EXACT TEXT, taken from:
http://www.faa.gov/dotstatement.htm
and
http://www.faa.gov/apa/pr/pr.cfm?id=1406

Wednesday, September 12, 2001
3:45 p.m. (EST)       
Contact: Chet Lunner
Tel.: (202) 366-4570
DOT 93-01

For immediate release 

Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta has announced the Federal Aviation Administration will allow a limited reopening of the nation’s commercial airspace system in order to allow flights that were diverted yesterday to continue to their original destinations.  

The Secretary also announced that the FAA is temporarily extending the ground stop order imposed yesterday while additional security measures are being completed.  

“Safety is always of paramount importance, and in these extraordinary times we intend to be vigilant,” Mineta said. “We remain committed to resuming commercial flights as soon as possible. 

“As the President said last night, these despicable terrorist attacks have shaken the foundation of our greatest buildings, but have not shaken the foundation of this great nation,” the Secretary said. 

“As America watches the efforts of our heroic emergency responders and rescue personnel, we keep the victims and their families in our prayers,” he also said. 

Mineta said the FAA would permit flights today only in special limited circumstances. Flights diverted as a result of yesterday’s order will be allowed to continue to their original destination under vastly tightened security guidelines. Only passengers on the original flights will be allowed to re-board, and only after airports and airlines have implemented strict screening measures. Airlines will also be allowed to reposition empty aircraft, he said. 

Mineta said a variety of stepped-up security measures will be instituted at the airports once they re-open. These measures include: 

- A thorough search and security check of all airplanes and airports before passengers are allowed to enter and board aircraft. 

- We will discontinue curbside check-in at the airport. We would ask that all passengers go to the ticket counters to check in. 

- We will also discontinue off-airport check in. We can no longer allow passengers to check in for their flights at hotels or other venues. Passengers must check in at the airports. 

- We must reserve boarding areas for passengers only. Only ticketed passengers will be allowed to proceed past airport screeners to catch their flights. 

- Vehicles near airport terminals will be monitored more closely. 

“I know all Americans want us to move as quickly and prudently as possible to return our transportation system to normal,” Mineta said, “and we will as soon as we can do so safely.” 

KeepAndBearArms.com Response

from Angel Shamaya, Founder/Executive Director
with some assistance from Sam Cohen (only on #3, I take responsibility for the rest)

1)  The people who took out the WTC and the Pentagon were passengers who could have gone through all of the above steps, so the entire approach is bankrupt from its inception.

2)  Because the entire list of new "stepped up security measures" would not have stopped the single worst terrorist attack in America's history but is being presented as if it can make people safer, it is a fraud.

3) If the federal government is so contemptuous of the intelligence of the American people that they believe they can get away with this fraud, they should be set straight with questions like these:

A)  Why haven't the FAA with support from other federal officials lifted the ban on pilots' carrying of firearms?  Are you even seriously considering it?  If not, why not?  And if not, because none of the above measures would have stopped the single worst terrorist attack in modern American history, what can you do to truly make commercial air travel safe -- not just "feel" safe -- without jeopardizing civil liberties?

B)  When do We The People get to offer our input on the decision-making process as to how to insure our safety where the federal government has not only failed miserably to do so but has at least partially inspired 24 people to commit suicide while taking out thousands of our own people in the process?

C)  What is your exact justification for prohibiting a pilot from using a handgun with airplane-safe, frangible ammunition to save the lives of 20,000 American citizens?

And please do note the top quote from one of CNN's top stories today:

"The Federal Aviation Administration ordered several stringent measures Wednesday to make the nation's airports and skies safer, while allowing limited air traffic to resume late in the day." [emphasis theirs]

CNN is obviously enjoying playing accomplice in the defrauding of the American people. CNN also reports the following measures being taken by F.A.A.:

"A total ban on knives of any material. Previously, knives with blades shorter than four inches had been allowed."

Are they going to ban pencils, too? Any combat vet will tell you how quickly you can take someone out with a pencil. So does common sense. Remember that stuff?

Are they going to make everyone take off their shoes and check under the insoles? An 8th grader could stash a HARD plastic knife -- capable of puncturing your heart -- in his shoe, if he wanted to.

Is the F.A.A. going to add one more organization to its list of organizations, called The Body Cavity Search Agency? If not, these moves are all smokescreens to make people "feel" safe, not to end all possibility of hijacking for good.

We need to arm the pilots. NOW. And broadcast the fact to the rotten, lowlife, bloodthirsty scumbag terrorists still here in a nation of which they are unworthy. Our pilots will blow your hollow brains out so you can go to Hell where you belong.

TAKE ACTION

If you would like to know the answers to the above or other questions, perhaps it's time you ask the Feeble-ize America Association. Following are the means for you to do that, then a link to the page where you learn how to petition the FAA to change their 20,000 Dead Rule.

General Inquiries
Surely you can send a question or two by email, right? Any of the above will do.  Or a more direct route, such as:  WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO LIFT THE BAN ON GUNS FOR PILOTS? HOW ABOUT RIGHT NOW!  (Getting pilots armed is a strong starting point, and it's very doable, right now.)  9-awa-aoa-consumer@faa.gov

DOT Aviation Consumer Protection Division
NONE of the above "solutions" would have stopped the mass murderers who just killed our people; innocent people would still have been consumed in flames, thanks to the criminal-protection scheme now in place.
airconsumer@ost.dot.gov, (800) 322-7873

Aviation Safety
To report or ask about incidents/problems (such as the problem of your pilot on your next flight not being able to make sure the plane doesn't get used to murder 20,000 people), call the FAA’s 24 Hour Safety Hotline: (800) 255-1111.

Aircraft Registration
"Registry reserves and assigns all U.S. identification marks (N-Numbers) to U.S. civil aircraft."  Perhaps the fact that they'll not be finding any identification marks on the downed planes resulted from a lack of self-defense capability of the passengers and crew?
aircraft@registry.jccbi.gov

RELATED F.A.A. LINK -- FOR THE NEXT STEP

Procedures for Petitions for Exemption or Rulemaking

It's time we create a solid petition through the FAA's bureaucratic process calling for an end to the specific "rule" that requires death and destruction at the hands of gutless sickos who want to go to Hell early -- the "Captain Must Surrender His Ship to Lowlife Murderers" rule. Somebody get one started and let's see about submitting a few thousand of them. But let's flood THEIR system, through THEIR process, so they can't say we didn't "follow procedures."