Letters to the editor

I am curious to know why it was necessary to increase the cost for a senior pass by 300 percent this year! Two years ago, a fee of $100 was commenced with the explanation that it was necessary to cover costs. That seemed to be reasonable, but has the cost risen by $200 for processing? That does not seem reasonable.

Copper charges $10 for seniors. Aspen charges $149 for seniors. So why does Vail charge $300?

How many senior passes are issued each year, 500, 1,000? Is it really worth it?

Bob Jamar

Kissinger question

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Recently President Bush appointed old Henry Kissinger to head a special committee looking into the intelligence failures prior to 9/11. The committee was formed because hearing by the Congressional Joint Intelligence Committee last summer were blocked because the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other agencies of our government refused to release information and documents on 9/11 to the Intelligence Committee for reasons of national security.

All too often in the past the American people have been denied the truth due to national security. And all too often national security has been used to hide government bungling, mistakes, conspiracies, and crimes. That our elected representatives should be denied this information should alarm all of us. That Henry Kissinger should be appointed as head of an investigation to find the truth should have us shaking our heads in disgust.

We should not assume that intelligence reports on terrorist activities obtained by the FBI, CIA, NSA, and foreign sources prior to 9/11 were ignored by these agencies. Anyone familiar with intelligence operations and possessing some common sense would realize that there had to be a high level, top-secret intelligence group on terrorism that would have received all these reports.

This group serves as an advisory board for the National Security Council, and would make recommendations, based on their analysis of the intelligence information, to the NSC. This top-secret intelligence group hides behind the steel wall of national security and officially does not exist. Anyone knowing of the group would have to deny its existence. But it is there.

We can only imagine the repercussions for President Bush if the existence of this group is brought out, for it would put the blame for the 9/11 failures squarely on Bush and the NSC. Certainly this group, based on the information they had been receiving, would have advised the NSC that a major terrorist act was in the works. It was interesting to learn that the plans for a military deployment to Afghanistan were being worked on in the months prior to 9/11.

Henry Kissinger may even be a member of this secret intelligence group, and was certainly not appointed to get at the truth behind the 9/11 failures. Like the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of President Kennedy, the Kissinger Committee will lie to the American people. They have to. But the families of the thousands that died on 9/11, and the American people as a whole, should demand the truth by writing our congressmen and having them refuse Kissinger, and continue the investigation within the Joint Intelligence Committee. They do have the power to subpoena witnesses and documents, and to hold officials who refuse to cooperate in contempt of Congress.

In the late 1970s, the House Assassinations Committee determined that there was a probable conspiracy in the murder of President Kennedy, but failed to act and use their powers to get to the truth of who was behind it. Hopefully our elected representatives will have the determination and guts to pursue the truth this time. Certainly Kissinger won’t.

Bob Fiske

Vail