9/11 Lawyers Seek Black-Box Data on Saudi Hijackers
by Tom Flocco
November 27, 2002
TomFlocco.com
While recent reports reveal that Administration officials are considering whether to place Saudi Arabian interests above 9/11 victim families by filing a federal court motion to dismiss or delay the families’ private lawsuit accusing members of the Saudi royal family of ties to Al Qaeda, other lawyers will seek to unearth information about Saudi hijacker cockpit conversations and actions just prior to the crash disasters on September 11.
In a letter written to Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein from Douglas A. Latto, attorney at New York’s Baumeister & Samuels firm, Latto told Hellerstein that “we have been led to believe that the United States of America, through the Department of Justice (DOJ), will attempt to prevent discovery of the [9/11] black boxes.” A copy of the letter was obtained from a reliable source close to the investigation.
Latto’s July 10 letter to Hellerstein also shed more light on the fact that possible Justice Department attempts to prevent inspection of the actual contents of the recovered and original cockpit-voice and flight-data recorders “would undoubtedly lead to motion practice not present in any of the other cases.” Moreover, analysis of news reports over time indicates troubling contradictions regarding the “usefulness” of the recovered data and the true condition of the recovered black boxes currently impounded by the FBI.
Baumeister and Samuels represents in excess of 60 families who lost loved ones on September 11, including families of passengers on board all four aircraft as well as tower victims. Lead attorney Michel F. Baumeister is a 30-year aviation accident trial lawyer; and his past experience as a Manhattan Assistant District Attorney and Assistant U.S. Attorney will undoubtedly serve the victim-family lawyer team well in the face of government promulgations of “ongoing criminal investigation” strategies.
A source close to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) who asked to remain anonymous when asked about the ‘ongoing [black box] investigation,’ told us that “the NTSB never closely examined the cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and flight data recorders (FDRs) recovered from American Flight 77 which hit the Pentagon, and United flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania. This, while the FBI has continued to quietly dodge vexing questions related to its prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks and how the Bureau’s widely-reported inept and mishandled information protocol cost so many lives.
The source added that “the [CVR and FDR] tapes were sequestered by the FBI and quickly taken to its Quantico, Virginia labs where analysis was conducted solely under the Bureau’s influence in order to maintain complete control.” However, according to the individual with knowledge of the investigation, “there were a few NTSB officials allowed to observe, but their influence on the probe and tape inspection was minimal at best.”
We also talked to Michael Thompson, chief engineer in the CVR/FDR division of Allied Signal-Honeywell Corporation in Redmond, Washington -- according to his counsel, Mark Larson.
We asked Thompson if he was the person in charge of flight data recovery in the 9/11 investigation, since Honeywell manufactured the data recorders in operation on all four Boeing jets involved in the September 11 crashes. “I cannot answer that under advice from legal counsel,” he said.
Since his legal counsel, Mark Larson of Tempe, Arizona, was unavailable for a conference call, Thompson told us, “On advice of my legal counsel, I cannot answer any legal questions pertaining to that incident.” [On November 19, 2002 at 12:16 pm, Honeywell transferred our initial call to Mark Larson, corporate in-house counsel for Honeywell, who in turn told us to contact Michael Thompson regarding any questions we might have about the 9/11 CVRs and FDRs.]
When we asked Thompson if he had ever seen or been involved in any recovery analysis of the 9/11 CVRs or FDRs, he stated, “That’s a legal question, and on advice of counsel, I cannot answer any of those questions. You need to talk to Mark Larson about this.” [This surprised us, because we are aware that the memory chips from which the NTSB and/or FBI tapes are derived is raw data and cannot be manipulated. Thus, the “ongoing criminal investigation” excuse could result in either obstruction or suppression of fact.]
As a matter of fact, ABC news reported on 9-13-2001 that “Although investigators look for an entire black box, sometimes the only parts of the device that survive are the recorder’s crash-survivable memory units (CSMU). The CSMU is almost indestructible.[A former NTSB source told us that only a direct hit from a nuclear blast can destroy it] ABC also said that “it is housed within a stainless-steel shell that contains titanium or aluminum and a high-temperature insulation of dry silica material.”
Judge Hellerstein’s hand-written annotations on Latto’s ‘World Trade Center litigation’ letter said that his “views may be presented....as amices curiae [friend of the court], pending a later and different status.” [ When or if any of his clients initiate civil procedure.]
Asked about the government’s intention to impede discovery of the black boxes, Latto told us that “we used a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for the contents [tapes] from the recovered [Flight 93] black boxes.” [That Latto was unaware that both the CVR and the FDR had also been recovered from the Flight 77 Pentagon crash could easily be expected since there are relatively few reports confirming their availability -- and the FBI has remained tight-lipped about the issue.]
“I can’t remember to which government branch we referred the FOIA off hand,” Latto replied, adding “I’ll have to ask my paralegal to check back in my files.”
Asked to divulge the name of the official in the 9/11 case who had led him to believe that “the government would attempt to prevent discovery” of the original tapes, or what type of response he had received regarding the FOIA request, Mr. Latto again begged off, not wishing to name names, replying “I can’t remember. I’ll have to check on it.”
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Douglas A. Latto : Latto revealed that his office had employed a FOIA request to obtain accurate and original recordings of the recovered black boxes; but he declined to reveal who had led him to believe that the government planned to suppress or obstruct their discovery. Latto’s letter to Judge Hellerstein also contains references to limits of airline liability insurance and potential monetary damage exposure to both passengers on board the aircraft and ground victims.
No study has yet been conducted as to whether campaign contributions and visits by airline lobbyists to key legislators on Capitol Hill just hours after the crashes played a part in the unprecedented back-door tort reform measures enacted just days later.
For instead of waiting to bail out the airlines AFTER the victim families had their day in court, Congress voted to place a cap on airline liability prior to private civil action adjudication. Thus, 9/11 victims were denied full, fair and complete due process -- unfettered by “nick-of-time” legislation -- potentially induced in violation of U.S. Code bribery statutes. However, the jury is still out regarding whether the denial will be litigated -- in light of recent attempts to absolve airport security firms.
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Latto added that “we always have to use motion practice to obtain the tapes from black boxes, with the judge having the discretion to order whole parts or portions of the material released; however, the FBI has control of the tapes because they involve an ‘ongoing criminal investigation.’
The CVR tapes contain radio transmissions and sounds in an airplane’s cockpit for the last 30 minutes of its flight -- picking up engine noises, communications with air traffic controllers, and conversations in the cockpit. The FDR picks up altitude, heading, speed and operations of the airplane systems. The “black-boxes,” now colored bright orange in an updated visibility change from earlier usage, are located in the tail of the airplane to afford the best odds for survival in a crash.
When we asked Mr. Latto about the issue of the FBI, CIA, and White House withholding or suppressing evidence -- such as the black-box tapes or documents related to prior knowledge of 9/11 -- by employing the “ongoing criminal investigation” strategy -- especially involving a case wherein those withholding the evidence have the most to gain from withholding it -- Latto replied, “That’s a good point. We will definitely have to consider that issue.”
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Of particular interest to 9/11 families and investigators is the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR). It records the flight crew’s voices, as well as other sounds in the cockpit. Communications with air traffic controllers and conversations between the pilots and ground or cabin crew are also recorded. However, of more critical importance to victim family lawyers is the fact that normally a CVR committee consisting of members from the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration,operator of the aircraft if he survived the crash, manufacturer of the airplane, manufacturer of the engines, and the pilots union is formed after a crash to listen to the recording. This committee [ not the FBI ] creates a written transcript of the tape to be used during the investigation.
Due to the highly sensitive nature of the verbal communications inside the cockpit, Congress has required that the Safety Board not release any part of a CVR tape recording. Because of this sensitivity, a high degree of security is provided for the CVR tape and its transcript. The content and timing of release of the written transcript are strictly regulated: under federal law, transcripts of pertinent portions of the cockpit voice recording are released at a Safety Board public hearing on the accident. (Source: al importance to victim family lawyers is the fact that normally a CVR committee consisting of members from the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, www.NTSB.gov )
[ Our sources, attorney interviews, and various reports in the media indicate that the FBI has assumed total control over the contents of the CVRs recovered from 9/11 flights 77 and 93, using “an ongoing criminal investigation” as the reason for silence. So it can be safely assumed that few if any of the above-named groups or individuals have listened to or analyzed the original tapes from those flights.
Given our conversations with lawyers at the forefront of this litigation, Judge Hellerstein will undoubtedly have to wrestle with unprecedented motion practice; and 9/11 lawyers will undoubtedly have the need to insure that the original tapes have not been tampered with or altered, given the stakes involved -- political and criminal.
Victim families are just coming out of a year of intense grief from their losses. This is significant because grief often turns to anger, especially as more Saudi, FBI, CIA, INS, TSA and Administration shoes continue to drop; and the political implications of “criminal” evidence suppressed by the government are enormous. And when the families decide to demonstrate inside congressional offices instead of outside in surrounding Capitol Hill parks, they will begin to fully realize the significance of their collective political weight as television cameras start to find them.
One only has to consider the multiple instances of Saudi links to the 9/11 terrorists: State Department-issued visas to Saudi hijackers, Saudi royal family members laundering checks to support Saudi terrorists in the U.S., and Saudi hijackers living on “secure” U.S. Naval Air base with a Saudi flight instructor , and tens of millions of dollars transferred from the Saudis to Al Qaeda over the last year alone according to the CIA -- let alone the total failure of Congress to seal the country’s borders to protect constituents. All this, as millions of illegal aliens and more Saudi terrorists continue to roam the USA -- hidden and unaccounted for in a broken but taxpayer-funded immigration disaster.]
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