Copyright 2002 Times Publishing Company  
St. Petersburg Times (Florida)
April 27, 2002, Saturday, 0 South Pinellas Edition
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 7A

LENGTH: 722 words

HEADLINE: Move to arm airline pilots picks up key House support

SOURCE: Compiled from Times Wires

DATELINE: WASHINGTON

BODY:
 A campaign by airline pilots to carry guns in cockpits has gained the support of two key House Republicans despite the opposition of Bush administration officials.

House aviation subcommittee Chairman John Mica of Florida and House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young of Alaska are scheduled to introduce legislation Tuesday to allow trained pilots to carry guns.

Mica's subcommittee has scheduled a hearing Thursday, when pilots plan to submit petitions with thousands of signatures to the White House.

The airline security law passed last fall allows the government to decide whether pilots should carry guns.

Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and homeland security director Tom Ridge both oppose arming pilots. Mineta has said newly reinforced cockpit doors prevent terrorists from commandeering airplanes.

An airline consumer group formed by Ralph Nader has endorsed arming pilots. Paul Hudson, executive director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project, said even the fortified cockpit doors are not strong enough to keep hijackers out.

Financial hubs button up

The Federal Reserve is overseeing an effort by financial institutions to disperse people, records and operations and to duplicate business functions at multiple sites - a change in strategy from the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks when most companies relied on security guards checking IDs in downtown office lobbies.

The strategy of geographical dispersal and increased "redundancy," beyond what financial institutions already have in place to handle blackouts or earthquakes, was being discussed before last Friday's warning that terrorists may have targeted some banks.

But the warning made the need for more extensive measures even more urgent, according to federal officials and real estate brokers monitoring trends in office space needs.

James Skidmore, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve's board of governors, confirmed that the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal regulators "have worked together following 9-11 to identify vulnerabilities to business continuity at financial firms."

Pearl trial on hold, again

The trial of four men accused in the kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has been suspended indefinitely while a higher Afghani court considers a motion to replace the presiding judge, Abdul Ghafoor Memon.

The motion was brought by the prosecutor, Raja Qureshi, who asserted that the judge was unable to keep the defendants under control. Qureshi complained that one or more of the defendants had looked at him and tugged at their chins, which in Pakistan is a threatening gesture.

If Memon is removed, he will be the second judge to be taken off the case, which has convened for only five sessions - and heard evidence in only three of them - since the trial opened on April 5.

Orphan tale was a hoax

A rumor that Afghan orphans were on their way to the United States for adoption has turned out to be a hoax perpetrated by a Culver City, Calif., woman whose husband says she is mentally unstable.

Last month, Julie Fahrer claimed at a meeting in Los Angeles with members of the Afghan and Muslim community that 529 Afghan women and children were being brought into the United States.

This prompted great anxiety in the Muslim community. Hundreds of Muslim families nationwide signed up for foster care licenses. But U.S. officials have repeatedly said they received no evidence that Afghan orphans are in the country.

In other news

SECRET SERVICE HIRING: The Secret Service, faced with added demands after the terror attacks, plans to hire 476 new agents this year.

The service is almost halfway toward its goal, having hired a little more than 230 people since October.

MOUSSAOUI LAWYERS STILL FIGHTING: In unusually harsh language, lawyers for the man indicted as an accomplice in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks contended Friday that the government wants to execute Zacarias Moussaoui because no one else is available.

The court-appointed lawyers, whom Moussaoui himself wants to dismiss, argued in a written brief that the government is ignoring provisions of the federal death penalty law in order "to pander to a public or a jury which it would like to overheat by waving the flag."



LOAD-DATE: April 27, 2002