Tonight the History Channel aired a 90 minute show recalling a failed assassination attempt in 1974 on President Richard Nixon. The dramatization and file footage tells the tale of a mentall ill man who shot is way onto a Delta airlines flight preparing to leave Baltimore’s airport a mere 5 minutes away by air from the White House. His plan was to fly the plane into the White House killing President Nixon. While the part about him taking over the plane was covered in the newspapers of the time. His goal of flying the plane into the White House was kept quiet. It was however known as Baltimore police recovered two hours of audio tape from his car found in the airport parking lot detailing his plan and his reasons for doing so. This evidence was forwarded to both the US Secret Service who are in charge of protecting the President as well as the F.B.I.

The incident was also referenced in a 1995 White House Security Report.
This report’s unclassified portions are available on the web:White House Report

Under in the chapeter entitled “History of Ground and Air Assults on the White House Complex” in a section called “Air Incursions and Attempted Air Incursions” contains the following paragraph (emphasis added):

Samuel Byck (February 1974). Samuel Byck, a failed businessman with a history of mental illness, was investigated by the Secret Service in 1972 on the basis of reports that he had threatened President Nixon. In 1974, he hatched a plan called "Operation Pandora's Box" to hijack a commercial airliner and crash it into the Executive Mansion. On February 22, less than a week after the Preston incident, Byck went to Baltimore/Washington International Airport carrying a pistol and a gasoline bomb. He forced his way onto a Delta flight destined for Atlanta by shooting a guard at the security checkpoint. He entered the cockpit and ordered the crew to take off. After the crew informed him that they could not depart without removing the wheel blocks, Byck shot the pilot twice and the co-pilot three times (the co-pilot died). Police outside the airplane shot into the cockpit and hit Byck twice. Byck fell to the floor, put the revolver to his head, and killed himself.


In her testimony before Congress as well as in the media, then National Security Advisor, Condisleea Rice repeatedly insisted that nobody had ever thought of flying a plane into a building before September 11, 2001. The Time magazine of May 17, 2002, even quotes her as saying as much:

Responding to the subtext, that the administration could have prevented 9/11, kept Ari Fleischer and Condoleeza Rice busy for the rest of the week. The explanation is the inherently obvious one: They surprised us, plain and simple, with a planes-as-missiles tactical leap. "There's been a long-standing awareness in the intelligence community, shared with the president, about the potential for bin Laden to have hijacking in the traditional sense," Fleischer said. Bush, he added, put out a secret alert based on the information the administration had, which wasn't much. Added Rice Thursday: "The government did everything that it could — in a period in which the information was very generalized, in which there was nothing specific in which to react — and had this president known of something more specific or known that a plane was going to be used as a missile, he would have acted on it.

Isn't it funny how lunatic madmen 30 years ago were able to think of things that government officals and people at the top levels of national security aren't ?

How could so many people in government security and intelligence be so unaware ?

13 Americans with Some Balls

Senator Akaka (HI)
Senator Bayh (IN)
Senator Boxer (CA)
Senator Byrd (WV)
Senator Dayton (MN)
Senator Durbin (IL)
Senator Harkin (IA)
Senator Jeffords (VT)
Senator Kennedy (MA)
Senator Kerry (MA)
Senator Lautenburg (NJ)
Senator Levin (MI)
Senator Reed (RI)

Today the US Senate approved the President's nomination of Condisleeza Rice as Secretary of State by an 85-13 vote. This is the most votes against a nominee for Secretary of State since 1825. If one of your Senators is NOT on this list you should contact them and ask them why they approved such a poorly qualified candidate for such an important office.

NEW poll shows most Americans against war

In a new CNN/USAToday/Gallup Poll, a majority of Americans express the view that the U.S. made a mistake in going to war against Iraq.The poll, released on Tuesday, shows that 51% now hold this view, with 48% supporting the decision to go to war. In November those numbers were virtually reversed.

In January 2004, 63% approved of the war and 35% disapproved.

By 58% to 39% the public disapproves of the way the U.S. has handled things in Iraq in recent months.

Nearly half the sample says things are worse in Iraq than a year ago, with only 20% saying it is going better.

Assist in Asian Earthquake relief



There was no way to stop the massive waves triggered by the Dec. 26 earthquake from sweeping across South Asia and killing tens of thousands of people. But in Sri Lanka, where an estimated 25,000 people have lost their lives, Oxfam is in the rare position of being able-immediately-to help stop the second wave of death that follows such disasters: death from disease.

Because Oxfam was already working in the small island nation off the southern tip of India, the agency was able to spring into action soon after the tsunami crashed to shore. The story of A.R.M. Saifullah, Oxfam's assistant program coordinator in Trincomalee, is just one example of how the agency's close relationship with local partners, its knowledge of the Sri Lankan terrain and its people has allowed the aid group to move fast to save lives.

The disaster has displaced an estimated 1.2 million people in Sri Lanka. In places the wave washed more than a mile inland. People had already been hit by heavy floods over the last 10 days and half the paddy crop may have been lost. The flood waters have contaminated wells and clean water is scarce.

Reports are coming in from Oxfam staff members on the ground in several places and rapid field assessments are underway in six areas. In Trincomalee water still lies about six feet deep and crops have been destroyed. The flood waters have contaminated wells and clean water is scarce.

In Vavuniya and Batticoloa, Oxfam staffers are already providing temporary latrines, roofing sheets, plastic sheeting for shelter, mats, bed sheets, and sanitary napkins. In Killinochchi, staff members provided cooked food to people who were waiting for the release of the bodies of their relatives. In Batticoloa, too, staffers were involved in rescue and medical assistance, taking a number of people to hospital.

A cargo plane loaded with 27 tons of Oxfam emergency equipment worth about $190,000 was scheduled to leave England for Sri Lanka midweek. Half the water tanks, pumps, and taps in the shipment will be used to set up emergency drinking systems in Sri Lanka. Oxfam will send the other half to Indonesia.

Oxfam is preparing 25,000 packs of food locally, containing rice, flour, dhal, fish, sugar and cereal, plus 10,000 packs with soap, sanitary towels, candles and matches. Water points are being set up in seven places.


What Oxfam is doing


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Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency teams are on the ground in South Asia providing assistance to people affected by last Sunday's earthquake and the resulting tsunamis and carrying out multiple needs assessments in several countries in the region. To date, MSF has sent over 40 aid workers and 110 tons of relief materials to the region. Additional aid workers and relief cargos are en route and more will be deployed as needed.

Yesterday in the area of Tvri, the MSF team performed medical consultations for more than one hundred people, including those suffering from infected wounds and respiratory infections, and plans to conduct mobile clinics starting today.

Two cargo planes with approximately 70 tons of medical and sanitation materials have arrived in Medan in north Sumatra, close to Aceh. The cargo includes generators, water bladders, and tanks, plastic sheeting, mosquito nets, chlorination kits, and a hospital tent.

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Following the disaster in Asia, the ICRC is concentrating its relief efforts on Sri Lanka and the Indonesian province of Aceh, areas where it had a strong presence before the catastrophe. The overall relief operations of the Red Cross/Red Crescent Movement are being coordinated by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Assistance activities were launched within hours of the disaster, with local ICRC and National Society staff distributing non-food relief items out of existing or locally bought stocks to several thousand families.

ICRC staff have also distributed medical items to two hospitals in northern Sri Lanka and dispatched several 15,000 litre water tanks to the affected areas.

The ICRC is also involved in tracing activities, with joint ICRC/Sri Lanka Red Cross field teams helping separated families restore contact through the use of satellite phones.

Since the beginning of the crisis, staff have also been transporting human remains to hospitals and morgues and, when possible, returning those identified to their families.

Over the coming days, the ICRC plans to further reinforce its assistance operations, continuing to deliver additional household goods, shelter and medical supplies while aiming to provide safe drinking water to about 200,000 people. To support these operations, additional staff are also being sent to Sri Lanka.

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