9/11 No More Excessive Secrecy

Press Release Source: The Office of Rep. Martin O. Sabo; 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt

Rep. Sabo, 9/11 Families Urge Senate to Stop TSA's Excessive Secrecy

June 22, 2006

9/11 Families Launch Ad Campaign to Spur Senate Action

WASHINGTON, June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Arguing that the truth is our most powerful weapon in the war on terrorism, Rep. Martin O. Sabo (D-Minn.) and the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism today urged the U.S. Senate to join the House in strengthening the law that requires the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to adopt procedures to release information that does not represent a risk of harm to the nation.

The U.S. House acted to end TSA's excessive secrecy when Reps. Sabo and Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), the ranking member and chairman, respectively, of the House Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, included language in Section 525 of the fiscal year 2007 House DHS Appropriations bill (H.R. 5441) requiring TSA to strive for openness.

The 9/11 families charge that TSA is hiding documents that are of no use to terrorists but would reveal how and why 19 hijackers were allowed to board four airplanes on September 11, 2001. Now, they are urging the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee to take similar action.

"Americans expect open and transparent government, and these 9/11 families are depending on it," said Rep. Sabo. "Though it has made some changes, TSA still has very poor procedures for designating Sensitive Security Information. Section 525 in the House Homeland Security Appropriations bill would force TSA to balance legitimate security needs with our nation's commitment to due process and freedom of information."

It's time to end TSA's cover-up," said Allison Vadhan of Atlantic Beach, N.Y., whose mother, Kristin White-Gould, died on board United Flight 93. "This is not only an abuse of power, it's a threat to every American's security. My mother and her fellow passengers were able to stop the terrorists because they had one weapon -- knowledge. Denying Americans knowledge about 9/11 deprives us of the power to prevent future attacks."

"TSA is out of control and Congress must rein it in," said Michael Low of Batesville, Ark., father of Sara Low, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11. "They are taking videos that were shown on national television, materials entered into the Congressional Record and documents long in the public domain and retroactively claiming they are top secret for no rational reason. They are claiming powers Congress never gave them and insisting they are accountable to no one. This is not how democracies work. Congressman Sabo and Chairman Rogers stood up for our democracy; now let's see the Senate show the same courage."

"Never have I seen more breathtaking arrogance than TSA has shown," said Ana Raley of Columbia, Md., who lost her husband Ian J. Gray, on American Airlines Flight 77. "In a desperate attempt to justify its excessive secrecy, TSA has the nerve to claim it can't release documents to 9/11 family members because we might turn them over to terrorists, the murderers of our loved ones! Yet the very same materials they deny to us, they provided to lawyers for a convicted terrorist, Zacarias Moussaoui. This begs the question, whose side is TSA on? I applaud the House for making TSA side with the American people and I urge the Senate to follow suit."

TSA's disorganized, unchecked and excessive designation of documents as Sensitive Security Information (SSI) has also earned the condemnation of respected jurists. In the Moussaoui death penalty trial, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said, "It's quite extraordinary that TSA has a tougher policy on disclosure than the CIA or the FBI or the NSA," and called the agency's behavior, "frustrating beyond belief." In 9/11 civil aviation litigation, U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said that TSA's intransigence on secrecy is "cruel and inhuman to the people involved."

To end TSA's abuses, Section 525 of the House DHS Appropriations bill, passed on June 6, 2006, requires TSA to:

* Release all information that is more than three years old and not
incorporated in a current, active transportation security directive or
plan unless TSA demonstrates a compelling reason why it would present a
risk of harm to the nation;
* Standardize and justify its practices for classifying documents as
secret; and
* Turn over documents requested by a judge in a legal proceeding unless

TSA demonstrates a compelling reason why it would present a risk of
harm to the nation.

The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security is now considering its version of the DHS Appropriations bill. With action pending, the 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism launched an advertising campaign to pressure the Senate to adopt the House's Section 525 language, with print ads running in Roll Call and several daily newspapers.

The 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism represents 6,161 survivors and family members of those who died in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The 9/11 Families are seeking to hold al Qaeda's financiers accountable for their central role in these atrocities and to make America safer by cutting off the financial pipeline fueling global terrorism.

SOURCE The Office of Rep. Martin O. Sabo; 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt Terrorism

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Source: The Office of Rep. Martin O. Sabo; 9/11 Families United to Bankrupt