Air security better post-9/11, but vigilance needed

Most but not all of the 19 September 11 attackers would have been picked up beforehand if today's air travel security had been in place, so vigilance is still needed, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.

"We think that with many of the rules on travel and screening that have been put into places since 9/11, all but four of the 9/11 attackers would have been picked up," Napolitano, on a tour of Europe and the Gulf, told reporters.

"So there's been a lot of progress made. But I said 'all but four'. So again you cannot thermoseal the entire United States of America. It means we have to be ever vigilant."

The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, when al Qaeda hijackers commandeered four planes, slamming two into New York's World Trade Center and one into the Pentagon outside Washington. The fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

The United States now requires operators of international flights to and from the United States to electronically provide full advance manifests of their passengers and crew before departure, to keep suspected terrorists off such flights.

Napolitano, who has already visited Ireland, said she would also travel to Portugal, Spain and Kuwait to discuss aviation security, cyber security and violent extremism.

She said the issue of terrorism "is always with us."

"I wake every morning with the belief that terrorism is there and that there are those who seek to harm us and they are looking for ways to do so. I don't have the wherewithal to say we have taken care of that issue. The issue is how to minimize the risk."

She agreed in answer to questions that Somalia and Yemen were of growing concern as sites of militant activity, but declined to elaborate.

Court won't hear Sept. 11 claims vs. Saudi Arabia

The Supreme Court has refused to allow victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue lawsuits against Saudi Arabia and four of its princes over charitable donations that were allegedly funneled to al-Qaida.

The court, in an order Monday, is leaving in place the ruling of a federal appeals court that the country and the princes are protected by sovereign immunity, which generally means that foreign countries can't be sued in American courts.

The Obama administration had angered some victims and families by urging the justices to pass up the case.

In their appeal, the more than 6,000 plaintiffs said the government's court brief filed in early June was an "apparent effort to appease a sometime ally" just before President Barack Obama's visit to Saudi Arabia.

At issue were obstacles in American law to suing foreign governments and their officials as well as the extent to which people can be held financially responsible for acts of terrorism committed by others.

The appeal was filed by relatives of victims killed in the attacks and thousands of people who were injured, as well as businesses and governments that sustained property damage and other losses.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York previously upheld a federal judge's ruling throwing out the lawsuits. The appeals court said the defendants were protected by sovereign immunity and the plaintiffs would need to prove that the princes engaged in intentional actions aimed at U.S. residents.

In their appeal to the high court, both sides cited the report of the Sept. 11 Commission. The victims noted that the report said Saudi Arabia had long been considered the primary source of al-Qaida funding. The Saudis' court filing, however, pointed out that the commission "found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization."

The victims' lawsuits claim that the defendants gave money to charities in order to funnel it to terrorist organizations that were behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

The appeal also stressed that federal appeals courts have reached conflicting decisions about when foreign governments and their officials can be sued.

The case is Federal Insurance Co. v. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, 08-640.

9/11 stress cited in ex-cop's NY school melee case

The former New York City policeman who stormed into a suburban middle school with a gun had to sort through body parts after 9/11 and suffers from post-traumatic stress, his attorney said Tuesday.

Defense lawyer Gerard Damiani spoke after the former officer, Peter Cocker, pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in Rockland County Court. Cocker, 37, of Tappan, is charged with kidnapping, burglary, coercion and gun crimes.

Police say Cocker stormed past a security guard at South Orangetown Middle School in Blauvelt last Tuesday, locked himself in an office with district Superintendent Ken Mitchell and threatened to shoot him in the heart. Police learned later that Cocker's revolver was unloaded.

As police were called and the school went into lockdown, Mitchell tried to talk Cocker into giving up the gun, then tackled and disarmed him, police said.

Prosecutors said Cocker, who had a child with the flu, was upset over a letter Mitchell had sent to parents about swine flu policy. The letter said absenteeism was rising but the district was following Rockland County Health Department advice not to close schools.

Cocker apparently wanted the schools closed, District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said Tuesday.

Cocker on Tuesday wore an orange prison jumpsuit to court, with "R.C. JAIL" on the back. His hands were shackled to his waist. Assistant District Attorney Richard Moran said Cocker had made statements that would be used against him.

County Judge Catherine Bartlett set a conference for next Tuesday. Damiani said he may then ask that bail be set. Several friends and relatives of Cocker were in the gallery but would not comment afterward.

Outside the courthouse, Damiani said Cocker is on disability leave from the New York Police Department with post-traumatic stress disorder. He said Cocker had been involved in a shootout and that after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, "he did participate with respect to 9/11 aftermath, spent a week separating body parts."

He said Cocker's actions at the school were "totally out of character, and that's one of the areas that we will be looking at."

The district attorney held a news conference later and would not comment on Crocker's stress disorder but added, "We know we have a very serious offense here from a very violent offender, and we intend to prosecute it accordingly."

He also said it was "unimportant" that Cocker's gun turned out to be unloaded.

"Neither the superintendent nor the police responding knew that the gun was unloaded," he said. "The assumption was that it was loaded, which could have led to a lot of injuries. ... So the seriousness is the same and the law treats it almost the same."

Chief Kevin Nulty of the Orangetown police force, which covers Blauvelt, said detectives were tracing Cocker's gun to see if he owned it legally.

If convicted, Cocker faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.

The district attorney added to the praise that has been heaped on Mitchell by parents, politicians and other officials.

"His cool thinking during an extremely tense time likely prevented injuries had the matter escalated, which it could have very easily," he said. He also praised the Orangetown police officers who eventually shot out the door handle and rushed in to rescue Mitchell despite the fear of being shot.

Sept. 11 memorial to feature audio-visual display

Audio-visual tributes to the thousands of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks will form the core of the museum commemorating the day's destruction, officials announced Wednesday.

Victims' families have been asked to share materials for the underground exhibit within the footprint of the toppled World Trade Center's south tower. They also must confirm the accuracy of the names to be inscribed around two aboveground memorial pools, surrounded by a park.

"The key to this part of the museum is participation by friends and families of the victims," said Joseph C. Daniels, president and chief executive of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation. "We're asking them to leave us recordings and images or remembrances of those they lost."

Through a new telephone initiative — "Call to Remember" — relatives and friends are being asked "to pick up the phone and spend time reflecting on those they lost," Daniels said.

More than 3,000 packets announcing the effort have been mailed.

The resulting materials will be at the core of tributes to victims including names and photographs flashed on a wall of the museum 70 feet (21 meters) underground. In an adjacent mini-theater Daniels calls the exhibit's "inner sanctum," visitors will view continuous movies, images and narration commemorating each of the more than 2,900 victims of the Sept. 11 attack.

Another section of the museum will "tell the story of 9/11," Daniels said.

To enter the exhibit, visitors will cross a footbridge and pass remnants of the south tower's columns. They will then see a 12-foot (3.7-meter)-high wall of portraits, with display consoles offering details about an individual's life.

Those remembered will include victims of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people, as well as those who died on Sept. 11 at the Pentagon, in the four hijacked planes and aboard the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania.

The memorial is expected to open by the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks, and the museum a year later.

Daniels said no victim will be left out. Anyone for whom materials are not submitted will be honored using portraits used in the 2006 trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, who is serving a life sentence for conspiring to kill U.S. citizens as part of the Sept. 11 attacks.

More than $350 in government and private funds has been raised so far toward the $700 million projected budget for the memorial and museum, Daniels said.

Global airlines to lose 9 billion dollars in 2009

The world's airlines are expected to lose nine billion dollars this year, industry body IATA has said, describing the current crisis as worse than the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

The losses -- almost double an estimate made just three months ago -- will come on the back of an estimated 80-billion-dollar drop in carriers' 2009 revenues due to plunging passenger and freight demand despite lower fuel costs.

"There is no modern precedent for today's economic meltdown. The ground has shifted. Our industry has been shaken," said Giovanni Bisignani, director-general of the International Air Transport Association.

Carriers in all regions are expect to report losses in 2009, with Asia-Pacific airlines -- once the brightest spot of the industry -- accounting for more than a third of the global total at 3.3 billion dollars.

"This is the most difficult situation that the industry has faced," Bisignani said in a speech to industry leaders at the 65th IATA Annual General Meeting and World Air Transport Summit in Kuala Lumpur.

He called for greater liberalisation in the industry and warned that higher oil prices resulting from speculation when the world economy recovers could add further pain to the airline sector.

In March, IATA had forecast 2009 losses at 4.7 billion dollars, but it was forced to drastically raise the figure as well as revise 2008 industry losses up to 10.4 billion dollars, from an earlier estimate of 8.5 billion dollars.

Bisignani said the impact of the global financial and economic crisis was worse than that of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

After the attacks, global airline revenues tumbled by 7.0 percent and it took three years for the industry to recover despite a strong global economy, he said.

"This time we face a 15 percent drop -- a loss of revenues of 80 billion US dollars -- in the middle of a global recession," he said.

The industry is expected to generate 448 billion dollars in revenues this year, down from 528 billion dollars in 2008.

"Our future depends on a drastic reshaping by partners, governments and industry. We cannot bear the cost of government micro-regulation, crazy taxation and partners abusing their monopoly power," the IATA head said.

Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, played down the forecast.

"Where did he get the figures? He is just estimating," he told AFP, adding that his company was still determined to order 200 new planes from 2009 to 2017 in addition to the 84 now in its modern fleet.

Zhang Lin, vice director-general of China Southern Airlines, was still optimistic that his company would post growth this year.

"We experienced two-digit growth last year. This year it will be one-digit growth because of the recession," he said.

The airline industry has been among the worst hit by the economic crisis, which struck in the third quarter of last year after a US mortgage crisis spun out of control.

The world's airlines are expected to lose nine billion dollars this year, industry body IATA said Monday in a drastic reassessment of the worst slump the industry has ever faced.

The forecast is almost double an estimate made just three months ago, making the crisis worse than the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, the International Air Transport Association said.

Combined with the revised estimate that it lost 10.4 billion dollars in 2008, the industry now looks set to lose almost 20 billion dollars over two years.

"There is no modern precedent for today's economic meltdown. The ground has shifted. Our industry has been shaken," IATA director-general Giovanni Bisignani told the association's annual meeting.

Despite lower fuel charges, airlines will suffer from a drop of eight percent in passenger demand and 17 percent in cargo demand in 2009 as the global economy grapples with its worst recession since the 1930s.

Even an economic recovery could complicate things if "greedy speculation" sends oil prices rising again, Bisignani warned.

Carriers in all regions are expected to report losses in 2009, with Asia-Pacific airlines -- once the brightest spot of the industry -- accounting for more than a third of the global total loss at 3.3 billion dollars.

"This is the most difficult situation that the industry has faced," Bisignani said, calling for greater liberalisation in the industry.

In March, IATA had forecast 2009 losses at 4.7 billion dollars, but it was forced to drastically raise the figure as well as revise 2008 industry losses up to 10.4 billion dollars, from an earlier estimate of 8.5 billion dollars.

Bisignani said the impact of the global financial and economic crisis was worse than that of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

After the attacks, global airline revenues tumbled by 7.0 percent and it took three years for the industry to recover despite a strong global economy, he said.

"This time we face a 15 percent drop -- a loss of revenues of 80 billion US dollars -- in the middle of a global recession," he said.

The industry is expected to generate 448 billion dollars in revenues in 2009, down from 528 billion dollars in 2008.

"Our future depends on a drastic reshaping by partners, governments and industry. We cannot bear the cost of government micro-regulation, crazy taxation and partners abusing their monopoly power," the IATA head said.

Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, played down the forecast.

"Where did he get the figures? He is just estimating," he told AFP, adding that his company was still determined to order 200 new planes from 2009 to 2017 in addition to the 84 now in its modern fleet.

But Shukor Yusof, an aviation analyst with Standard and Poor's Equity Research in Singapore, said "my own feeling is that it could even get worse, depending on how the next six months pan out."

"Nothing can shake up the industry more than by looking at those numbers," said Shukor, who was attending the IATA conference.

Despite the grim numbers, IATA said its members were still committed to controlling emissions, for which the fuel-guzzling industry has been criticised by environmentalists, even if the industry returns to growth.

"Two years ago we set a vision to achieve carbon-neutral growth on the way to a carbon-free future," Bisignani said.

"Today we have taken a major step forward by committing to a global cap on our emissions in 2020. After this date, aviation?s emissions will not grow even as demand increases."