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Friday, August 18, 2006
Mike Gallagher :: Townhall.com Columnist
Politically correct airport screening puts us at risk
by Mike Gallagher
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The ACLU attorney was sputtering and raging right from the beginning. I was pretty familiar with the righteous indignation that seems to be a staple of an ACLU shill like Michael Gross. I’ve interviewed him as a guest host on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity and Colmes” and I’ve debated him a few times while we both appeared as guests.

But on this day, his anger came across as soon as the topic of racial profiling in America’s airports was introduced. “It’s obscene!” he said. “Vile!” “Discriminatory!” “Prejudicial!” There was simply no shortage of adjectives he could come up with to condemn the concept of TSA security personnel scrutinizing Middle Eastern men or women who might be potential terrorists.

So when I calmly suggested that there be a “Muslims Only” line at security checkpoints in our airports, Mr. Gross, predictably, almost became unhinged. However, he was probably restrained from losing his senses altogether because of the thunderous applause my suggestion received from the studio audience on Fox’s “Dayside.”

When they’re not suing to remove crosses from public view or fighting for the rights of child molesters, the ACLU loves to complain about “racial profiling.” They don’t like the fact that privately, police officers everywhere admit that profiling is a valuable and effective tool in law enforcement. For example, when I’ve participated in police “ride-alongs” in the past, I observed various stake-outs for drug crimes in predominantly black housing projects. If a young white guy came driving through the projects in a shiny new car, the police immediately knew he was trying to score some drugs. They would watch him closely and arrest him when the inevitable transaction took place. Guess what, ACLU? That’s profiling.

One of the world’s safest airlines does it, too. It’s no secret that El Al, the official state airline of Israel, routinely gives young Arabs a more extensive security screening than the average passenger. And despite the ongoing violence and terror in the Middle East, there hasn’t been a hijacking on an El Al plane in over 30 years.

We should learn a valuable lesson from El Al. Israel isn’t concerned about stepping on toes or ticking off ACLU types. Israel knows that to conquer terrorists, they have to be tough. Racial profiling is a tough tactic that can effectively keep another 9/11 from happening again.

I was furious while reading an editorial written in the Orlando Sentinel by an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. Steven Alvarez writes that it is a little known fact that the TSA aggressively and consistently gives American soldiers walking through America’s airports in full military uniform additional security screenings, forcing our brave fighting men and women to “assume the position” and be subjected to body scans, bag checks, and lengthy delays.

So while TSA screeners are profiling military-clad military personnel and forcing little old ladies to take off their orthopaedic shoes and put them through the x-ray machines (a process that Homeland Security confirmed does NOT detect plastic explosives), they are afraid to target young Arabs who are waiting to get onto a flight.

Something is very wrong with this picture.

We dodged a bullet last week when a major plot to blow up airliners over British and American skies was averted. This magnificent effort by terrorism-chasers should be a wake-up call to the United States. Let’s not wait for the next time when a young, hate-filled Muslim fanatic can succeed.

We have VIP lines at airport security checkpoints for first class passengers. We allow pilots and flight attendants to go to the head of the lines in order to make their flights on time. Let’s extend that same convenience to Muslim passengers. After all, percentage-wise, there are fewer Arabs flying than non-Arabs, right? So it stands to reason that a Muslim-only security line would go quickly, even with highly concentrated security efforts.

Let’s stop playing politically correct games and being worried about what the ACLU is going to do. This isn’t some charade, this war is real. The terrorists who want to kill us are looking for every opportunity to pounce. It’s time to formally and officially launch profiling in our nation’s airports.

As I often say, not all Muslims are terrorists. But all the terrorists are Muslims.

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About The Author

Mike Gallagher is a nationally syndicated radio host, Fox News Channel contributor and guest host and author of Surrounded by Idiots: Fighting Liberal Lunacy in America.

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Great column, but
you're a day late and a dollar short. Ann Coulter already stole your thunder.

This was interesting though: "Steven Alvarez writes that it is a little known fact that the TSA aggressively and consistently gives American soldiers walking through America’s airports in full military uniform additional security screenings, forcing our brave fighting men and women to “assume the position” and be subjected to body scans, bag checks, and lengthy delays. "

So, they do profile, just not the types you would expect them to.

Shameless plug (I'm on the Brian bandwagon): Stop by and check out the latest on my blog, "Airport Extravaganza."

THE ACLU
Is an organization that needs to have their members and policies aggressively screened, if they appose the screening, they can all have their choice of relocating to Israel, Iraq or Iran. Calling themselves the AMERICAN Civil Liberties Union has to be one of the biggest jokes of all times, they are anything but pro American. the ACLU should be listed near the top of an organization that needs to be closely monitored for supporting anti-American activities with-in the United States. Heads Need To Roll has included a couple of links below for those of you who may be interested in discovering some very disturbing facts about the ACLU which would support the idea that this organization is anything but pro American anything.

http://www.dms489.com/ACLU.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/september2004/160904uncomfortabletruths.htm

Read these articles than make your own decisions regarding the intentions of this organization that is head quartered right here in the United states with our government's blessings.

Heads Need To Roll LLC


WE NEED A FORMAL DECLARATION OF WAR
We need to have a formal declaration of war against Islamofacism/terrorism. Not until we do something like this, wacky liberal judges will rule against defending ourselves (as we just saw), the ACLU and many liberal politicians will be a constant problem (imposing a terrorist Bill of rights on America) and we won't deploy serious counter-terrorist efforts at airports, seaports and our borders.

There is a large segment of our society who firmly believe that we are not at war and that our criminal law and criminal justice system should deal with the problem. Criminal law can only deal with after-the-fact events, and then it goes after the offender. We can not let terrorists first blow-up the plane and then go after them. Criminal law is not preventative medicine; we need to act in a pre-emptive manner.

In my opinion, we need to remove the "we are not at war" attitude as an option with a formal declaration of war. Until we do that, America will be at war with itself.

employees too, need to be profiled
While waiting for my flight from Amsterdam to Los Angeles on KLM, I was looking out the window and noticed the workers going on board to clean the airplane I would be on that had just landed. The workers with the vacuum cleaners were dark skinned and looked Middle Eastern, and the staff that were patting down these workers and inspecting their vacuum cleaners before they went on the plane, were white.

Seems KLM isn't afraid to profile their own employees. After witnessing this, I feel more secure flying on KLM than any other airline.


Not Any Time Soon
I am struck by the unceasing, and consistently frustrated, attempts to impose rational behavior on the Left. Understand, please, that logic and facts simply aren't relevant there - no matter the subject. This is made obvious (again) by the ACLU twit's *emotional* reactions to serious suggestions regarding national security. That IS the Left: how we feel is important, what you think is not. Credit radical activist groups with popularizing this creed, beginning with the modern feminist movement. The evidence is everywhere: manipulation of language to obstruct dialog, diversity and its many pathetic offspring, criminal as victim... and the beat goes on. Non-critical group-feel is paramount, shaped and nourished by daily helpings of an MSM which have descended to cheap rags pandering to a thought-less audience.

Profiling
This is a great article of which I full heartedly agree! Profiling has been around for years and is a great tool for solving crimes making our world safer.

ACLU stands for ...
...the American Criminal Liberation Unit, because it believes there is no such thing as a legitimate police investigation.

Staggering
It's completely amazing that we even have to discuss this issue.

If we could go back in time even one generation and explain our problem of terrorism and airplanes, everyone would say, "Well at least you have the advantage of knowing what they look like, so catching them should be fairly easy."

I know any liberals reading this are going to mention the one or two "terrorist" acts committed by non-muslims, so ok, the current score on terrorist acts is:

Muslims 16,879 and counting
Non-Muslims 3

I cannot even begin to comprehend the liberal viewpoint - it must be a mental disorder - nothing else could explain it.


Whilst I have to agree that this notion of not specifically targeting people for additional security checks based on racial or religious origins/beliefs is daft I do have to pull up the authour on his last line.

Terrorists are not all Muslim.

At the moment they represent the majority of them but they could be Hindu, Catholic, Protestant or even just people who prefer Animals to People.

Profiling needs to be about who represents the greatest threat but that threat changes. Lose sight of that and then the Muslim accusations of illogical persecution begin to have a ring of truth to them.

Wait for the mail on this
After yesterday, this should be (pardon the pun) explosive. I agree that we need to profile. I also like the idea of that lie detector that was on a few days ago. We need to find the people, not the things. Unfortunately, almost anything can be made a weapon and if you try to eliminate weapons, you will inconvenience all sorts of folk and won't find the weapons.

Enough with security
I wrote yesterday and will again today.

We have become obsessed with security. Yet it is not real security. The TSA despite all the delay, the clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, squeezing women's breast, and all the other indignities that we are put through is not providing security. If someone like me can figure easily how to get a weapon on a plane then I know that a professional can. So all they are doing is an act. But it is an act with bad consequences. It clearly violates the Fourth Amendment. When you begin to give up liberty to the government then you are in trouble more than what the terrorist could do. It also makes us think the government is doing something when actually they are not confronting the problem. Bush's response to the latest crisis would have been to give a green light to Israel to do whatever it took. Instead he allowed a cease fire that is meaningless. This give encouragement to the enemy. I have been to the Middle East and know that the only thing they respect is brute force, if you are nice then you are someone to take advantage of.

A few years ago, I went to the Sugar Bowl. We had to go through the idiot security. Why? Miami wants to stop people in the malls and frisk them. Why? New York wants to do the same for the subways. Why?

When does this stop and we begin to confront the real enemy which is Islam? 10% of Muslims are terrorist or stongly in that camp. 70% of Muslims are sympathetic to the terrorist. We need to do something!! Not man handle old women.

In 1994 we had a saying, "throw the bumbs out". For a short period that worked to get a more conservative government. Now the bumbs are back with different names. We need to throw out the current politicians. I am tired of disscussing this and want to do something to restore sanity.

No news
This article could have been written 12 Sept. 2001 (if the planes had been flying). Collectively we have learned nothing and refuse to do so. Pitiful.

One side note on screening the military. They are intentionally used because they are easy. The screeners know these people have been trained to follow instructions without becoming belligerent. Why listen to someone whinning and sniveling about being profiled or picked on when you can take the easy path. Then if an islamist blows up the plane you have a clear concience, you met your quote of searches and nobody will blame you.

He should have said "Not all Muslims are jihadists but all jihadists are Muslims".


Polical Correctness
"Let’s stop playing politically correct games and being worried about what the ACLU is going to do." Exactly. And the place to start? At the ballot box in November, by never, EVER voting for a Democrap. Their party invented political correctness!

Icedog 01
Stick around and read the comments on all the editorials. There are a couple of Fools that post quite regularly. If you don't think there are an abundance of these Fools, go to the Free Interned Chess Service...an online chess website... and dial into channel 39 and read some of THOSE idiots. And I always thought chessplayers were pretty smart.

The End to Profiling:
Simple. Everyone boarding a flight will go through two tunnels; one for male, one for female and DON'T tell me THAT is profiling.....
Inside the tunnel, the prospective passenger will disrobe...completely and under the scrutiny of a TSA...and don one of those orange jumpers like jail inmates wear. Their clothes will be searched and bagged and put in baggage compartment, which will be devoid of other baggage because they will have had to check their baggage in 24 hours prior to departure so it could be flown to destination via FEDEX. After a leisurly flight in which time they can have kool-aid and watch old Robert Tilton re-runs, they will touch down at their destination, go through the tunnel, change clothes, then pick up their baggage, exit the terminal and get mugged in the parking lot by a drug crazed (a) white male, (b) black male, (c) Hispanic male or go through those again inserting 'female' instead of 'male' and try to get a taxi. Unless the passenger is a black male in which case he will catch the bus because TAXI DRIVERS RACIALLY PROFILE!!!

Lydia
Notice how the Illegal Issue has been pushed to the back burner and now is completely out of the kitchen? I think the Republicans are very happy about the Mideast Blowup since it takes pressure off the Border and Illegal issue. At any rate they will come back and say there is not enough time before November but as soon as they are re-elected they will move on it. Yeah. Sure. Vote the jackasses out. All of 'em.

Airport Screening
Lydia, Brush up on your history. 1986 Ted Kennedy got a bill passed that is doing just what he wanted it to do today. There was a democrat house and senatethen. I know the repulbicans today are a bunch of wimps but put the blame where it belongs ,on the democrats. You must be a democrat.

A No-Brainer.
A Muslim-only security line, together with the comprehensive implementation of a yellow crescent airline policy, isn't a matter of politically incorrectness; it’s a matter of national security.

Makes perfect sense, but...
for Muslim-only lines to work, how do we know that someone is Muslim?

1. Do we base it on skin colour and ethnicity?

2. Do we base it on name? For instances, if you have name like "Muhammad" or "Akbar" you should go to this line.

3. Do we ask them what religion they are?

What about non-Middle Eastern Muslims?

What about Muslims from Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, and even Iran, who are much lighter in colour, and do not look like they are Middle Eastern?

What about Muslim converts who are perhaps black or white (Richard Reid)?

What about Muslims who don't have Islamic names?

Imagine for instance: a young man named Ashe, who is very light in skin colour and hair colour, is a Canadian citizen, but is a Muslim. How do we know he is Muslim? (Btw, this is a real person, who is a devout Muslim, and while he doesn't have any extremist beliefs, one never knows...)

how do you know they're Muslum?
I think theRightway makes some good sense. The obvious thing to do would be to require that all Muslums wear a crescent on their clothes so that we can know to be on the look out in case they're terrorists.

how do you know they're Muslum?
I think theRightway makes some good sense. The obvious thing to do would be to require that all Muslums wear a crescent on their clothes so that we can know to be on the look out in case they're terrorists.

Matt, theRightway...
....we have all passengers eat bacon before the flight to screen out potential trouble...

register
No, we should just have all Muslums register with the government, just like you have to register guns. Then we can just check the list or pass a law requiring them to display something.

How do you identify a Muslim?
There are Christian, Jewish, and secular Arabs. There are westernized Muslims who don't dress traditionally. There is the Nation of Islam, which is a Black Power thing and quite different from the Middle Eastern brand. West African Muslims have no precedent of participating in Islamic terror on any level. Do you just go by people's names and assume that if it sounds Muslim, the person is Muslim? What about people with names like Cynthia Bellow, Cat Stephens, and John-Walker Lind, who convert to Islam for personal reasons? How do you detect them? The only way to do it is with a nationwide registration system and ID card with your religious affiliation on it. Is that what people want?

Profiling doesn't happen at the gate
That's our problem in this country, thinking that we can take care of this issue at the departure gate, when El Al starts their screening process when the customer buys a ticket.

In our technologically advanced country, we could require ID at the time of ticket purchase. We might even require a digital photo to be taken at the time of purchase, to be matched to the ticket and a scan of the ID for use at the airport. A computer program could screen for criminal background, physical charactistics, Arab names, country of origin, even mosque attendance. Then, at the gate, only a small fraction of highly screened suspects need to be searched and subjected to humiliation at the hands of the TSA perverts.

It wouldn't catch everyone, but it would serve as a big deterrent for terrorists because you don't get your virgins if you don't die in jihad. They would undoubtedly start looking for other ways to terrorize us, but at least we could drink water on the plane again.

identifying the threats
[excerpt]:
With the latest plot exposed to blow up these airliners, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) put out the predictable statement that, "We once again urge law enforcement authorities and elected officials to caution against stereotyping entire religious or ethnic groups based on the alleged actions of individuals."
************************************************

This is unmitigated, egregious, irresponsible tripe-- EVERY SINGLE CONTEMPORANEOUS ACT of random public venue terrorism in America, England, Spain, and elsewhere has been perpetrated by young Islamic males. Folks, they would ALMOST NEVER be blue-eyed blonds! The Oklahoma City bombers did not commit suicide on a plane-- it takes a really aberrant ilk to do that. It is PATENTLY ABSURD NOT TO FOCUS ON THOSE WHO FIT SUCH A PROVEN PROFILE. We are frisking 75 year old anglo women-- RIDICULOUS! [You never know who might convert to radical Islam!] Words like "prejudice" and "profiling" are glaringly disingenuous in such a context given such probative evidence. If you want to catch a man-eating tiger, you need not trap every animal in the jungle! We can learn from the success of the Israeli's about profiling; the Brits lose less sleep over political correctness than we. In an ugly, unpredictable world, you do what MUST BE DONE! To HELL with ethnic sensitivities!

It is not "prejudging" if the realities speak for themselves-- it is common sense due diligence. It brings to mind the axiom-- a conservative is a committed liberal who got mugged last night. America is being enervated by those who want
to deny reality -- see the insouciant dismissal of the documented rates of crimes, drugs, and gang propensity among illegal aliens because it feels good to the remote, secure "elites" [with ulterior motives for their apologia] among
academia, Congress, wealthy liberals, and the Catholic Church hierarchy to be in denial. Spare us this PC, fools' gold sophistry! It is nothing short of inimical to our socio-economic well-being and public safety!

identifying the threats
[excerpt]:
With the latest plot exposed to blow up these airliners, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) put out the predictable statement that, "We once again urge law enforcement authorities and elected officials to caution against stereotyping entire religious or ethnic groups based on the alleged actions of individuals."
************************************************

This is unmitigated, egregious, irresponsible tripe-- EVERY SINGLE CONTEMPORANEOUS ACT of random public venue terrorism in America, England, Spain, and elsewhere has been perpetrated by young Islamic males. Folks, they would ALMOST NEVER be blue-eyed blonds! The Oklahoma City bombers did not commit suicide on a plane-- it takes a really aberrant ilk to do that. It is PATENTLY ABSURD NOT TO FOCUS ON THOSE WHO FIT SUCH A PROVEN PROFILE. We are frisking 75 year old anglo women-- RIDICULOUS! [You never know who might convert to radical Islam!] Words like "prejudice" and "profiling" are glaringly disingenuous in such a context given such probative evidence. If you want to catch a man-eating tiger, you need not trap every animal in the jungle! We can learn from the success of the Israeli's about profiling; the Brits lose less sleep over political correctness than we. In an ugly, unpredictable world, you do what MUST BE DONE! To HELL with ethnic sensitivities!

It is not "prejudging" if the realities speak for themselves-- it is common sense due diligence. It brings to mind the axiom-- a conservative is a committed liberal who got mugged last night. America is being enervated by those who want
to deny reality -- see the insouciant dismissal of the documented rates of crimes, drugs, and gang propensity among illegal aliens because it feels good to the remote, secure "elites" [with ulterior motives for their apologia] among
academia, Congress, wealthy liberals, and the Catholic Church hierarchy to be in denial. Spare us this PC, fools' gold sophistry! It is nothing short of inimical to our socio-economic well-being and public safety!

PC--an effeminate philosophy
Political correctness is effeminate in nature, it is a philosophy that does not allows manliness. This is why homosexuals, feminists and modern liberalism are drawn to it.

Look at the lineup of Air America filled with sqeaking little mice. None of them could really be called a man, as American history has defined manhood--that is one reason so few people listen to it.

Political correctness does not talk, it whines. Political correctness despises John Wayne and loves Richard Simmons. Political correctness has the soul of a drugged out flower child from the sixties, and is a philosophy that can only lead to miserable failure and mass destruction in the age of terrorists threats.

Political correctness will destroy America if the common sense men and women of America do not begin to exert their strength over the effeminate voices of that philosophy (ACLU, Democratic Party, etc.)

Conservatism is a philosophy for the strong, both man and woman. Ann Coulter is a beautiful, all woman creature, and she has more stones than all the democrats in congress combined.


The Party of Free Speech
Icedog01 says:
"Staggering
It's completely amazing that we even have to discuss this issue."

Oh, no it's better than that. We are NOT supposed to discuss it. The lefties will do their best to prevent discussion of such issues everytime.

Anyone who tries to do so publically will be vilified and handed the race card. To you and me that may not matter. Even for political pundits who have adopted the conservatiive point of view it may not matter-they've already been branded racist,etc.

But for anyone hoping to get into or stay in a position of political influence (politicians) where they can do anything about it, the libs do their best to see to it that it is political suicide to even DISCUSS such an issue. Thus, only those already marginalized by the MSM and the left can even TALK about such an issue, much less DO anything about it. Or so they think.

And Yet, Who's Listening?
Pro-life advocates meet annually at the U.S. Capitol to fight for the lives of conceived but unborn children. Why? Because they value life...that of those born and those growing in the womb...as every one of us began.

I picture thousands of Americans showing up together in front of OUR White House to demand an end to ridiculous and dangerous squeamishness about profiling at airports, train stations, and wherever else these terrorists could get access to killing those they wackily believe are "the infidels".

These politicians obviously don't give a crap about what we want. (I'm hoping the majority of Americans value their safety enough to agree to profiling those who board their plane, train or any other public transportation. (Do buses and street cars have security checks yet?)

I can also picture the placards and banners warning the pols that if they don't get the message and act on it pronto, they should have their bags packed before they come up for re-election.

PS: We also want secure borders, NOW.

ACLU & Profiling
The main reason profiling is so reviled by the left is that it works! This is the same reason that the left hates Rudy Guiliani, who disproved so many of the left's shibboleths (New York City is ungovernable, you can't cut crime by jailing criminals, you can't get organized crime out of the garbage business or the fish market...). The ACLU, on the other hand, belongs in a category with Al Sharpton, Saddam Hussein, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Fidel Castro and many others. This category would be called "If they are unhappy, all is good with the world".

Great Column!
Profiling works! PERIOD.

Seems to me that the ACLU and the terrorists are on a blind-date! IMHO

They're on more than a blind date
ACLU attorney Mohammed Abdrabboh and some shady members of CAIR are definitely in the sack together. Welcome to the new PC world, where you dare not question anyone's motives from the Muslim community.

A sidenote on the insanity around us...
An article on yesterday's worldnetdaily.com titled: Controversial Muslim Group Gets VIP Airport Security Tour, Feds show CAIR latest screening step, sensitive counter-terrorism procedures. A definite must read!!!

let the airlines decide
Why don't we let the airlines decide if they want to profile or not? Then, we, the people can decide which airlines we would fly on and we would see which airlines stay in business and which ones go out of business. True capitalism, at it's best.

catattack
A brilliant suggestion--too brilliant for American politicians.

to pilgrim
thanks for the compliment. Wouldn't it be great if Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic would start profiling? Hey, Richard, are you reading this stuff?

Its all so stupid
The terror risk exists no matter the silly measures taken at the gate. The liquid bombers were caught by good old fashioned investigation not by frisking grandmothers gel bras or Arab looking people at the gate. We have the metal detector thing down so keep it up but the rest is just stupid. The risk is so small and the precautions cost so much it is just not worth it.

The things that get into checked luggage, loaded by unchecked workers, and the risk of a plain old air crash are a far greater risk. The terrorists only have to have a new crazy idea and can paralyze the country and cost us billions in lost productivity. Osama said he was going to wreck our economy and take away are freedoms. He can sit in an easy chair and do that with a telephone call because we are so stupid we just jump through the hoop.

The terrorists are winning and do not even have to attack! We scrambled fighters because a woman peed on the floor! What a joke we have become.

Speaking of stupid
This web site screens for innappropriate language in a comment. I can not use the word redicu-lous because it has a bad word imbedded in it. Thats just as redicu-lous as our not allowing lip gloss on airplanes.

Not all of us liberals are moonbats
As a liberal, I've got no problem with profiling. It's pretty clear what sorts of people fit any reasonable profile of potential terrorists. The ACLU doesn't speak for me. Their view of the issues involved is like a conditioned reflex. They worry about the exceptions, but in a well-run security system, these exceptions would be rare.

The ACLU's position amounts to saying: "There can never be any valid reason to screen people on the basis of their appearance, country of origin, travel patterns, or much of anything else." In a perfect world that might be true, but I haven't noticed that we live in one.

Suppose that the ACLU had taken their position on profiling in WWII. They would have had no problem with allowing German nationals onto planes or ships, and probably would have overlooked any Nazi insignias such people might have sewn into their underwear.
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