[ OUR OPINION ]
TRANSPORTATION Secretary Norman Y. Mineta has tapped into the nation's available expertise in assembling the new Transportation Security Administration to prevent terrorist attacks at the nation's airports. Recent appointments at the Lihue Airport raise disturbing questions about whether that practice is being followed at mid-level management. The appointments reek of political favoritism. Don’t use threat
of terror as excuse
for political patronage
THE ISSUE The TSA has hired staff members of former Kauai Mayor Kusaka, a member of President Bush's campaign committee.
Robert Schoonmaker of California is highly qualified to head security at Lihue Airport. Schoonmaker, who has a degree in criminology, has been a federal criminal investigator for 26 years. Most recently, he was the Department of Commerce's agent in charge of criminal and administrative investigations of violations of national security and export-control laws in a six-state area.
Schoonmaker might have been expected to hire people with expertise in aviation or transportation. Instead, he has provided a lucrative landing strip to four members of former Kauai Mayor Maryanne Kusaka's administration. Kusaka, a Republican, was a member of President Bush's 2000 campaign committee in Hawaii.
Gini Kapali, who was Kusaka's economic planning director, is the TSA's new manager of community support and quality improvement. Kusaka press secretary Beth Tokioka is assigned to coordinate security efforts with companies that do business at Lihue Airport. Finance director Wally Rezentes Jr. is the supervisor of the airport's 45 baggage screeners. Former Deputy County Attorney Curtis Shiramizu is in charge of regulatory affairs. The new jobs brought salary hikes of at least $20,000 to each of the four.
The job openings were posted on the federal government's personnel Web site, but were not advertised in the local newspaper. Schoonmaker said at his only news conference -- nearly two months ago -- that he had "recruited" the former Kusaka employees.
The appointments would seem to reflect Schoonmaker's appreciation of the need for community involvement, were it not for his referral of all press inquiries to the TSA's Washington office. Local TSA officials understandably have shunned the media to avoid inquiries about security measures, but that policy should not shield them from questions about dubious hiring practices.
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The threat that smallpox might be used as a weapon against the United States is distressing enough without the vaccine itself presenting risks. For this reason, government health officials and the Bush administration must mount an intensive information campaign to educate the public about the disease and their plans for inoculations. Fight smallpox threat
with info, inoculation
THE ISSUE President Bush plans to vaccinate troops and health-care and emergency workers against the deadly disease.
As with other ambiguous threats since 9/11, the government suspects that several countries, including Iraq, Russia and North Korea, have stocks of the smallpox virus that could be used as a weapon. Bush's plan requires about 500,000 military personnel to be vaccinated. It recommends that about the same number of health-care and emergency civilians who would most likely be exposed to smallpox casualties also be inoculated. In 2004, when enough vaccine is licensed, it would be offered to all Americans.
Smallpox is an extremely contagious disease that historically killed a third of its victims. In 1980, the disease was declared eradicated worldwide and all outstanding samples of the virus held by the United States and the Soviet Union were to have been destroyed. That was deferred because experts believe that the Soviets had developed large quantities of smallpox for use in weaponry and that some of it was in the hands of hostile nations.
The last known smallpox case in the United States was in 1949. Routine vaccinations ended in 1972, and people inoculated more than 30 years ago have little, if any, protection today.
The vaccine is considered the most dangerous human immunization. It is made from a live virus closely related to smallpox that can be transmitted to others who haven't been immunized, presenting major logistical problems in the government's plan. Those vaccinated will have to be careful not to expose vulnerable family members, including infants, pregnant women, people with weak immune systems and those who have had eczema.
Few practicing doctors have had experience in administering the vaccine, recognizing its numerous side effects or treating complications. Moreover, fewer than 700 doses of a medicine that can counter the complications are now available.
It is impossible to determine if the vaccination plan is the appropriate response to an unknown threat of bioterrorism. However, uncertainties about the disease and the vaccine's effects demand that information be presented to the public fully and rationally.
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Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, Publisher
Frank Bridgewater, Editor 529-4791; fbridgewater@starbulletin.com
Michael Rovner, Assistant Editor 529-4768; mrovner@starbulletin.com
Lucy Young-Oda, Assistant Editor 529-4762; lyoungoda@starbulletin.comMary Poole, Editorial Page Editor, 529-4748; mpoole@starbulletin.com
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