April 12, 2006

The Honorable Albert R. Gonzales

United States Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

9500 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, D.C. 20530

The Honorable Norman Y. Mineta

U.S. Department of Transportation

400 7^th Street, S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20590

The Honorable Michael J. Chertoff

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Washington, D.C. 20528

SUBJ: WHISTLE BLOWING UNITED PILOTS’ ASSOCIATION

Gentlemen,

I shouldn’t have to waste our time writing this letter to you, but I chose to do so out of courtesy and desperation. I am a 57-year old, medically disabled United Airlines B-777 Captain who attempted to whistle blow on security frailties and possible criminal wrongdoing in the post-9/11 flight environment. I contend that I was gagged and was medically grounded directly as a result of my honest actions.

It is my assertion that possibly federal aviation laws and RICO statutes (attempted union-busting) were violated in this stifling process. I have witnesses available who would willingly provide sworn testimony, as well as supporting evidence in the form of incriminating correspondence, reports, and digitally recorded phone conversations between myself and United Airlines and the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) management to back my claims of federal criminal wrongdoings.

It is herein that I openly state my honest intent to provide this and other evidence currently being amassed by the subject association to a federal prosecutor for further investigation by federal authorities. I believe that you will all agree that failure to act on our part would be a crime in, and of, itself.

Currently, within the active employee and retiree ranks of United Airlines (and the other major airlines), there is a legal, collusive attempt by an army of dedicated employees (independent of any union) to funnel critical pieces of legal evidence to appropriate legal channels and the media for analysis and publication.

To date, I personally have recently submitted (electronically) a report of these matters to the Federal Aviation Administration via the FAA Whistle Blower Protection Program and am awaiting a response. Additionally, I have forwarded the same information to the Atlanta office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for their perusal. Hopefully, we will be able to legally press forward with class-action litigation on behalf of all airline employees nationwide.

Finally, my situation has drawn the attention the U.S. print media, attorneys, and other concerned politicians. We didn’t make this a political issue, Bush did. His game, we’re just playing along with his game… by our legal rules.

I have tried in vain for several years since 9/11 to keep these matters out of the public domain. I no longer care; the information is already out there. I personally feel that there are other airline employees in the system that have similarly been gagged and have a story to tell. We need a legal outlet and subpoena power. We’re going to get it.

There has been absolutely NO White House support for the commercial airline employees since 9/11 other than Bush photo-opping in between United and American jets at O’Hare shortly after that horrific event trying to convince the traveling public to climb back onboard airplanes because the “system is safe”. The mythical post-9/11 ATSB loan guarantees were carrots dangled before employees of financially distressed (unionized) air carriers in a blatant ploy by this administration, in collusion with the banks and airline management, to extract massive wage and contract concessions from employees and ultimately drive carriers into Chapter 11 bankruptcy where unions had no leverage thereby enabling the distress-termination of defined-benefit pension plans. It was (and still is) union busting through what appears to be the collusive efforts of the White House, financial institutions, and airline management. There are federal laws that preclude this type of activity and we intend to prove in a federal court of law that they were violated.

There was $10-billion in ATSB loan guarantees authorized under the post-9/11 program. Only $1.2-billion was let. Any ideas here… anyone?

In essence, these unlawful, immoral acts bailed the airline industry out on the financial backs of the very honest, hard working, and courageous aircrew members (who willingly climbed back onboard jets in the unsafe post-9/11 flight environment) and other airline employees. These acts against workers were unconscionable and the truth must be brought to public attention by any and all means available. It shall.

Many aircrew members agree that the U.S. commercial airline security system, under the Department of Homeland Security, is grossly under funded and a farce; it’s mainly used as window dressing to keep the system going. For security reasons, I will not address the obvious. The illegal Iraq invasion increased the security threat to U.S. commercial jet aircraft. (The only reasonable alternative explanation for our careless and reckless ignorance of blatant security frailties is if 9/11 didn’t really go down as the American public was made to believe, but I’m not a proponent of conspiracy theories, so I’ll dismiss this spooky, politically motivated notion).

President Bush, Karl Rove, and the GOP have publicly announced that they are collectively going to embrace ‘security’ as the cornerstone of the GOP political platform in the upcoming midterm congressional elections. In light of the aforementioned sorry state of aviation security systems, this political ploy would be laughable if it weren’t so damned pathetic! Since the events of 9/11 have been wrongfully and immorally employed for political and financial advantage by this White House and the GOP in bankruptcy court to destroy unionism, contracts, and pensions, there are many airline employees who intend to preclude this administration from using ‘security’ as a political reelection issue. Your boss may have played politics with other peoples’ lives with this issue in the past…not this time.

After Enron, you will all agree that we ALL deplore white-collar criminal activity. Our association (The Whistle Blowing United Pilots’ Assn) feels very strongly that the criminal activity of Enron pales in comparison to what may have occurred criminally within the post-9/11 airline industry. We aim to prove criminal activity occurred through the illegal collusive efforts of many, and we WILL, with or without the assistance of the Departments of Justice, Transportation, and/or Homeland Security.

As was exemplified by the legal proceedings of Enron, Jack Abramoff, Randy Cunningham, Tom DeLay, and others, the powers of subpoena and plea-bargaining brings forth those weak, characterless, disloyal individuals who helped perpetrate these crimes. Our association intends to rout out the spineless government and corporate weasels that stooped so low as to exploit 9/11 for political and financial gain. With truth and justice on our side, we will be successful. Won’t you join us in our honest crusade?

You are hereby advised of our plight and our efforts. If DOJ, DOT, and DHS are disinterested in our investigation, that is acceptable, although not understandable, to us. However, you must be forewarned, we will be successful in discovering the truth and serving justice and then will be calling on your good offices to explain your apathetic behavior towards our just and noble cause.

Very truly yours,

Dan

Dan Hanley