Page 6
THE BATTALION
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1980
Counterfeit bills seized
state
United Press International
DALLAS — Counterfeit $100
bills totaling $105,000 seized by the
Internal Revenue Service from an
alleged bookmaking operation were
printed from the same plates as bills
confiscated in two other states, it was
reported Sunday.
The bills have been seized during
arrests in Forth Worth, Shreveport,
La., and Idabel and Guymon, Okla.
But the largest quantity was disco
vered in Dallas in late December
during a search of an office suite be
lieved by authorities to be used in a
bookmaking operation.
na
Operation Brilab
Federal officials in Oklahoma and
Louisiana said Secret Service agents
in those two states, along with agents
in Dallas, have been attempting to
trace the source of the $100 bogus
bills, the Dallas Morning News re
ported.
The search was performed based
on information from the Internal Re
venue Service and ultimately
yielded anticipated gambling re
cords and the $105,000 worth of
counterfeit $100 bills as well as fake
Canadian and Mexican money.
Grand jury panel adjourns until mid-March
II
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United Press International
HOUSTON — The two men who
are the main focus of a federal grand
jury inquiry into the so-called Brilab
scandal in Texas have apparently
succeeded in postponing their testi
mony — at least until the grand jury
reconvenes in mid-March.
Operation Brilab is the code name
of a government undercover scheme
of kickbacks and bribe offers to labor
and government officials who were
in a position to help assign multi
million dollar health insurance con
tracts. The grand jury, which ad
journed Friday, has been investigat
ing allegations of bribery in the in
surance industry.
The panel is specifically inquiring
into a meeting concerning the state
employee insurance program in
which Houston labor leader L.G.
Moore allegedly gave Texas House
Speaker Bill Clayton $5,000 in $100
bills.
Russell T. Kelley, executive assis
tant to Clayton, testified before the
grand jury Friday. Kelley reportedly
was present at the November meet
ing with Clayton and Moore.
Moore and his attorney, Mike
Ramsey, walked out of the federal
courthouse Friday after Ramsey filed
a motion with the district clerk in the
court’s criminal division. The motion
was sealed immediately.
Ramsey had staged a week-long
series of legal maneuvers to keep
Moore from testifying before the
grand jury before it adjourned its
February session.
But Ramsey lost a series of mo
tions and, when it appeared late Fri
day that Moore would have to testify,
Ramsey hurriedly filed the motion.
He and Moore then left the court
house.
Asked if he had been successful at
keeping Moore off the stand, Ram
sey said: “I got out of there, didn’t I?
“I imagine that everybody will get
another round of subpoenas," said
Ramsey, indicating Moore would
probably be called to testify when
the grand jury began its mid-M:
session.
Although Clayton was
the grand jury to testify, hefaileij
appear before the panel because;
attorneys, who said they had nets
time to prepare his case, obtaii
four postponements.
Clayton has said he never
tended to keep the money buti ;
not have an opportunity to retm
to Moore, an official of the Inlet;
tional Brotherhood of Operating^ * n the
Heuvc
gineers.
HE'
the onl
New Y
end of
A so
er, ha'
— the
the lik
For
APA loses friends over DC-10 suit
b
reduci
Oli'
Other
rlanch
United Press International
IRVING — For years Airline Pas
sengers Association Inc. was a sleepy
little company that offered a few
financial benefits to its well-heeled
members. The nation’s worst air
plane crash changed that.
APA was the little guy that de
cided to fight the Federal Aviation
Administration’s handling of the
American Airlines DC-10 crash in
which 273 people died last May. Be
fore entering the DC-10 flap, the
55,000-member organization was
known to few people outside its
ranks or the airline industry.
Founded in New York in 1960 as
the Airways Club Inc., the firm
offered its members — usually high
ly paid businessmen who made fre
quent flights — travel accident in
surance and discounts at hotels, res
taurants and car rental agencies.
The firm still offers travel insur
ance, up to $1 million from Lloyd’s of
London, and discounts, involving 30
percent at Hertz, Avis, National and
Budget car rentals and about 10 per
cent at over 2,000 hotels and motels.
But the consumer-oriented activities
begun in 1968 at the direction of a
new owner have become more than
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simply a sideline venture.
After James E. Dunne II bought
the firm, APA began investigating air
crashes, testifying in Congress on
safe airplane design and hijackings,
lobbying for non-smoking seating
and opposing a proposed airport
head tax. It finally opened a
Washington, D.C. office to lobby in
Congress.
The issues reflected Dunne’s per
sonal concerns and developed into a
separate, and not particularly profit
able, business within the business,
said company spokesman Dean
Meadors during a recent interview.'
Dunne is a Hubert Humphrey
lookalike whose employees say has to
be reminded he is running an opera
tion that is supposed to make a profit.
“Jimmy is a fervent believer in air
line safety,” Meadors said. “He
could have spent this company into
bankruptcy over the DC-10 thing
and he didn’t care.”
Dunne, who had to drastically cur
tail his business activities after suf
fering a severe heart attack and
undergoing coronary bypass surgery
in 1978, came out of his forced retire
ment to direct personally APA’s DC-
10 crusade.
Meadors said Dunne was particu
larly concerned by the Chicago crash
because DC-10s figured in the three
most deadly air disasters in the
world. The day after the huge jetlin
er went down Dunne sent a telegram
to FAA officials calling for a scientific
investigatiem‘ of the controversial
McDonnell-Douglas aircraft.
Dunne got “absolutely no re
sponse” from the FAA, Meadors
said.
“He originally did not want the
planes grounded since he felt it
would be a disservice to the flying
public,” Meadors said. “But Jim was
personally outraged over it. If the
FAA had been more responsive, the
whole thing probably wouldn’t have
happened the way it did.”
What happened was that the APA
filed a federal suit to have the con
troversial planes grounded.
The FAA ultimately did ground
the planes — for 37 days. But APA
officials don’t think the grounding
accomplished much, if anything.
“They just visually investigated
the planes,” said Meadors. “What
we wanted was for them to fix the
damn airplanes.
“We’ve learned a lesson from all
this,” Meadors said. “We’ve learned
we can spend $420,000 on attorneys’
fees and I can still look out my win
dow and see DC-10s flying.”
APA also learned that getting into
the limelight — while providing na
tional recognition — did not neces
sarily guarantee bigger profits: - ’
Since the DC-10 suit, several air
lines — mainly those with numerous
DC-lOs in their fleets — have re
fused to run APA advertisements in
their in-flight magazines. Those ads
produce the company’s biggest
source of revenue.
And the $420,000 expended on
the DC-10 suit will shift the com
pany, which does an annual volume
of $4 million, into the red for 1979.
APA president Jim Philion still is
perplexed by the firm’s sudden loss
of airline company friends.
“We aren’t anti-airline or anti
aviation,” he said. “Airlines are our
business.
“We don’t want to kill the DC-10.
It’s a gorgeous, comfortable, roomy,
smooth aircraft. But the FAA has
said there is a known design deficien
cy. The National Transportation
Safety Board has said there are vul
nerabilities. At what point do we say
it’s a criminal offense to keep them
flying?”
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However, he has announceds
association is dropping its suit. E
said the FAA finally had demom SI
trated its willingness to ordlphri
changes in the jumbo jet. ■ s oari
The DC-10 aside, APAofficialssi F)pv
there are three other areas of maj a tei
concern to the airline passengera- drea
out which they are worried: thesta: 1
of the national radar system, unspei U P a
billions of dollars in a national a
safety trust fund and deteriorate ln g'
air service. Tconc
M eadors said APA officials befo: ^ e £
the nation’s basic radar systeii a PPi
which keeps track of airplanes toprev ^
vent collisions, works well —askji | us t
it is working. f| aou:
“But the backup system is Korer. doit
War vintage,” said Meadors, noti:; We 1
that the secondary radar system als:
has been known to fail while tki 1
primary system was not operating p e P
When that happens, airtrafiPiceon 1 ;' vas
trollers are forced to try and kee; v
track of the planes without meeb T
nical aid, a virtual impossibility:
Meadors said. )' en
“There are about 10 near-missest “ Ur
day reported to the FAA, ’ Philioi
said. “It’s just frightening as 1
The APA also plans to bringatteii
tion to the burgeoning trust fund-
now totaling over $4 billion
resulted from a 1970 law enacted!
improve air transportation safety.
The Airways Development Ail
Program fund consists of taxes asses j
sed against airline passengers, aiit
freight shippers and general aviatiost
owners and operators. Eight percent
of the price of each airplane ticke|
goes into the fund.
* i
Now you know
United Press International
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