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Guest forum: Remembering 9/11; How Could It Happen? Are We Safe? By Charles Kehoe Two years ago this morning, the day before the attacks, I flew out of Logan International, Boston, as a Flight Deck Crewmember on a Boeing 727. The next morning, after a brief layover in San Francisco, I watched and cried with the rest of the nation, indeed, the world. The attack was well beyond my ken. But it should not have been. Since the earliest aircraft hijackings of the '60's, I'd been trained each year that in the event of a hijacking, we were to comply. Resistance was deemed to place our passengers at greater risk. But our intelligence agencies knew better: they knew there was a new breed of terrorist. They were even warned by foreign intelligence agencies several years before the attacks that such terrorists, Arab terrorists, had a plan to fly our own jets into the World Trade Center and/or other targets! They appear to have concluded that it was none of my business, that I was only the pilot. For on September 11th, 2001, the American and United Airline crews transited security as they always had, as I had the day before in Boston. There was no heightened alert, there was no failure in the airport screening process. Flight crews, then and now, had already had all their nose hair scissors and nail clippers confiscated over the years. Those of us of a certain age had, as often as not, years of military training and knew much more about the security of our aircraft than the folks "protecting" our passengers and we suffered in silence at security check points. We sipped our coffee to "prove" it was not an explosive or removed our belts in docile compliance. Was the FAA notified by the FBI/CIA establishment that there were suicidal fanatics who were not simply trying to make a political point by hijacking an aircraft? If so, they didn't tell us. The information available to them was so secret they didn't even tell one another let alone the crews flying the plane. So, on September 10th, on a transcontinental flight, I left the cockpit occasionally for the lavatory. Over the years, pilots often were called aft to defuse a possible "air rage" situation, help free a stubborn door in the galley or assure a passenger that everything out on the wing was just fine. We locked the flimsy door behind us. When chaos broke out in the cabins on September 11th, it seems to me likely that a pilot might have gone aft to investigate the nature of the difficulty-I'd done so many times during my thirty-seven years on the flight deck. Are you safe, on an airplane, could it happen again? I think it's unlikely, that card has been played. We're not safer because of the TSA (thousands standing around). They do pretty much what they've always done and earn much better pay. You're safe because at the first hint of disturbance, the flight crew will get the aircraft on the ground and make it extremely difficult for a fanatic to get his hands on the controls. Meanwhile, you will attack anyone who goes near the cockpit door. The odds are high that although terrorists may get on board, they won't get the opportunity to fly our aircraft into a crowd. But we are not truly safe because of a "war on terror." The entire world's civilized people are at war on terror. Our level of safety will only rise when we unite to identify and incarcerate those who would kill innocents to promote their cause-a relatively small number of people. The tragedy of 9/11 is that our intelligence experts were too smart to share their intelligence with those of us who could have made a difference. The continuing tragedy is that they're all still in charge in spite of their failures. And the tragedy with the war on Iraq (not irrelevant here!) is not simply that Iraq will end up with safer bridges than Oregon when we all end up in the poor house. It's that continuing US belligerence has alienated the world we need to help us identify fanatics. The technology exists, if we find the money, to make the world safer. If we all pay close attention we can locate a Timothy McVeigh or Bin Laden before they can implement an assault on a Federal Building in Oklahoma City or the World Trade Center. Our government has not demonstrated that it understands that. Rogue Group Sierra Club suports ski expansion at Mt. Ashland By Tom Dimitre Ashland The Rogue Group Sierra Club supports Alternative 5, with modifications, in the Mt. Ashland Ski Area Expansion Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). That's right - you heard right - the Rogue Group Sierra Club (RGSC) supports expansion at Mt. Ashland. The RGSC has supported careful, modest expansion that would not degrade the Middle Branch of the East Fork of Ashlonad Creek for many years. Alternative 5 is a good compromise to the proposal of the Mt. Ashland Association (Alternative 2) because: Here is what Alternative 5 WOULD DO: * IT WOULD protect the City of Ashland's municipal watershed from sedimentation. Clearcutting the equivalent of 80 football fields in the City's municipal watershed is not good stewardship of a tremendously important resource. * IT WOULD protect rare plants, wildlife and old growth forest and the world renowned Siskiyou Crest connectivity corridor from degradation. The Siskiyou Crest is already fragmented by industrial logging, roadbuilding and fires. * IT WOULD allow expansion and new terrain for the ski area. Alternative 5 allows for new novice and intermediate terrain - all within the current ski use area. * IT WOULD build up to four new lifts, most serving new novice and intermediate terrain. * IT WOULD be more affordable. The Rogue Group also proposes money-saving modifications to Alternative 5 as follows: - Moraine Lodge. Delete the Moraine Lodge. With Alternative 5, the prohibitively expensive Moraine Lodge is not necessary. We estimate that well over $600,000 would be saved by not building the lodge. - Parking Lot Expansion. Alternative 5 proposes to move 30,000 cubic yards (3,000+ truckoads) We propose that the proposed parking lot expansion be deleted in favor of a shuttle service on the few, busy holiday weekends. - Retaining Wall. Delete the eight hundred foot long retaining wall that would be very expensive to build and would have a good chance of increasing sedimentation in the watershed. Other modifications could be made to greatly reduce the estimated cost of this alternative and ensure the financial viability of the Mt. Ashland Association. Here is what Alternative 5 WOULD NOT DO: * IT WOULD NOT enter the McDonald Peak Roadless Area. The McDonald Peak Roadless Area is 10,000 acres in Ashland's backyard that is pristine, old growth forest. We should protect this fragile, unique and rare area. * IT WOULD NOT degrade the fragile East Fork of the Middle Branch of Ashland Creek (Middle Branch). The Middle Branch is a very fragile area, laced with meadows, streams, seeps, springs and natural, underground piping - all fragile and important features of the landscape. * IT WOULD NOT clearcut eighty football fields of virgin old growth forest. Think of it - 80 FOOTBALL FIELDS - clearcut in the City's municipal watershed. Most towns are protecting their municipal watersheds - Ashland should follow suit. * IT WOULD NOT clearcut rare Engelmann spruce groves. This is the only known Engelmann spruce grove in the Siskiyous. * IT WOULD NOT ruin habitat for the Mt. Ashland lupine and Henderson's horkelia. Both plants are very rare - Mt. Ashland lupine is found only on Mt. Ashland. Grooming of proposed runs could harm habitat for both plants. * IT WOULD NOT ruin habitat for dozens of other rare plants and animals including the northern spotted owl and the rarely seen American fisher, which live in the proposed expansion area. * IT WOULD NOT degrade old growth habitat by fragmenting over 250 acres. Old growth is increasingly rare in the Siskiyous especially with the increasing private old growth logging. Alternative 5 is a compromise between the MAA Alternative (Alt. 2) which would negatively impact the MIddle Branch and doing nothing (Alt. 1). Alternative 5 will provide the Mt. Ashland Association with what they need (as opposed to what they want) in the form of new novice and intermediate terrain. It would be affordable and would stay out of the fragile Middle Branch area. We urge the Forest Service to select Alternative 5 with the modifications outlined here. 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