TRAVELER SECURITY & TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE RESTORATION

One of the most cherished American freedoms is the freedom of movement, the
ability to move freely and safely. Today that freedom has been attacked. We
will restore that freedom throughout the national transportation system as
soon as possible. And we will restore the highest possible degree of
safety.

These terrorist acts are designed to steal the confidence of Americans. We
will restore that confidence. We have already taken some first steps. As a
precaution, I have ordered the FAA to ground all commercial air traffic
until at least tomorrow afternoon.

After the attacks, some of our aircraft were diverted to Canada. We owe our
Canadian neighbors a debt of gratitude for helping us redirect over 120
flights and their passengers to airports in Canada.

As of 6:00 p.m., AMTRAK resumed its passenger rail service. Major railroads
have taken steps to protect their assets, as well.

The United States Coast Guard is taking all necessary actions to control the
movement of any vessel in any navigable water in the United States. Coast
Guard helicopters have been assisting with medical and national security
tasks.

We are currently looking at a wide variety of additional security measures
to increase traveler security.

Travelers will see increased security measures at our airports, train
stations and other key sites. There will be higher levels of surveillance,
more stringent searches. Airport curbside luggage check-in will no longer be
allowed. There will be more security officers, random identification checks.
Travelers may experience some inconveniences. We ask for your patience. But
we must do whatever it takes, with safety as our highest priority.

The Department of Transportation is working closely with the White House and
appropriate federal agencies to mount a coordinated, nationwide recovery
effort.

Each American must know that we will restore our national transportation
system to a safe and efficient status as quickly as possible. Our system has
been severely burdened by the stress of these horrendous attacks, but we
will recover.

In a democracy, there is always a balance between freedom and security.
Our transportation systems, reflecting the values of our society, have
always operated in an open and accessible manner. And, they will again.

Please be assured that we are activating all of our resources on an
emergency basis, and services will be restored as soon as possible.

Stupid things being done : 1) Airlines will become more dictatorial and surly to passengers...stupid because the attacks came from The AIRLINES OWN GROUND CREWS !!! shift the blame, shift the focus, pretend to be DOING SOMETHING while all the time covering their ass for the lack of security and citizen documentation of their own crews. 2) the ban on firearm sales yesterday that continues today is stupid and just a Reno-style excuse to begin disarmament of the people under cover of "terrorism" i.e. more lies and deception for Joe out there on the street i.e. business as usual 3) denying the plane over Pennsylvania was shot down... anyone who really wants to know will realize the plane was shot down and can document it from advance announcements .... yet the FBI is at it's best now , already lying about the shoot-down 4) our " leaders" will moan and groan and get lots of photo ops but , in the end will lie and spin and twist even this event to their own end....when will it stop / and for a few minutes I thought this event would be different, until I saw the FBI already in full gear lying on day #1 .... so sad .

"Most Americans will be willing to trade some personal rights for more security"-S.Stephonopolis 9-11-01 on national TV.B.S.! The American people bent over for "security checks" at airports to be safer, what did it gain us? Ah, but what did it gain those hijacker/terrorists? Assurance that they could commandeer those planes with virtual impunity. The terrorists KNEW that no one could stop them, no one could protect themselves, as no one on those planes was armed. Of course those wonderful personal defense devices, cellular phones, once again proved their worth in a crisis situation. And now everyone will be subjected to another round of "more stringent searches".

Strip searches by a proctologist will NOT stop a determined criminal/terrorist! Ex-Rays won't stop them. Nothing will stop them, except someone with equal or greater force, and the determination to use that force. Armed citizens.

Boonie Rat

MACV SOCOM, PhuBai/Hue '65-'66

Unfortunately we are going to see a lot of unnecessary knee-jerk security measures implemented, designed to make us "feel good" that something is being done while doing virtually nothing to prevent similar tragedies like those which have taken place.

Even if these terrorists were stopped from taking those box-cutters aboard, what would have stopped them from simply saying they had a bomb aboard and everybody must do what they say or everybody gets blown up?

Remember, these passengers probably had no idea what was going to to happen. They probably felt that if they simply cooperated, that the plane might land safely somewhere. If they knew they were going to slam into a building, I cannot doubt for a minute that the passengers would, having nothing to lose, overpowered the hijackers. This appears to be what happened with the plane that crashed outside Pittsburgh.

If you want to stop hijackings, or at least, greatly discourage them, here is what we should do. Do away with stewardesses and have a heavily armed flight crew. Hire burly ex-Marines to work the flights with not only weapons but perhaps martial arts training so that any hijackers (or unruly passengers for that matter) can be quickly overwhelmed and subdued.

Yeah, it would cost more to hire flight crews and the average price of a ticket might go up $20 or so, but it would certainly all but eliminate hijackings in the future.

Oh yeah, and ban those stupid carry-ons. Not so much for safety but for convenience of the other passengers. Nothing sucks more than seeing idiots stuffing their oversized gym bags into the overheads and slowing down the boarding and unboarding of the plane. Check the luggage and limit the passengers to a paperback book and a candy bar.

The most distressing aspect of all this is that Tuesday's incident will probably be used by some in our government as a "Reichstag Fire"--an attempted springboard for more "police state" style legislation, as G.S. seems to have advocated. Look at all of Clinton's Constitution-busting "anti-terrorist" legislation after the OKC bombing. What did we gain? Nothing, except more lost liberties.

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