Posted on 10/14/2001 7:50:31 PM PDT by ScholarWarrior
Report: China Training Air Marshals By Associated Press
October 14, 2001, 3:37 PM EDT
BEIJING -- China is creating a 2,000-member police force to fly aboard its airlines, prompted by terror attacks in the United States, a state newspaper reported Sunday.
The aviation police will replace private security guards who fly on many Chinese carriers, the Beijing Youth Daily said. Citing unidentified sources, it said the new force was being formed by the Civil Aviation Authority of China, the country's airline regulator.
A man who answered the phone at CAAC on Sunday couldn't confirm the report and said no one else was available.
The measure, if confirmed, would be among a series of steps taken by China after terrorists on Sept. 11 hijacked jetliners and crashed them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Chinese airline offices in Hong Kong were ordered earlier this month not to sell tickets to passengers from the Middle East and Pakistan. Chinese carriers have canceled their flights to Pakistan and the Middle East.
The Beijing Youth Daily didn't say whether the new air police would carry guns. But it said they would be similar to China's railway police, whose officers travel aboard trains armed with pistols.
Airline guards currently are armed with truncheons and fire axes, according to the Beijing Youth Daily.
China tightened security after the Sept. 11 attacks. Guards seize penknives, scissors and anything else that might be used as a weapon.
Passengers already routinely were required to show identification and luggage was X-rayed under measures imposed after a string of hijackings in the early 1990s.
But hijackings still occur. Last year, a would-be hijacker on a domestic flight was reportedly stabbed to death with his own knife.
Copyright © 2001, The Associated Press
On second thought...
Wow! What a common sense approach! Haven't the Chinese heard of Political Correctness? Why are they not paralyzed by PC like we are? /sarcasm>
This policy actually has two benefits.
- We reduce the possibility of terroist from the region coming into the U.S.
- We start to apply internal pressure on the Middle Eastern countries by their businessman that can no longer go overseas to conduct business.
These people should be made a prisoner in their own region. Let their businessmen and their business suffer. Perhaps they may put pressure on the radicals in their countries that are supporting the terrorists.
It seems like such a common sense approach our government will never take it. We are idiots if we don't follow the steps the Chinese are taking.
And in case anyone wants to now bash China about its "civil rights problems" in Western China (where Osama and company happen to roam) their comments will take on the true sense of ignorance and stupidity they deserve.
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