More idiotic fruit of our national unwillingness to identify the real source of the threat to air security.
Washington state: TSA agents pat down 6-year-old -- twice
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Racist and socialist revenge is a powerful force. Especially when the aggrieved are given police power over those who would dare to seem better.
*** 33:21 ***
Here's a hint: pat down Moslems. If a flyer is a Moslem, make interviews, frisks, background checks, X-rays, flouroscopes and MRIs standard. Moslems should show up 3 hrs before takeoff.
It's either that, or my old dream of Moslem Air, where all passengers all Moslems and all planes are used MD-80s. Moslem Air would even give discounts to Moslem passengers as remuneration for no longer being able to fly with Infidels.
That would be the first payoff is Islamic history that ever made any sense.
Heck, maybe the kid was thrilled by the attention. He was, after all, all of six years of age.
Those damn non-Muslim terrorists! If they would only submit. Why won't they just submit, damnit?! It's good to be a slave. Submit!
Pathetic.
Islam: where freedom ends and slavery begins.
I think people are missing the point with stories like these. It's not a travesty that a child was patted down, but that the child in question was non-Muslim. Muslims are known to use pets, spouses, children (even infants), and the disabled to conceal bombs. We HAVE to be willing to single out all Muslims, and anyone traveling with Muslims, for extra screening.
Not sure I agree with Robert Spencer on this one.
I agree that profiling should be exploited, but for profiling to work, you must also on a regular basis go completely outside the profile. If you don't check outside the profile, all the jihadists have to do to succeed is find a volunteer who does not fit the profile.
Profiling should be one key focus of what TSA does, but the other key focus should be to check random people outside the profile, so jihadists cannot predict whom TSA will check.
They're AFRAID to pat down the muslims...That's the truth. Many a time, I saw bundled-up women go through without a hindrance, while the rest of us were patted down. I had a lunatic muslim fundamentalist(with a British passport)sit right next to me on a plain an INTERROGATE ME about my ethnic origin, and lecture me about Koran (which btw, I read)...
The US government hard at work. Some things like this is getting un-noticed in the main stream media. They dont want to anger the muslims for fear that they may become a target.
Picture this: CNN broadcast a report that Islam is nothing more than a political arm of hate, slavery and has 1 agenda, that being to take over the entire world. Then in Iraq or Afghanistan a CNN labeled reporter is kidnapped and his head is cut of for the viewing pleasures of aljazeera.net fans.
More: The current administration in The White House supports the down fall of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Asad in Syria, Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, Yemen's president Saleh, and BAHRAIN Sunni royal family ready to fall. What the hell is going on? Obama is supporting the Islamic Brotherhood, Hamas, and the ever evil Hezbollah, literally "Party of God").
You do not need to ask why. It should be obvious that Obama is showing his true colors. Muslim prayers in The White House, celebrations of Islamic holidays in The White House, and the utter slap in the face refusal to allow Christian weekly prayer meetings in The White House.
And in this story "TSA agents pat down 6-year-old -- twice" attention is drawn away from the true agenda.
I would think this should be just one of the wake up calls for a NEW American Revolution. I know for a fact that Australia, Great Briton, Germany, and funny enough China would support, arm, and send troupes to help us.
The down side NATO blue hats would try to stop us.
...*plane
Addendum to my last comment: Maybe I do agree with Robert Spencer on this after all. Even though I think TSA, in order to remain unpredictable to jihadists, should profile and do random checks outside the profile, that still leaves the question of the proportion of resources TSA should devote to profiling vs. random checks. Perhaps it's so hard for jihadists to recruit people outside the characteristics of the jihadist profile, that it does not make sense to devote more than, say, 10% of TSA screening resources to random checks outside the profile. Perhaps 90% or more of checks should be done on those who fit the profile. I guess the scientists who design cutting edge profiling software might know how to crunch the probabilities and then broadly estimate the optimal mix of profiling and random checks. It's possible, or course, that the optimal mix for secure air travel would include far less random checking than takes place today. If so, then the only reason for the extensive random checking today is political correctness, and in that case Spencer's disdain for the random aspect of current security checks on airplanes is right on the money. But it's also possible that secure air travel requires both a lot of checking based on profiles, and a lot of random checking, to avoid predictability. In that case, Robert Spencer's disdain would be partly misplaced.
The problem is that they're CLUELESS...
How do they "profile," if they're patting down this poor kid...and let the lunatics roam free?
Where's the "INTELLIGENCE" here? Perhaps if they're so clueless, they should ASK their European counterparts. The Germans for instance, prevented any attacks. That's the point here.
How can we have a supposed psychiatrist on an AMERICAN army base who ends up as a mass murderer? How can we have some lunatics from "terrorist" countries take flying lessons here and then hijack the plane? It's simply mind-puzzling. It's not about "profiling" as much as common sense.
Just more modern nonsense which proves that Islam remains a burden, a hindrance, an obstacle, a pain-in-the-ass for the world at large. Earth would be a much better place without Islam (spare me, continued apologists for this decrepit religion, any highly embellished tales about the glories of the medieval Islamic world; they amount to so very little).
And what if Islam is the true religion (I'd bet my life on it that it isn't, but I digress)? Well, then, it's an exceedingly creepy universe and God is a jerk. For those who don't want to be slaves of such a deity, the only dignified course of action is to emulate Prometheus. It will prove a losing effort of course, but better to lose with earthly dignity than submit to cosmic tyranny. This understanding, irrespective of Islam being in accord with ultimate reality, will always, should always, separate the slaves of Allah from free folks. In short, Islam, true or not, is horrible.
traeh,
I agree with you that searches must not be predictable.
Actually, the situation that scares me the most is the one described by Melisa Stets above, where she describes a systematic avoidance of people likely to make a fuss. Any systematic predictability in the security system is extremely dangerous.
What scares me also is the huge negative publicity that TSA gets on items like this. The security people there are not the brightest, so they follow the protocols. The more negative publicity they get like this, the more likely they will be to stick to safe targets: white, reasonably-dressed travelers between 15 and 60. This cohort is obviously a very fruitful use of security resources.
Rather than throw individual security personnel to the wolves if they have the bad luck to go outside intuitive boundaries, I want them to be supported on any legal search. Tell the lady to take off her burkha, tell the gentleman to remove his scullcap, comb under his beard, search the imams, pat down the nun (you think Muslimas can't put on a habit?).
By the way, I think most of the people caught by security so far have been low-level or lone wolves. I think it will be a completely different story when a terrorist group decides for real it's showtime. What we want most of all is for the screeners to be able to act on intuition, with no objective criteria to back them up. A real terrorist will stand out like a sore thumb, like the 9-11 hijackers did, but there may be no objective reason to detain them. It is extremely dangerous for a security person to think that he won't be supported if he makes a tough call.
Excellent points.
You wrote "What scares me also is the huge negative publicity that TSA gets on items like this. The security people there are not the brightest, so they follow the protocols."
It scares me that this is true, that they are not the brightest.
As the Israelis have shown, proper profiling makes much use of psychological cues. The TSA is not only trained to NOT use them, but many of them probably could not BE trained to use them. It's all a charade.
Why does anyone give a DAMN about TSA's publicity? Isn't the national security of utmost importance, providing they don't harass INNOCENT people and for ONCE, get the right people arrested?
This is like band of clueless idiots providing airport "security" with no results, since they're poorly trained and ignorant. Don't we all deserve better? Don't give a damn about TSA, or any other thing. They're here to SERVE us and safely. I want to see all (non-terrorist) American and other normal citizens of the worlds flying safely. Don't want to see bundled up ladies and other CONSPICUOUS persons just go through without a check, while it's OK to harass less conspicuous travelers.
I recently met someone involved in airport security. They told me that the 'beep' machine that alerts security staff is programmed to make an occasional random 'beep' to keep staff on their toes if there hasn't been an alert for a given time.
This means that people like me are searched when there is no need.
I guess, then, that patting down Cistercian monks, or feisty looking grandmas means that the security staff appear to be even handed in their approach to security in this mad, PC age we live in.
Having said that, I believe a head-on, no-nonsense profiling policy would be far more effective. Look at Israel. She profiles potential passengers and doesn't have any problems with her airline.
Wait a minute. Doesn't the Hezbollah Hitler Youth wear yellow t-shirts?
Bunch of pedophiles. Just wanted to "touch" a young boy.
This is what happens when clueless dhimmis are appointed to head the TSA they insult and humiliate innocent American citizens whilst the real cause of all expensive and intrusive checks the Muslims are not checked at all. Here is what one writer of an article at American Thinker had to say:
"TSA – A Portrait in Islamisation
On June 18th in an airport in Florida, Transportation Security Administration agents required a 95-year-old woman with leukemia to remove her adult diaper if she wanted to pass their inspection and travel.
So as to be sensitive and not profile young Islamic men -- the demographic group most likely to be terrorists -- our policy is ending up dishonoring and humiliating American citizens, be they grammas or little girls, who in no way pose a threat.
When a society asks its citizens to accept their own debasement and forgo their right to modesty and propriety -- and all that constitutes first-class citizenship -- so as to accommodate Muslim demands, those citizens have now taken a backseat; they have become second-class. Second-class citizenship for non-Muslims so as not to offend Muslims is called dhimmitude, a core Islamic belief, the a priori subtext of the Islamization process. In effect, it elevates the Muslim over the non-Muslim and holds in higher regard how he is to be treated relative to how the Christian or Jew is to be treated. This is the ideal practiced throughout the Islamic world." There is more.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/07/tsa_a_portrait_in_islamization.html
A country of origin (or birth)is a good clue, as well as the last name...start from there...and then work it up to some more IMPORTANT clues...what a bunch of incompetents are in charge of our "security"....
Keeping the healthy from the sick is not "segregation"...We need common sense. And we're not talking smoking, but TERRORISM and destruction...
I don't feel safe flying anymore, and I do take private transportation since my government is confused about safety.
NO MOHAMDONS OR MOHAMADONNAS AT OR NEAR ANY NORTH AMERICAN AIRPORTS UNTIL THE WAR IS OVER>
When was the last time the TSA patted down a Muslim? never? Exactly what is the point of TSA if they refuse to pat down the enemy but instead pick on 6 year olds? Is it because no 6 year old will file a lawsuit against the TSA and get the ACLU on their behinds? I think so.
What some people on this thread, and perhaps Robert Spencer, are not understanding
I agree with most people commenting that there should be less political correctness and more profiling used to pick whom TSA checks. If that is all Robert Spencer is saying, then more power to him.
But it is a big mistake to criticize TSA for also checking unpredictably, outside the profile. If TSA screens only people with statistically better likelihood of being jihadists, then the jihadists will simply find volunteers outside that statistical profile, or will disguise themselves to be outside that profile, and then, kaboom.
TSA should not be criticized for sometimes checking randomly, including people who appear to be innocent: old ladies, nuns, children, etc. Children are being exploited as suicide bombers now. As for nuns or other unlikely jihadists, TSA must be unpredictable to jihadists capable of disguise.
As RonaldB said above,
People here are right to show disdain for the way political correctness affects the TSA searches. And I'm sure that is all Robert Spencer is saying. But one should avoid giving the impression it is generally bad to search a seemingly innocent "nun" or a child, since such searches may have strategic advantages for security and not be merely PC. Possibly Robert Spencer should make clear that he understands that when he criticizes TSA for political correctness. Spencer's criticism should not be against searching nuns or other unlikely types; his criticism should be against excessive reliance on random searches, and too little reliance on profiling.
My feelings exactly.
There's an Egyptian immigrant Christian named Michael Youssef who wrote a column saying "Profile me!" (i.e., Middle Easterners are the source of the mischief), but I think he also missed the point. I doubt there are many Maronites, Assyrians, Copts, Mizrahis, Armenians, Zoroastrians, and apostates from Islam living in the West who are ready to do the terrorists' bidding. We do have people like John Walker Lindh and others who were not Middle Eastern who were nonetheless dangerous; and we do see the terrorists trying to recruit and use Kufr to do their dirty work. Heck, wasn't there the case of a Muslim who packed a bomb on his pregnant Irish fiancee and sent her on a plane to Israel, where she was caught?
These security personnel have a very thankless job.
"And what if Islam is the true religion (I'd bet my life on it that it isn't, but I digress)? Well, then, it's an exceedingly creepy universe and God is a jerk. For those who don't want to be slaves of such a deity, the only dignified course of action is to emulate Prometheus. It will prove a losing effort of course, but better to lose with earthly dignity than submit to cosmic tyranny. This understanding, irrespective of Islam being in accord with ultimate reality, will always, should always, separate the slaves of Allah from free folks. In short, Islam, true or not, is horrible. "
As someone for whom piety is a virtue, and who understands that if I argue with God Almighty, it may well be that what I think is a greater rationality or humanity may well be being to accustomed to wallowing in evil, I assure you that I have bet my immortal soul on Islam being false.
Christos Anesti!
Wellington wrote:
And what if Islam is the true religion (I'd bet my life on it that it isn't, but I digress)? Well, then, it's an exceedingly creepy universe and God is a jerk. For those who don't want to be slaves of such a deity, the only dignified course of action is to emulate Prometheus. It will prove a losing effort of course, but better to lose with earthly dignity than submit to cosmic tyranny.
...............................
I've written about this before myself, Wellington. What if Islam were "true"—that is, what if the appalling deity "Allah" were truly in charge of the universe?
How would it affect my actions? If I knew that the only way I could get into "paradise" was to genitally mutilate little girls and force them into child marriages, preach the murder of Jews, lure my uppity female relatives to be "honor killed" by their male family members, and blow up innocent Infidels to avoid the fires of hell, *would I do it*?
No, I could not. As fearful as I might be at the idea of eternal, fiery "damnation", I could not live with myself if I had to commit that kind of evil. It would not be worth it at any price. At the very least, I can help make life kinder and more decent while I'm here.
Now, I **don't** adhere to any sort of "mad God" theory of the universe—but even if I did, it would not induce me to embrace Islam, with all the immoral horror that would entail.