January 2009 Letter to President Obama from Captain Dan Hanley

 
 Whistleblowing United Pilots Association

“Patriotism and Freedom of Speech in Action”

January 31, 2009
4204 Lakeside Way
Newnan, Georgia 30265

President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

SUBJ: UNITED AIRLINES BANKRUPTCY CORRUPTION

Dear Mr. President,

On behalf of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association, please allow me to extend our sincere congratulations and best wishes to you and Vice-President Biden on your tremendously successful political journey to the White House. Your elevation to the Oval Office is a much-welcomed breath of political fresh air and relief to the 300-million citizens of this great country at a time of grave political and economic peril. Well done, sir!

The Whistleblowing United Pilots Association is a national grassroots coalition comprised of employees and retirees from all airlines whose purpose is to help discover the truth regarding alleged white-collar criminality associated with post-9/11 airline bankruptcies and serve justice on the criminals who perpetrated these crimes. I serve as a public spokesperson for this group.

With your vision of hope and promise for change, which includes a greater openness in government, exposure of government fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption, including the untoward influence of K-Street lobbyist and Wall Street financial pressures, excessive executive compensation, and white-collar criminality, whose exposure is further enhanced through the strengthening of whistle blower protection laws, suffice it to say that you have the full support and cooperation of our association in achieving those lofty objectives in the future.

As you may or may not know, on November 16, 2006, I wrote to your senate office, as well as that of Senators Reid and Durbin, apprising you of the existence of available evidence in support of allegations of white-collar criminality in the United Airlines, Inc. and McCook Metals, LLC bankruptcies. Neither Senator Reid’s nor Senator Durbin’s office responded to this letter.

On May 14, 2007, Ms Joan Currie-Leonard, your Special Assistant in your Chicago senate office, responded to my a letter informing me that since I was not an Illinois resident and hence, not your constituent, congressional courtesy dictated that home state representatives be afforded the opportunity to respond to my concerns.

With the surfacing of significant additional federal criminal evidence, petition was been made to numerous branches of government, including relevant congressional committees and the Department of Justice, for political and legal intercession during this same time frame to no avail.

Given the unfolding events, and as a public spokesperson for the association, while realizing that I was not personally a member of your constituency, but spokesperson for the association, on October 24, 2007, a second letter was mailed to Ms Currie-Leonard, this time on behalf of the association membership that outlined the chronology of events surrounding these controversial legal and political issues.

Rather than expound, kindly review the enclosed letter for details. Once again, Ms Currie-Leonard responded as before deferring me to my home-state of Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss, this in spite of the fact I had written to your office on behalf of members of the subject association, many of which reside in Illinois which, as you recognize, is the single largest employer in the state of Illinois.

On October 22, 2007, an unsolicited letter was received from Senator Chambliss acknowledging his awareness of criminal evidence associated with the United Airlines bankruptcy and his assurances that he would respond to me upon receipt of an answer to his Department of Justice inquiry, which he had recently made. But just 15 days later, on November 5, 2007, he sent me a letter advising that, “…as a U.S. Senator, have no jurisdiction over matters such as these.”

Because these matters had been stonewalled for so long by so many levels and branches of government including the Department of Justice, on October 18, 2007, I concurrently filed for whistle blower protection under the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 with letters of petition to Senator Carl Levin and Securities and Exchange Commissioner Christopher Cox. In subsequent discussions with Senator Levin’s staff, I was advised that the issues could not be investigated due to staff shortages and committee focus on the overabundance of higher priority issues.

On February 14, 2008, I filed a federal complaint (#2008-9580) with the office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago pending forthcoming evidence and witness testimony, which will be presented to this office shortly.

On January 29, 2008, frustrated by over a year lapsed time and no SEC response, coupled with the exposition of DOJ ‘deferred compensation agreements’ by New York Times investigative journalist, Eric Lichtblau, described in his April 9, 2008 article, “In Justice Shift, Corporate Deals Replace Trials”, I wrote to H. David Kotz, the Security and Exchange Commission Inspector General, expressing my frustration and dismay over the lengthy delay of an appropriate SEC response, given that sufficient information, which included my sworn affidavit and other information, had been provided to warrant a preliminary investigation.

Very recently, letters were also sent to the Office of Inspector General at the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Transportation, and Labor, as well as to the Inspector General of the Social Security Administration on a tangentially relevant issue. Copies of these letters are enclosed for your perusal.

Given your recent elevation to the Oval Office with present jurisdiction over these departments of government, and in light of your proclamations concerning openness of government and diminishment of corruption in both the civil and federal sector, our association members are highly confident of your assurance of extensive investigations into these matters by the Inspector General of each department, and stand ready to fully support and cooperate with them in the future.

Last week, the Government Accountability Project office sent a letter of petition to your office asking your support of pending enhanced whistle blower protection legislation, which has been appended as an amendment to the Economic Stimulus Bill currently under debate in the Senate. You will note that my name/association appear as signatory toward the bottom of this document. It is because of my personal past abuse as a whistle blower on numerous counts, as well as the thousands of other unheard informants, that I strongly support passage of this legislation, as do members of the Whistleblowing United Pilots Association.

When individual whistle blowers garner the courage to step forth with criminal evidence, they do so with the hope and promise that laws will be upheld and the agencies assigned to enforce them will perform these duties, with the added personal safeguards provided by federal law.

As a Harvard Law graduate, teaching law at the University of Chicago, a U.S. Senator, and now President of the United States, I’m certain that we can agree that this is a nation of laws with time-honored established institutions of support. Over the course of the past eight years, we have observed the most disgraceful abuse and denigration of power of the U.S. Constitution in our nation’s history. Citizens want their Constitution and good government back. More so, they beg for the restoration of law and order that embraces the precepts of this sacred document.

We want to believe that Lady Justice is blind in the criminal prosecution of unlawful behavior in this country. Based on the frustrating past several years experiences of our association, we’ve come to believe this only to be the case with selective issues and individual cases. Kindly prove us wrong in this instance.

It is blatantly obvious to all that you are a good and loving family man, husband, and father. Please empathetically realize the horrific pain, sadness, familial maladies, and other hardships wrought on the good people of the airline industry during the post-9/11 bankruptcies which, as our membership asserts, were affected by alleged illicit means. In this regard alone, we beg for your understanding, cooperation and assistance.

Our association stands shoulder-to-shoulder with our president, ready, willing, and able to rout out the possible white-collar criminals who may have committed these crimes against airline employees who were willing to give the shirt off their backs to sustain the industry in the post-9/11 era. In the end, they did. Is this their reward for their sacrifices?

The Whistleblowing United Pilots Association membership sincerely wishes you, Michelle, Malia Anne, and Sasha much happiness and success during your stay at the White House. You’ve travelled a very long road in life to get there. Please reflect on the long career paths travelled by airline employees with hopes and dreams for a happy and successful retirement, only to realize them shattered in the eleventh hour of their careers, with nowhere else to turn for sustenance in the twilight years of life. It wasn’t right.

Very respectfully,


Dan Hanley
Spokesperson – Whistleblowing United Pilots Association


Encl: Letter dated November 18, 2006 to Senators Reid, Durbin, and Obama
Letter dated May 4, 2007 from Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Letter dated October 24, 2007 to Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Letter dated October 22, 2007 from Senator Saxby Chambliss
Letter dated November 5, 2007 from Senator Saxby Chambliss
Letter dated November 6, 2007 from Ms. Joan Currie-Leonard
Letter dated October 18, 2007 to Christopher Cox, SEC Chairman
Letter dated October 18, 2007 to Senator Carl Levin
Letter dated January 25, 2009 to Calvin L. Scovel, DOT Inspector General
Letter dated January 28, 2009 to H. David Kotz, SEC Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Gordon S. Heddell, DOL Inspector General
Letter dated January 31, 2009 to Glenn A. Fine, DOJ Inspector General
Letter dated February 2, 2009 to Eric Thorson, Treasury Inspector General
Letter dated January 26, 2009 from Government Accountability Project Coalition


Cc: Calvin L. Scovell - Inspector General, Department of Transportation
H. David Kotz – Inspector General, Securities and Exchange Commission
Gordon S. Hedell – Inspector General, Department of Labor
Glenn A. Fine – Inspector General, Department of Justice
Eric Thorson – Inspector General, Department of Treasury
Tom Devine – Legal Director, Government Accountability Project
Whistleblowing United Pilots Association Membership 



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