Posted on 05/29/2002 4:23:11 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
In a new safety initiative, the Department of Transportation has instituted an affirmative-action program for Arabs interested in pursuing careers in aviation. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta explained the security advantages of the program, saying, "surrendering to discrimination makes us no different than the terrorists."
Since you can't tell these days: This is not, in the strict sense, true. It is true, however, that the department has prohibited pilots from carrying guns and has rejected the idea of a "trusted traveler" program. In fact, it's not doing anything to make the airlines any safer. This should come as no surprise, inasmuch as Mineta recently said he was unaware of any "specific" threat against aviation.
They hate us. They're trying to kill us. They use airplanes as weapons. If Mineta doesn't talk to his boss, can't he at least read the papers?
In congressional testimony last week, Mineta mercifully spared the senators a recap of his experience in a Japanese internment camp and allowed his assistant, longtime Bush crony and ATF apologist John Magaw, to explain the department's key security improvements. The reason Magaw decided to prohibit pilots from having guns is – and I quote – "they really need to be in control of that aircraft."
This is literally the stupidest thing I've heard in my entire life.
It is like saying women walking home late at night in dangerous neighborhoods shouldn't carry guns (or mace, for the gunphobic) because they "really need to be getting home." If the undersecretary for transportation security thinks we need to debate whether pilots "really need to be in control of the aircraft," someone other than him really needs to be in control of airline security.
The scenario under which a gun might become useful for a pilot is this: The hijackers have penetrated the locked cockpit and thwarted air marshals, passengers and crew. It's going to be difficult for the pilot to fly the plane after the cockpit has been stormed by Arabs. Whatever could go wrong at that point – a wounded passenger, a hole in the side of the plane, terrorists wresting control of the gun – is better than the alternative.
Ah, but Magaw is worried that the terrorists will now have a pistol. Think of havoc they could wreak with a gun. Of course, they'll also have a Boeing 767 careening at 480 miles per hour toward the nearest landmark building. Magaw seems to think the real danger is that terrorists will shoot at the White House from a window, not that they'll fly the plane into it.
Magaw is the worst kind of government bureaucrat. He defends fascistic government abuses – but the trains still don't run on time. Fascism is at least supposed to keep the citizenry safe.
As the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Magaw famously justified an unprovoked government assault against Randy Weaver and his family, culminating in the murder of Weaver's wife. In testimony before a Senate committee investigating the raid at Ruby Ridge, Magaw stubbornly refused to admit the ATF had done anything wrong whatsoever.
Indeed, he even refused to acknowledge a jury verdict finding that the government had entrapped Weaver. Of the jury's verdict, Magaw said: "Do you believe Randy Weaver – or do you believe the federal agents who have sworn to tell the truth and are carrying out a career in this government?"
If only airline pilots worked for the government! Then Magaw would not only allow them to tussle with terrorists, but they would also be free to gun down innocent Americans without criticism. (The Senate report found Magaw's testimony not credible and recommended abolition of his entire agency.)
Magaw's other airline safety improvement was to reject the idea of a "trusted traveler" program, which would allow passengers to avoid three-hour airport security lines after submitting to an intrusive background check by the government. As reported by the New York Times, Magaw spurned the trusted traveler idea on the ground that "he is not sure who could safely be given the card."
I don't know, how about ... NO ARABS? (Religion-of-Peace Update: As they prepare to stone a rape victim to death in Pakistan, the latest suicide bombing in Israel claimed the lives of a 70-year-old woman and her 18-month old granddaughter.)
Amazingly, President Bush has actually found someone even dumber than Norman Mineta to secure the nation's airlines. The secretary of transportation is the only person on the face of the globe who thinks the airlines face no terrorist threat, and his deputy – by his own admission – hasn't the first idea which airline passengers can be "trusted."
If these guys were doing their jobs right, Congress would be reining them in, civil libertarians would be screaming, and professional ethnic complainers would be holding candlelight vigils and singing "We Shall Overcome." Instead, Congress is forced to pass laws overruling Mineta and Magaw, civil libertarians are scratching their heads wondering why profiling is prohibited, and professional complainers are sending them flowers.
Maybe somebody else should be doing this job.
Good Lord - that sounds like a sarcastic post from a Freeper.
No $hit. When Atta gets old, we could just insert Osama, Arafat, Mullah Omar.
The possibilities are endless.
Would Osama bin Laden approve of the Senate Democrats killing the drilling in ANWR, which could replace Saudi crude imports for thirty years?
Would the al Qaeda leaders who have designs on Pakistan's nuclear missles approve of the USA's creating a missle defense system?
I was on a flight to Nantucket out of Logon this past Holiday weekend. It was a puddle jumper. A nine seat prop plane. There was no way anyone could take control of this flight given the space involved or do much damage even if they did! But we went through the same security procedures as everyone else.
We had to flash our ID's three times. Like that is going to do something. Terrorists are not going to have proper fake IDs! But it only gets worse. My friend and I walked right past the gate and almost had access to the tarmac - we realized out mistake and went back to the gate where we were met by two "guards". They had two guards posted for a flight of nine passengers on a small prop plane! But further both guards were overweight fat morons. When they saw us walking back to the gate from the stairwell they asked how we got past them. We said they were not there yet and we were told to. They said no- that we must have "slipped" by them on purpose. We laughed and got back in line.
5 minutes latter we started boarding. But they picked a 40ish year old white women with two early teen daughters to stop and search top to bottom!
To make matters worse. Three days latter- three days latter- on the flight back to logan from nantucket- this same women by mere chance was on our flight and she was searched again! But this time an Arab looking gentlmen was on the return flight as well and was given no special treatment!
I have no faith in our government to protect us since no mattter who rules- the careerists in the federal government are almost all leftists.
So when the dirty bomb goes off in Fanueil Hall in Boston or wherever will anyone think that our government did everything it could even reasonably do to prtoect us?
Lol..-bump!
Great piece by Ann. She's an excellent writer, funny and articulate.
BTW, why in the world do we still have these icky, idiotic Clinton nerds around anyway?
We did win Florida, didn't we?
If I knew how to post cut-and-paste photos on the Internet, the problem would be solved.
Maybe, just maybe, because Bush is more like CLINTON than Reagan.
Come on, Bushbots, the koolaid you drank during the campaign must be wearing off by now...
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