Stun Guns in Cockpits?
— -- Justice Dept. May Favor Cockpit Stun Guns
W A S H I N G T O N, May 2 — Electrical shock devices such as stun guns show the most promise among non-lethal weapons foruse by a flight deck crew trying to stop a hijacking, a Justice Department official said today.
But despite growing appeals from pilots to be allowed to carry firearms, the Bush administration has not yet taken aposition on whether lethal weapons should be provided to flight crews, said Sarah Hart, director of the Justice Department'scriminal research unit, the National Institute of Justice.
She spoke at a hearing called by Republican leaders of the House Transportation Committee. They have introduced a bill toallow pilots to carry firearms as a defense against events like the Sept. 11 hijack attacks.
The hearing also featured a pilot who said he had carried firearms on board in the 1970s, another pilot who had tested astun gun on himself the previous evening, and a Boeing Co. safety expert who said most airplanes are well-made enough towithstand a few bullet holes.
The National Institute of Justice recently concluded a study assessing whether less-than-lethal weapons could be usedby flight crews, Hart told the aviation subcommittee.
"We believe the electrical shock devices showed the greatest promise," because they could immediately incapacitatesomeone and be used in a confined space, she said.
But she added that the institute strongly recommended testing the weapons before allowing them on flight decks.Meanwhile, she said the administration has not decided whether pilots should carry lethal weapons, although some officialshave expressed concerns about it.
"My understanding is that the administration has not taken an official position at this time," Hart said.
Both Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge oppose allowing pilots to carryguns.
Some committee members were frustrated that the administration had not moved to certify either lethal ornon-lethal weapons since Congress passed an aviation security measure giving officials scope to do so after Sept. 11.
"This bill was passed last fall. I can't believe they haven't come to a conclusion on whether pilots should be armed,and with what?" said Rep. Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat.
The Bush administration planned to decide the stun-gun issue as early as this week but senior TransportationDepartment officials said that action could be delayed while the issue plays out in Congress.
Many airline pilots want to be able to pack pistols in the air — and have already done so in the 1960s and 1970s afteranother spate of hijackings, a representative of the nation's largest pilot's union told the subcommittee.
"I can tell you without equivocation that many pilots are willing and prepared to assume the responsibility for trainingand carrying a weapon," said Stephen Luckey, a Northwest Airlines captain and chairman of the national flight securitycommittee of the Air Line Pilots Association.
Luckey said he was one of about a dozen pilots who were selected in the mid-1970s by the FBI to carry a firearm.
Pilots handed a petition to Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican and chairman of the subcommittee. They said they hadcollected 44,576 signatures, including thousands from pilots, urging flight crews be allowed to carry guns in the cockpit.
The bill introduced this week by Mica and Rep. Don Young, an Alaska Republican, could deputize pilots as federal agents.That would give them the same liability protection as undercover air marshals.
But some committee members said they were worried that hijackers might simply grab a pilot's gun. "I would not want aterrorist to get hold of a captain's weapon," said Rep. Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat.
Boeing safety expert Ronald Hinderberger said the risk of loss of an aircraft due to a stray round from a handgun is veryslight -- although there was a remote chance of a fire or explosion "given an unfortunate placement of shots andcombination of conditions."
"Boeing commercial service history contains cases of gunfire on board in-service airplanes, all of which landedsafely," he said.
But Henry Krakowski, a United Airlines captain and vice president for safety at the carrier, urged officials to approvea leading stun gun, TASER, saying United had tested the weapons in cockpits and trained about a third of its pilots to usethem.
He had been stunned by a TASER in a hotel room the night before, Krakowski said. "It was absolutely debilitating."
—Reuters
NYC Kids Still Suffered, 6 months after Sept. 11
N E W Y O R K, May 2 — Some admitted they had trouble sleeping. Others said they feared leaving the house. Most found their mindswandering back to images of burning towers and the horror.
Nine out of 10 New York City schoolchildren suffered at leastone symptom of post-traumatic stress six months after Sept. 11, andalmost 10 percent likely had the disorder, according to a studyreleased Wednesday.
Mental health researchers participating in the report, whichstudied more than 8,000 children at 94 schools, were particularlysurprised to find that children throughout the city — not just nearGround Zero — showed symptoms of several psychiatric problems.
"The school system, above all, has to be cognizant of the factthat they are trying to do a job with students who are verytroubled, very troubled today because of 9/11," said ChristinaHoven, a Columbia University psychiatric epidemiologist who led thestudy.
In the 1.1 million-student public school system, an estimated75,000 children likely showed six or more symptoms ofpost-traumatic stress — enough to be diagnosed with the disorder,according to the Board of Education study.
Researchers said the study was groundbreaking in itscomprehensive examination of children's response to a majordisaster.
The study surveyed children in grades 4-12 in late February andearly March, finding that 76 percent often thought about theterrorist attack, 24 percent had problems sleeping and 17 percenthad nightmares. The study was based on questions posed to thechildren themselves.
Fifteen percent of the children surveyed showed symptoms ofagoraphobia — the fear of venturing outside the home. Hovencompared that with a 1996 study of several cities that showed about5 percent of children on average suffer from agoraphobia.
The board of education study's agoraphobia findings suggest thatan estimated 107,000 city schoolchildren suffer from the disorderafter Sept. 11. Hoven said the fear could be heightened forchildren who travel through tunnels and over bridges to get toschool.
Researchers said the study found that younger children, girlsand those whose family members were at the World Trade Center —whether they were killed, hurt or unharmed — were more likely tosuffer from psychiatric disorders.
— The Associated Press
Engineers Change Approach to Skyscraper Design
N E W Y O R K, May 2 — The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have changed theprocess of designing skyscrapers by requiring anticipation of theunknown, says a structural engineer with the firm that built theWorld Trade Center.
Engineers, who are used to working with hard data, now mustimagine scenarios without facts and figures, said William Faschan,of Leslie E. Roberston Associates, the firm that built the WorldTrade Center.
"When it comes to earthquakes and wind, there's a whole historyin building for that," Faschan said. "When it comes to what's aterrorist going to do, who are they, there are just so manyunknowns out there."
Faschan spoke to a group of structural engineers in New York onWednesday, shortly after the Federal Emergency Management Agencyand the American Society of Civil Engineers released a new reporton the trade center collapse.
The study determined that the twin towers could have survivedthe impact of the hijacked 767s. They fell victim to the intenseblaze that caused their steel columns to soften and buckle.
"This is not the end of the story — there will now be a new setof research conducted by the National Institute of Standards andTechnology that's just beginning," Faschan said.
On Capitol Hill Wednesday, NIST Director Arden Bement said hewill focus immediately on how to better protect buildings fromintense fires like the one that brought down the twin towers. Theagency will use the findings to recommend changes to building andfire codes.
"It's critical that we understand better the relationshipbetween fire and structural collapse," Bement told the HouseScience Committee.
Of particular interest to investigators is 7 World Trade Center,which is believed to have sustained little structural damage. Itwas the first fireproofed steel structure to collapse due to firealone.
The two-year, $16 million investigation by NIST is also expectedto study ways to "harden" exit stairways to make them lesssusceptible to impact and to space them out so one blow might notrender them all impassable. Such designs might have allowedoccupants on the floors above where the planes hit to have escaped.
— The Associated Press
Senators to Propose Homeland Security Cabinet Office
W A S H I N G T O N, May 1 — A bipartisan group of senators is introducinga bill to consolidate several agencies into a new Cabinet-levelDepartment of National Homeland Security.
The White House, once cool to the notion, is leaving the doorajar to making Tom Ridge a Cabinet member.
Ridge, appointed by Bush in October to oversee homelandsecurity, is reviewing the question of Cabinet status as part ofhis overall homeland strategic plan scheduled to be completed intime for the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"At this time it is premature to say what the final productwill be, whether it is a Cabinet-level department, a statutoryoffice or no change, but we are not ruling anything out and willcarefully review all legislation," Fleischer said in a statement.
The senators plan to introduce legislation today that wouldconsolidate the Coast Guard, Customs Service and several otheragencies into a new Cabinet-level Department of National HomelandSecurity. The sponsors include Sens. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn.,Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Bob Graham, D-Fla.
The proposal is attractive to many on Capitol Hill because itwould give lawmakers oversight authority for homeland security. Asa non-Cabinet-level adviser to Bush, Ridge cannot be compelled totestify and is less accountable to Congress than Cabinetsecretaries are.
Bush had been reluctant to elevate the office to Cabinet level,insisting that he has given Ridge enough power to overhaul homelandsecurity operations from his working space just a few steps fromthe Oval Office.
The administration signaled its openness on the issue April 11,when budget director Mitch Daniels testified before lawmakers thatRidge's job is to recommend how homeland security should functionwithin the government, a mandate that included determining whetherhis own office should be Cabinet level.
A congressional GOP source familiar with Bush's meetingWednesday with legislative leaders said he expects Ridge'sstrategic plan to recommend making homeland security aCabinet-level department. Ridge spokesman Gordon Johndroe said nodecision has been made by Ridge or Bush on the issue.
A second GOP official with knowledge of the White House reviewsaid Bush's advisers have concluded the president could not use hisveto authority to block any bill that made homeland security aCabinet agency. Doing so, both officials said, would expose Bush tocriticism that he is not doing everything he can to protect thenation against terror.
The GOP sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Bushmay be forced to seek a Cabinet-level bill that suits him best.They said the White House has several problems with theLieberman-Graham measure.
— The Associated Press
Ridge Addresses Senate, Sort Of
W A S H I N G T O N, May 2 — Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge says that while he's willing to be "accessible" to members of Congress, he's answerable to the president.
Ridge says that's why he didn't appear today before Senator Robert Byrd's committee but instead held an informal briefing for senators on homeland security.
Byrd didn't like it one bit, denouncing the move as "sophomoric" and "made for television."
Ridge and the Bush administration have stressed that because he is an adviser to the president, he doesn't have to appear before congressional panels.
Ridge spent 50 minutes talking to eleven senators, most of whom stayed for just a few minutes.
Most of the questions were easy, and only Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow suggested Ridge should appear before Byrd's committee.
—The Associated Press