Replies

"Before 9/11, Senator Daschle pushed through the sleazy deal in the backrooms of Capitol Hill that forced the FAA to buy defective baggage scanners from one of Linda’s other clients, L-3 International (from which Linda’s firm raked in $440,000 in the ’97–’01 period). Under a provision Linda’s husband had slipped into the 2000 budget for the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), the FAA was required to buy one of L-3’s scanners for every one it purchased from the company’s competitors. The L-3 scanners were found to be substandard by DOT’s inspector general; FAA tests of the scanners showed high failure rates; and most have not yet been installed because of their defects (the one at the Dallas–Fort Worth airport — another of Linda’s clients — leaked radiation), which is a major reason DOT says it won’t be able to screen all luggage for explosives for years to come."

This "deal" has ALWAYS MADE MY BLOOD BOIL!!! GRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr -- I scream every time I'm reminded of it. What trash these people are .. and the people in the positions to expose and censure them who DON'T. I really HATE politics.

* Linda Daschle’s client, American Airlines, has lobbied for years to water down safety and security regulations that might have helped foil the World Trade Center attacks. Further, with the support of both Tom and Linda Daschle, the company received a whopping $583 million taxpayer bailout in the wake of September 11.

* As reported on CBS 60 Minutes, Tom Daschle was charged with inappropriately intervening to reduce safety inspections of an air-charter company owned by a family friend after one of the planes crashed in 1994, killing four. While at the FAA, Linda Daschle acted to exempt the friend’s airline from intensified safety inspections.

* Linda Daschle’s client, Boeing, is attempting to strike a sweetheart deal to lease 100 aircraft to the U.S. military. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the lease plan will cost taxpayers $37 billion, while outright buying the planes would only cost $25 billion. Tom Daschle will be responsible for scheduling a vote on the bill.

* The FAA is forced to buy baggage scanners from one of Linda Daschle’s clients, L-3 International, according to the 2000 transportation budget, despite the fact that the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General from the Transportation Department found the equipment to be substandard, some even leaking radiation. The inspector general told Congress that the FAA’s requirement to buy L-3’s machines is one reason airports will not be able to meet the new mandate to screen all luggage for bombs for many years, placing Americans seriously at further risk.

* The air transport industry donated more than $100,000 to Daschle’s campaign in the last election cycle. Linda Daschle’s client, Northwest Airlines, is the second largest contributor to the Senator¹s campaign in 1998.

* Linda Daschle was recently cited in an FAA report for failing to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy she announced in 1996 while Deputy Director of the FAA against violent airline passengers a pledge that some say could have prevented the 9/11 terrorist hijackings. "Watching Tom Daschle rail against President Bush for corporate ties is a lot like watching a Bill Clinton speech on sexual harassment," said JW Chairman Larry Klayman. "He has no credibility on this issue."

http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/newsletter/2002/0902a.shtml