H. Thomas Hayden was formerly the President and CEO of First Communications Company (FCC), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a joint venture between Raytheon and a Saudi Company involved in Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence (C4I) Systems for the Ministry of Defense and Aviation, Saudi Arabian National Guard and Ministry of Interior. Before retiring from the US Marine Corps, assignments included Commanding Officer (CO), Headquarters and Service Bn, 1st Force Service Support Group, which deployed to the Gulf War, CO Brigade Service Support Group – 9, which deployed to Somalia and CO MAU Service Support Group – 33, which deployed to The Philippines and Korea. He was Branch Head, Headquarters Marine Corps, Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SO/LIC), and Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for SO/LIC with assignments to Central America. He has participated in combat operations or contingency operations in the Republic of Vietnam, Central America, Gulf War, Somalia, and Colombia. Tom has a MBA, MA in International Relations, and a PhD candidate in Business Management. He is the author of two books and is currently writing a third: SHADOW WAR: Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict; WARFIGHTING: Maneuver Warfare in the US Marine Corps. He has published over 40 articles and has been awarded the Navy League’s Alfred Thayer Mahan award for literary achievement.
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22 January 2004, was the final day to notify the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, NYC, whether families of the deceased from the three terrorist hijackings would file lawsuits or sign a waiver forgoing lawsuits in exchange for guaranteed compensation.
The families of the victims in the hijacked aircraft that crashed into the NYC World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field in Pennsylvania, deserve some compensation. But does their sacrifice exceed that of the men and women in the Armed Forces who have died in Afghanistan or Iraq?
Government life insurance for servicemembers killed while on active duty is $250,000. Some families of those killed on 9/11 have already received far more than any Armed Forces member could ever hope to receive. Some families are reported to be paid, or will be paid, around a million dollars.
The majority of families have agreed to accept compensation from the federal compensation fund - 2,924 of the total 2,976 eligible claims. However, some of the families are disguising their greed by claiming that by suing the government they “might” uncover new information about the attacks.
Family members should receive at least $250,000 and if some have antiterrorist insurance, they should be compensated for the face value of their policy.
The lawsuits argue that the government knew in 2001 that terrorists were targeting airlines, and took insufficient steps to stop the attacks. Additionally, the lawsuits claim that the government were aware of many flaws in airline and airport security programs.
Excuse me, but I thought that airline hijacking has been a terrorist tool since the 1970s.
Maybe the lawsuits might help reveal if FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attack in advance, or if spacemen landed at Roswell, or maybe they can shed new light on the Jack Kennedy assassination.
Conspiracy theories are the stuff that makes lawyers richer.
Lawsuits have been filed by more than a dozen lawyers against the airlines, the airport security companies, the Port Authority NYC & New Jersey, the Washington DC Airport Authority, and many others. Wonder why they did not include the U.S. Air Force and the Air National Guard for not being on combat air patrols that day?
The funny thing is that the preliminary reports of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (also known as the 9-11 Commission) have received very candid testimony from many government quarters. The greedy lawyers and their clients’ lawsuits seem to overlook what is being uncovered.
The Commission was set up in late 2002 as an independent, bipartisan commission, created by Congressional legislation with the President’s signature. The charter of the Commission is to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including preparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks.
The Commission learned in an FAA report to the airlines in early 2001 that the FAA discounted the threat of a suicide hijacking because there was “…no indication that any group is currently thinking in that direction.” Instead the FAA focused on the possibility that some terrorist group might conceal explosive devices inside luggage.
According to the AP News Service, on Monday, 26 January 2004, in the latest public hearing, the Commission heard that U.S. authorities missed some obvious signs that might have prevented some of the 9/11 hijackers from entering the country.
AP reporter Hope Yen reported that Customs Agent Jose E. Melendez-Perez testified that the the age and impeccable clothes of the reported leader of the hijackers, Mohamed Atta, appeared to contradict his story about being a student. Also, Atta had the wrong student visa.
Some of the hijackers were allowed into the country despite carrying false visas and being questioned by Custom Agents for irregularities in their statements. Hijacker Saeed al Ghamdi was referred to INS officials in June 2001, after he provided no address on his customs form and had only $500 and a one-way plane ticket. Melendez-Perez said that Atta raised enough red flags at customs that he should have been prevented from entering the U.S. It was Melendez-Perez who stopped a man at Orlando’s International Airport identified only as Al-Qahtani. INS officials put Al-Qahtani on a plane back to Saudi Arabia. He was later captured in Afghanistan by the U.S. military and is now in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The Commission reported: “our government did not fully exploit Al Qaeda’s travel vulnerabilities.”
Investigators say that at least two and as many as eight of the hijackers had fraudulent visas, and at least six violated immigration laws by overstaying their visas or failing to attend the schools the visas were issued for.
The Commission held its seventh and most recent hearing in Washington, DC on 26-27 January 2004. The ten-member, bi-partisan Commission is scrambling to meet the 27 May 2004 deadline to complete its report for Congress and the President. It claims that they are having problems with New York City officials and some in the Administration over access to documents.
Many on the Commission want to extend the deadline at least three months, but this would be at the height of the presidential campaigns.
Isn’t it amazing how certain sectors of the American society are always bashing the U.S. Armed Forces for too much activity in the private sector but let something like 9/11 happen, and yet they are the first to criticize the Armed Forces for not doing enough in domestic security?
