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The Gore Airline Commission
In July of 1996, in the wake of the crash of TWA flight 800, President Bill Clinton created the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security by executive order 13015 to convene on August 22, 1996. He gave the commission 45 days to, “study matters involving aviation safety and security, including air traffic control and to develop a strategy to improve aviation safety and security, both domestically and internationally,” then present their conclusions. He named Vice President Al Gore to head the commission. By special invitation of the President, Victoria Cummock was named to the commission. Ms. Cummock lost her husband in the explosion of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, some eight years prior. According to Newsday, Ms. Cummock held the reputation at the time of being “the airlines’ most tenacious foe.”
Five years prior to September 11, 2001, Gore held a press conference to announce the commission’s preliminary report that promised, “to take the strongest measures possible to reduce the risk of terrorism and sabotage to airline passengers and crews.” Gore further stated that their upcoming proposed measures will, “be put into place quickly and effectively and will help ensure that airline travel remains as safe as possible for all travelers.” A solid and factual preliminary report backed up Gore’s comments.
Ten days later, just prior to the 1996 election, Gore penned a letter to airline lobbyist Carol Hallett, promising that the commission's findings would not cause the airlines any loss of revenue. The very next day the Democratic National Committee received a check in the amount of $40,000 from TWA. Over the next two weeks Northwest, United and American Airlines donated $55,000 more.
In the next two months the Democratic National Committee pocketed over $250,000 from American Airlines. United Airlines threw in an additional $100,000. Northwest Airlines added $53,000. That’s a grand total of over half a million dollars. According to the Washington Times, Whitehouse Spokesman, Ginny Terzano offered no denial when asked whether Al Gore solicited these airline donations personally.
Contributory advice and suggestions were being sought and incorporated into the draft(s) of the report by all sides of the aisle and divisions of government including intelligence agencies, transportation agencies and military personnel. The draft final form was presented to the 21 participating commissioners in January of 1997. According to the Washington Times, a significant number of security measures were removed from the proposed final draft of the report.
Victoria Cummock and CIA Director John Deutch were resolute in their opposition to the “softball” report. Gore was given no choice but to pull back the report. Reinstalled were sensible new procedures that would cost the airlines millions of dollars.
• Conduct airport vulnerability assessments and develop action plans
• Require criminal background checks and FBI fingerprint checks for all screeners, and all airport and airline employees with access to secure areas
• Deploy existing technology
• Significantly expand the use of bomb-sniffing dogs
• Complement technology with automated passenger profiling
• Certify screening companies and improve screener performance
• Aggressively test existing security systems
• Use the Customs Service to enhance security
• Give properly cleared airline and airport security personnel access to the classified information they need to know
• Begin implementation of full bag-passenger match
• Providing more compassionate and effective assistance to families of victims
• Improve passenger manifests
• Significantly increase the number of FBI agents assigned to counter-terrorism investigations, to improve intelligence and crisis response
• Provide anti-terrorism assistance in the form of airport security training to countries where there are airports served by airlines flying to the US
The security measures were in the final recommendation report. However, the implementation timetable was nowhere to be found.
In February of 1997, Victoria Cummock called the report “toothless.” She informed Gore that unless specific implementation dates were added in the report she would file a dissent, because the airline industry would not have to comply unless such measures were mandated.
On February 12, 1997, an open meeting was held on the commission’s final report. Gore made a point to inform Ms. Cummock that he would leave room for her dissent to the final report. NBC Dateline filmed Mr. Gore presenting the final report to President Clinton minutes later and pronouncing that the report had unanimous consent. But it didn’t.
Victoria Cummock filed suit claiming that Gore pressured her to abandon her call for counter-terrorist measures, the right to see commission files of which she was denied, and the right to file her 42-page dissent. It was her ambition to see the commission’s findings presented accurately within the final report.
Gore tried to paint Ms. Cummock, who had lost her husband in a terrorist act, as a disgruntled commissioner. In the long, drawn out and impeded discovery process, a memo was discovered from a CIA staffer who specialized in psychological profiling. According to The American Spectator, the memo stated that Cummock could be, "kept in line if she believes progress could be made" but "could become a major problem."
The Gore Commission’s final report was nothing more than playing politics for campaign contributions while intentionally ignoring obvious safety and security voids in an industry that had been a target of terrorists for over thirty years.
In mid-1999, Ms. Cummock won her case in the D.C. Court of Appeals.
Note: Kristinn added this one line to the report...
After the terrorist attacks of September 11, most if not all of the commission's recommendations were finally implemented.
Again, any typos are mine.
Now, I'm going to be late if I type any more. I really gotta go right now.
Cheers all!
But on his way out he saw Michael Isikoff and gave him a copy of the Gore Commission documents.
I'm sure Spikey will make good use of them.
Now Towmmy Dashle AND his wife are deeply saddened.
I have been SO aggravated that this information has been seemingly ignored in all the debates about why 9/11 happened. This is all I talk about with anyone when the subject comes up.
It all comes down to this: terrorists, like any other criminals, seek the least risky methods and places to commit their crimes, with the the highest probability of success. E.g., lock your car and house, and the burglars will probably stay away because they will simply go find a car or house that is unlocked. Well, our airports and airplanes were essentially unlocked doors on 9/11. It's very hard to catch a criminal before he commits a crime; but it is easy to lock the door or otherwise make it harder for him to commit the crime.
The Al Qaeda planners knew, from Pan Am 103 to TWA 800 to EgyptAir 990, and later through "casing" flights taken by the 9/11 hijackers themselves (as described by James Woods who saw them on Flight 11 two weeks before 9/11) , that their plans to hijack several planes and fly them into important buildings had a high likelihood of succeeding. So, instead of pointing fingers at the people who didn't catch the terrorists - some of whom were here on legal visas and had no criminal or terrorist background or connection - shouldn't we be asking WHY WERE THE DOORS UNLOCKED????