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 For Immediate Release
Sep 27, 2002 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5188
“FATAL NEGLECT” REVEALS DASCHLES’ COMPROMISE OF NATIONAL SECURITY

Senator Daschle and His Lobbyist Wife Arranged for FAA to Purchase Faulty Bomb Detection Equipment


(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that its new book, Fatal Neglect: The U.S. Government’s Continuing Failure to Protect American Citizens from Terrorists, details the political power-plays and lobbying activities of Linda Hall Daschle, one of Washington’s most powerful lobbyists, who counts American Airlines, Northwest Airlines and Schering-Plough among her high profile corporate clients. Tom and Linda Daschle’s family budgets, and campaign budget, depend heavily on the success of big business – particularly the airline industry.

Consider the following:
  • As reported on CBS 60 Minutes, Tom Daschle was charged with inappropriately intervening to reduce safety inspections of an air-charter company owned by a family friend after one of the planes crashed in 1994, killing four. While at the FAA, Linda Daschle acted to exempt the friend’s airline from intensified safety inspections.

  • The FAA is forced to buy baggage scanners from one of Linda Daschle’s clients, L-3 International, according to the 2000 transportation budget, despite the fact that the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General from the Transportation Department found the equipment to be substandard, some even leaking radiation. The inspector general told Congress that the FAA’s requirement to buy L-3’s machines is one reason airports will not be able to meet the new mandate to screen all luggage for bombs for many years, placing Americans seriously at further risk.

  • The air transport industry donated more than $100,000 to Daschle’s campaign in the last election cycle. Linda Daschle’s client, Northwest Airlines, is the second largest contributor to the Senator¹s campaign in 1998.

  • Linda Daschle was recently cited in an FAA report for failing to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy she announced in 1996 while Deputy Director of the FAA against violent airline passengers, a pledge that some say could have prevented the September 11th terrorist hijackings.

  • Judicial Watch has filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the FAA to uncover Linda Daschle’s role in the selection of the faulty L-3 bomb detecting equipment prior to September 11th and to uncover Senator Daschle’s role as well. Judicial Watch is now in court to try to force the release of these documents. Once obtained, Judicial Watch will consider legal action against the Daschles.
By reading Fatal Neglect: The U.S. Government’s Continuing Failure to Protect American Citizens from Terrorists, you can discover the behind-the-scenes workings of your government and industry lobbyists. Visit the Judicial Watch Internet site: Click Here to obtain a copy.


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