Security Measures
So another religiously inspired lunatic has tried to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day, showing a complete lack of respect for other peoples religion (which of course they demand for their own religion on pain of death).
But that's not the focus for this blog posting. The focus for this posting is airport security measures. Let me state that I understand that these security measures are a necessary part of modern life. But unfortunately they leave the impression of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Having come within inches of disaster, our governments will now show how zealous they are for our welfare by tightening up security measures that wouldn't have prevented this act of terrorism.
The answer to this particular problem is simple. When a father phones the U.S. embassy and says his son has become a dangerous jihadi, take the warning seriously. Put the lad on a watch list. Find him and have someone chat with him.
Now there are other reports, which I don't know are true or not. Like that he was living in a $4 million apartment in London. And that he showed up at the gate without a passport. If these reports are true, then someone should be fired for incompetence.
But that's not the focus for this blog posting. The focus for this posting is airport security measures. Let me state that I understand that these security measures are a necessary part of modern life. But unfortunately they leave the impression of closing the barn door after the horse has escaped. Having come within inches of disaster, our governments will now show how zealous they are for our welfare by tightening up security measures that wouldn't have prevented this act of terrorism.
The answer to this particular problem is simple. When a father phones the U.S. embassy and says his son has become a dangerous jihadi, take the warning seriously. Put the lad on a watch list. Find him and have someone chat with him.
Now there are other reports, which I don't know are true or not. Like that he was living in a $4 million apartment in London. And that he showed up at the gate without a passport. If these reports are true, then someone should be fired for incompetence.
posted by Shawn Abigail at 6:46 a.m.
2 Comments:
Abdulmutallab lived in a £2m flat in a posh part of London. He lived there while studying to become a mechanical engineer. Both the flat and the education were paid for by his father, the former economics minister of Nigeria.
The real question is; what loopholes were used in the screening and boarding procedures that allowed this guy to get on the plane in the first place?
Your use of the word "lunatic" is where many people have it all wrong.
Ben Stein says, "They’re terrorists and murderers because they are psychos."
Rex Murphy says, "The only 'understanding' of a terrorist deed is the deed itself. Attempts to find some formulaic shortcut to understanding them – it’s the plight of the Palestinians, it’s Tony Blair’s joining in the armed deposition of Saddam Hussein, it’s American policy in the Middle East – are rote, puzzled stutterings in the face of something, fundamentally inexplicable."
***
But as Thomas Eddlem has noted, "But, of course, if they are 'psychos,' then they don’t act with any reason. And if they don’t act with any reason, then there’s no reason to believe they would target the United States more than any other country. In fact, if they are indeed insane as Ben Stein suggests, there’s less chance of them attacking the United States than the country where they are currently living because attacking the United States requires the kind of travel and planning that the insane rarely undertake."
No additional layer of bureaucracy or due diligence is going to be an adequate substitute for asking the question of why terrorists do what they do.
We should ask ourselves whether American foreign policy - as in a recent bombing in Yemen - contributes to this anti-Western aggression.
-Joel
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