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But when passengers say something, they are labeled paranoids and ignored.

See story about the 14 potential terrorists/musicians and James Wood's observation and reporting of the suspicious terrorists.

I bet if those 9-11 terrorists Woods saw, had been shaken down, the authorities wouldn't have found anything -- until they murdered 3000 Americans.

That is the flaw of the "legal" approach. By the time you have legal cause, many of us are DEAD.

Pre-emption is the only thing that works against terrorists.

When a few terrorists can kill thousands of innocents, you can't afford to take chances.

Pre-emption is the only thing that works against terrorists.

Well said FO!!

Spread that insightful fact around, With FERVOR!!

"I bet if those 9-11 terrorists Woods saw, had been shaken down, the authorities wouldn't have found anything"

Most likely, since they were on a dry run and not a terrorist mission, they might even have had a good cover story. Maybe they would have been students traveling to a conference, and may even have had reservations at the conference. Or . . .Hey, maybe a band going to play a gig at a casino in the California desert!

All kidding aside, this issue scares me. I was on a flight from LA to Houston recently when a large group of middle eastern men (they looked Egyptian to me, I don't really remember why I concluded that) boarded and sat in scattered seats throughout the plane. One sat next to me. They didn't really talk to each other after sitting down, but it seemed like every time they got up several would get up at the same time. And they were constantly going into the lavatories. This got my attention. Also, they were all much larger than most of the middle eastern people I have met in the past.

Of course I instantly had thoughts of the "muscle" hijackers on 9/11. The guy sitting next to me was the oldest in the group, maybe 45 to 50. He kept glancing at the others. When I read the article from the "Ladies Wall Street Journal" posted a couple of weeks ago my blood ran cold. It was so similar to what I saw.

When I was sitting there on that flight I was frightened. I do not scare easily, but this scared me. I was sitting there planning out my response to the hijacking I feared was coming. I am pretty big myself and figured on grabbing my row-mate and hitting him in the back of the knee to take him down. Then I would do my best to strangle him (I was planning on killing him, not subduing him) using my 260 some odd pounds to hold him down and, if applied in just the right place, break his back. I was sincerely hoping others on the flight made similar plans for his friends.

Needless to say, I didn't have to do it. The plane landed in Houston and the Egyptians made no moves. In retrospect, I think it 99.9% certain that these guys were up to no harm. They probably were going to a relative's wedding or some such innocent thing. But the .1% chance they were terrorists on a dry run still scares the hell out of me.

I am doubly fearful now that I have learned of the FSA's ban on profiling. I think the fact that there is a group of middle eastern men traveling together is reasonable suspicion in and of itself for greater scrutiny. The risk of another 9/11 style attack is too great to let the minimal intrusion on middle astern travelers rights outweigh passenger (and ground-bound citizen) safety. We are all screened pretty obtrusively, I hope all agree on that, and an extra frisk on reasonable suspicion is not a much greater burden than a frisk based on random seat selections. I would hope they would do the same if 17 skinheads with white-supremacist slogans on their shirts boarded a plane together. If we ever have a hijacking by 17 women dressed as Sisters of Holy Mercy, I would hope the FSA would frisk all large groups of nuns getting on planes together. It is not racial politics but safety that should be paramount.

Does that mean all groups of middle eastern men are up to no good? Definitely not! 99.9% of such groups are utterly harmless. But would you get on an airplane if you knew the risk an engine would fall off was 1 in 1000 instead of 1 in 10 billion? Wouldn't you want to know if you were taking such a risk?

And should we let the government which is sworn to protect us shirk their duty on the flimsy excuse that "we might look like racists if we do what safety and prudence demand?"

"Pre-emption is the only thing that works against terrorists"

Supporting your statement is the fact that in the last year Israels' "targeted" assassinations along with the wall has drastically reduce suicide bombers.

Also NONE of their airliners has been hijacked in like over 10 years. We can only hope to be as effective as them.