HAS ANYTHING REALLY CHANGED
What was Massport doing about anti-terrorist security at Logan Airport in the years leading up to 9/11?
This memorable Herald photograph from 1999 is the answer to that question. Instead of preparing for Islamic terrorists, Massport’s hack bosses were enjoying topless weekday booze cruises with a nubile young blonde named Gidget.
As Osama bin Laden plotted his attacks out of Boston, the payroll patriots at the Massachusetts Port Authority were doing what they’ve always done – guzzling champagne on the S.S. Nauticus, feather-bedding, goofing off, assisting gangsters, getting indicted, etc.
Fending off terrorist attacks? Not so much.
If Massport had had competent, ethical leadership, could the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers have been prevented?
Maybe not, but let’s face it, given the way Logan Airport has always been run, was there a softer target for al Qaeda anywhere?
Think about what was happening at Massport just before the two commercial airliners flew out of Logan and killed 3,000 people as they crashed into the World Trade Centers.
Forget al Qaeda terrorists – Massport had a real soft spot in those days for a homegrown terrorist by the name of Whitey Bulger.
On 9/11, one of the Massport board of directors was a Local 25 Teamster thug named George Cashman, a close crony of GOP Govs. Bill Weld and Paul Cellucci.
Three months after the attacks, Massport director Cashman would be indicted on federal embezzlement and extortion charges, one of which involved falsified time sheets for one of Whitey’s plug-uglies, a career criminal named Mick Murray. Cashman later pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.
Whitey himself benefited directly from Massport corruption. During the prior Dukakis administration, he had been stopped at Terminal E’s security gate by an honest state trooper who prevented Whitey from taking $100,000 cash out of the country on a flight to Montreal.
Considering that Whitey was the brother of Senate President Billy Bulger, who totally controlled the entire state government including Mike Dukakis, there was hell to pay for the honest cop. There always was back in those days.
The next day, Dukakis’ Massport boss, Dave Davis, went to the barracks to demand all copies of the Bulger incident report, so that he could destroy them and spare his Democrat bosses any embarrassment.
The trooper refused and was instantly transferred out of F Troop. He later committed suicide.
Dave Davis retired with a bloated pension and Mike