Are Congress' Plans for Airline Security Secure?

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The pistol carried past checkpoints and onto a plane in New Orleans is just one dramatic security lapse since September 11. Despite differences over federalizing baggage screeners, the House and Senate agree on the urgency of improving airline safety. Both want more air marshals, secure cockpit doors, and even guns for properly trained pilots. But FAA whistle-blowers and critics of bureaucratic inertia contend that's not enough. We hear from several airline safety experts, including the former CEO of Israel's El Al Airlines.
  • Newmaker: Washington State's Reaction to Bridge Threat - National Guard troops have been sent to California suspension bridges because of what Governor Davis calls "credible threats" of terrorist attacks. But Davis is taking some heat for causing undue alarm. Peter Callahan of Tacoma's News Tribune has the response of other West Coast governors who chose not to go public.
  • Reporter's Notebook: Bush Signs Executive Order Blocking Access to Presidential Documents - President Bush signed an executive order last night that would change the rules for access to presidential papers, rules established after court fights over documents from the Nixon Administration. Historian and presidential biographer Robert Dallek shares the outrage of other historians, scholars and journalists to limit access to presidential papers.

The News Tribune

Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber

Washington State Patrol

El Al Airlines

Federal Aviation Administration

Rand Corporation

US Department of Transportation

Credits

Host:

Warren Olney