Posted on 08/25/2006 11:29:00 AM PDT by Comico Atómico
On Aug. 16, two men were escorted off a plane headed for Manchester, England, because some passengers thought they looked either Asian or Middle Eastern, might have been talking Arabic, wore leather jackets, and looked at their watches -- and the passengers refused to fly with them on board.
The men were questioned for several hours and then released.
On Aug. 15, an entire airport terminal was evacuated because someone's cosmetics triggered a false positive for explosives. The same day, a Muslim man was removed from an airplane in Denver for reciting prayers. The Transportation Security Administration decided that the flight crew overreacted, but he still had to spend the night in Denver before flying home the next day.
The next day, a Port of Seattle terminal was evacuated because a couple of dogs gave a false alarm for explosives.
On Aug. 19, a plane made an emergency landing in Tampa, Florida, after the crew became suspicious because two of the lavatory doors were locked. The plane was searched, but nothing was found. Meanwhile, a man who tampered with a bathroom smoke detector on a flight to San Antonio was cleared of terrorism, but only after having his house searched.
On Aug. 16, a woman suffered a panic attack and became violent on a flight from London to Washington, so the plane was escorted to the Boston airport by fighter jets. "The woman was carrying hand cream and matches but was not a terrorist threat," said the TSA spokesman after the incident.
And on Aug. 18, a plane flying from London to Egypt made an emergency landing in Italy when someone found a bomb threat scrawled on an air sickness bag. Nothing was found on the plane, and no one knows how long the note was on board.
I'd like everyone to take a deep breath and listen for a minute.
The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics.
The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.
And we're doing exactly what the terrorists want.
We're all a little jumpy after the recent arrest of 23 terror suspects in Great Britain. The men were reportedly plotting a liquid-explosive attack on airplanes, and both the press and politicians have been trumpeting the story ever since.
In truth, it's doubtful that their plan would have succeeded; chemists have been debunking the idea since it became public. Certainly the suspects were a long way off from trying: None had bought airline tickets, and some didn't even have passports.
Regardless of the threat, from the would-be bombers' perspective, the explosives and planes were merely tactics. Their goal was to cause terror, and in that they've succeeded.
Imagine for a moment what would have happened if they had blown up 10 planes. There would be canceled flights, chaos at airports, bans on carry-on luggage, world leaders talking tough new security measures, political posturing and all sorts of false alarms as jittery people panicked. To a lesser degree, that's basically what's happening right now.
Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic. The press helps every time it writes scare stories about the plot and the threat. And if we're terrified, and we share that fear, we help. All of these actions intensify and repeat the terrorists' actions, and increase the effects of their terror.
(I am not saying that the politicians and press are terrorists, or that they share any of the blame for terrorist attacks. I'm not that stupid. But the subject of terrorism is more complex than it appears, and understanding its various causes and effects are vital for understanding how to best deal with it.)
The implausible plots and false alarms actually hurt us in two ways. Not only do they increase the level of fear, but they also waste time and resources that could be better spent fighting the real threats and increasing actual security. I'll bet the terrorists are laughing at us.
Another thought experiment: Imagine for a moment that the British government arrested the 23 suspects without fanfare. Imagine that the TSA and its European counterparts didn't engage in pointless airline-security measures like banning liquids. And imagine that the press didn't write about it endlessly, and that the politicians didn't use the event to remind us all how scared we should be. If we'd reacted that way, then the terrorists would have truly failed.
It's time we calm down and fight terror with antiterror. This does not mean that we simply roll over and accept terrorism. There are things our government can and should do to fight terrorism, most of them involving intelligence and investigation -- and not focusing on specific plots.
But our job is to remain steadfast in the face of terror, to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to not panic every time two Muslims stand together checking their watches. There are approximately 1 billion Muslims in the world, a large percentage of them not Arab, and about 320 million Arabs in the Middle East, the overwhelming majority of them not terrorists. Our job is to think critically and rationally, and to ignore the cacophony of other interests trying to use terrorism to advance political careers or increase a television show's viewership.
The surest defense against terrorism is to refuse to be terrorized. Our job is to recognize that terrorism is just one of the risks we face, and not a particularly common one at that. And our job is to fight those politicians who use fear as an excuse to take away our liberties and promote security theater that wastes money and doesn't make us any safer.
I guess this guy probably thinks the passengers who jumped Richard Reid overreacted as well. The problem is, we don't always know what a sign of a threat and what is harmless.
If these false alarms don't stop, the only aviation left may be military aviation.
One way to reduce the neurotic effects is to carry a 45 ACP on the hip always. A short sword on the belt would also serve to ease unease. Neither will stop a truck bomb, but odds are you will go your entire life without being blown up by a truck bomb and you will not have to worry about being taken captive and have your head sawn off on video since you will either not be captured or will not be captured alive so long as you can get your sword arm loose.
Quite right, if we continue to "evacute" (in both senses of the word) every time someone sees a paper bag in an airport, the cumulative economic effect will be a terrorist win every bit as much as a real attack.
It's time we calm down and fight terror with antiterror.
Antiterror includes people making their own judgements about what they will/will not accept.
From what I've read about muslim behavior the airlines, those passengers did the right thing in getting off the plane.
Part of fighting terror is holding those who exhibit unusual or threatening behavior personally accountable for their actions.
First we have an appeasement/apathy problem, now we have a paranoia problem.
Checking watches is called boredom/impatience, people. Not "I'm going to kill us all in a fiery explosion." If I get in trouble everytime I check my watch, I'd be arrested, processed, and interrogated every day.
Fun.
Yeah, by praying or checking watches.
Charging the cockpit, trying to light fuses, belligerent/unruly behavior, these are signs to look out for.
Not thirst, impatience, or faith.
No we're not. They want us all to convert to Islam or die.
We're doing neither.
One of my favorite "All in the Family" episodes was when the asked Archie to go on T.V. basically as the average joe, and talk about his views on certain issues of the day...
After he gets home, he says to turn on the tube, so they could watch how he did... So they pan the camera over to the T.V. and there's Archie sitting there, with his hair slicked down because of the makeup people, and talking as only he does, he says (in his unforgettable Bunker voice...) "And you wanna tawk about hijakins? I got a solution that would put an end ta' dees' hijakins tomora'... My answer, Ya arm all da' passengiz... Problem solved..."
From what I've read, someone overheard the young men say they only had thirty minutes to live.
There have been multiple instances of Muslims "probing" airline security and inflight responses through bizarre behavior.
Not acceptable.
The short sword would be superior to the cavalry saber since there might not be room to draw the longer sword. It might even be superior to the 45 ACP since no one will want to get close enough to grab you while you hold the swort sword edge outwards. They might shoot you, but that would happen anyway with the 45 ACP. So the short sword is the way to go.
If they do the same things to Christians that you propose to Muslims, you and I would scream bloody murder.
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Besides, if I were Al Qaeda, I'd simply sidestep profiling altogether, so while passengers are harassing "Achmed", "Sean" a well paid mercenary, will destroy the plane for me.
I used to be a believe in ethnic profiling. But after reading Richard Miniter's excellent book, I realized that profiling is simply too impractical and ineffective.
The fact that there are big news about people refusing to get on planes because of Muslims is surely going to reach the terror scum at some point. And while people get on planes, worry-free because there is no raghead infestation, little do they know that the WAS next to them is on AQ's payroll.
Come to think of it, this whole scenario is very familiar...
"Back of the bus, boy!"
Well, at least blacks get to ride on one.
When I fly, I get on the plane, check out my fellow passengers. If I see an Arab, eh, no big deal. If I see 3 or 4 or more Arabs, then I make eye contact with them. If I don’t like what I see, I’ll get off the plane.
How much did you pay Sean to die in the crashed airplane?
El-Al use profiling. It seems to work for them. No sense in fighting with one hand behind our backs. Use profiling, scanners, dogs etc.
It comes from the U.K., Canada, the U.S. and any country that has fervent muslims.
It must be fought everywhere.
But I would question if the world needs to separate the enemy from its human army. The enemy is true islam...the religion, the ideology, the cult. As long as it lives in our societies, it will attract an army of jihadis.
Kill ten thousand and ten thousand more will arise in their place.
It's an islamist conspiracy.
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