http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1066671/posts "KEEPING PILOTS UNARMED"
FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | January 28, 2004 | By Steven Bernstein
Posted on 01/28/2004 2:18:52 AM PST by Main Street
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "On November 19, 2002, the Homeland Security Act, H.R. 5005, was enacted into law, authorizing the training and certification of commercial airline pilots in the use of firearms, to protect the cockpit against hijackers.
The Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) training program, administered by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), graduated the first weekly class of 48 volunteer pilots in April 2003. However, the second weekly class of 48 didn't graduate until July 2003, and as of January 2004, more than two years after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, only "500 to 800" out of more than 100,000 commercial airline pilots, who fly 11 million flights per year, have been firearms certified.(1)
As mandated by Congress, the goal of the FFDO program is to quickly train and certify large numbers of pilots in the use of firearms, to provide a credible deterrent to hijackers bent on taking over an airliner. However, even if the TSA doubles the number of weekly graduates, less than 1% of commercial airline flights will be FFDO protected by October, 2004.(2) What are the reasons that so few pilots have been firearms-trained?"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/625056/posts?page=449#449 "Texas plant guard sticks to story"
WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Wednesday, January 28, 2004
Posted on 01/28/2004 3:40:08 AM EST by JohnHuang2
"HOMELAND INSECURITY
Texas plant guard
sticks to story
Man shot near port facility
says FBI doesn't believe him"
Posted: January 28, 2004
1:00 a.m. Eastern