Claudia,

From what I understand, Judge Maas, at the request of the defendants, cleared the courtroom for a while at Friday’s hearing, over the objections of the plaintiffs’ Motley Rice attorneys. If what I’m hearing is accurate, that doen’t speak well for transparancy for the American public. Where you were going to attend Friday’s hearing, I’d sure be interested in seeing a followup. My experience has been that the government has abused the intent of the Sensitive Security Information moniker. It is supposed to be used in the interests of national security, not as a tool to cloud legitimate discovery. Too often I’ve seen government secrecy used to preclude accountability and/or embarassment, as versus its intended purpose. I fear that, if what I heard happened on Friday is true, this might be one more example of that pattern I’ve seen develope in different tracks dealing with 9/11 litigation. Remember that in the Moussaoui trial, Judge Brinkema granted the 9/11 plaintiffs access to a large body of inforamtion. The TSA appealed that decision and won, demonstrating that the terrorist could have access to information in his defense, which would later be precluded from his victims. Hell of a country, huh? In any event, I sure would like to hear your observations after attending Friday’s session before Judge Maas.

Best regards,

Brian F. Sullivan
FAA Special Agent (Retired)