BREAKING NEWS STORIES
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
Two Top Air Force Officials to Leave
June 05, 2008 12:57 PM
ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports:
A senior defense official confirms that the top two officials in the U.S. Air Force -- Chief of Staff Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael Wynne -- are soon to be fired.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked for the resignations after a blistering, and still classified, report on the screwup that resulted in nuclear fuses being sent to Taiwan. Said one official, "It's a very serious report that makes very serious allegations."
Another senior defense official told ABC News, "This is about holding senior officers to high standards of accountability. It's one of the most important things for the United States military."
The official says they are being fired because of "a pattern of leadership decisions" and lack of leadership.
The pattern includes:
- The accidental shipment of sensitive nuclear technology to Taiwan (this was "the last straw")
- the incident in September 2006 when the Air Force accidentally flew live nuclear bombs over U.S. airspace aboard a B-52.
- the $50 million public relations contract to promote the Thunderbirds that was improperly given to a retired AF general
- the statements of a top general that directly contracted Gates about spending on Air Force F-22s
This will be the second service secretary to be fired by Robert Gates. Last year, he fired Army Secretary Francis Harvey.
This news was first reported in the Air Force Times.
At a press gaggle, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told reporters on camera, "The White House has not played any role" in this.
June 5, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (23) | TrackBack (0)
Get 'Em While They're Hot
May 15, 2008 4:15 PM
ABC News' Lisa Stark Reports: United Airlines is offering cheap tickets - by accident - until later this evening.
On Thursday, the carrier said it mistakenly removed its fuel surcharges from all domestic tickets, and the airline can't correct its error until later tonight. The mistake will result in $130 savings on a roundtrip ticket.
It was a clerical error that removed fuel charge from all domestic fares. United was preparing for a June 1 regulation that will require the airline to issue any child traveling on someone's lap with a ticket, even though the ticket won't cost anything.
United said someone was testing the ticket for infants to ensure they wouldn't face a fuel surcharge and that's when they accidentally took that fuel surcharge off all domestic tickets.
FareCompare.com, a Web site that monitors ticket prices, first reported the error.
United says the error will be resolved at 8 p.m. EST.
May 15, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
American Airlines Again Cancels Hundreds of Flights
April 08, 2008 5:35 PM
ABC News' Matt Hosford Reports: American Airlines is once again pulling 300 MD-80 airplanes out of service.
American is cancelling as many as 500 flights today and anticipates additional cancellations on Wednesday.
The airline says it is again reinspecting the same wire bundles that caused the carrier trouble two weeks ago. The inspections are not a safety issue, but rather a matter of precise technical compliance, according to the airline.
"We regret and apologize that we are once again causing inconvenience to our customers, but we will continue to work in good faith until we satisfy all of the technical issues related to this airworthiness directive," said Gerard Arpey, Chairman and CEO of American Airlines.
In late March, American canceled hundreds of flights to examine the same issues. The airline is required to secure wiring at every inch, and the aircraft were reinspected because they may have had the bundles secured every 1¼ or 1½ inches.
Delta Airlines, which also pulled its MD-80's in March, tells ABC News that it has no plans as of yet to cancel its flights again.
"We are working closely with the FAA to ensure that we are in continued compliance with the intent of the AD," a spokesperson for the airline said. "There is no additional action planned at this time."
April 8, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (16) | TrackBack (0)
TSA Stops Person With Suspicious Items
April 01, 2008 6:42 PM
ABC News' Jason Ryan and Matt Hosford Report: A Jamaican national was stopped and arrested at the Orlando airport today, found to have components which could be used to make a pipe bomb.
The Transportation Security Administration, the FBI and local authorities responded to the scene. The FBI is currently analyzing the recovered items.
The person being investigated was identified by a TSA behavioral detection officer when the officer noticed certain tell tale signs that raised suspicion.
The TSA officer then asked law enforcement to intervene. The uniformed TSA officer was working in the front of the airport, so the suspect was apprehended long before he arrived at the airport's security checkpoint.
The FBI continues to investigate the situation. Airport operations have returned to normal.
April 1, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
FAA To Review All Airline Inspections
March 18, 2008 2:07 PM
ABC News' Lisa Stark Reports: The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday will announce it will conduct a review of maintenance compliance at all airlines.
The announcement comes on the heels of an investigation into Southwest's inspection procedures. On March 7, the Federal Aviation Administration announced it was proposing the largest fine ever imposed against a passenger airline against Southwest. The FAA proposed a $10.2 million fine because, it said, the airline failed to do required safety checks on its older aircraft. Six of those planes were later found to have cracks in them. Last week, the airline grounded several dozen planes as both internal and external investigators look into the airline's inspection and safety practices.
FAA inspectors will check how each airline has complied with ten different airworthiness directives. A government official said Tuesday there is no indication of further problems, but said the FAA needs to be overly cautious to ensure that what happened at Southwest isn't happening elsewhere. By end of June, inspectors will need to review a sampling of 10 percent of airlines' airworthiness directives to make sure they're doing the proper maintenance.
The FAA expects results of the first phase of its investigation by March 28th. A congressional panel will further examine the Southwest inspection flap and other FAA oversight issues on April 3rd.
March 18, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda
March 13, 2008 2:44 PM
ABC News has requested and obtained a copy of the Pentagon study which shows Saddam Hussein had no links to Al Qaeda.
It's government report the White House didn't want you to read: yesterday the Pentagon canceled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's availability and didn't make the report available via email or online.
Based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion and thousands of hours of interrogations of former officials in Saddam's government now in US custody, the government report is the first official acknowledgment from the US military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to al Qaeda.
The Bush administration apparently didn't want the study to get any attention. The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website yesterday, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report was made available to those who asked for it, and was sent via overnight mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
Asked yesterday why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."
Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."
March 13, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (131) | TrackBack (0)
Pentagon Report on Saddam's Iraq Censored?
March 12, 2008 1:58 PM
ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: The Bush Administration apparently does not want a U.S. military study that found no direct connection between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda to get any attention. This morning, the Pentagon cancelled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's release and will no longer make the report available online.
The report was to be posted on the Joint Forces Command website this afternoon, followed by a background briefing with the authors. No more. The report will be made available only to those who ask for it, and it will be sent via U.S. mail from Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.
It won't be emailed to reporters and it won't be posted online.
Asked why the report would not be posted online and could not be emailed, the spokesman for Joint Forces Command said: "We're making the report available to anyone who wishes to have it, and we'll send it out via CD in the mail."
Another Pentagon official said initial press reports on the study made it "too politically sensitive."
ABC News obtained the comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism on Tuesday. Read the report's executive summary HERE.
The study, which was due to be released Wednesday, found no "smoking gun" or any evidence of a direct connection between Saddam's Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist organization.
The report is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion. It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody.
Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information. Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda.
The study does, however, show that Saddam Hussein did much to support terrorism in the Middle East and used terrorism "as a routine tool of state power." Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000." The U.S. military is still dealing with the fall-out from this particular program.
The report says Saddam's bureaucrats carefully recorded the regime's connections to Palestinian terrorists groups and its financial support for the families of suicide bombers.
The primary target, however, of Saddam's terror activities was not the United States, and not Israel. "The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq." Saddam's primary aim was self preservation and the elimination of potential internal threats to his power.
Bush administration officials have made numerous attempts to link Saddam Hussein and the Al Qaeda terror group in their justification for waging war against Iraq.
"What I want to bring to your attention today is the potentially much more sinister nexus between Iraq and the Al Qaida terrorist network," former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told the United Nations February 5, 2003.
On June 18, 2004 the Washington Post quoted President George W. Bush as saying: "The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda: because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda," Bush said.
"This administration never said that the 9/11 attacks were orchestrated between Saddam and al Qaeda," The Washington Post quoted Bush as saying. "We did say there were numerous contacts between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda."
"We know he's out trying once again to produce nuclear weapons and we know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the al-Qaeda organization," Vice President Dick Cheney said on NBC's Meet The Press March 16, 2003.
"But the cost is far less than it will be if we get hit, for example, with a weapon that Saddam Hussein might provide to al-Qaeda, the cost to the United States of what happened on 9/11 with billions and billions of dollars and 3,000 lives. And the cost will be much greater in a future attack if the terrorists have access to the kinds of capabilities that Saddam Hussein has developed," Cheney said.
''There is no question but that there have been interactions between the Iraqi government, Iraqi officials and Al Qaeda operatives. They have occurred over a span of some 8 or 10 years to our knowledge. There are currently Al Qaeda in Iraq,'' former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in a interview with Infinity CBS Radio, Nov. 14, 2002.
March 12, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (111) | TrackBack (0)
U.S. Military Concludes No Saddam Link to Al Qaeda
March 11, 2008 9:49 AM
ABC News' Jonathan Karl Reports: ABC News has obtained a comprehensive military study of Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism. The study, which is due to be released Wednesday, is based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion. It is also based on thousands of hours of interrogations of former top officials in Saddam's government who are now in U.S. custody.
The headline: "This study found no 'smoking gun' (i.e., direct connection) between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda."
Others have reached the same conclusion, but no previous study has had access to so much information. Further, this is the first official acknowledgement from the U.S. military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to Al Qaeda.
The study does, however, show that Saddam Hussein did much to support terrorism in the Middle East and used terrorism "as a routine tool of state power." Saddam's government, for example, had a program for the "development, construction, certification and training for car bombs and suicide vests in 1999 and 2000." The U.S. military is still dealing with the fall-out from this particular program.
The report says Saddam's bureaucrats carefully recorded the regime's connections to Palestinian terrorists groups and its financial support for the families of suicide bombers.
The primary target, however, of Saddam's terror activities was not the United States, and not Israel. "The predominant targets of Iraqi state terror operations were Iraqi citizens, both inside and outside of Iraq." Saddam's primary aim was self preservation and the elimination of potential internal threats to his power.
March 11, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (166) | TrackBack (0)
News Roundup in a Minute -- Click Here
March 01, 2008 11:05 AM
From The Associated Press:
Texas, Ohio loom...Plane crash...Mideast peace talks in peril
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Barack Obama is suggesting his rival shifts positions "to fit the politics of the moment." At a Rhode Island arena, the Illinois senator said Hillary Rodham Clinton began to oppose NAFTA after she decided to run for president. Rhode Island joins Texas, Ohio and Vermont in voting Tuesday.
SAN ANTONIO (AP) - Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton is sharpening her criticism of rival Barack Obama. Talking with reporters aboard her campaign plane over Texas, Clinton says Obama's "entire campaign is based on a speech he gave at an anti-war rally in 2002." She says "the speech was not followed up by action."
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) - A witness says it looked like the pilot of a small airplane was having problems landing before the craft slammed into another plane taxiing. Two people were killed and two more critically injured in the crash at an airfield in Titusville, Florida.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Moderate Palestinian leaders are threatening to call off peace talks after at least 54 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire targeting rocket squads in Gaza. The Israeli military says two soldiers were killed and seven wounded in the violence.
BAGHDAD (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to become the first ever Iranian
leader to visit Iraq. The Iranian president will touch down in Baghdad tomorrow morning and visit with the Iraqi president. Once considered Iraq's archenemy, Iran is now cozy with Baghdad's Shiite-led government.
March 1, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Delta-Northwest Merger Taking a Nosedive?
February 26, 2008 6:10 PM
ABC News' Lisa Stark and Matt Hosford Report: Tonight the Delta-Northwest mega merger deal is on the ropes. The two airlines have been talking for weeks, trying to see if they could combine to become the nation's largest carrier.
Tonight in an internal memo obtained by ABC News, Delta CEO Richard Anderson tells the rank and file, "To date we have not arrived at a potential transaction that meets all of our principles."
Anderson added, "Rest assured that we will not complete a transaction unless all of these conditions are met."
One key sticking point remains the pilots.
Delta and Northwest pilots have been trying to come to an agreement on seniority -- in other words, an understanding on how the two groups would merge their seniority lists fairly. So far, pilots haven't been able to come to terms.
There had been some speculation that Delta management might continue with the merger, even without the pilot agreement. Tonight sources tell ABC News that won't happen.
No word on how much longer the two sides will continue to try to hammer out an agreement. But one source tells ABC News that time is running out.
A Delta spokesperson would not comment on the status of the negotiations, in fact, in keeping with Delta's practice on this topic, she wouldn't even confirm that talks are ongoing.
February 26, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (17) | TrackBack (0)
