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[size=4]Mineta reverses stand on armed-pilot issue[/size=4]
[b]Transportation chief orders study
of 'lethal weapons' in cockpits[/b]
Posted: July 24, 2002 1:00 a.m. Eastern
By Jon Dougherty © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
In a dramatic turnaround, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has ordered the new head of the Transportation Security Administration to study options for arming the nation's 70,000 commercial pilots with "lethal force" capabilities.
"It is under discussion in terms of should we take another approach," Mineta told the House Transportation Committee's aviation subcommittee during testimony on Tuesday. "I have asked [TSA Administrator James Loy] to take a look at this to see whether or not there is some alternative, even if it is lethal weapons."
Loy, former head of the U.S. Coast Guard, replaced John Magaw as head of TSA last week.
"We're pleased to see the sea change that the Department of Transportation is undergoing and their new willingness to consider arming pilots with lethal force," said Capt. Tracy Price, head of the Airline Pilots' Security Alliance, an industry group that supports allowing pilots to carry guns. "This common sense measure has overwhelming support in both houses of Congress, among professional airline pilots and with the American people."
"We're considering this an endorsement of all the work we've been doing" on legislation that would permit pilots to fly armed, said Brian Darling, a spokesman for Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H.
Mineta, a Clinton appointee held over by Bush, historically has opposed allowing pilots to fly armed. [b]But his change of heart comes at a time when many on Capitol Hill and in the administration were becoming frustrated with the TSA's slow progress towards improving airport security – its primary function.[/b]
Besides facing charges by some lawmakers that the TSA has frittered away much of its resources on bureaucracy building, sources in Washington say some inside the Bush administration are becoming exasperated with the TSA's seeming inability to meet a November deadline to have all airport security screeners in place, as promised by Mineta and Magaw.
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