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 am not scared of muslims on plane, because the next attack will be with nukes, dirty bombs, or bio weapons.
Now SNAKES.. that's another matter.
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.
The overwhelming majority of them are not terrorists...yet. Until there's a "moderate" version of the Koran, there will be no "moderate" Muslims. Until there is a version of the Koran that does not call for forceful rule over Christian, Jew, and otherwise non-Muslim slaves (Dhimmis) there will be no Muslims who are not a threat to our freedom and our way of life.
This wasn't on the news but it should be. A friend of my suitemate was on a domestic flight. NEar where he was sitting is an Arab looking man, neatly dressed and cleanly shaved, even his head. Nothing wrong with that. But what he noticed was that the man, for the entire flight just sat there, tense as a rod, clutching his cell phone for dear life, and exudes great anger and fury. He did not talk to a single person during the flight. The friend alerted the crew, and after they landed, a SWAT team was waiting and tackled the bald man. One of the arresting officers came and thanked the friend for lerting the authorities. Turns out, the guy was a sleeper cell jihadi on a dryrun.
That's a terrorist. That's justified paranoia.
Not two guys staring at their watches. That's unjustified paranoia.
As if keeping Muslims/Arabs of the plane will stop terror plots.
"The Sheik requires your services, Mr. Bryant."
"Oh goody! He's a white Anglo! He'll nev-"
Good point.
But it will never happen. Fear is lingua franca for both politics and journalism. They simply don't know any other way to make a living.
That's second. The first is to kill the terrorists before they can carry out their terroristic acts.
OTOH, your own reach is much more limited. You'd have a hard time stopping Abu Abdul from breaking into the cockpit when you are at the front of coach class. With the .45, you could do that, even I could do that, and I'm not that great a shot. Remember Abu doesn't care if you eventually kill him, you have to stop him cold. It's what the .45 ACP cartridge was designed to do, that is stop Muslim fanatics.
That's fine. I am not on the airplane. About a brazillion Federal officials are fixated on that one.
There aren't that many SkyMarshalls, they can't and don't cover all flights. So you never know when someone going for his 72 virgins is going to be on your flight, or on your train, bus, or in your shopping mall. I don't do any of those, other than flying, very often at all. However my work requires me to fly, 757 usually, about once a month to either Orlando or San Diego, through Dallas. The planes have been jammed the last several times to both destinations.
Really. With all the inconvenience you'd think people would be taking surface routes instead of flying. Traffic must be amazingly bad out there.
Six! flights were diverted today.
Never underestimate the enemy. No one ever thought the Imperial Japanese or Muslim fascists would willingly destroy themselves to kill others. Sean could either be a convert, a liberal, a hostage, or a dupe. I don't have to tell Sean his trip is one way. Entice anyone with the right price, object, or ideals, you could get them to do anything. And even then, it doesn't even have to be a suicide operation. Sean could carry a parachute and bail out while the plane is heading towards its target.
Not according to FReepers who went on El-Al. I don't think they profileby ethnicity. It seems ISrael has a version of SPOTS and TIA to help whittle down the good from the bad. Besides, we can't afford to profile considering that terrorists came in the guises of Hassidic Jews, women, and Europeans etc. We could stop 100 attacks by ejecting all YMMs of the planes but all it takes is one well placed WAS with a mission to succcessfully cause death and destruction.
That would be justifiable.
Some people are not terrorized enough. We don't need to shake in our shoes, but we do need to be serious and vigilant. A few overreactions is no big crime. It's much worse to be in denial.
Personally, I don't mind. I hate flying. But I feel bad for millions who rely on air travel ot get to where they need to be. Of course, the Wright brothers wouldn't be too happy seeing their brainchild fall out of favor with a large segment of the world.
Huh? She left off the first part of their goal: To slaughter hundreds of infidels. Certainly that would have created infinitely more "terror".
Thankfully, they failed.
Anyone who observes suspicious behaviour by swarthy men carrying Korans and doesn't react like a normal person (i.e. a non-Lefty) is an idiot.
The minute Ahmad drops to his knees in the aisle during the pre-flight briefing and starts to pray to his false god I am outta there.
Apparently this is the latest canard from the Loony Left: If we are vigilant and thwart the Jihadists, they win?
Remember, people -- they think they're smarter than us!
There are approximately 1 billion Muslims in the world. If they are all going on a jihad, now would be a very good time to start. Even China would have difficulties contending this large number. The fact that the world is nnot burning down at every place with a mosque or minaret is proof that there are non-terror Muslims. JApan has yet to see one jihadi attack despite having Islamic converts. Thailand is relatively peaceful despite a large Muslim population. The South is not as dangerous as say the Palestinian areas or Lebanon. Prior to the recent conflagrations, the last PULO attack was in 95 or 96. COmpared to the Phillipines, Abu Sayyaf is definitely a bigger threat than PULO. Then there are those in the WoT helping us out. IRaqis and Afghanis, informants in Britain, our spooks and infiltrators, some who have given the ultimate sacrifice.
What does this mean? IT means that a significant number are non-terror. This means that we should not be driving non-terrs towards the terrs or treating them as such. Miore importantly, it's a waste of time and resources and may allow a jihadi to slip past the net. I'm not worried about those that pray towards MEcca or live in the MidEast and doesn't wear a Yamulka. I worry about those who wants everyone to pray to MEcca and those who wants to kill anyone wearing a Yamulka. Pooling our resources andconcentrating on genuine threats instead of those that merely have the appearance of threats will go inordinately far in the WoT.
BTW, the author makes good points but he is dead wrong regarding the goals of terrorism.
Thank Allah for heretics! If all Muslims devoutly followed Mohammed's lead we'd be in deep sh*t!
Still, we can live with them, can't we?
The Satanic movement allegedly have 1 mil followers. If most of them are true Satanists, we'd be in "deep sh*t." Fortunately they are all posers.
If heretic Muslims are those that don't go around killing infidels and living peacefully with their neighbors then that's all we need.
Heck, non-Christian heretics and pagans are the easiest to convert to the light of Christ. :)
I'd feel much safer if they'd all convert to any of the truly peaceful faiths.
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