| In response to the attempted bombing last week of an American Airlines jet by Tariq Raja -- aka Abdel Rahim, aka Richard "Saltonstall" Reid IV, aka "Biff" -- the airlines sprang to action with random passenger shoe checks.
According to The New York Times, there is no discernible pattern in the airlines' choice of fliers targeted for aggressive footwear examination. At the Atlanta airport, for example, the passengers whose shoes were searched "included a flight attendant, an elderly black man, a white man wearing a cowboy hat and boots, and an Asian woman with two small children."
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman responded to this latest attack by summarily announcing that our only choices are to "become less open as a society" or simply "to live with much higher levels of risk."
I think I have another solution. It's something I like to call "ethnic profiling." My logic is this: There is a common thread hidden within 20 years of relentless attacks on America by Muslim extremists: In every one of these attacks by Muslim extremists, there appears to be one or more Muslim extremists involved. This ought to help the airlines engage in more accurate risk assessment.
Tariq "Biff" Raja attended the same mosque as Zacarias Moussaoui, the suspected 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attack. (The New York Times has yet to report Tariq's connection to the mosque, though the paper will surely print that fact before any of the media will ever breathe a word about the story reported in the San Francisco Examiner that American jihadist John Walker's father left Mrs. Walker for another man.)
The men who used passenger jets to attack America on Sept. 11 were Muslim extremists.
Last year, our warship, the USS Cole, was attacked by Muslim extremists.
In 1998, U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by Muslim extremists, killing 212 people and wounding thousands.
In 1996, Muslim extremists exploded a truck bomb outside an Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia, killing 19 and injuring hundreds more.
In 1995, five Americans were killed in a car bomb explosion executed by Muslim extremists.
In 1993, the World Trade Center was bombed by Muslim extremists, killing six and injuring thousands.
Also in 1993, Muslim extremists plotted to assassinate then U.S. President George Bush. (Intriguingly, the word "assassin" comes from a Muslim sect active in the 11th to 13th centuries known as "the Assassins" for their religious practice of murdering infidels.)
In 1988, another passenger jet, Pan Am flight 103, was bombed by Muslim extremists, killing 270 people.
In 1986, Muslim extremists bombed a West Berlin discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen.
In 1985, Muslim extremists seized an Italian cruise ship, the Achille Lauro, and murdered Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old, wheelchair-bound American.
In 1983, Muslim extremists blew up U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 American servicemen. Continued... |