Posted on 06/23/2002 1:56:51 PM PDT by The Old Hoosier
Capitol Q&A
Is Al Gore A Terrorist?
Airport security officials searched former Vice President Al Gore twice this month as he attempted to board commercial airliners.
On June 7, as he stood waiting to get on a Midwest Express flight at Reagan National Airport in suburban Virginia, the guards pulled Gore aside and frisked him. They then rifled his bag.
"You’re looking out and seeing Al Gore’s unmentionables in his big, carry-on suitcase," eyewitness Mark Graul, chief of staff to Rep. Mark Green (R.-Wisc.) told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "You could tell what he was thinking, ‘This is not happening to me.’ He did not have a happy look on his face. Basically the whole plane boarded before they got through looking through his stuff."
The next day as Gore returned to Washington, D.C., via Milwaukee’s Mitchell International Airport, he was searched again.
In classic Clintonian style, the failed Democratic presidential candidate pretended he was happy to be searched. "Despite the fact that he won more votes than anyone else in the history of America, except for Ronald Reagan, he is more than happy to do his part for airport security," said Gore aide Jano Cabrera.
This raises obvious questions: Is Al Gore a terrorist threat? Was it an efficient use of limited security resources to search him? Human Events Assistant Editor David Freddoso put these questions to U.S. senators.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D.-N.M.): I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about.
He went flying and when he got to the airport, he was the one they picked to search.
Bingaman: No, they do that to anybody. It’s a random check. They’ve done it to me. I assume they’d do it to him or anyone else.
You don't think Gore might be a terrorist, do you?
(No answer.)
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. John Breaux (D.-La.): No, I think everybody ought to be subjected to the same rules, whether it’s a member of Congress or a member of the Senate, all public officials.
You don’t think that Al Gore might pose a terrorist threat?
Breaux: N o, I just think everybody is subject to the same rules.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to target searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Breaux: I think that we are doing as good a job as we possibly can under the circumstances.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Jim Bunning (R.-Ky.): I’ve been searched 20 times. . . . That’s the way it should be. We shouldn’t be exempt from that.
Senator, wouldn’t it be more efficient to target searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Bunning: Well, of course it would be.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Thad Cochran (R.-Miss.): We all get searched. It’s part of the security precaution, and it applies equally to all people in the country. So I think it’s one of those events that we all have to get used to.
But do you think that Al Gore or any of the other senators would try to blow up an airplane—they’re not terrorists?
Cochran: They certainly aren’t terrorists. It’s just like laws that apply to one individual in America apply to all individuals in America. This one’s no different from any other.
Do you think it might be more efficient to target searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Cochran: I think we’re trying very hard to support the President’s efforts to make our country more secure. I think he’s providing strong leadership and I support the laws that we’ve enacted and the regulations that we have designed to try to guarantee everybody safety.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Larry Craig (R.-Idaho): Yes. I was searched three times.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to target searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Craig: I do not know how you develop effective security at airports without profiling.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Pete Domenici (R.-N.M.): No, they do everybody. They did mine four times in the last six weeks.
You don’t think that Al Gore might be a terrorist threat?
Domenici: No, I don’t think I was either. They did it on me even after I showed them who I was.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to target the searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Domenici: Oh, I think in the United States we can’t do that, because that would be kind of pointing them out. So I don’t think that would be right. And I think—I’ve only heard of one politician that resisted and he got defeated the next time he ran. So I think Americans properly expect us to be treated like the average citizen.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Wasn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Bill Frist (R.-Tenn.): Sen. Frist has been searched at least once every two weeks for the last three months. So anybody—whether they are suspicious or not—if the lottery falls their way, needs to be searched.
You don’t think that Al Gore might be a terrorist threat?
Frist: No, I don’t think so. I think it’s highly unlikely. But I think that we in political life, in public life, need to follow the same criteria that everybody else follows.
Wouldn’t it be more efficient to target the searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men—rather than searching Al Gore or yourself?
Frist: I think there is going to be an element of profiling which is necessary in order to use most efficiently the resources that we have available today. But that should not be at the exclusion of other exams or searches or inspections that are by chance or by lottery, or by algorithms that security-minded forces think prudent. And therefore everybody, not just people who can be profiled—need to be subjected to equal odds of investigation or of search.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Wasn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Jim Jeffords (I.-Vt.): Well, I get searched every time I go through, too. And part of it is that if you don’t have a round-trip ticket they search you. And I don’t have any problem with being searched. . . . I think it’s important that we let everybody know that everybody’s equal under the search sign.
You don’t think that it would be more efficient to target the searches at people who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Jeffords: I don’t believe that that would be as effective as is necessary to reassure the public that they’re safe.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Tim Johnson (D.-S.D.): Uh, I don’t know. I don’t have an opinion.
Al Gore was searched twice last week in U.S. airports. Isn’t that a waste of limited security resources?
Sen. Zell Miller (D.-Ga.): Yes.
Would it be more efficient to target searches at those who fit the al Qaeda profile—namely, young Muslim men?
Miller: Yes, it would.
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After what that puke did for eight years he deserves a cavity search every time he tries to board a plane.
How do you know who's Muslim, though? Al Gore could be Muslim. A Muslim is required to have an Arabic name, but he doesn't have to have his Arabic name on documents issued by infidel governments. So Al Gore could secretly be Shahabuddin Ahmad Yusuf, but his passport would just say Al Gore. And we all know that any good al Qaeda operative tries to look as "westernized" as possible, so there's really no way to tell.
So yes, young Arab, South Asian and Southeast Asian men should be profiled (I am one of them). But to ignore white and black and Latin people is dangerous. There are Muslims in those communities as well.
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