Amerikai Magyar Hírlap, 2004 (16. évfolyam, 5-50. szám)
2004-07-30 / 29. szám
AMERICAN English page Hungarian Journal British Airways Plane Makes Emergency Landing Budapest - A British Airways Airbus 320 on route from Amman to London made an emergency landing at Budapest’s Ferihegy airport on Sunday morning, the civil aviation authority reported. Aviation authority spokesperson Erika Bajko said that the automated flight system had sensed a fuel delivery failure in one of the lines and had halted an engine. Under civil aviation rules, the plane was required to land at the nearest airport, which happened to be Budapest. The plane remains in Budapest until cleared for safety, and British Airways moved the passengers on to London on other flights. The plane was carrying 108 passengers and a crew of 7. No one was hurt. Powell To Appear Live On Hungarian Television BUDAPEST - Hungarian public television will broadcast a live interview with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday morning, the program’s producer announced. The conversation will be aired simultaneously on CNN World News, Tamas Gyárfás, producer of the morning television show Nap-kelte, added. Powell is due to arrive in Hungary on Monday and leave early Tuesday afternoon. He will be visiting countries allied with the U.S. The trip will take him from Hungary to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and finally to Warsaw, where he will mark the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. While in Hungary, Powell will meet representatives of diverse social groups to underline the closeness of bilateral ties between the two countries. He will address a conference of Hungarian ambassadors at the invitation of Foreign Minister László Kovács. Iraq Decision in Next Few Months Speaking to press via videophone from Iraq, Defense Minister Ferenc Juhász said Hungary will decide in the next few months whether its military presence in Iraq will be extended beyond the previously set date of Dec. 2004. “The next few months will determine what direction the internal Iraqi situation will take, and I think Hungary’s further participation hinges on this,” he said. The decision will be taken by Parliament, which requires a two thirds majority. Visiting Hungary’s transport contingent in Hilla, Juhász said that Iraq is counting on the work of the Hungarian soldiers who have currently taken part in 500 transportation missions in heat averaging 50-60°C. Juhász added that the contingent had recovered from the shocking death of Sgt Richard Nagy, who was killed by a roadside bomb on July 17. The 9/11 Commission Published Its 567-Page Report “Failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management; missed opportunities” 9/11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton speak to the press and relatives of 9/11 victims as their final report is released in Washington, July 22, 2004. /REUTERS/ WASHINGTON - America’s leaders failed to grasp the gravity of terrorist threats before the devastating attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, taking actions so feeble they never even slowed the al-Qaida plotters, a national commission said in a blistering report Thursday. The panel warned “we are not safe” yet, and called for major intelligence changes. It is particularly interesting that they cited “a lack of imagination” as one of the shortcomings on our part allowing the 9/11 attacks to happen. Touche! Where else but in the twisted mind of terrorists could such a horribly efficient and cost-effective plan have been born? How could a reasonably normal human being come up with such a master plan of destruction? And what will it do to our ideals of liberty and progress if we have to live our daily lives trying to anticipate such eventualities? The 9/11 Commission’s findings are sure to reverberate in the public consciousness and across the presidential campaign. In an exhaustive investigation of the deadliest attack in U.S. history, the commission noted numerous government missteps but did not cast blame on any official and stopped short of saying the hijackings could have been prevented. It also did not blame President Bush and former President Clinton but did say they failed to make anti-terrorism a top priority. “We do not believe they fully understood just how many people al- Qaida might kill and how soon it might do it,” the 10-member, bipartisan panel said in its unanimous findings. “We also believe that they did not take it as seriously as it should be taken. It was not their top priority,” Thomas Kean, the Republican chairman, said at a news conference with members of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. “We do believe both presidents could have done more in this area.” The final report, issued as a book, largely mirrored the preliminary reports released during the commission’s 20 months of investigation. The report comes on the heels of House and Senate reports that documented U.S. intelligence failures and undermined the major claims cited by Bush to justify the war against Iraq . The commission report repeated its earlier preliminary findings that al-Qaida did not have a close relationship with Saddam Hussein’s regime. Bush welcomed the commission’s recommendations as “very constructive” although his administration has reacted coolly toward a key proposal to establish a Cabinet-level national intelligence director. He said that “where government needs to act, we will.” Bush had opposed the creation of the commission, resisted the release of some documents and fought against letting national security adviser Condoleezza Rice testify publicly under oath. Democrat John Kerry , campaigning for president in Detroit, said disputes had delayed the commission’s work and improvements to the nation’s security. “Nearly three years after terrorists have attacked our shores and murdered our loved ones, this report carries a very simple message for all of America about the security of all Americans — we can do better,” Kerry said. House Speaker Dennis Hasten, R-Ill., expressed doubt that lawmakers would have time to consider sweeping reforms this year. But efforts began in both the House and Senate to build bipartisan coalitions of support for the recommendations. Relatives of Sept. 11 victims said they would lobby, too. “The families know that this is an election year. We’re going to hold these people’s feet to the fire,” said Debra Burlingame, whose brother Charles was the pilot of he hijacked plane that struck the Pentagon. Twenty months in the making, the report portrayed the Sept. 11 terrorists as sure-footed and determined while the nation they were preparing to strike was unprepared, sluggish and uncomprehending of the imminent danger. “Across the government, there were failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management,” the commission concluded in a 567-page indictment that documented a series of missed opportunities by the CIA and FBI to uncover the Sept. 11 plot. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when 19 Loreen Selitt0 who lost her son Arab hijackers flew airliners into Matthew in Tower One of the World New York’s Twin Towers, the Trade Center, wipes away tears Pentagon and the Pennsylvania during the final hearing of the Sept, countryside. 11 commission (AP) Three years later, Americans are safer because of improvements in homeland security and the war against terrorists, the report said. “But we are not safe.” “Every expert with whom we spoke told us an attack of even greater magnitude is now possible and even probable,” Kean said. “We do not have the luxury of time.” The commission’s report said that as the Sept. 11 plot advanced, the U.S. government was bogged down in an outdated Cold War mentality, lacking imagination to deal with new threats or recognize the looming danger. “What we can say with confidence is that none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al-Qaida plot,” the report said. Commission co-chairman Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana, said a key finding was that no one in government was in charge of insuring that intelligence agencies pool resources, avoid duplication and plan jointly to keep America safe. To unify efforts, the commission recommended creating a national counterterrorism center. It also recommended a Cabinet-level national intelligence director to centralize efforts now spread over 15 agencies in six Cabinet departments plus the CIA. The report said Congress, like the executive branch, responded slowly to the rise of global terrorism. But the panel found that the “most important failure” leading to the Sept. 11 attacks “was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat.” The commission identified nine “specific points of vulnerability” in the Sept. 11 plot that might have led to its disruption had the government been better organized and more watchful. Despite these opportunities, “we cannot know whether any single step or series of steps would have defeated” the hijackers, the report concluded. Some members have speculated the attacks could have been stopped. “We do not know,” Kean said. “We think it’s possible. But we have not drawn that absolute conclusion because we don’t believe that absolute conclusion is justified by the facts.” The report detailed contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida, noting that Osama bin Laden began exploring a possible alliance in the early 1990s. The report said that an Iraqi delegation traveled to Afghanistan in July 1998 to meet with the ruling Taliban and with bin Laden. While there were “friendly contacts” between Iraq and al-Qaida and a common hatred of the United States, none of these contacts “ever developed into a collaborative relationship” and Iraq was not involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, the report said. The panel said it did not find evidence that Iran, Iraq’s neighbor, had advance knowledge of bin Laden’s plans, or that Saudi Arabia’s government had a role in the terror conspiracy, which involved 15 Saudi hijackers. Ronstadt kicked out of the Aladdin Hotel Casino in Las Vegas LAS VEGAS - Singer Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his movie „Fahrenheit 9/11” during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino. Before singing „Desperado” for an encore last Saturday night, the 58-year-old rocker called Moore a „great American patriot” and „someone who is spreading the truth”. She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush. Ronstadt’s comments drew loud boos and some of the 4,500 people in attendance stormed out of the theater. People also tore down concert posters and tossed cocktails into the air. „It was a very ugly scene,” Aladdin President Bill Timmins told reporters. „She praised him and all of a sudden all bedlam broke loose.” In an interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the show, Ronstadt said, „I keep hoping that if I’m annoying enough to them, they won’t hire me back.” Looks like she got her wish.
