2926-09-28 - Editor's Loudspeaker: New Rheims Committee Final Report
As many of you likely already know, staff leaks from Congressional staffers suggest we'll be seeing the preliminary report from the New Rheims Committee within the next few days. This feed was quite active in covering the first week of the committee's activities, and we were as disappointed as anyone when Sylja Nisi-Bonn took the remaining proceedings behind closed doors, but the decision was at least understandable. It had, by the first day of the second week, become a media circus, with most of the interstellar news operations picking apart every question and every answer to excessive detail. Admittedly, this feed participated in this over-focus, though I believe that the one significant feed item concerning the matter was reasonable and relevant to this audience's interests.
Full recordings of the testimony provided behind closed doors will probably be released shortly after the report. Of particular interest, Samuel Bosch's in-person testimony in the last week of the committee hearings is of interest; there are no major leaks of what was said during his appearance, and as far as can be determined, the captain was before the committee less than three hours (this is about half the total time the other major witnesses spent before the committee, and we don't yet know why Bosch, who was as close to an eyewitness to the disaster as can be found, was not questioned in greater detail).
As the cruiser Arrowhawk, Bosch's command, is currently in the Centauri Naval Yards undergoing a minor refit, I have reached out to the captain through a third party, asking whether he would like to provide his account to this publication once his testimony has become public. I do not think he will accept this offer, but I hope he does; I've noticed a concerning datasphere trend toward New Rheims conspiracy theories in the weeks of silence on the issue, and perhaps a direct eye-witness report of the incident that is not filtered through the Navy or Congress will help to quash some of the more unlikely theories.
When the committee report becomes available, I will go over it, and call attention to what I think is significant in its results. I caution this audience not to expect a bombshell; Congressional committee reports tend to be remarkably dry and maddeningly reluctant to prove definite, un-hedged conclusions.
