, EMAILS, AND FAXES.

The compromised House bill - before the APSA championed amendments - was just a two-year trial program as if we are bumbling fools requiring probation, would have only required the TSA (you know, the guys who hate the idea of arming pilots) to arm a meaningless 250 pilots (out of about 90,000 of us) and didn't even set a deadline for doing that. It also irrationally put a CEILING on the number of pilots to be armed-a paltry 2%, thus making absolutely certain that this program would lose any deterrent value it might have had, and sending an engraved invitation to terrorists to strike again. It gave the TSA the power to decide at the end of the two-year period whether or not to continue the program. Gee, since they already said no to arming us once, whaddya think they might say this time? In sharp contrast, the APSA-led amendments make the program permanent, available to all airline pilots who choose to volunteer, and take veto power away from airline managers, many of whom oppose arming us. These are the RESULTS of your grassroots participation and your financial support of APSA. If you want real results for your time and money, APSA delivers.

So we have our grand-slam in the House but some tricky maneuvering remaining in the Senate to get a good product onto the desk of anti-arming-pilots/friend-of-the-Air Transport Association President Bush. At the end of this Update, we'll let you know how best to help.

Another homerun this week: staunchly anti-gun Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) signed on as cosponsor of the Bob Smith/Zell Miller bill (now the Smith/Boxer/Miller bill) to arm pilots. APSA welcomes her aboard this bill we have worked on alongside Senator Smith. The significance of this event cannot be overstated. While one of the original sponsors, Zell Miller (GA) is also a Democrat, Senator Boxer will draw in more from farther Left. Sponsors for this crucial legislation now range from Senator Bob Smith (R-NH) on the Right to Senator Boxer on the Left, making this a truly bipartisan effort. We also thank the rest of the bill's sponsors: Conrad Burns (R-MT), Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and Strom Thurmond (R-SC). The Senate is now the focus of our energies.

Ex-ATF Chief and current TSA boss John Magaw recently told Congress that he still opposes armed pilots because in his words, pilots need to concentrate on getting the airplane down. APSA has pointed out repeatedly that although pilots can multitask well, we have a difficult time doing anything when we are DEAD. Magaw also stated that pilots do not need to be armed because the cockpit door will never be breached-a ridiculous statement that flies in the face of testimony given by Boeing and law enforcement agencies which state unequivocally that impenetrable doors do not exist. Magaw then revealed his hypocrisy-and the fact that he has ulterior agendas-by saying he is seriously considering non-lethal weapons in the cockpit.

Gotcha. If pilots need to focus ONLY on flying the airplane, then non-lethal weapons are worse-a lot worse-than firearms because they require much more attention. Certainly Magaw, who repeatedly boasts of "forty years of law enforcement experience," should know this; therefore he is either incompetent or deceiving us. If cockpit doors will really never be compromised, not even non-lethal weapons are needed. But since Magaw admits that cockpits need defending (with his non-lethals), he is also admitting that he knows as well as we do that cockpit doors can be defeated. We believe that his real gripes are that, typical of an ATF boss, he doesn't think anyone has the right to firearms except the federal government. His second hidden motive is that armed pilots will be seen as reducing the need for armed Federal Air Marshals, and NO CAREER BUREAUCRAT LIKE MAGAW WANTS COMPETITION.

For his part in this conspiracy, DOT Secretary Norm Mineta was in charge of airline security on September 11th-certainly a dismal failure even without the allegations of some warning. He should do the honorable thing and resign. (Note: at the time of the warnings of al Qaida hijacking plans last summer, FAA boss Jane Garvey, who works for Mineta, ordered removal of arming-pilots language already on the FAA rulebooks!) Mineta is long known for his pathological aversion to firearms. At APSA we have said many times that we hold arming pilots to be an air safety issue, not a 2nd Amendment debate. Nevertheless, Mineta's extreme bias in the matter has caused him to dismiss the one solution law enforcement agencies say is needed to secure cockpits: arming pilots with firearms.

Norm Mineta and John Magaw are putting their personal agendas ahead of the lives of the traveling Americans with whose safety they are entrusted. APSA calls on President Bush to remove them from office IMMEDIATELY.

We at APSA extend our sympathy to the families of the victims and to the injured survivors of the July 4th shooting at LAX. Unfortunately, our government and airline managements are refusing to learn anything from this tragedy, the implications of which are numerous. Like a computer in the hands of a clueless programmer, our "programmed" response was as predictable as it is wrong: calling for moving "security" checkpoints to the outer doors of terminal buildings. Where shall we then move them when the foreseeable car bomb goes off in front of a terminal.or parking garage?

You see the problem-America will look and feel like an occupied country if we ride this emotional train to its inevitable destination. First point: our entire "security" system is based on a false, unexamined ASSUMPTION that was made in the early 1970s while facing a completely different threat: that stripping ourselves of defensive capability and trusting the government to protect us is desirable. This assumption has been proved false time and again-most recently just this month when we learned that weapons STILL slip through "security" screening points 1 out of 4 times (Who would board an airplane with a pilot who crashed 1 out of 4 landings?). In this rigged test, the inspectors were told to NOT conceal the test weapons so that screeners might have a chance of finding some of them. This is the sort of blatant rubbish that Mineta and Magaw try to pass off as serious security.

Still, in typical fashion, when faced with unassailable and repeated evidence that a program is wrong-headed, the government response is to.DO MORE OF IT! APSA has stated for months that we cannot purge weapons from a mass transportation system like airlines, and the DOT keeps proving us correct. Look, prison guards admit that they can't even keep weapons and drugs out of jails. And all this completely ignores the fact that trained terrorists are fully capable of controlling a cabin as prelude to attacking the cockpit door, without the benefit of personally carried weapons.

As if to help us drive home the fact that our government just doesn't "get it," immediately AFTER the LAX airport shooting, California governor Gray Davis urged Californians to "trust the government" to keep them safe because record numbers of law enforcement officers were already [emphasis added] on duty. That being true, we wonder how a lone gunman killed two and injured others in the face of legions of airport-patrolling law enforcement officers whom Davis (and many others of his ilk) promises over and over can protect us from all evil. Further, notwithstanding all that, he mislead us because-is ANYONE paying attention?-the gunman, a male Egyptian immigrant (not a minivan mom or her toddler), was stopped and killed by El Al's armed airline employees. Second point: were it not for private, armed airline employees, the gunman would have kept killing US-government-disarmed victims until his gun was empty. He wasn't stopped by the TSA or any other law enforcement agency; he was shot and killed by airline employees. John Magaw's incompetent, bumbling TSA cannot even protect us in the terminal; yet he demands we believe him when he promises that security in the air is infallible and so pilots do not need to be able to defend the cockpit.

Ignore Magaw. Our government knows, and admits, they cannot prevent hijackings: U.S. and Canadian Air Forces are now jointly training to intercept hijacked airliners. WHILE OUR GOVERNMENT IS SAYING SECURITY IS SO GOOD THAT WE PILOTS WILL NEVER NEED TO DEFEND THE COCKPIT, THEY ARE TRAINING TO SHOOT US DOWN WHEN WE ARE HIJACKED!

Had the Arab gunman in LAX attacked a domestic airline ticket counter, many more would have died because many US airlines don't want their employees armed and capable of protecting their passengers, and worked to ensure our government would not allow that. Third point: you are better protected when traveling on any of several foreign airlines whose various employees (including pilots) are armed, than any US airline. Congratulations to John Magaw who has made foreign airlines safer than the US airlines he is tasked with securing.

Fourth (astounding) point: in the "land of the free," foreign airlines' employees are armed-on American soil, in American airline terminals-while U.S. airline employees (U.S. citizens) are disarmed by the Bush Administration and made completely defenseless! If YOU enter an airline terminal armed YOU WILL BE arrested. We are now second-class citizens in our own country, courtesy of our government, which makes deals for foreigners to be armed where it prohibits us from defending ourselves. Where is our outrage?

President Bush's advisors have hit on a cheap sound bite that is working for them. We consider it fair to shoot down their glib mantra, since they are, after all, perfectly willing to shoot us down. The ridiculous statement they keep dragging out: "Pilots can not be armed because they need to concentrate on flying the airplane." Yep, it's the same nonsense Magaw regurgitates whenever he finds a microphone handy. In fact, almost everyone who would rather the terrorists kill us than the other way around regurgitates this verbatim. Which leads us to conclude that, since the ATA is behind most of the mischief in this issue, it probably comes from them. If you don't stop to think about it, it sounds like it might make sense. However, isn't that what eight pilots tried to do on 9/11-"just fly" their airplanes? WE PILOTS ARE THE TRAINED PROFESSIONALS WHO KNOW WHAT WE NEED TO "CONCENTRATE ON. We are up to HERE with NONPILOT sound-bite manufacturers who have political agendas telling the public how we should do our jobs.

Airline pilots are specifically trained to handle emergencies by dividing cockpit duties: one pilot flies while the other deals with the emergency. In fact we spend most of our training time doing just this. Note to disingenuous White House political hacks: armed terrorists (that YOUR "security" misses) coming through our cockpit door is an emergency that we can be trained to handle calmly, just like any other emergency. Find another cheap sound bite we can easily discredit.

For the record: In late May, Pulitzer-prize winning columnist George Will wrote a column relating the opinions of three airline pilots who, oddly enough, think being able to defend their cockpits is a bad idea. A line pilot at a major airline took issue with some of the column and called his union to enlist their aid in refuting the particulars of the editorial. After being ignored by his union, to whom he pays about 2% of his income, he contacted APSA. This pilot, APSA Director Scott Lewis, and the Vice-Chairman of the Allied Pilot's Association's Committee for Armed Defense of the Cockpit, Al Aitken, visited Mr. Will. He was gracious and welcomed speaking with pilots who share his view that we should be armed. Immediately following the meeting, Mr. Will penned another column on the subject endorsing our position, using some of the information we provided. Mr. Will's fair-mindedness, one pilot's initiative, and a few hours investment by APSA and APA staff are the quali ties that carried the day; not the public criticism leveled by the above pilot's union, which then went so far as to claim credit for the 2nd column after turning down the opportunity to get involved and help the cause. Now you know the rest of the story.

Tracy Price continues as a regular guest on the well-known and influential Chris Core radio show on WMAL in Washington, D.C, the Lee Rogers and Melanie Morgan radio show on KSFO in San Francisco and the Syndicated Ken Hamblin radio show. Tracy has also recently appeared on MSNBC and Fox News and most notably on Geraldo Rivera Live. Scott Lewis is listed on the G. Gordon Liddy website as one of three regular guests; he is heard at least weekly. APSA Board members Marc Feigenblatt, Bob Lambert, and Joe Gennaro were engaged by various local media too many times to log. The point here is not bragging about microphone time; it is that APSA is keeping this issue alive with the media and therefore with the public and lawmakers. This is crucial to sustaining our momentum, and is another example of cost- and time-efficient advocacy.

MORE ATTACKS IMMINENT? Suspected terrorists now riding in our aircraft cabins.

APSA has learned that the Federal Air Marshal (FAM) organization has begun noting a number of unusual events occurring in airline cabins. All these events are being perpetrated by individuals who fit the description of the 9/11 terrorists (Attention Norm Mineta: these are not grandmothers from Syracuse or 4-year-old kids on their way home from Orlando), and we are told that a pattern is emerging. The events themselves range from individuals explicitly acting suspiciously, to running toward the cockpit door, stopping just short. In some instances, a well-dressed individual entered the 1st class lavatory, then emerged dressed in combat fatigues. The latest word is that there have even been attempts to open the cockpit door. Air Marshals believe these incidents are intended to elicit a reaction from them so that they can be identified. Why? No one knows for certain of course, but the supposition is that the perpetrators are trying to determine the probability of encounter ing FAMs-in preparation for more hijackings. Dovetailing well with this is, remember, the TSA's clear warning to APSA some months ago: "The clock is ticking.we are on borrowed time for more 9/11-style terrorist hijackings." We think this is huge news, and remain outraged that President Bush, Norm Mineta, John Magaw, the ATA, many airlines, and opposing members of Congress are STILL not serious about air security.

U.S. intelligence personnel have in their possession an al Qaeda training video that was obtained in Afghanistan. APSA hopes to get a de-classified copy. For now, we have a verbal description of it, and in the words of our intelligence professionals who have seen it, the content is shocking-even to them. Abject, utter, vicious cruelty best describes the practice killing seen in it. The settings are Western, such as golf courses. The killers are seen practicing killing unarmed civilians in their homes; or on rooftops then throwing the bodies off. But it's not just the killings; it's how they were performed. For instance, victims are screaming, "Please don't kill me!" in English so as to desensitize the killers to hearing people beg for their lives in English-guess who they are training to kill. Not surprisingly, all scenarios are suicide missions with no plans for extracting the killers. Since they intend to die, there can be no deterrent - except the probability of f ailure - which is their only fear.

Contrast this with the unmitigated ignorance (or is it arrogance?) of airline managers, who are telling air crews to fight off such highly trained teams of suicidal, determined killers with items like small plastic flashlights and fire extinguishers. We wonder what the pilots, flight attendants and passengers who bravely fought to their deaths on September 11th would think of such hopeless stupidity. Do you think they would prescribe flashlights or firearms? NOTHING SHORT OF LETHAL FORCE CAN CAUSE TERRORISTS TO FAIL; THEREFORE ONLY LETHAL FORCE CAN DETER THEM.

As further proof of the sadistic mindset of our enemy, an al Qaeda leader recently said that it is their right to kill four million Americans, two million of which are specifically to be our children.

In case you're interested, "our" federal government has developed policy for giving local law enforcement ("first responders") instruction for dealing with a terrorist event: secure the area, and wait for the federal agencies to arrive. APSA does not believe local and state police officers would sit by while citizens are being systematically murdered. But we want you to note that this policy is yet another symptom of the federal mindset that only they are capable of "protecting" us. This is what we are battling, and its pervasiveness is disturbing.

Let's make this clear: for a number of reasons, APSA cannot advocate illegal job actions. However, we report that pilots' patience is stretching thin. A pilot was recently arrested for having a handgun in his suitcase (he evidently left it there after a non-flying vacation). Many pilots have told us that this is about the last straw: jailing an airline Captain for merely possessing the tool needed to do his job as specifically mandated by the FAA and his airline (ensuring the security of his flight) is reason enough for a national S.O.S.-Suspension of Service in airline parlance. Such an event should surprise no one.

One frustration: we Captains are regularly greeted with single, armed law enforcement officers (LEOs) of every stripe-postal inspectors, Department of Agriculture inspectors, Department of Education inspectors, etc. and yet we, who are in by far the safest place on the airplane (the locked cockpit) for keeping firearms, are denied them. In the pre-9/11 past, we welcomed such individuals. But now we know that should a team of trained terrorists target an airplane with a lone, armed LEO aboard we will likely be killed by that person's gun right after he is. Logic (a quality absent from the DOT) dictates that anytime there are firearms aboard an airliner, some of them had damn well better be in the cockpit.

Got Brains? Bet you didn't know that Magaw's bunch of scholars actually choose armed and properly ID'd law enforcement officers for additional screening, right along side attractive flight attendants to be groped, and Congressional Medal of Honor recipients. That's right, law enforcement officers who are carrying a gun are still strip-searched and have their nail scissors stolen from them just like pilots. In one instance, two LEOs were told to place their pistols through the screening x-ray machine for.well, we can't figure it out, either. No kidding. With apologies to Dave Barry, we swear we are not making this up. Magaw's TSA is determined to prove the old saw that the difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits. Does everyone understand why we aircrews are SCREAMING for SOMEONE to take security seriously? Can you imagine how hard al Qaida terrorists are laughing at our boundless idiocy?

More irrationality: Airline company manuals now instruct the most absurd actions as response to terrorist hijackings-if we listed some of them here we would risk losing credibility. "Instructions" for hand-to-hand combat against a team of trained and likely armed terrorists clearly indicate few are taking this seriously or giving it any real thought; nor have the writers ever been in as much as a grade school playground scuffle. Yet that doesn't stop them from feeling qualified to offer Close Quarters Battle (CQB) advice (APSA Directors include two black belts experienced with firearms and other types of lethal weapons.) One major airline tells its pilots to use the cockpit crash ax to fight back-then warns that the FAA demands the ax be "properly stowed" (where it is out of arm's reach of the pilots, but available to anyone breaking through the door) while in flight. This same airline is telling its crews to use all force, including lethal force, to defend the cockpit. Yet this airline ADAMANTLY opposes arming its crews with lethal force so we wonder what sort of "lethal force" its pilots are expected to muster. So do its pilots, one of whom is an APSA Director who asked about these contradicting instructions-and the airline FAILED TO ANSWER. Pilots deal with many other daily security farces. It's a good thing we take our jobs more seriously than our managers or Mineta or Magaw.

The absurdity-not to mention risk-of our current dilemma screams for the obvious solution. Warning: this simmering conflict cannot be indefinitely avoided. At some point, pilots will have "had enough" and will begin taking action to solve the security problem that no one else is taking seriously.

Our pressing need is continued funding. We plan to host at least one and possibly two meticulously-timed press conferences at the National Press Club during the Senate debate. These will be crucial to our success and will be BIG events with impressive speakers, and this costs money. Funding permitting, we would also like to run some carefully targeted print ads. We have a vice-like grip on your pennies (we are pilots, after all) and spend ONLY when needed and where we get the most bang for your buck. Paid lobbyists get 6-figure salaries; APSA has achieved success that is continuously heralded on the Hill as impressive and first class, on a layover budget. We have been compared to the best lobbyists in the business, and we have been called "one of the most professional" advocacy organizations. You simply cannot get more results per dollar than with APSA-or results, period, as vividly demonstrated this week. Remember two things: One, because we are involved in politica l advocacy your donations are not tax-deductible, but Two, every dang penny you send us is spent on our issue. We are ALL volunteers; we do not even bill APSA for incidental expenses-not to mention hundreds of hours invested by each of us. Nowhere else can your donation dollar go further. For your convenience, you may now donate and help secure American skies merely by visiting our Website, www.secure-skies.org. Of course, you can still also send donations to our mailing address on our letterhead. Please, don't allow us-and you-to fall short just as we round third base.

1. Call both your Senators. Tell them to support arming airline pilots. For now, that is bill S.2554. The Capitol Switchboard is 202/224-3121. Just tell them your state of residence and they will connect you. You don't even need to know their names before you call.
2. Call Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle at 202/224-2321 and Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott 202/224-6253. Tell them to "allow the FULL SENATE to consider the arming pilots issue." That sounds vague, but we needn't be more specific just yet.
3. Again, please visit our Website and make a non-tax deductible donation to your security.

Thanks to all of you again from Captains Tracy Price (Chairman); Marc Feigenblatt (Vice Chairman); Bob Lambert (Webmaster and Membership); Joe Gennaro (Government Affairs) and Scott Lewis (Government Affairs). Each of us is personally grateful for your relentless support, encouragement, and faith.

"APSA has pointed out repeatedly that although pilots can multitask well, we have a difficult time doing anything when we are DEAD."

I did a search.. Hope it wasn't posted earlier.. It took so long to format with the HTML it could have gotten posted three or four times in the meantime.

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