Posted on 06/21/2002 5:05:03 AM PDT by Joe Brower
Mineta, Magaw and Ridge Deserve to Be Removed
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor, GunWeek
June 10, 2002
Within hours of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon across the Potomac from Washington, DC, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) was the first voice heard calling for Congress to pass legislation allowing airline pilots who volunteered and were trained to carry guns in the cockpit as a last line of defense in similar future hijackings.
Congress acted and passed such enabling legislation just a few months after the attacks, but the craven, professional bureaucrats in Washington have decided to ignore the will of Congress, the will of a majority airline pilots and the will of almost 70% of the American people.
On May 21, 2002, John Magaw, director of the Transportation Security Administration, told a congressional committee, with his immediate superior, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta at his side, that the federal government will not allow commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in the cockpit.
Airline Pressure
An airline pilots’ group says it was pressure from the airlines’ political lobbying group—not fear of potential mishaps—that led the government to forbid commercial airline pilots from carrying guns.
The Airline Pilots’ Security Alliance (APSA) accused the Air Transport Association (ATA) of influencing the government’s decision.
“The ATA’s problem is not liability or distraction or loss of cabin pressure or any other safety concern. In fact, all of the above problems are red herrings,” APSA wrote in a May 24 press release. “No, the reality is that the airlines are willing to trade safety for victory in the power struggle they have initiated with their own pilots.”
In reporting the Transportation Department’s decision, the general press placed the credit or the blame—depending upon your point of view—on the Bush Administration. Thus it would appear that the three career politicians and bureaucrats—Magaw, Mineta and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge—responsible for making such a craven decision, have not only caved in to the timid voices of political correctness and the airline company lawyers, but have dragged President George W. Bush into political jeopardy.
With people like Magaw, Mineta and Ridge on the Republican White House team, GOP leaders don’t have to worry about attacks from Democrat leaders like Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-SD) and House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO).
But politics aside, the decision to deny airline pilots, their passengers, and the millions of Americans living and working in future terrorist targets this important means of defensive response sullies the memories of the heroes who died on Flight 93, preventing with bare hands the fourth hijacked plane from reaching its target in Washington, DC, alternately believed to be the White House or the Capitol.
It is not surprising that almost immediately, Capt. Duane Woerth, president of the 62,000-member Air Line Pilots Association, called on Congress to pass legislation overruling Magaw, Mineta and Ridge and forcing the government to create a program to train volunteer pilots, who would then fly armed and provide a last measure of security for their aircraft.
As explained along with other aspects of this issue in Senior Editor Dave Workman’s story on Pages 1 and 6 of this issue, the necessary legislation is already in the hopper, the Young-Mica bill (HR-4635) in the House and the bi-partisan S-2554 in the Senate.
Among those castigating the Magaw-Mineta-Ridge decision was Jim Fotis, executive director of the Law Enforcement Alliance of America (LEAA). Fotis said: “Magaw himself has conceded in Senate testimony that armed pilots may have made a difference on Sept. 11, but that things are different today. Magaw is right, today we know the threat to the cockpit is real and there is no excuse to keep our pilots defenseless in such a dire emergency.”
Magaw claimed that a pilot’s job is to fly the plane, that new steel doors protect the cockpit from terrorist assault and that there are well-trained sky marshals available to deal with future threats. To believe what Magaw said, one would think that there is no more terrorist threat.
But that’s hogwash. Not all the cockpit barriers are 100% foolproof, even after, as Magaw claimed, toilet facilities are built into the cockpit. There are not enough sky marshals for every flight, and some reports, saying the marshals are not as well trained as the government claims, have been buried.
Warnings Ignored
The public is not getting real facts, and the Transportation Dept. decision-makers seem to be of the same bureaucratic stripe as those at the FBI who buried early agent reports from the Bureau’s Phoenix and Minneapolis offices that warned of potential terrorists enrolled in flight training schools.
While I believe Congress should act as soon as it returns to Washington (in early June) to pass HR-4635 and/or S-2554, I think it needs to act even more decisively.
If President Bush doesn’t remove Magaw, Mineta and Ridge from their respective offices, Congress should move to force their removal. It is people of their character who failed America and its citizens before Sept. 11. It is people of their character who are failing us now.
There are some government officials who warn of impending future devastating terrorist attacks on the US. And there are some of those officials claiming that “we can’t stop every attack.”
But that’s not good enough. We need government officials who are willing to try, not just warm offices and make “feel-good” pronouncements.
What is now obvious is that the politicos are determined to disarm Americans eventually. Even President Wuzzbot, and he's a Pilot!..........FRegards
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