Dear Members and Friends -

We strongly urge you to send the following letter to your legislators and encourage others to do likewise. Contact information for New York State Legislators can be found at http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/ils/legislature/legis.html

(date)

(Lesislator’s name, address)

RE: Model State Emergency Health Powers Act

Dear ________________________

All 50 governors were sent a copy of the "Model State Emergency Health Powers Act" in November 2001. This Act was drafted by the Center for Law and Public Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities specifically for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This legislation has been developed in collaboration with the National Governors Association in addition to several other state organizations. A draft of this proposal can be found at http://www.publichealthlaw.net/MSEHPA/MSEHPA.pdf Please take the time to read ALL 40 pages of this extremely dangerous proposed legislation. Being a state legislator and taking an oath to uphold the state and federal constitutions, we know that you will understand the ramifications of such legislation and vote “no” when it is presented to you for a vote.

Among its most egregious aspects are provisions to require forced vaccinations and mandatory medical exams in the event of a declared "state emergency." Those who refuse either of these state-ordered procedures may be charged with a misdemeanor. Those same people can be quarantined in buildings designated by the non-elected "public health authority." Very little legal recourse may be available to those whose lives and health could be shattered by such draconian measures.

Among the many reasons to oppose this proposed "model" act are the following:

The government’s top bioterrorism expert, Dr. D.A.Henderson, the former head of the global smallpox program, does not think vaccination should be forced on people( http://www.vaccinationnews.com/DailyNews/November%202001/FedSmallPlanAgressive.htm ).

Passage of this legislation would give public health officials and states’ governors the power to arrest, transport, quarantine, drug and vaccinate anyone suspected of carrying a potentially infectious disease. The Act’s definition of infectious disease is that it may or may NOT be transmissible from human to human, animal to human or insect to human.

The MSEHPA also gives the state and its officers and agencies almost total immunity from death and injury that may result from state-ordered medical interventions and provides the authority for real and personal property to be commandeered, seized or destroyed without compensation.

There are no alternative health options. Persons will accept medical interventions ordered by the state or be charged with a misdemeanor.

According to the Journal of the American Medical Association (June 9, 1999, Vol. 281, No. 22, pg. 2132), "It has been estimated that if 1 million people were vaccinated, as many as 250 (1 in 4,000) could die from an adverse reaction to the vaccine.

Plans are underway to purchase 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine—each one with "the name of every man, woman and child on it," said HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson. This "one-size fits all" approach to public health could cause severe reactions and death in 75,000 people.

Other diseases, such as anthrax, are not contagious between humans, and can be treated with antibiotics. The onset of a non-communicable disease is a personal health issue and not a public health concern. It is illogical to force vaccinations on people to prevent the spread of non- communicable diseases.

At this time, there are currently no approved vaccinations for most of the some 65 known bio- terror germs/viruses/toxins availableto those who would use them against populations of innocent people. This means that vaccines developed for them would be experimental. Forcing people to be injected with an experimental vaccine is a violation of the Nuremburg Code that states it is an international crime to use human subjects for medical experimentation without their consent.

The proposed MSEHPA is built upon the premise that the government should be given the authority to force herd immunity on Americans with dangerous and/or experimental medical procedures. We, as a nation, do not even subject enemy populations to such medically illogical policies.

I implore you to PLEASE become aware of this foreboding legislation and VOTE AGAINST IT. Our most basic human and civil rights are at stake.

Sincerely,


(your name)

Sign the "Armed Passengers" PledgeOrange County's involvement in the WTC attack goes beyond the tragedy of our local victims and the glory of our local heroes. The two planes that two planes that hit the WTC nearly collided over Orange County. Below is the text of our pledge. Click here to sign. Following that are some remarks from Orange TRT's Frank Carbone followed by the original details from the Times Herald-Record.

We, the undersigned, pledge not to patronize US domestic airline companies until the airlines, in conjunction with the FAA, relent on the insidious firearm ban for pilots, crew and passengers. Based on sound statistics, armed citizens substantially reduce the potential for criminals to act and carry out criminal activity when confronted by armed vigilance. It is despicable that the US government, in response to the acts of September 11, has a virtual "black-out" on the idea of armed citizens' complementing the country's newest security measures. We will resume flying once sensible measures have been instituted whereby airline crew and passengers are allowed to protect themselves as they see fit.

Also Click here to sign a petition in support of the "Americans in Good Standing Act" that would allow armed passengers.

Also, please send the follwoing letter to your local paper:

Dear Editor,

The events of 9-11 shocked us all. After the initial period of rage and grief, it is necessary for us now to calmly and carefully review the roots of this crime and consider what we can do to prevent such acts in the future.

We know from recent experience on the ground, in the 31 states that allow citizen concealed carry of firearms, that significant drops in violent crime can be expected in any state that adopts this measure. Can we have any expectation that the same would be true in the air? I believe so. Until the sixties there were few restrictions on firearms carried by airline passengers. Arms were a common sight on planes, particularly during hunting seasons. These were mainly hunting weapons, far more powerful than any handgun made. It was shortly AFTER this was prohibited that the word "skyjacker" came into the language. There was a spate of hijackings in the early Seventies that only ended with the armed Sky Marshall program. So we can imagine that armed citizens, whether civilians, as in the past, or Sky Marshals, as in the Seventies, added a strong measure of safety to our airline industry.

But The Sky Marshall program is not enough today. One Sky Marshall can not handle four or five armed and trained terrorists, as they might have been able to a lone hijacker. The cost of even a single Sky Marshall per flight is too great for the airlines to bear, and the three to five that reason dictates would be necessary are out of the question even for the government. The only reasonable option is to return to the successful pattern of the past. Citizens throughout the US have proven themselves competent to carry weapons on the ground. Despite strong efforts to find evidence of any negative effects of modern liberal concealed carry laws, none has been found. There has been a sharp decline in violent crimes of all kinds in liberal concealed carry issue states, and no increase in road rage incidents, suicides or domestic violence.

Guns in the hands of Americans save lives. They could have saved 6000 lives on 9-11. That is something to think about when weighing the pros and cons. 6000 lives.

The obvious objections to this policy are well covered at our web site. I ask you to visit and make an informed judgment of your own. Your readers would welcome discussion of this issue in a forum such as yours.

http://www.projectsafeskies.org

Thank you.

(Name)
(Phone and address)

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I'm not sure what all of the newspaper accounts said about Stewart Airport relative to the hijacked planes. But since I live about 2 miles east of the end of the east/west runways (#9 and #27) and was appointed to the Stewart Airport Noise Committee a few years back. I've learned and experienced many improprieties and corruption within our government (local and state) that I would have never known had I not become an activist (since 1985) and have been vocal about Stewart Airport and the preservation of the Buffer Zone Lands aka the 7,000 Acre Stewart Hunting Co-Operative -- in Orange County New York. NYS Gov. Pataki has been working on getting rid of 2,000 acres of the Co-op for developers -- cheap.

I lived here when it was a SAC Air Base, then Gov. Rockefeller forced the Air Force out in order to turn it into a giant SST Airport in 1970, for private businesses -- these plans fell through. Then about 10 years ago NYS Government decided to develop it into a major passenger and/or cargo port or whatever would satisfy the big business bosses, big party bosses and big crime bosses (the unholy trinity). I could go into pages of detail now or write a book but it may not be appreciated and it may not be a good time.

The air traffic controllers at Stewart do not have the luxury of viewing a radar screen. But they are sitting in a control tower that is more than 50 years old with a set of binoculars. Yes there have been near-misses and accidents. And yes the controllers have complained. The Times Herald record did a full page story on my community of Winona Lake and our concerns for overflights, noise and our safety. We also petitioned the airport management and our local and state public servants to no avail. They were completely useless and in my opinion are controlled by big business and the real party bosses whose names most of us may not recognize. After we presented our petitions signatures and the story appeared in the THR and within 4 days -- our community was almost wiped out by a fully loaded FedEx cargo plane that was attempting an emergency landing at the airport due to a major fire on board. It barely made the runway and as soon as it landed it broke into 3 parts and became fully involved [it passed over our community at a very low altitude]. The pilots of the plane refused to release the shipping manifest but it was later determined that there were illegal passengers, drugs, contaminated blood and God knows what else. If it was a tractor trailer that caught fire along a highway and the driver refused to give up the shipping manifest he would have been arrested.

The other concern with airport safety is the fact that for many years it operated with only one instrument landing system (ILS). I believe that another is being installed. In addition business at the airport has never been good and has been in decline for many years - it has turned out to be another government boondoggle that has probably wasted more than $750 million in hard earned tax money that should have been spent on more important and needy projects.

Many Americans who feel secure, safe, complacent in our homes, our workplace, our transportation systems and our communities naively so -- would have a completely different outlook if they knew more of what was really going on behind the scenes and the risk management decisions that affect all of our lives and our future health.

. . . . .Frank Carbone Jr., Orange County

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Stewart Airport – The two disaster-bound 767's that left Boston early Tuesday morning on a suicide mission to the World Trade Center crossed paths over Stewart International Airport and nearly collided, according to news reports.

Air traffic controllers at Stewart in New Windsor were never warned about any of the happenings overhead, they said yesterday, even though radar controllers elsewhere already knew something was terribly wrong.

American Airlines Flight 11 and United's Flight 175, the doomed planes that crashed into the Twin Towers Tuesday morning, both flew over Stewart at the same time along their path to destruction, according to the Nashua Telegraph newspaper.

"The two airplanes got too close to each other down by Stewart," an unnamed Federal Aviation Administration employee told that paper.

What wasn't clear, however, was if air traffic controllers knew how high each of the planes were when they roared through the Hudson Valley because by then, officials said, the instrument on board that broadcasts the aircraft's altitude had been turned off.

News reports and radar tracking data show both flights left Boston's Logan International Airport within minutes of each other, American's at about 8 a.m. and United's about 15 minutes later.

The American flight headed west. About 15 minutes after takeoff, it veered northward instead of south. Soon after, it was told to climb, but didn't respond, air traffic controllers told reporters. The pilot, however, often keyed the microphone so radar controllers could hear much of what was happening in the cockpit.

"He wanted us to know something was wrong," a controller told the Christian Science Monitor. "When he pushed the button and the terrorist spoke, we knew. There was this voice that was threatening the pilot ... "

A second controller told that paper the apparent hijacker told the pilot, "Don't do anything foolish. You are not going to get hurt."

At about 8:28 a.m., that flight skirted the southeast boundary of Adirondack Park and turned south, soon following the Hudson River toward its target, covering the final 160 miles in about 20 minutes. Impact was at 8:48 a.m. The United flight headed southwest after takeoff, crossed diagonally through Connecticut and then flew through the Hudson Valley over Newburgh at about 8:40 a.m. That plane continued toward central New Jersey before making a hard left toward Manhattan.

It hit 15 minutes after the first.

By John Milgram
Ottaway News Service