Ex-employee says FAA warned before 9/11

[DoYouEverWonder]

11/24/2006

From 1995 to 2001, Bogdan Dzakovic served as a team leader on the Federal Aviation Administration's Red Team. Set up by Congress to help the FAA think like terrorists, the elite squad tested airport security systems.

In the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Dzakovic says, the team was able to breach security about 90% of the time, sneaking bombs and submachine guns past airport screeners. Expensive new bomb detection machines consistently failed, he says.

The team repeatedly warned the FAA of the potential for security breaches and hijackings but was told to cover up its findings, Dzakovic says.

Eventually, the FAA began notifying airports in advance when the Red Team would be doing its undercover testing, Dzakovic says. He and other Red Team members approached the Department of Transportation's Office of the Inspector General, the General Accounting Office and members of Congress about the FAA's alleged misconduct regarding the Red Team's aviation security tests. No one did anything, he says.

Then came 9/11.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-23-whistle-blower-faa_x.htm

[aquart]

1. They let us die.

To protect...what? What's happened to airline profits since 9/11?

Another short-sighted, misplaced allegiance to interests NOT in the interest of the American people.

[FogerRox]

2. I guess we have crossed the Rubicon >sigh

[Nashyra]

3. Having been with a major carrier

for almost 30 years I remember numerous times when security was heightened, but not before 911. During the clinton admin. we had the Gore commission on airline safety.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. Two weeks before 9-11

I boarded a plane at Laguardia without showing anyone a ticket.

I tried to get the woman at the gate to look at the ticket, but she was in too much of a hurry to turn the plane around, and told me to just take any seat I wanted.

[pink-o]

19. Me, too. 18 years working for the airlines...

...and when I found out that there had been 52 FAA security warnings in the 6 months leading up to 911 (that averages to 2 warnings per week, People!) it was a total shock. Airline employees are supposed to get this info that's not available to the general public, but I can tell ya not a single security directive reached our ears. We should have been briefed every morning on coming into work, but nothing was ever said.

Between that and the Air Traffic Control tapes being "lost", I can't dismiss all the conspiricy theories as complete bunk.

[judaspriestess]

23. are you referring to the 9/11 control tapes?

I have wondered why he have not heard from air traffic control. I did not know they were lost either. I just don't buy into air traffic control letting a plane(s) fly in the opposite direction for an hour, right into the heart of Manhattan and DC without anyone knowing. I stick to my guns on that one, as a former flight attendant.

on edit: as a former flight attendant with the training I received on a possible hijacking and what takes place with air traffic control, norad etc.

[EVDebs]

25. Investigate the Ptech (now GoAgile) access to WhiteHouse, DOD,

and FAA computers along with any foreknowledge of the wargames of 9-11. It's like cookie crumbs leading somewhere...

[jamesinca]

11. For years they told the FAA

Clinton and his FAA screwed this one up and Bush did nothing to fix it. Then a very heavy price was paid on 9/11 and is still being paid today.

I guess it is OK as long as the corporations made money.:sarcasm:

[NVMojo]

18. it's all about airline profits ...not lives

[dysfunctional press]

31. "us...?"

you type pretty well for a dead guy.

[Loge23]

4. And now we have a "no shampoo" zone

Beacuse of the incompentancy of the FAA and their hacks, we now have to wade through a military security zone to get on a freakin plane. It's absolute madness.
Take off your shoes, don't carry on liquids over 3.4 ounces, be prepared for pat downs (it happens every time to me), and watch the absurd spectacle of children and elderly people being pulled off to the circle for wand-overs.
All this because of incompentance - Bush's and the FAA. 9/11 should have, and could have, been prevented. But now we have bizarro world.
What is most disturbing to me about all of this is how willingly the public accepts this nonsense.

[DemBones DemBones]

5. And because he told the 9/11 Commission, and filed a complaint,

he's stuck with a busywork job. (Employers always hope people will quit if they assign them to busywork; I've seen it happen many times.)

Here's the quote:

After filing his complaint, Dzakovic was removed from his Red Team leadership position. He now works for the Transportation Security Administration, which has responsibility for airport security. His primary assignments include tasks such as hole-punching, updating agency phonebooks and "thumb-twiddling," he says. At least he hasn't received a pay cut, he says. He makes about $110,000 a year for what he describes as "entry-level idiot work."

[napi21]

6. Hey, for $100 grand a year, I'LL DO IT!

I had a lot more responsible jobs in the past too, but I never made $110M! I'm really flexible, and I'll do what ever little job you need for THAT pay check!

[DemBones DemBones]

12. Who wouldn't? Well, Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, George Bush, etc.

Although since he's got to live in the D.C. area, it's less than it seems.

[DemBones DemBones]

13. Who wouldn't? Well, Donald Trump, Dick Cheney, George Bush, etc.

Although since he's got to live in the D.C. area, it's less than it seems.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

7. Don't forget the Hart/Rudman Report

Hart/Rudman Report was issued in the spring of 2001.

Two former senators issued a bipartisan report with many recommendations to improve airport/airline security. Like lockable cockpit doors, and many other things. All of their suggestions were ignored of course.

[alfredo]

20. Gore's 1999 report was ignored by the republican congress.

They dismissed his recommendations for higher security and lockable cabin doors, just like the Hart/Rudman report. Gore studies how the Israeli secured airlines and tried to get US airlines to listen but they didn't.

Of course the government knew enough about the threat to warn Ashcroft not to fly commercial.

[hedgehog]

21. What did happen to that report?

Was Congressional approval required for all the recommendations or could some have been instituted via executive order? It's easy to blame the Republicans for all the ills in the world, but we have to be honest with ourselves. I myself have no memory of this report.

[alfredo]

22. It was 1997

http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/212fin~1.html

Actually the airline industry didn't like it and spent over $67 million lobbying congress and the FAA. They also gave over $10 million to key congressmen between 1997 and 2000.

If those recommendations had been put in place it would have been a feather in Gore's cap. He could have used it in his presidential campaign. The Republicans and their enablers knew that. The airline industry and the Republicans saw Gore's report as a threat. It was also in the middle of the Monica affair and any good press for Clinton/Gore was to be avoided.

[hedgehog]

24. To be explicit - were there any recommendations in the report

that Clinton could have enacted via executive order?

[alfredo]

28. Not sure. Maybe some that relates to the FAA.

This would have been a deal killer:

1.12. Legislation should be enacted to protect aviation industry employees who report safety or security violations.

[FloridaPat]

8. Did anyone really think the security before 9-11 was good? I am

shocked! Really. I use to fly a lot. It was obvious to anyone who flew you could get anything on board a plane. And the security companies hired all those illegal alians. It was a joke and is pretty much a chuckle right now.

[DemBones DemBones]

15. No! I'd flown to and from Europe eight times between 1991-1999 so I

knew what security was like over there compared to here. We had to have terrorism here to wise up, which is unforgivable, especially after the Gore report and the Hart-Rudman report.

The airlines weren't quick studies either. My brother flew out of a major American airport a few weeks AFTER 9/11 wearing boots that set off the metal detector. Nobody came over to see what the noise was, even though he stood around waiting for someone to appear. The "security personnel" were standing around chatting, oblivious. Unbelievable!

[Mnemosyne]

10. The evil that "men" do...

Even the GAO.

knr

[williesgirl]

14. What a waste of a talented, experienced worker. They should all be fired who covered this up

plus those that keep him doing idiot work.

[babsbunny]

16. What will be done about this?

:shrug:

[stepnw1f]

17. Bush Admin Allowed 9-11 to Happen

Anyone need more evidence? This only another piece of the puzzle. DU is WAYYY ahead of the curb and always has been.... main reason I'm a DU junky.

[Hailtothechimp]

26. Except for a handful of people who jump at the chance to.....

smack down anything that suggests MIHOP/LIHOP. Go to the Dicussion forum and you'll find them.

When the truth about 9/11 finally comes out, the world will wonder how they could have missed it. But some of us here can claim we knew all along.

[DoYouEverWonder]

27. Heck, at least

I'll have the threads to prove it.

[dailykoff]

30. That's putting it politely.

VERY politely.
:dem:

[EFerrari]

29. FYI: there is an excellent 9/11 panel on at 7 pacific/ 10 eastern

on CSPAN2 tonight (Saturday).