A Short Rant……
“In the wake of the latest failed terrorist incident, the TSA announced a new round of security procedures designed to greatly inconvenience millions of air passengers without doing anything to increase their security…”
Here’s an idea. Let’s start using basic counterintelligence principles to screen prospective travelers to the United States and bar those young, unmarried, Muslim men having affiliations with radical mosques, madrassas, imams, extremist Islamist political groups or a history of mental illness and erratic behavior from receiving visas to enter the United States. This clown should never have been able to get a visa. His own father, a senior government official of a foreign nation, was trying to red-flag him as a potential al Qaida terrorist for us(!).
Would such a policy catch every prospective terrorist? No. Nothing will.
But it should at least keep out the no-brainer cases who currently are admitted to the U.S. under our politically correct TSA-DHS-State immigration regime. There’s really no upside to allow radical activists, recruiters for Hizb ut-Tahrir, Hezbollah fundraisers, and other enemies of civilized existence into our country. Or better yet, any Western country. Sure, CAIR will complain but as that organization is an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism case, in terms of civil rights, they are not exactly the NAACP.
In the meantime, maybe the airlines will start distributing catheters to pasengers whose landings are delayed.
December 27th, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Amen! Re: CAIR, would it not be nice if the gov’t acted like they were not the leaders and only representatives of Muslims in America?
December 27th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
radical, extremist? time to stop using these unfounded cliche’s – it’s all islam
December 27th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
Every time a Western-educated, middle class Muslim participates in a terrorist attack, we are told that an accurate terrorist profile does not exist.
December 27th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
I think the answer is to have a two-tiered screening system that is based on whether a person has recently visited a country that harbors radical Islamists. Because there is no distinction related to a person’s religion, it would be difficult to claim religious discrimination.
December 27th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
"A Short Rant….." is a clarion call that is sounding across the blogs this weekend like smoke signals and horns fashioned from tusks did for the ancients. If the U.S. doesn’t adapt more stringent rules along the lines that you suggest, then sooner or later we will awake to find our selves mourning the loss of hundreds or thousands instead of sighing in relief at one man’s failure to complete his mission.
It is time for the power of the 2.0 to raise their concerted voices in a din that moves the government to act with the safety of all their citizens as their prime mission.We all have been concerned about Afthanistan and the issues abroad and have done much to raise that debate. Perhaps it is time we turned our vigor to something that concerns every soul living within our borders and demand our government act, before it becomes too late for many.
December 28th, 2009 at 4:06 am
Ah, HG, if only it was a clarion call. The problem with fixing the current inanity is that doing so implies that the worldview of a substantial portion of the elite is inaccurate, foolish and counterproductive. It’s far easier for them to accept future dead Americans than to admit that Norm Mineta was some kind of a**hole – and so is everyone else in Congress and the Executive Branch for accepting his policy for 8 years.
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Hi Abu,
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What I want are copies of the emails forbidding the on the spot authorities and police agencies from using the profiles or from describing Islamist attacks to the media as terrorism.
December 28th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I’m no security professional, so maybe this is a half-baked idea, but why not do both? Have a random check system in place so that terrorists cannot beat security by recruiting someone who does not fit the profile. Then, ALSO have a profiling system to ensure that random selection does not allow the obvious threats to get through. Additionally, it seems that certain threats prefer certain seats. Perhaps we might want to reserve those seats for certain individuals or at least denying them to certain individuals. Of course, it also seems that we could do a lot more before passengers get to the airport – like listening when a fairly distinguished diplomat warns us that his son is bonkers.
I tend to roll my eyes when people who’ve never served in the military start lecturing about military affairs. With that in mind, I will now stop pontificating outside my area of expertise.
December 28th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Hi Schmedlap,
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Doing both would be great and it would defuse a lot of the anger over random searches of the harmless. However, it is still ( unless something changed in the last few days) against Federal policy to do both.
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Not listening to the father of the bomber appears to be more of our chronic failure to have our own agencies share information, barring the consular officer who issued the visa simply ignoring his watch list ( human error is always possible).
December 28th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
Zen you are on the money. Info is often there…sharing and if shared recognizing it as a signal something is wrong it is where the weakness lies. The reasons why? complacency (it will not happen here!!! mindset), fear (of liability), egos and numerous other human traits are part of the problem as well.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:28 am
I recently sat in on a discussion about the use of profiling by law enforcement in enforcing immigration laws. The discussion, which largely focused on (some) actual and (a lot more) perceived negatives was one of the most unsophisticated discussions that I have observed in a long, long time. We have a knack for giving decision-making authority to the most unqualified people around and denying that authority to the most qualified.
December 29th, 2009 at 4:27 am
"We have a knack for giving decision-making authority to the most unqualified people around and denying that authority to the most qualified."
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Excellent point.
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Chances are if we did go to the use of profiling, it too would be handled by the same kind of 1st-line, GED holding, managerial schmoes who have turned randomized search procedures into a bad joke.
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Somehow, El Al does not seem to have these problems despite having a much larger target on their back. Maybe we should take a closer look at what the Israelis are doing.
December 29th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I have taking a training class a few years back with a security represen tive from El Al and one slide stood out "Political correctness will get you killed!"
Alot of airport screeners have been trained in Israelis methods of screening yet the practicing of them can be a problem to those doing the sreening. Complaints filed etc some have the strength of character to carry on and do what needs to be done, others turn a blind eye for fear of losing jobs or being disciplined or accused of racism etc.
Our adversaries no our system and exploit it in the most and defeat security measures in the most human ways!
December 29th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
" have taking a training class a few years back with a security represen tive from El Al and one slide stood out "Political correctness will get you killed!"
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Fred, judging by the cowardly behavior of our elite during the anthrax letters attack, what we need to do is clear a security path so that potential terrorists have greater access at airports to private jets and special flights for Congressional VIPs than ordinary commericial aircraft. Then policies will change in an instant.
December 29th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
You got it! Isn’t it funny how when, "it’s not going to happen to me" "HAPPENS TO ME" suddenly changes things 🙂
The problem with this plane incident is the "red warning flags" were more like a large bat hitting you square in the face. And in this case, it must have been a knockout blow because why else would this information have not been followed up on? How many times do you get a parent reporting their son is an extemist and just file that away as a maybe we should look into this???? !!!!
Cannot wait for the rest of the story on this one!
December 30th, 2009 at 5:02 am
TSA is nothing more than a jobs program similar to the TVA during FDR’s reign. It’s all about putting people to work and nothing else.
If there were educational and performance standards, you’d see turnover like no one’s business. On top of that, I particularly like airports who use contracted personnel in lieu of TSA personnel…that’s always a hoot.
Brought to you by the Department of Homeland Hysteria, where one botched terrorist attack means new legislation and additional funding against the boogeyman, the sandman, and the men under the bed (we’ll have to wait for additional funding to tackle the man in the closet and those ominous sounding noises up in the attic, but rest assured, we’ll take care of i!)