The American Spectator October, 2000 LENGTH: 2320 words HEADLINE: TWA 800's Final Dissent The woman who called Al Gore and Jim Hall's bluff. by John B. Roberts II
CUMMOCK, APPELLANT v. ALBERT GORE, JR., ET AL., APPELLEES UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT 336 U.S. App. D.C. 347; 180 F.3d 282; June 18, 1999, Decided.
How Gore aborted air safety Joe Farah Worldnetdaily 2001http: //www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=24638
The Cost of Life By Jon Loose and Connie Hair, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/530684/posts
I have quoted directly from these sources below, without specific attribution.
September 9: Gore held a press conference to announce the commission’s preliminary report that promised, "to take the strongest measures possible to reduce the risk of terrorism and sabotage to airline passengers and crews."
September 19: Gore sent a letter to airline lobbyist Carol Hallett promising that the commission's findings would not result in any loss of revenue.
September 20: the Democratic National Committee received $40,000 from TWA.
Within two weeks, Northwest, United and American Airlines contribute $55,000. According to the Washington Times, Whitehouse Spokesman, Ginny Terzano gave no denial when asked whether Al Gore solicited these airline donations personally.
Within the two months leading up to the November elections, American Airlines donated $250,000, United donated $100,000, Northwest donated $53,000.
January, 1997: Gore floated a draft final report that eliminated all security measures from the commission's findings, according to an insider. Two commission members balked, as did CIA Director John Deutch. Gore pulled back the draft report.
In February of 1997, Victoria Cummock called the report "toothless." She informed Gore that unless specific implementation dates were added in the report she would file a dissent, because the airline industry would not have to do anything until such measures were mandated.
On February 12, 1997, an open meeting was held on the commission’s final report. Gore made a point to inform Ms. Cummock that he would leave room for her dissent to the final report. NBC Dateline caught these comments on videotape. Also on videotape was Mr. Gore presenting the final report to President Clinton minutes later and pronouncing that the report had unanimous consent. But it didn’t.
February 12: Final report issued. The report had no suggested implementation dates. It suggested things such as:
Cummock sued for the right to see documents the other Commissioners got to see that were kept from her, despite her security clearance, and to include her full dissent in the report. In mid 1999 Ms. Cummock won her case in the D.C. Court of Appeals.
In the long drawn out and impeded discovery process a memo was discovered from a CIA staffer, specializing in psychological profiling. According to The American Spectator, the memo stated that Cummock could be "kept in line if she believes progress could be made" but "could become a major problem."
Other political documents in the files include speech drafts and fundraising documents detailing meetings with airline industry executives who contributed heavily to the Democratic Party while the Gore commission was deliberating over security proposals that could have cost the industry millions of dollars.
Because no outsider knew about the existence of these documents in the Transportation Department archives before Cummock's suit prevailed last year, they were not produced for congressional committees probing the 1996 Clinton-Gore fundraising.