Terrorist suspects are being treated fairly

Contrary to your Sunday editorial ("Military tribunal regulations require more changes"), I think that the president's advisers have bent over backwards to seek a fair trial for these terrorists who seek to destroy America.

Maybe you should ask the families of the people who were murdered on Sept. 11 if they want any member of the al-Qaida or Taliban to even get a trial, let alone an appeal after a trial.

I know my brother, whose daughter barely escaped from the 78th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, and my wife, whose sister, brother-in-law and niece were due in to work at 10 a.m., would give a big no to any trial.

You people just don't get it. These terrorists are out to destroy America. If you show them any kind of weakness (like Clinton did), they'll just hit us again and again. The only way to treat these people is the way they have treated us.

Fred Cavaiuolo

Stop giving coverage to former sub skipper

Will you please stop giving Scott Waddle space in your newspaper (Dec. 28, "10 Who Made a Difference")? He messed up badly. He got off lightly.

So what if he was charismatic and on the fast track for promotion? He isn't now, and I am tired of seeing this man brought up in this kind of context.

Time magazine opted for Mayor Giuliani over Osama bin Laden as its choice for Person of the Year. Hooray for Time. You have given us, once again, Scott Waddle as someone worthy of comment. He isn't.

What is next? Do we need to celebrate the one-year anniversary in February of the accident that plunged a whole town into despair over the unnecessary loss of some of its finest men, caused by the ineptitude of this man?

Will we need to be reminded, again, that a bright future lies ahead for him, if not for the victims, as he "moves on" to write his memoirs, be interviewed by the media, be rewarded with huge public speaking fees, etc.?

I don't know about others, but I have had enough already.

Darrell Schuetz
Kaneohe

[Quotables] "What will we have? A Bay of Goats, most likely." Anthony Zinni Retired Marine Corps general and U.S. envoy to the Middle East, predicting failure for any U.S.-financed plan to overthrow Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi National Congress, a London-based confederation of Iraqi opposition groups. "It was a series of mistakes that ended with this big booboo." Allen Agor Federal Aviation Administration federal security manager, on a foul-up in security at the Honolulu International Airport Sunday that shut down the airport for nearly two hours.

Aloha, Hawaiian deal doesn't seem needed

Do Aloha and Hawaiian airlines have to merge to survive?

A couple of mainland household guests of mine held tickets on Aloha to depart Honolulu for the Big Island Dec. 26 and return Dec. 31. They wanted to delay the departure one day and return to Honolulu a few hours earlier than scheduled. Would you believe there were no empty seats available to the Big Island on Dec. 27, 28 or 29? Also there were no return flight seats available for an earlier time frame on Dec. 31.

This lack of seats does not sound like an airline hurting for business. It sounds like an airline that doesn't have the seat capacity to meet the current demand.

Since Hawaiian and Aloha are talking about shedding some aircraft after the merger, there will be a decrease in available seat capacity. If there is insufficient capacity now, what will seat capacity be like after the merger?

Jack Schneider

Airline merger raises many questions

The proposed merger of Hawaiian and Aloha Airlines gives me cause to ask a few questions:

>> Why are the consumer advocates not up in arms about the inevitable rise in travel costs, as soon as the promised rate increases expire?

>> Why are the local commuters not alarmed about the impending reduction of interisland flights?

>> Why are the regulatory agencies not concerned about the obvious antitrust issues flaunted by this merger?

>> Why is Aloha Holdings Inc. spending millions of dollars on gratuities to unions and severance pay for executives, instead of restructuring debt and purchasing modern aircraft?

>> Why does the outgoing CEO of Aloha Airlines get more millions of dollars in severance pay than the outgoing CEO of Hawaiian Airlines?

>> Why, if things are so good at Continental Airlines, did Greg Brenneman leave?

>> Why do we read so very little about this merger in the local newspapers?

>> Why would any of Aloha Airlines' unions want their people on the lower end of Hawaiian Airlines' seniority lists?

>> Why would Hawaiian Air's unions wish to dilute their seniority lists at all?

>> Why does our governor want a merger that will put thousands of workers on the state's unemployment rosters?

>> Why does Senator Inouye no longer see the need for two healthy local airlines?

>> Why are the other politicians silent on the subject of this impending monopoly in Hawaii?

>> Why does anybody think that United Airlines will not ask for the soon-to-be-vacant interisland gates at our state's airports?

>> Why do the powers that be not see that such a monopoly will invite a cut-rate airline to come in and offer a lower grade of transportation?

Capt. Richard W. Rogers
Hawaiian Airlines

Appointment confirms Democratic network

It seems that the good ol' boy Hawaii Democrat network is alive and well.

Clifford Uwaine, convicted of voter registration fraud, has been appointed by a Democratic governor as -- pardon me while I gag -- a trustee of the Hawaii Employer Union Health Benefits Trust Fund.

Are we, the taxpayers, expected to support these criminal Democrats forever? I don't think so. It's time to change the system. November 2002 would be a good starting point.

Jim Fromm
Waipahu

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