US Airlines Fought FAA Security Improvements

[SaturnV]

A scathing indictment of how US airlines fought a series of proposed security improvements at US airports is detailed in today's Boston Globe. An interesting factoid in the article is that 9 of every 10 security screeners at IAD are foreign nationals residing in the US under green cards. The Globe (main page) also has a security camera picture of two of the terrorists passing through the security checkpoint at PWM.

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/263/nation/Airlines_fought_security_changes+.shtml

[aristotle]

I read that article with interest. Security has been lax as not to inconvience the travelling public and in particular business travellers as well as to keep airline costs down. The Globe has done a commendable job with this issue as well as pointing out that Massport basically serves as a dumping ground for political cronies, particularly of the Weld administration.

[Flap 5]

Well the travelling public have been severely inconvenienced now haven't they?

[Huck]

Those with a copy of "Flying the Line" can look up the chapter dealing with the hijacking legislation enacted in the early seventies. It was fervently opposed by the ATA (the airline lobby) and ALPA had a 3 day nationwide strike to pressure Washington to pass it.

[SKYDRIFTER]

Another former FAA security agent, Steve Elson, described very much the same thing worse - in some arenas. His account would scare anyone to death.

The problem is that the FAA not only taxes airline tickets as though they actually intend to do something about airport security or safety, but the same tax money is used for - ????

Tracing what little ticket-tax money is actually spent, and on what, is a topic in itself.

The U.S. Congress changed the law relieving the FAA of it's responsiblity for safety, Clinton did his trick with Presidential Executive Order 12866 & the rest is a tragic history.

When the GAO report on nearly zero legitimate airport security, the FAA had the position of saying, "So what, you changed the law." Thus we now face 6,500 innocent lives being wasted for airline profits.

Now, Congress passes the cash relief package which doesn't pretend to look at the profits siphoned off through the related holding corporations. Add to that the relief from legal responsibility for the airlines who are - in fact - responsible.

The political contributions were the all time greatest investment ever made.

Note that the FAA is NOT being held accountable. The investigation is guaranteed to be a whitewash.