KEN STREMSKY DISCUSSES BIOTERRORISM AND OTHER TOPICS BIOTERRORISM The May 17, 2002 Wall Street Journal on pages B1 and B4 has an article with the title "Civil-Liberties Issues Check Plans to Counter Bioterrorism." I have long thought that if a country does not learn from the past it is far more likely to experience hard times and may cease to exist. Alexander The Great used biological weapons (plague carriers) in some of his campaigns. He used catapults. Plague wiped out a significant portion of Europe's population. A few years ago, Japan experienced a terrorist attack in a subway system. Several books and movies have been written dealing with bioterrorism. The only thing a terrorist has to do is find someone who is willing to die for the terrorist's cause and give the person ebola, or a really nasty form of anthrax or another deadly disease and have the person go on a subway and cough on a lot of people before the person shows signs the person does not just have a cold. I find it hard to understand why people think it is a good idea for our country to play Russian roulette with its survival. I realize it is better to be dead than be a slave. I realize that it is better to be dead than have no freedom. I think it is best to have common sense. Only a brain dead idiot thinks it is a good idea for our country not to be as prepared as we are able to be for bioterrorism. The stupidest people usually do not survive in a war for survival of the fittest when enemies are willing to die for their cause. We have enemies that want to exterminate us and we are wasting billions of dollars a year on farm subsidies to Fortune 500 companies. We should have been spending money stockpiling vaccines instead of flushing it down the toilet. We have discouraged pharmaceutical companies from creating vaccines to deadly diseases because Congress has not had the backbone to set maximums for pharmaceutical liability related to vaccines. Sometimes, some people do die from vaccines. It is foolish to discourage vaccine research that saves millions because a few hundred die or have very, very bad reactions. If pharmaceutical companies do not try to hide negative information from the Food and Drug Administration, they should not be severely punished by our court system. I do not think any drug is right for everyone. The National Guard may be nationalized. Congress may call "forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union." Congress may suspend the "Privilege of Writ of Habeas Corpus." Congress may quarantine many people. Congress may require that people be tested to see if they have been in contact with biological weapons via blood tests and other types of tests. Congress may license patents to competitors. Congress may seize hospitals. Our country should stockpile small pox vaccines, plague vaccines, anthrax vaccines, create an ebola vaccine, and have stockpiles of vaccines for other deadly diseases. Congress needs to have the ability to cremate people who died from plague, small pox, ebola, and/or other deadly contagious disease. We do not want a dead person's body to be dug up and used as a weapon to kill other people. Congress should make sure that hospitals are prepared for biological attacks and Congress should do whatever is necessary to do this. If Americans were taught how plague decimated Europe hundreds of years ago, we might have fewer people that are idiots on this topic. I can only hope that if our country gets hit by suicidal disease carriers at the same time in many different parts of the country that the people who are making it harder for us to be protected from bioterrorists experience the worst symptoms and that they last longer than normal. Hopefully, they will see parts of their bodies falling off while their internal organs are slowly decaying and they will realize the type of hell they will soon experience for eternity. Congress should make clear to our enemies that if our country is hit by a biological attack our country will probably use nuclear weapons against countries that have supported groups that have used terrorist attacks against citizens of the United States of America. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SHOULD ALLOW ANYONE WHO WANTS TO BE IMMUNIZED AGAINST SMALLPOX VIA THE SMALLPOX VACCINE TO RECEIVE THE SMALLPOX VACCINE. The Federal Government is being very stupid when the Federal Government does not allow people to voluntarilly use the smallpox vaccine because smallpox is one of the deadliest diseases in human history. People have a right to risk getting sick and possibly die from the smallpox vaccine. Before receiving the smallpox vaccine, the person should have to give up the person's right to sue for getting sick and possibly die from the vaccine to receive the vaccine because there is a significant risk that a person will get sick and/or die from the current smallpox vaccine. I hope the Federal Government will create a smallpox vaccine that is not likely to cause a person to get sick and possibly die. DEALING WITH TERRORISM No President of the United States of America has the ability to protect us 100 percent from terrorist attacks. No administration of any President of the United States of America has the ability to protect us 100 percent from terrorist attacks. No government has the ability to protect its citizens 100 percent from terrorist attacks. A President of the United States of America does have the ability to work with Congress, state governments, and local governments to decrease the chances that terrorists will be able to harm our country. A President of the United States of America and Congress do have the ability to make clear to our enemies that we are willing to massively retaliate against terrorists and countries that support terrorists. Our country should have learned from the lessons we were taught by the attack on Pearl Harbor. The movie Tora! Tora! Tora! discusses the failures that took place before Pearl Harbor. Some of the same failures took palce before September 11, 2001. In the future, Federal Government agencies need to share information with the President of the United States of America, the United States Military, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., a Department of Homeland Security, state governments, and local governments. Our country should have taken airport security and airplane security seriously in 1970s and after the 1970s. I remember that hijackings took place on a regular basis. I also knew in the 1970s that Japanese kamikaze pilots used their planes as bombs during World War 2. I thought in the 1970s that some hijacker would turn a plane into a bomb in Europe or Africa. I assumed that our Federal Government realized that this was a possibility and that is why I never wrote about the possibility. I thought some members of our Federal Goverment had read The Running Man by Stephen King and Debt of Honor by Tom Clancy and passed on the useful information in those books to people who needed to know. I should have realized that history education in the United States of America is often a joke. Federal regulators should not endanger the flying public via lax regulation of airlines. The Department of Transportation has proven many times that is not capable of making sure airlines provide adequate security. Our country should have taken terrorists seriously after our Marines were murdered in Lebanon. We should not have sold weapons to countries we knew hated the United States of America. We should have punished countries severely that supported terrorist attacks against our citizens. Our government's response to the blowing up of Pan Am 103 was feeble. If we had punished terrorists and the countries that support terrorism against us after Pan Am 103 was blown up the way we should have, the attack on our country on September 11, 2001 might not have happened. CIVIL LIBERTIES IN WAR TIME The Bill of Rights are in existence in peace time and war time. If we win every battle against terrorists and lose our civil liberties in the process, we will have lost the War for Freedom. Amendment Five of the United States Constitution says "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise, infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation." Amendment Six of the United States Constitution says "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense." Enemy combatants who are citizens of the United States of America are protected by Amendment Six of the United States Constitution which means citizens may not be detained by the United States Military without a speedy and public trial. Congress and not the President of the United States of America has the power to create military tribunals and punish crimes against our citizens because Article One, Section Eight of the United States Constitution says Congress has the power "To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court" "To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offenses against the Law of Nations" "To declare war, grant Letters of Marquee and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water" Article One says Congress has the power to suspend the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus. Article One, Section Nine says "The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the publick Safety may require it." The President of the United States of America does not have the power to suspent the Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus.