November 16, 2006, - 5:34 am
American Airlines Slaps Dead Flight Crew: How Corporate America Forgot 9/11
By Debbie Schlussel
Did American Airlines’ flight crew deserve to die on 9/11? Why is American Airlines honoring an actress who says exactly that?
On 9/11, American Airlines flight attendants Madeleine Amy Sweeney and Betty Ong were heroes.
Instead of calling their families to say good-bye, they called American Airlines’ ground crew and told them what was happening on their planes. Sweeney was on Mohammed Atta’s flight, and her identification of him is credited for alerting the government that the attack was an Al-Qaeda plot.
She never got to say good-bye to her two daughters or her husband, Michael Sweeney. The plane she was on, American Airlines Flight 11, hit the World Trade Center’s North Tower, and her life ended.
On 9/11, American Airlines lost two flights, 11 and 77. The airline lost 16 flight crew, including Sweeney, Ong, and pilot Charles “Chick” Burlingame.
But American Airlines seems to have forgotten them. The November 1st issue of its in-flight magazine, “American Way,” is a slap in the face of the American employees–and passengers–who gave their lives in the terrorist attacks.
In the back pocket of every seat on American flights, this month, “American Way’s” cover girl is smiling actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. Inside, a gushing article and fawning interview discuss Gyllenhaal’s life and her favorite spots to eat and do yoga. There’s nary a mention in the piece about Gyllenhaal’s most famous comment. On the 9/11 attacks, she said:
Because I think America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way.
Yes, according to Gyllenhaal, America and Americans–and, yes, American Airlines–deserved it. They deserved what happened on 9/11 because “America has done reprehensible things and is responsible.”
Apparently, this glaring slap in the face of Sweeney, Ong, and the other murdered American Airlines crew, didn’t occur to Sherri Gulczynski Burns, the magazine’s editor, or her boss, American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard J. Arpey. He has a full page article at the front of the magazine pushing contributions to UNICEF and thanking flight attendants for collecting donations from passengers.
Apparently, it’s more important to recognize the flight crews’ assistance to a questionable international charity than it is to give a thought to those who died in the name of his airline.
But American Airlines is not the only company that has forgotten the 9/11 attacks and gotten lazy in the continuing War on Terror.
Take Comerica bank, a chain headquartered in Michigan.
One of Comerica’s clients is LIFE for Relief and Development, America’s largest Islamic charity. It has seven accounts with the bank. In September, the Detroit-based charity was raided by the FBI because of its ties to terrorists.
For years, LIFE openly donated millions to HAMAS and is believed to be funding Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The charity has close ties to Al-Qaeda and is run by Saddam loyalists.
After the FBI raids, Comerica Bank officials informed LIFE that it would be terminating their banking relationship with the charity and closing its accounts.
But Comerica didn’t exactly get tough with LIFE. It was just before the start of Ramadan, when millions of Muslims give the bulk of their charity contributions for the year. And LIFE asked Comerica to delay any action until after Ramadan.
Under pressure from “former” terrorist Imad Hamad, his Muslim-dominated American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, and the Council on American Islamic Relations, spineless bank officials acquiesced. This allowed LIFE to continue to collect millions in monies that may ultimately go to terrorist activities.
Last week, LIFE delivered thousands of packages (containing who knows what) to refugee camp residents in Beit Hanoon and other Palestinian cities, where HAMAS runs the show. At the same time LIFE “packages” were delivered to LIFE’s HAMAS friends, HAMAS terrorists were busy attacking Israeli soldiers in Beit Hanoon and hundreds of Palestinian women served as human shields for the terrorists. They game the terrorists food and other aid, likely that which they received from LIFE.
By allowing LIFE, a charity that openly donates millions to terrorists, to keep its accounts open even a day after FBI raids, Comerica helped fund terror. The bank helped Islamic terrorists murder innocent people, all in the name of pandering to Islamic pressure groups who will never be fully appeased.
When, after the 9/11 attacks, did America fall asleep? And when will America’s airlines, banks and other corporations wake up?
Will it take 16 more dead American Airlines flight crew? Let’s hope not.
***
Send an e-mail message to “American Way” editor Sherri Gulczynski Burns, and let her know how you feel about her magazine gushing over Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Tags: actress, Afghanistan, airline, al-Qaeda, America, America fall, American Airlines, American Way, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, bank, Beit Hanoon, Betty Ong, chairman and CEO, Charles "Chick" Burlingame, Comerica, Comerica Bank, Council on American-Islamic Relations, Debbie Schlussel, Detroit, Did American Airlines, editor, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Gerard J. Arpey, Hamas, Imad Hamad, in-flight magazine, Iraq, Madeleine Amy Sweeney, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Sweeney, Michigan, Mohammed Atta, pilot, pressure groups, Ramadan, Sherri Gulczynski Burns, Taliban, terrorist, terrorists food, United Nations International Children ' s Emergency Fund, World Trade Center, World Trade Center's North Tower
RE: Maggie Gyllenhaal–
Ugly is as ugly does.
Question–Whoever thought this homely freak should be a movie star?
Red Ryder on November 16, 2006 at 9:08 am