Can enough be written about the dangerous distractions of personal electronic devices? Not when the latest news is of text messaging by an airline pilot taxiing for takeoff.

When the National Transportation Safety Board meets on Tuesday to determine what caused the fatal crash of Continental Connection flight 3407 last February, it will hear how the first officer on the flight sent two text messages from the cockpit.



The text messages have not previously been reported but they are described in a document that will be part of Tuesday's public hearing. One text was sent prior to the airplane being given taxi clearance, the second was sent five minutes before takeoff. This is problematic on two levels. First, Federal Aviation Administration regulations prohibit any activity in the cockpit not related to the flight after the plane has pushed back from the gate until it has ascended to 10,000 feet. An exception to the rule, commercial airline pilots say, is when the airplane is holding on a taxiway with parking brakes engaged. It is not clear whether that was the case when the text was sent by Ms. Shaw, nor is it known who she was texting. More relevant to the texting is that five minutes before takeoff, all cell phones belonging to pilots and passengers alike, are supposed to be turned off.

The crash of flight 3407, being operated for Continental by Colgan Air, killed all 49 people aboard the airplane and one person on the ground, when it crashed short of the runway in Buffalo on February 12, 2009.

Much of the discussion of what caused the disaster revolves around Captain Marvin Renslow's handling of the airplane as it approached Buffalo. But sure to be on the agenda is Ms. Shaw's text messaging and other preflight behavior that demonstrates a lax attitude on the flight deck.
Flight 3407 received a clearance to taxi at Newark Liberty Airport at 8:16 p.m. but did not take off until an hour later. During that period, Mr. Renslow and Ms. Shaw spent the entire time talking, only sixteen minutes of which involved the flight. This despite the fact that Newark airport was jam packed and weather along their route would be challenging.

Instead, for forty five minutes Captain Renslow offered financial and career advice to the younger and less experienced Ms. Shaw, and provided a job by job account of his own aviation career.

For her part, Ms. Shaw sniffed through an apparent head cold wondering why she came to work and complaining about her employer. She never mentions the text message to the captain and the report does not transcribe or otherwise give details about it.

The public hearing into the crash is a "watershed" event according to John Cox, a former airline pilot, now a private air safety consultant, because of the extraordinary number of safety issues brought to light by the disaster. These include, handling of aircraft in stall conditions, pilot hiring and training, fee for lift arrangements that enable large airlines like Continental, Delta and United to make contracts with regional airlines that some say are less rigorously managed then they ought to be.

But the news that Ms. Shaw was texting, and that both pilots were, for long periods of time, not attentive to the serious task ahead of them is also going to resonate with members of the safety board. For years now NTSB member Robert Sumwalt and Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, have sought to bring attention to repeated instances of non sterile cockpit. It was cited as a factor in the crash of Comair flight 5191, when pilots inadvertently took off on the wrong runway in Lexington, Kentucky in 2006. Prior to takeoff the two men had been involved in extraneous conversations, that while not about the flight itself, did indicate concern about the state of regional airlines. Forty nine people died in that accident.

As recently as two weeks ago, the NTSB determined that a text-messaging train engineer was responsible for the collision of two trains in Chatsworth, California in September 2008. Twenty five people died when the commuter train hit a Union Pacific freight train.

So while the chatty atmosphere in the Colgan Air cockpit will be a relevant part of the public hearing, the fact that an hour separates the Newark taxiway from what went wrong on approach to Buffalo certainly suggests that it won't be identified a contributing factor to the crash itself.

But between the California rail crash and an episode last October in which pilots with Northwest Airlines over flew their destination in Minneapolis because they were absorbed by work on their laptops, the lesson is clear. Operator distraction has a dramatic and corrosive effect on transportation safety. The next question of course, is what to do about it?

By Barry O'Regan
Examiner | January 24, 2010

Canada’s own spy who came in from the cold has been revealed 30 years later. Ken Taylor, once Canada’s Ambassador in Iran in 1979 has been revealed to be a CIA Station chief.

Ken Taylor under the direction of then Prime Minister Joe Clark was to work with the Central Intelligence Agency under the United States Jimmy Carter administration. The plan to invade Iran and restore western influence and democracy to Iran failed miserably once Iran’s Islamic Student revolutionaries and supporters of Khomeini gained control of the country.

Previous to the future Islamic Republic taking control, Iran, an oil rich country was once a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary style of government, woman had the power to vote in elections, complete with a relaxed atmosphere allowing western style dress for both men and women. Iranians for the most part enjoyed a western style democracy and education, including one of the lowest illiteracy rates amongst its populace.

All that changed in 1979. Iran was undergoing turbulent times during Mohammed Reza Shah’s reign. Many Iranian citizens took exception of the widespread western influence by the United States, western dress and a decadence many felt was contrary to Islamic teachings.

During World War II, Iran’s friendly relations with Germany, resulted in Western allies ousting the elder Reza shah of Iran from the throne and placing his son Mohammed Reza Shah as his successor, with promises of a new reign, western powers were accepting of this new monarch.

Under the rule of the new Reza shah, political infighting, riots, food shortages and accusations of mass torture by the state secret police had many Iranians living in fear. In the mid 70’s the Shah crowned himself King of Kings as Emperor of Iran, certainly many saw this as a man with a bigger ego than god, thus his eventual downfall.

Islamic cleric Ayatollah Khomeini, a thorn in the side of the Shah was exiled in France. The Ayatollah’s followers in Iran yearned for the old days of strict Islamic rule and to oust all form of Western influence.

In 1979, the Shah of Iran was overthrown and the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini quickly took power, reverting Iranian society to a strict Islamic code of conduct, which stands to this day. The Shah of Iran and his family fled to Europe.

Western Embassies in Iran were immediately targeted by the new Islamic revolutionaries, with many embassy staff fearing for their lives soon fled to their home countries. The Canadian and Swedish embassy in downtown Iran seemed safe for the ime being, perhaps because Canada and Sweden has never been seen as a threat to any country and always had a good reputation amongst all countries worldwide.

The United States on the other hand suffered the slings and arrows of Iran’s Islamic revolutionaries bent on removing by hook or by crook all things American, including taking U.S. citizens hostage as the Iranian guard overthrew the U.S. Embassy in Iran. The lucky few who escaped looked to Canada’s Ambassador Ken Taylor. Ken Taylor may have feared that anymore U.S. Embassy staff falling into Iranian hands may result in discovering Canada’s involvement with the U.S.A.

Ken Taylor took in the six U.S. Embassy staff who excaped capture, under the guise as Canadian tourists. Ken Taylor with the help of the U.S.A. gave the Americans Canadian passports, a crash course in lessons on Canadiana and when it was safe to do so brought them through Iranian security checkpoints and home safely under the guise as Canadian citizens.

The U.S. hostages still in Iranian hands were eventually released in January 1981....

Who would have thought Canada would have a spymaster working for the U.S.A? Certainly not Iran, Canadians nor Americans. Surprisingly, Canada had a wolf in sheep’s clothing called Ken Taylor, de facto CIA station chief.

Bespectacled Ken Taylor more Milquetoast than spy looks nothing like the James Bond type western citizens are fed in countless spy movies and novels, certainly Ken Taylor would be difficult to point out in a crowd....

http://www.examiner.com/x-29795-Vancouver-Social-Policy-Examiner~y2010m1d24-Canadas-homegrown-hero-Ken-Taylor-revealed-as-a-CIA-spy-chief-in-Iran

" ... 'We know from experience that torture does not produce reliable intelligence, and acting on information derived through such abuse is dangerous, to our troops, and to our nation. ... Misinformation abounds, as some have taken to the airwaves to tell us that we must abandon the rules of law, the very principles and values we have cherished since the founding of our nation, the values that [make] America America' ... "

Tejinder Singh - AHN Correspondent
AllHeadlineNews | January 22, 2010

Washington, DC, United States (AHN) - Today a year ago, new incoming U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to "provide the process whereby Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now."

Today, in a letter to President Obama, a group of retired U.S. generals say they are "deeply concerned by the hysteria permeating the public debate" around closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and filing cases against terrorism suspects in civilian court.

"Opponents of your plan to close Guantanamo are using the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 as an excuse to renew their calls to keep the Guantanamo prison facility open and to oppose bringing terrorist suspects to justice in federal courts," reads a letter from 33 retired flag and general officers.

"We know from experience that torture does not produce reliable intelligence, and acting on information derived through such abuse is dangerous, to our troops, and to our nation."

Four of these retired generals who signed the letter to Obama and who are members of the group of retired Generals and Admirals concerned about prisoner treatment and interrogation policies, spoke to journalists criticizing those who wanted to keep detainees as enemy combatants.

With the lengthening shadows of Christmas Day bombing in the background, Gen. David M. Maddox, Lieut. Gen. Harry E. Soyster, Major Gen. William L. Nash, and Brigadier Gen. James P. Cullen, discussed Guantanamo and Handling of Terrorist Suspects addressed a National Press Club Newsmakers press conference on Thursday, Jan. 21 in Washington, DC.

"We need to close Guantanamo Prison Facility and bring terrorists to justice. Doing so will make America more secure on the battlefield, in the skies, and on our soil," said Maddox, who said that misinformation has dominated the public debate over the issues.

"Misinformation abounds, as some have taken to the airwaves to tell us that we must abandon the rules of law, the very principles and values we have cherished since the founding of our nation, the values that makes America America," Maddox said.

Maddox disclosed that the ongoing process has already made way clear for all but 70 inmates of Guantanamo saying, "not that they're all released yet, but actions determine they will be, down to about 70."

Soyster, on his part warned against "the hysteria that is permeating in the public debate around how the United States should deal with terrorism suspects is not only unwarranted, it is dangerous. It's dangerous to us."

"Gripped by fear, some are calling for the return to the use of torture techniques against terrorism suspects in hopes of garnering useful intelligence," he said.

Soyster, an intelligence pundit asked, "If the father of the Christmas day bomber believed that America would torture his son, would he have turned him in?" adding, "We need more fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins and aunts to trust in American justice and come forward with the tips, the intelligence that we need to thwart those who seek to do us harm."

The generals cautioned that the Guantanamo prison facility provides the support for al-Qaeda in recruiting, in attracting and then using the gullible young men for terrorist activities against the U.S.

Nash echoed the views of others calling for abolition of torture with, "I would just say to you that there's a direct relationship between how we behave and how people react to our behavior, especially in light of our values."

Cullen, a lawyer by profession and hailing from New York, argued, "Bringing somebody back to the scene of the crime has been the traditional thing we do."

Citing that after the World War II, "the high-ranking Nazis" were brought "to trial at Nierenberg, because Nierenberg was so associated with the rise of the terrorists of that era, the Nazi party," Cullen said, "I think the right decision was made in bringing these guys up to New York for trial once they're ready to proceed."

Members of the group had met with eight of the presidential candidates during the 2008 campaign, and when President Obama signed the Executive Orders ending torture and ordering the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison facility in the second full day of his presidency, 16 of the group's retired Generals and Admirals stood with him in the Oval Office.

Today, the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains open with about 200 inmates.

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7017602970#ixzz0dT9r7JYQ

By: Pravda | Jan 14, 2010

The western media is currently full of articles on Google's 'threat to quit China' over internet censorship issues, and the company's 'suspicion' that the Chinese government was behind attempts to 'break-in' to several Google email accounts used by 'Chinese dissidents'.

However, the media has almost completely failed to report that Google's surface concern over 'human rights' in China is belied by its their deep involvement with some of the worst human rights abuses on the planet:

Google is, in fact, is a key participant in U.S. military and CIA intelligence operations involving torture; subversion of foreign governments; illegal wars of aggression; and military occupations of countries which have never attacked the U.S. and which have cost hundreds of thousands of lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and elsewhere.

To begin with, Google is the supplier of the core search technology for 'Intellipedia, a highly-secured online system where 37,000 U.S. spies and related personnel share information and collaborate on their devious errands.

Agencies such as the so-called 'National Security Agency' have also purchased servers using Google-supplied search technology which processes information gathered by U.S. spies operating all over the planet.

In addition, Google is linked to the U.S. spy and military systems through its Google Earth software venture. The technology behind this software was originally developed by Keyhole Inc., a company funded by Q-Tel http://www.iqt.org/ , a venture capital firm which is in turn openly funded and operated on behalf of the CIA.

Google acquired Keyhole Inc. in 2004. The same base technology is currently employed by U.S. military and intelligence systems in their quest, in their own words, for "full-spectrum dominance" of the planet.

Moreover, Googles' connection with the CIA and its venture capital firm extends to sharing at least one key member of personnel. In 2004, the Director of Technology Assessment at In-Q-Tel, Rob Painter, moved from his old job directly serving the CIA to become 'Senior Federal Manager' at Google.

As Robert Steele, a former CIA case officer has put it: Google is "in bed with" the CIA.

Googles Friends spy on millions of Internet Users

Given Google's supposed concern with 'break-in's to several of its email accounts, it's worth noting that Google's friends at In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA, are now investing in Visible Technologies, a software firm specialized in 'monitoring social media'.

The 'Visible' technology can automatically examine more than a million discussions and posts on blogs, online forums, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon, and so forth each day. The technology also 'scores' each online item, assigning it a positive, negative or mixed or neutral status, based on parameters and terms set by the technology operators. The information, thus boiled down, can then be more effectively scanned and read by human operators.

The CIA venture capitalists at In-Q-Tel say they will use the technology to monitor social media operating in other countries and give U.S. spies “early-warning detection on how issues are playing internationally,” according to spokesperson Donald Tighe. There is every possibility that the technology can also be used by the U.S. intelligence operatives to spy on domestic social movements and individuals inside the U.S.

Finally, there is a curious absence from the statements emanating from Google - and from U.S. media reports - of any substantive evidence linking the Chinese government with the alleged break-in attempts to several Google email accounts.

Words like 'sophisticated' and 'suspicion' have appeared in the media to suggest that the Chinese government is responsible for the break-ins. That may be so. But it is striking that the media has seemingly asked no questions as to what the evidence behind the 'suspicions' might be

It should be noted that the U.S. government and its intelligence agencies have a long history of rogue operations intended to discredit governments or social movements with whom they happen to disagree. To see how far this can go, one need only recall the sordid history of disinformation, lies, and deceit propagated by U.S. government and media to frighten people into supporting the Iraq war.

Whether the attacks on Google email originated from the Chinese government, or from elsewhere, one thing is clear: A company that supplies the CIA with key intelligence technology; supplies mapping software which can be used for barbarous wars of aggression and drone attacks which kill huge numbers of innocent civilians; and which in general is deeply intertwined with the CIA and the U.S. military machines, which spy on millions, the company cannot be motivated by real concern for the human rights and lives of the people in China.

By Eric Sommer
Pravda.ru

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article16486.html

Also see: Lou Dobbs' Spokesman, Knight of Malta Robert Dilenschneider

Is CNBC prepared to Invest in Dobbs and His Record of Conspiracy Theories and Inflammatory Rhetoric?
Media Matters | December 01, 2009

A December 1 New York Times blog post reported that Lou Dobbs "has held talks with the business news network CNBC in recent weeks" and that he "could conceivably host a prime time program for CNBC" or "become a commentator for the business news network." Given Dobbs' record of promoting baseless conspiracy theories and engaging in inflammatory rhetoric, Media Matters for America questions why CNBC would want to tarnish its brand -- as CNN did -- by hiring him.

From the December 1 New York Times blog post:

Lou Dobbs, who is likely to make a decision about his post-CNN career this month, has held talks with the business news network CNBC in recent weeks, two people with knowledge of the discussions say.

Mr. Dobbs, a free agent whose exit from CNN last month prompted speculation about plans for a political bid, could conceivably host a prime time program for CNBC. He could also become a commentator for the business news network.

The people who spoke about the talks requested anonymity because they were not authorized by their employers to speak about it. [The New York Times' Media Decoder, 12/1/09]

Is this the kind of brand CNBC wants to be associated with?

Dobbs repeatedly advanced false conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate.

As Media Matters extensively documented, Dobbs suggested on his July 15 CNN show that the birth certificate President Obama provided to FactCheck.org was not "the real document" and suggested on his radio show that day that it was not "the real deal." After asking if Obama should be "more forthcoming" about his birth certificate, Dobbs added: "One of our callers, by the way, pointed out that he didn't release -- he didn't release his medical records, either. Now isn't that interesting? And hasn't produced some other documents. What's the deal? What is the deal here? I'm starting to think we have a -- we have a document issue. Do you suppose he's un -- no, I won't even use the word undocumented. It wouldn't be right." On his July 21 radio show, Dobbs faulted "certain quarters of the national liberal media" for "absolutely trying to knock down the issue of President Obama's birth certificate." On his July 23 radio show, Dobbs addressed media reports on his conspiracy theories by declaring, "I do believe in a national left-wing media conspiracy in which they work in concert and attack like hell."

Dobbs used CNN to elevate wild conspiracy theories and legitimize hate groups. The notion that Obama was born outside the United States wasn't the first outrageous theory that Dobbs promoted on CNN. As Media Matters documented, Dobbs has repeatedly accused the U.S. government of secretly plotting with the governments of Mexico and Canada to merge the three countries into a "North American Union" -- a charge his own CNN colleagues labeled a "conspiracy theor[y]." Dobbs has promoted the smear that Mexican immigrants are conspiring to reclaim the Southwest for Mexico and at one point illustrated this theory by using a graphic sourced to the Council of Conservative Citizens, a hate group that "oppose[s] all efforts to mix the races of mankind." Dobbs famously aired a false report about a purported spike in leprosy cases linked to illegal immigration and repeatedly defended his show's reporting even after it had been proven wrong.

Dobbs had close ties to "hate group" FAIR. In September, Dobbs helped lead the annual "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" radio host rally organized by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) -- an organization the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a "hate group." On August 28, Media Matters president Eric Burns wrote an open letter to CNN president Jonathan Klein urging him to prohibit Dobbs from participating in the FAIR event. Media Matters also documented that Dobbs used his CNN show to report on the FAIR rally without disclosing during those reports that he was helping lead it. A year earlier, Dobbs had broadcast his CNN show from the FAIR rally. In addition, the group has given Dobbs an award for "his continued efforts in leading the immigration reform movement through both his talk radio show and his television show." In the past year, Dobbs has cited FAIR as a credible source on immigration issues at least six times and has routinely failed to disclose his close association with the group.

Dobbs smeared U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as sympathetic to "Mexico's export of drugs and illegal aliens." On March 10, Dobbs criticized Obama for delivering a speech on education to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Dobbs accused Obama of "pandering to the pro-amnesty open-borders lobby" and aired a clip of a FAIR spokesman saying, "We don't want the president to make it appear as if he's favoring one particular group in the disposition of public benefits." Dobbs also said, "Making a decision to talk about a national initiative on education from the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which is effectively an organization that is interested in the export of American capital and production to Mexico, and Mexico's export of drugs and illegal aliens to the United States. This is crazy stuff." On March 17, Dobbs said he "made a mistake," explaining, "I, of course, do not believe that the chamber supports or condones either drug or human trafficking. My apologies to the ... U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and I hope that they will forgive me for that misspeaking."

Dobbs declared, "Mexico has become our enemy." As Media Matters documented, Dobbs complained on his March 3 radio show that there are people "trying to control our political agendas" and "social agendas with political correctness, trying to control thought, and, of course, speech through political correctness." He added that while it may be "politically incorrect," it is "absolutely factually correct" that "Mexico has become our enemy."

— J.H.

http://mediamatters.org/research/200912010022

By Philip Rucker
Washington Post | January 22, 2010

David Bossie, a veteran Republican campaign operative [Swiftboater] who made his mark investigating the Clintons, thought his group could offer a conservative answer to Michael Moore's successful films. After Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" premiered in 2004, Bossie's Citizens United group released "Celsius 41.11."

And after it became clear that Bossie's longtime enemy Hillary Rodham Clinton would run for president, Citizens United released another flick: "Hillary: The Movie." Featuring a who's-who cast of right-wing commentators, the 2008 film takes viewers on a savaging journey through Clinton's scandals. The sole compliment about the then-senator comes from conservative firebrand Ann Coulter: "Looks good in a pantsuit."

But "Hillary: The Movie" never became a blockbuster. The Federal Election Commission restricted Citizens United's ability to advertise the film during the 2008 primary season, a decision that Bossie and other conservative activists saw as a threat to their freedom of speech.

"The marketplace for my movie was completely and totally shut down by the Federal Election Commission," Bossie said in an interview Thursday.

So he sued -- and thus was born Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the legal drama that resulted in Thursday's dramatic Supreme Court decision to overturn restrictions on corporate spending on behalf of or in opposition to political candidates.

Critics said Citizens United created the withering movie knowing that it would fall under the tangle of broadcast and advertising restrictions in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

"The movie was created with the idea of establishing a vehicle to chip away at the decision," said Nick Nyhart, president of Public Campaign, a group that opposed Thursday's decision. "It was part of a very clear strategy to undo McCain-Feingold." ...

Bossie and his legal team fast-tracked the case, appealing to the Supreme Court. They easily recruited one of the right's most experienced lawyers, Theodore B. Olson. He worked with the group's counsel, Michael Boos, and Floyd Abrams, a veteran First Amendment lawyer who worked on the Pentagon Papers case.

Olson, a former solicitor general, had argued before the Supreme Court countless times, including representing George W. Bush during the 2000 Florida recount. But this case was special.

"Hillary: The Movie" was dedicated to his wife, Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator who was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. She was a longtime Clinton critic, working with Bossie in the trenches on Capitol Hill through the 1990s investigations, and wrote the book "Hell to Pay: The Unfolding Story of Hillary Rodham Clinton." ...

Full story at the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/21/AR2010012103582.html?hpid=topnews

Immigration officials at the West Palm Beach airport seized a two year old Haitian child being brought into the United States for medical treatment on Saturday.

The child, Mishna Prezille was flown to Florida on a private plane operated by the missionary group, Air Mobile Ministries and was in the custody of two journalists who volunteer with the charity. She was to be put into the care of a Florida physician, but immigration officers told the group when they arrived that the child had an illegal visa, according to John Torres, a newspaper reporter with Florida Today, who was on the flight.

Marlin Moudy, the pilot who regularly works for the Florida-based charity, flew the plane into West Palm Beach International Airport. He said he examined the visa before departing Haiti. "I'm a pilot and I have to make sure these things are all valid." Mr. Moudy said the document he examined was a one year visa issued on August 16, 2009.

"She was screaming and hollering when they took her," Mr. Moudy said calling the atmosphere at the airport traumatic when federal authorities separated Mishna from her chaperone, a local television reporter Marci Gonzalez.

"They put her in a big SUV and took her away and she was crying."

Mishna was on her way to the home of Dr. Stephen Badolato, who lives two-hours drive from West Palm Beach and says he has power of attorney to provide for the medical care of the child. He volunteers medical treatment and guardianship to the Ruuska Village orphanage in Bon Repos, Haiti. Dr. Badolato said the power of attorney was with him at his home, not with the child. "It's horrible. I've been up all night working on trying to get her back," Dr. Badolato said.

An official at the Department of Homeland Security said the problem was not with the child's visa but the authorization for her guardianship. "There was no proof of guardianship. He didn't have the documentation in terms of guardianship," the official said of Dr. Badolato's authorization.

Reached in Haiti Sunday, Joe Hurston, of Air Mobile relief said Mishna had surgery in the United States last summer and was in Haiti to visit her mother before returning to the U.S. for more medical treatment. She was at the orphanage at the time of the earthquake.

"This is a 2-year old girl with club feet. We had two journalists in the plane and another American Airlines captain and they were all held in the airport for 7 hours while being interrogated," said Mr. Hurston.

In addition to Mr. Torres and Ms. Gonzalez, Tom Garcia, an airline pilot and a state political candidate was also on the airplane. Mr. Torres said the baby and Ms. Gonzalez were inseparable. "She just took to Marci. She was hanging on her the whole time."

When the plane arrived, Ms. Gonzalez and the child were taken into the airport. The men were held on the aircraft by armed officers for six hours.

U.S. Congressman Bill Posey, who started calling customs officials after Mr. Torres contacted him by phone, said he was told that authorities were concerned because there was a report of a Haitian child kidnapped. A DHS official denies there was specific kidnapping but said the department is generally concerned that children entering the country "are placed with the proper people."

"I can't tell if it was handled in an appropriate way until I get the facts," Congressman Posey said of the airport snafu. "Obviously my staff and I have all the sympathy for the little girl but at the same time we must respect the rule of law. I'm not saying there weren't bad decisions made. That's our goal to get the details."

A DHS official said if Dr. Badolato produces documents proving he has the right to custody of Mishna, he would be able to take her from the children's home in Miami where she is presently being housed.

Like so much in Haiti, the Ruuska Village orphanage is in ruins and residents are sleeping out of doors. The director of the orphanage, Barbara Walker has arranged the adoptions of several children according to Mr. Hurston, who is taking care of their transportation out of the country. Mr. Hurston says the U.S. Embassy has promised swift processing of their visas. "We have 13 visas and making arrangements to fly them out tomorrow. Before they make this flight we want to make sure this travesty does not happen again."

Photos courtesy of John Torres Florida Today

Also see: The Suppressed Fact: 100 Deaths by U.S. Torture

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS (CP)

WASHINGTON — Three Guantanamo Bay detainees whose deaths were ruled a suicide in 2006 apparently were transported from their cells hours before their deaths to a secret site on the island, according to an article in Harper's magazine.

The published account released Monday raises serious questions about whether the three detainees actually died by hanging themselves in their cells and suggests the U.S. government is covering up details of what precisely happened in the hours before the deaths.

Harper's reports that the deaths of the three detainees, or the events that led directly to their deaths, most likely occurred at a previously undisclosed facility a mile or so from the main Guantanamo Bay prison complex.

Harper's based much of its account on interviews with several prison guards who said they knew of the existence of the "black" site and that they saw three detainees removed from Camp Delta several hours before the deaths were reported and were in a white van proceeding toward the secret site.

Those who knew of the black facility referred to it as "Camp No," reported the magazine, quoting Army Sgt. Joe Hickman, one of the guards.

Anyone who asked if the black site existed would be told, "No, it doesn't," the magazine reported, quoting Hickman.

After the terror attacks on U.S. soil on Sept. 11, 2001, the CIA set up a number of so-called "black" sites around the world, where harsh interrogations of terrorism-era suspects took place. The Harper's article suggested such a site at Guantanamo Bay may have belonged to the CIA or to the U.S. military's Joint Special Operations Command.

On Monday, in response to the article, Army Col. Michael Bumgarner said in an email that "this blatant misrepresentation of the truth infuriates me."

Bumgarner said that Hickman "is only trying to be a spotlight ranger; he knows nothing about what transpired in Camp 1 or our medical facility. I do, I was there." Camp 1 is the facility where the three detainees were ordinarily held."

Bumgarner added that he would have to get clearance before he can talk to the news media, "but rest assured, I do want to talk to you very badly and set the record straight."

The three Guantanamo detainees who died the night of June 9-10, 2006 were Salah Ahmed Al-Salami, 37, of Yemen; Mani Shaman Al-Utaybi, 30, of Saudi Arabia; and Yasser Talal Al-Zahrani, 22, of Saudi Arabia.

The article says that at a 7 a.m. meeting on June 10, 2006 with 50 or so soldiers and sailors, Army Col. Michael Bumgarner said that the three men had died by swallowing rags, causing them to choke to death. Bumgarner was a commander at Guantanamo Bay.

According to the magazine, Bumgarner went on to say that the news media would be guided to report something different - that the three prisoners had committed suicide by hanging themselves in their cells.

The servicemen were to make no comments or suggestions that in any way undermined the official report, Bumgarner reminded them, according to the Harper's piece, written by Scott Horton, an attorney who has worked for years on Guantanamo Bay detainee issues.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h97BGvSdx97hHzNDkUiDzI8JsB7A

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Yemen-based wing of al Qaeda said on Monday its fighters had survived an air strike last week that Yemeni officials said killed six leaders of the militant group.

"The Yemeni government has been making many false claims ... against the Mujahideen leaders in the Arabian Peninsula," al Qaeda's Yemen-based wing, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, said in a statement on an Islamist website used by the group.

"The latest of these claims is that it killed six of them between the provinces of al-Jawf and Saada. We assure our Muslim nation that none of the Mujahideen were killed in that strike, but some have suffered mild injuries," it added. ...

Yemen ... came to the forefront of U.S.-led efforts to battle militants after al Qaeda's Yemen wing said it was behind an attempt on December 25 to bomb a U.S.-bound passenger plane. ...

Friday's strike on two cars was reported to have killed the Yemeni al Qaeda wing's military chief Qasim al-Raymi as well as Ayed al-Shabwani, accused of sheltering militants on his farm in Maarib province where their training took place. ...

The death of another militant, Anwar al-Awlaki, who Yemen reported last month might have been killed in an air strike, was never confirmed.

FULL STORY

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE60H1MP20100118

Also see: "MLK: Sex, Lies & (FBI) Idiot Types"

By Alex Constantine


The following letter to Barry F. Kowalski, former special counsel at the Criminal Section of the Civil Rights Division of the U. S. Department of Justice, was written by John Larry Ray, brother of James Earl Ray, on March 8, 1999. I acqured this document shortly after it was written, and am revealing some of its contents here for the first time.

The letter has not been edited for typographical and grammatical errors. It is transcribed here exactly as typed.


Joseph Paul Franklin, mentioned in the text, crippled Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler, for life with a bullet meant to silence the publisher's investigation of the John Kennedy assassination. Franklin has never been tried for the attempted murder of Mr. Flynt, but was convicted for an unrelated homicide.
••••••
Greetings Barry F. Kowalski:

In 1998, u.s. attorney-general Janet Reno put you in charge of conducting a limited investigation into the shooting of Rev. Martin Luther King. A few months later, I made copies of confessions of James Earl Ray, and John Larry Ray to you, and told you to make information from these confessions available to the public, such information as:

• That military policeman James Earl Ray, and the OSS/CIA agents had connections to another racial shooting in Germany.

• That James Earl Ray accepted a sum of money from mobsters, and CIA agents in Illinois, and Canada to carry out some type of assignment.

• That since 1968, all the FBI directors, all the Attorney Generals, and members of Congress has buried this connection between Ray, and the CIA.

• That all the afore-mentioned FBI directors, Attorney Generals, and Congressmen carried out the following act of terrorism against John Larry Ray because he wouldn't join up with them in this Grand Conspiracy:

1) That the feds put John Larry Ray under custody for 18 years for supposedly picking a person up on a highway, who was not found guilty of robbing a bank in St. Peters, Missouri.

2) That the feds added an additional three (3) years to this sentence, because he was tardy about submitting a sample of his handwriting to the FBI.

3) That the feds ran John Larry Ray in and out of prisons, because he would not give testimony to Congress supporting their conspiracy.

4) That the feds tried to get serial-assassing Joseph Paul Franklin to give testimony that John Larry Ray was connected to the shooting of Urban-League president Vernon Jordan.

5) That the feds tried to put the SPECIAL DANGEROUS OFFENDERS ACT on the back of John Larry Ray.

6) That the feds beat on the head of John Larry Ray so much that he had to take two brain waive tests. Once at the Incarante Word hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, and once at the St. Johns hospital in Springfield, Illinois. Its believed by some doctors that such injuries can cause Diabetes.

7) That the feds withheld Diabetic medication from John Larry Ray, wich shortened his lifespan, and made a cripple out of him for life.

9) That the feds tried to put John Larry Ray in an Illinois insane asylum, because he would not go along with their Grand Conspiracy, but a sanity jury ruled, that there was nothing wrong with the sanity of John L. Ray.

10) That the feds accused,or charged John Larry Ray of committing more than 30 felonies in justifying holding him under custody for more than 25 years.

I am still waiting for you to made the afore-mentioned information available to the public. If you do not I will have to make such information available to the public. If I do not make such information available to the public, I moght wind up in solitary confinement in some asylum in the united states, or stretched out beneath a tombstone before my time.

One reason I believe that the feds are involved in assassinations is that after each investigation, they seal up their findings for 50 years, thus, the feds
investigating assassinations in the united states, would be like Jack the Ripper investigating who was carving up ladies of the night in England.

I Remain,

John Larry Ray,
Soulard City, Missouri

January 17, 2010

(ChattahBox)—-A recent video uncovered by the blog Blue Mass Group, reveals Massachusetts Republican senatorial candidate Scott Brown to be something of a right-wing birther nut. It’s long been known that the state lawmaker has sought out and received support from fringe teapartiers and right-wing corporate front groups, such as the Club for Growth and Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks, which are funded by Wall Street to kill the health care bill and financial regulatory reform. But it’s not been known how much of the fringe right-wing conspiracy laced Kool-Aid Scott has consumed. Well, according to an interview in 2008, Brown has OD’ed on the stuff.

Brown advanced the fringe conspiracy notion that then-presidential candidate Barack Obama was illegitimate. The former nude Cosmo model apparently thought it was amusing to falsely suggest that Barack Obama was born out of wedlock to an unmarried 18-year-old mother.

Brown even gleefully chuckled when responding to the interviewer’s statement that Obama’s parents were married when he was born, “Well I don’t know about that.” “Uh huh huh,” Brown chuckled.

According to the report by Blue Mass Group, Brown was part of a panel that aired on the now-defunct CN8 cable news channel shortly after the 2008 Republican convention. During the panel discussion, Brown vigorously defended Sarah Palin as a vice presidential candidate as having “a lot of good core values.”

When the discussion turned towards Bristol Palin’s teenage pregnancy, Brown compared the situation to Obama’s mother Ann Dunham who was 18-years-old when she gave birth to Obama. Brown then odiously suggested that Obama was born out of wedlock:

“And quite frankly Barack’s mom had him when she was—18 years old?” When the interviewer noted that Obama’s parents were married, Brown replied, “Well, I don’t know about that. Uh huh huh.”

As pointed out by the Blue Mass Group, the context to Brown’s suggestion that Obama is illegitimate is important. During that time in 2008, fringe birther conspirators were promoting a campaign to discredit Obama as illegitimate to become President of the United States, claiming that he was not a natural born citizen. Right-wingers like Jerome Corsi, co-author of “Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry,” and the fevered swamps of World Net Daily pushed the lie that Obama was born out of wedlock, despite ample evidence that his parents were married when he was born in 1961.

The right-wing birthers somehow linked their crazed conspiracy theories to the notion that Obama was illegitimate. As encapsulated by Steve Benen of the Political Animal: “Brown wasn’t just attacking the future president and his parents during the interview; he was also lending credence to fringe right-wing stupidity.”

Brown has attempted to distance himself from Sarah Palin during his campaign and he has portrayed himself as a voice for ordinary citizens who are tired of the political machine. “It’s me against the machine,” says Brown. But based on his past statements, and present associations with fringe right-wing groups, if he somehow becomes elected to the U.S. Senate, Brown intends to appease the crazed right-wingers and his corporate masters; not the people of Massachusetts. The prospect is chilling.

Watch Brown gush over Sarah Palin and suggest Obama was born out of wedlock:

Steve Brown is a prominent member of the Local Station Board (LSB) of WBAI 99.5FM in New York. He is currently running for reelection and is a leader of the Alliance for Community Elections (ACE), which has endorsed 8 other board candidates.

Steve Brown is also a multi-millionaire with a history of being one of the biggest direct mail marketers in the US. According to the Seattle Times, at one point Steve Brown claimed to be responsible for four percent of all the junk mail in the country. According to the New York Times, in 1986 alone he earned $500,000 in salary and up to $13 million in dividends.

Steve Brown's Direct Mail Career

The businesses Steve Brown owned engaged in questionable practices that caused the Attorneys General of seven states, including New York, to step in.

They "investigated, filed suit or forced the company to halt various business practices." (NYT) The Times notes that "The F.T.C. in 1986 issued a consent decree under which Raffoler [one of Brown's business names], without admitting guilt, paid a $150,000 penalty and agreed not to violate mail order rules."

In 1988, "Elizabeth Bradford, an assistant attorney general, said last summer in a complaint filed in State Supreme Court, "Having shown themselves incapable of making an honest sale or a consistently timely delivery, they should not be permitted to conduct any further mail order business in the state of New York." (NYT) According to Crain's, "In January [1992], DME [Direct Marketing Enterprises, another business name of Brown's] settled a five-year-old lawsuit with the New York state attorney general. DME, while admitting no guilt, agreed to changes in advertising, complaint resolution and its refund procedures. It also paid the state $175,000 in investigation costs."

For more detailed info:

A NY Times exposé on Steve Brown's mail-order business practices
Crain's New York Business on complaints against Steve Brown's company
The Seattle Times on Steve Brown's marketing to the gullible
UPI on Steve Brown's settlement with the NY State Attorney General
Crain's on a canceled IPO and a Post Office probe
Misc. articles about complaints and legal actions against Steve Brown's companies
Steve Brown's $7 million French chateau
A bibliography of articles referenced
WBAI LSB disassociates itself from public comments of Steve Brown
Video: Behind Steve Brown's Fabulous Wealth

Brown's company's plan to go public was scuttled -- in part because investors' confidence was shaken by a US Postal Service probe. "Investors apparently won't get their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to buy stock in Direct Marketing Enterprises Ltd., the Long Island mail-order company known for its low-priced, hyperbolically promoted merchandise." (Crain's)

Incidentally, Steve Brown also owns an 18th century French Chateau, called Chateau des Thons, on sale for $7 million, which had been disassembled in France and brought to the US and reconstructed in Long Island.

Steve Brown's Controversial Actions in the WBAI Community

At WBAI Steve Brown has been a member of a group that has opposed affirmative action in the governance of Pacifica, and has attacked and vilified progressive African American Program Director Bernard White. The attacks have been on a number of fronts. Brown has regularly exaggerated, distorted and even fabricated stories about the program director and has used e-mail for the last several years to spread the stories.

Steve Brown has issued clear, unequivocal calls to turn the station's main focus away from oppressed communities and in the direction of serving the white middle class -- the same kind of audience that NPR and Air America already serve. In 2003 on a public email list he wrote: "... There is not just 'one' WBAI audience -- but 'two.' The first of these audiences, we have always sought to attract -- it comprises the voiceless, the downtrodden, and the oppressed. But we must be careful not to indulge in an orgy of misguided nobility and political correctness by convincing ourselves that this should be our ONLY audience, or even our 'main' audience."

Steve Brown has relentlessly used racist and violent imagery to attack Black station staff. At one point after making unsubstantiated charges against Bernard White, Brown wrote: "If you were there, you should have been at her [Interim General Manager Indra Hardat's] side whacking Bernard with a baseball bat and then calling the police." At another point he wrote: "One witness describes coming to the station these days as like living in the South Bronx, where rival gangs are shooting at each other and all you can do is keep your head down to keep from getting beaten up, knifed, or shot." This is not only a patently and outrageously false depiction of the station, it is also designed to play on the racial fears of white people.

What Does This Mean for the WBAI Elections?

Steve Brown is the leader of ACE, the Alliance for Community Elections. ACE is the 2006 makeover of List-Prog, the 2004 slate in which he also played a leading role. List-Prog members discarded the name following widespread criticism of their role in pushing out Don Rojas, the General Manager of WBAI, attempts to remove Program Director Bernard White, and an attempt to remove Father Lawrence Lucas from the WBAI Local Station Board after he became hospitalized, saying he had "unexcused absences."

Steve Brown brings to WBAI the kind of tactics that made him a wealthy but legally embattled king of the direct mail business. And now WBAI is paying the price.

For an alternative to Steve Brown, visit the Justice & Unity website.

http://whoisstevebrown.info/

There is a genre of aviation writing, typified by Antoine St. Exupery, Ernest K. Gann, Richard Bach and Rinker Buck that focuses on the link between the machine and the person flying it. These pilots write not just about the sky around them but the space within. Chesley Sullenberger’s fine memoir, Highest Duty, My Search for What Really Matters, joins this group.

In the year months since he brought crippled US Airways Flight 1549 safely down in the Hudson River, Chesley Sullenberger has become the face of modern aviation. But it is doubtful he would ever have put pen to paper had fame not been cast upon him. Behind the crisp navy suit and gold braid, pilots live uneventful lives. Until they don’t.

Before the afternoon of January 15, 2009 Sullenberger worked in an industry in distress and worried about his investments. He quibbled with his wife and was apprehensive about a growing distance between himself and his teenage daughters. A typical week might have him traveling in the middle seat on a cross-country flight commuting from his home near San Francisco to his assigned base at US Airways in Charlotte.

But the life Sullenberger describes also includes an uncommon and longstanding interest in the underpinning of aviation: safety. From his first look at an airplane accident, as a 16-year old flying student at a grass strip in Denison, Texas, Sullenberger recognized the unforgiving nature of flying. This impression was reinforced in the Air Force as a member of the Mishap Investigation Board. When he became an airline pilot he participated in his union’s air safety committee and on the day he flew out of obscurity, Capt. Sullenberger had a safety book packed in his trip bag. Conscientiousness then is the quality that makes Sullenberger more than ordinary.

Airplane accidents are investigated so they can be prevented in the future. Sullenberger’s self-analysis is the flip side of that. Studying the factors contributing to good piloting can teach success. There’s no question what those factors are according to Sullenberger; preparation, anticipation and attention to the flight, leadership, responsibility and discipline in dealing with people.

Sullenberger claims the title “good pilot,” explaining that the lessons he learned in a lifetime of flying came into play that day. “Having the details of that knowledge in the recesses of my brain was helpful in making those quick decisions on Flight 1549,” he writes. But he rejects the title “hero” with a tart reply in contrast to thousands of syrupy media portrayals.

Anyone at the controls of Flight 1549 probably could have written a book about the event. But Capt. Sullenberger has given us much more than that. Certainly, co-author Jeffrey Zaslow should be given some credit. His previous books (The Last Lecture, The Girls from Ames) have demonstrated his skill at making private introspection publicaly relevant.

Together they have written a book that elevates one man and one event into a thought-provoking examination of what it means to do one’s best.

Story at the Moderate Voice.

By David Kravets
December 30, 2009

A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld the government’s refusal to admit or deny it has documents related to warrantless eavesdropping on Guantanamo Bay detainees and their lawyers.

In doing so, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals accepted a little-known defense called the Glomar doctrine. The doctrine, the court ruled, allows the National Security Agency to refuse to acknowledge to the lawyers suing under the Freedom of Information Act that there are any documents responsive to allegations their clients had been or are being targeted under the Terrorist Surveillance Program adopted following the 2001 terror attacks.

“Confirming or denying the mere existence of specific records in a general surveillance program would logically be both confirming or denying that the NSA was targeting a specific individual and confirming or denying that the NSA is conducting a general surveillance program,” (.pdf) the New York-based appellate court wrote Wednesday.

Typically, under Freedom of Information Act requests unrelated to national security, the government announces that it has documentation related to a request, and releases or withholds some or all of it. ...

More: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/gitmo-lawyer-eavesdropping/

Suggestion: Tax revenue would be better spent on the cognitive infiltration of Harvard University. The ranking Ivy League institution offers no course on the history of fascism and its corporate roots - because students would quickly come to realize that they live in a fascist state, that their basic beliefs about themselves and their country are cooked public relations concepts. The cognitive infiltration of Harvard is necessary to correct this perceptual imbalance and introduce lackluster academic minds like Prof. Sunstein's to actual reality, a place where fascism is inherently conspiratorial and not a "theory." Students exposed to the cognitive infiltration of reality at Harvard will recognize that Prof. Sunstein is an enabler of fascism whose counter-Constitutional proposals have underpinnings of intellectual quackery and state propaganda. - AC

By Daniel Tencer
Raw | January 13th, 2010

Cass Sunstein

In a 2008 academic paper, President Barack Obama's appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs advocated "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the ones surrounding 9/11.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures," in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine" those groups.

As head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Sunstein is in charge of "overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs," according to the White House Web site.

Sunstein's article, published in the Journal of Political Philosphy in 2008 and recently uncovered by blogger Marc Estrin, states that "our primary claim is that conspiracy theories typically stem not from irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a 'crippled epistemology,' in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources."

By "crippled epistemology" Sunstein means that people who believe in conspiracy theories have a limited number of sources of information that they trust. [?]Therefore, Sunstein argued in the article, it would not work to simply refute the conspiracy theories in public -- the very sources that conspiracy theorists believe would have to be infiltrated.

Sunstein, whose article focuses largely on the 9/11 conspiracy theories, suggests that the government "enlist nongovernmental officials in the effort to rebut the theories. It might ensure that credible independent experts offer the rebuttal, rather than government officials themselves. There is a tradeoff between credibility and control, however. The price of credibility is that government cannot be seen to control the independent experts."

Download a PDF of the article here.

Sunstein argued that "government might undertake (legal) tactics for breaking up the tight cognitive clusters of extremist theories." He suggested that "government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."

"We expect such tactics from undercover cops, or FBI," Estrin writes at the Rag Blog, expressing surprise that "a high-level presidential advisor" would support such a strategy.

Estrin notes that Sunstein advocates in his article for the infiltration of "extremist" groups so that it undermines the groups' confidence to the extent that "new recruits will be suspect and participants in the group’s virtual networks will doubt each other’s bona fides."

Sunstein has been the target of numerous "conspiracy theories" himself, mostly from the right wing political echo chamber, with conservative talking heads claiming he favors enacting "a second Bill of Rights" that would do away with the Second Amendment. Sunstein's recent book, On Rumors: How Falsehoods Spread, Why We Believe Them, What Can Be Done, was criticized by some on the right as "a blueprint for online censorship."

Sunstein "wants to hold blogs and web hosting services accountable for the remarks of commenters on websites while altering libel laws to make it easier to sue for spreading 'rumors,'" wrote Ed Lasky at American Thinker.

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/obama-staffer-infiltration-911-groups/

The landing of US Airways flight 1549 on New York’s Hudson River on January 15, 2009 captured worldwide attention and it remains a feel-good story. But every year there are aviation events that go unnoticed because actions of pilots, flight attendants and air traffic controllers prevented something bad from becoming awful.




Since the goal of accident investigations is to find out what went wrong to prevent the next one, are there lessons to be learned from what went right? Safety experts say yes. I’ve put together a list of near-tragedies and asked people in the know what factors they believe contributed to a happy ending. Feel free to comment with your own.


November 14, 2009 Frontier Airlines flight 820
When she heard the airline pilot call “Mayday, Mayday, engine number two is out, we hit some birds,” air traffic controller Jessica Hermsdorfer was not thinking about the Miracle on the Hudson. She could think only of the alarm she heard in the pilot’s voice, and how
she could direct him back to the Kansas City airport for an emergency landing as quickly as possible.


Inside the Airbus 319 passengers had no idea what to expect. Shortly after takeoff the plane hit a flock of snow geese, causing to damage both engines. Passenger Joe Suina said he heard “this rumble “bang, boom, boom.” Sam Weisgal recounted that the passengers were calm, but terrified. “We’re all looking forward to death, literally.”


“I didn’t do anything different than I normally do,” Ms. Hermsdorfer told me describing how she handled the pilot’s distress call. “You know what to do. You do the same thing all the time the right way so you don’t have to question, ‘What is the right way?’”


Ms. Hermsdorfer cleared airspace and runways so that the pilots, Alan Lefler and Matthew Cartwright were able to land the airplane with no one injured. Ms. Hermsdorfer will be honored by the National Air Traffic Controllers Union this spring. In praising how she handled this near disaster, NATCA’s Brian Barnes said emergencies are routine for air traffic controllers. But for controllers and flight crews alike, Barnes says, preparation - anticipating potentially disastrous events is key to preventing them. “If you are well prepared, you know the procedures and you know what to do.”


May 7, 2008 Compass Airlines Flight 2040
Brian McCusker told reporters he’d never been as scared as he was when a fire broke out his flight from Minneapolis to Regina, Saskatchewan. There were 72 passengers on the plane as smoke started billowing from a bathroom in back. Pilots Steven Peterka and Lee Cain put on oxygen masks and declared an emergency.


While flight attendants tried to put out the fire, (one of them, Eder H. Rojas, would later be charged with starting the blaze) passengers fled the rear of the plane toward the front. The aircraft was flying at thirty-two thousand feet and the pilots realized they needed to get on the ground as quickly as possible. Capt. Peterka turned off the autopilot and banked the airplane hard in order to increase the descent rate. It took just eight minutes for the plane to make an emergency landing at the Fargo airport having come down at an astonishing 4,000 per minute more than twice the speed of a normal descent.


Officials later said that a “delay in descending and landing could have resulted in the loss of all 79 souls on board the aircraft.” Fire in flight is always extremely serious as illustrated by the crash of Swissair flight 111 on September 2, 1998.


In that accident, pilots first tried trouble shooting indications of smoke in the aircraft, a delay that might have contributed to the disaster. Two-hundred and twenty nine people died when the plane crashed into the sea.


Feb 3, 2006 Midwest Airlines Flight 8134
The thirty seven member New Jersey Devils hockey team was on board an MD-80 charter flight headed for Toronto. As the plane accelerated down the runway first officer, James Findley called, “Rotate” when the plane hit 127 knots. But Capt. Matt Klingsporn found he could not raise the nose of the airplane. Though he was beyond the speed at which a takeoff can safely be stopped, Capt. Klingsporn and Mr. Findley did just that. It was the right decision. The investigation showed that a jammed horizontal stabilizer made the plane unflyable. Findley credits training for helping the crew make the right decision with just a split second to react. "At that time, training took over," Findley told the Milwaukee Journal. "When you train, and you train, and you train, when something happens, you just react."


“Top of the list of factors leading to good outcomes,” according to Darren Gaines pilot, air traffic controller and air safety investigator, is “training.”


June 2, 2002 Fed Ex flight to Manila
“There is no checklist for ‘flap comes off of aircraft’" Mark Abbott told me and he was not joking. That is precisely what happened to a Fed Ex MD-11 he was piloting with Capt. Jim Almlie. The men did not know that a wing flap had torn free of the wing, severing a hydrolic line and jamming the spoiler in the up position as the plane approached landing at Subic Bay in the Philippines.


“We’re in a left bank I can’t control it,” Mr. Abbott said the captain told him. “ I was thinking, I must be in a dream I’m going to wake up. And it all happened in less than a second. The next thing I realize, this isn’t a dream.” For twenty minutes the men worked together, trying to figure out how to fly an airplane that wanted to roll topside down and get it to an airport where emergency equipment would be close by.


“Right after it happened, he was so busy trying to get control of the aircraft," Mr. Abbott said of the captain, "he said, ‘You handle the diversion.’ He realized, I’m going to fly the aircraft, you figure out where we’re going to land.” Certainly the pilots of the Fed Ex flight were heeding the mantra, "aviate, navigate, communicate" as they worked as a team. In addition, a crews’ “knowledge of the aircraft and its systems,” has saved the day many times, said Ira Rimson a forensic engineer and air safety expert.


Throughout these stories, aviation professionals stressed the importance of focusing on task. In the Frontier and USAirways bird strike events, air traffic controllers reported keeping their communication with the cockpit direct and not distracting. “Let them tell you what they need,” Ms. Hermsdorfer said of the pilots of the stricken airliner, “and then you get it for them.”


Finally, no discussion of disasters averted would be complete without a nod to the role of luck.
“Weather, if it’s good it definitely increases the chance of a positive ending,” Darren Gaines said, along with time of day, light and perhaps most importantly, a place to land.


Other near disasters worth noting:

• April 13, 2004, United flight 854 total loss of power on a Boeing 767-300
• January 10, 2010 United Airlines flight 634 collapsed landing gear
• June 9, 2005 USAirways near runway collision
• July 13, 2009 Southwest Airlines flight 2294 rapid decompression
• January 25, 2008 United Airlines loss of avionics, electrical and communication during take-off