No more, Mr. Nice Fly!
America got very lucky on Christmas, very lucky. A 23 year old Al-Qaeda Nigerian Muslim jihadist came dangerously close to blowing Northwestern Flight 253 out of the air. Why did America get lucky? Was it because Umar Frock AbdulMutallab's father warned the state department? Was it because our new policy on terrorism prevented a catastrophe? Was it because Obama's administration crack down of every lead? No, no and no. It was because the detonator malfunctioned and instead of puncturing a hole in the side of plane, lit Umar's underwear on fire resulting in third degree burns (yay). So how do we prevent this from happening in the future? Very easy, screw the American passenger even further.
First of all, let us be very clear as to where the failure happened. According to the reports, Umar went through regular screening and passed all the regular checkpoints. Obviously there is only so much you can do when a would-be jihadist crams 80 grams of PETR down his loins. However as we have learned, Umar's father became increasingly concerned over his son's rapid radicalization and contacted the State department. Unfortunately the State department tossed Umar's name into a database containing thousands of suspects and called it a day - good enough for government work as they say. We can obviously defend Janet Neapolitano if we want to and continue claiming that the new multi-billion dollar Department of Homeland Security is actually doing something useful or we can face reality. Reality being that the world's vigilance is the only mechanism that will protect us from terror, not a bunch of high level bureaucrats. When these high level bureaucrats ignore the warnings of a father then this undermines the entire point of citizen vigilance in the first place. Why would anyone bother reporting information if the information is ignored? Why wasn't Umar's visa revoked!? Does it have anything to do with the Obama administration's policy of skirting inconvenient labels and refusing to call terrorism, terrorism?
Once again, just to make it very clear. The State department failed here and the current administration is on the hook.
In case you were curious, our friends across the pond got the same kind of warning back in May over Umar's potential jihadist desires and revoked the bastard's visa! Meanwhile we are too busy drowning in our political correctness making sure that everyone's feelings are rightfully protected.
So instead of addressing the issue at the government level another wave of ridiculous security measures are being implemented. So it's not enough that we have to arrive hours before a flight to give the airport drones enough time to pull their crap together, forfeit all our liquids, take off our shoes and be subjected to random screenings, we now have to deal with this:
This is really embarrassing and it would appear that the jihadists are just laughing at us. I can just imagine a conversation in some Yemeni village.
"Hey Abdul, I bet I can make the Americans take off their shoes before each flight"
"OK, Richard you are on".
"Holy Allah that is awesome! Let's see if we can get them to take off their panties too!"
"OK, Umar you are on".
"Oooh, let's see if we can get them to bend over and touch their toes"
What if they start planting explosives in their teeth? How about up their rectums? Armpits? How about under their turbans or wigs?
Here is a real perplexing question. What if they decide to blow up the plane not within the last hour of flight, but within the last TWO hours of flight? Then what? You still going to take that free diet coke?
I think it is time we said enough.
We have watched our liberties and freedoms erode after 9/11. We have changed our lives while thousands of Americans died in Afghanistan and Iraq and for what? Meanwhile our administration cannot even admit that we are fighting terrorists. Consider the sad state of affairs in America today. Our banks ruin themselves and our government forces responsible taxpayers (you and me) to pay, when our own government fails to properly screen potential terrorists we are forced to give up more of our precious time and dignity. Instead of profiling and banning people we randomly screen 90 year old grandmothers and force 10 year olds to take off their flip-flops. Enough is enough.
If after 8 years of war they have not figured out that all terror tips must be pursued and profiling actually works, then we should no longer be flying. We are paying too much money to have hours of our time wasted on efforts that yield no results. The only reason those 300 passenger of flight 253 are still alive is because of a fluke, our system failed miserably and it failed on the government level. It is time to cancel vacations and start using buses/rail for domestic travel. We have the power to vote with our money and if the jihadists want to blow up an empty airplane, they can go ahead and do that.
I am done flying until logic and rational thinking return. Since we are dealing with government, this could take a long time and I am fine with that. No more, Mr. Nice Fly.
First of all, let us be very clear as to where the failure happened. According to the reports, Umar went through regular screening and passed all the regular checkpoints. Obviously there is only so much you can do when a would-be jihadist crams 80 grams of PETR down his loins. However as we have learned, Umar's father became increasingly concerned over his son's rapid radicalization and contacted the State department. Unfortunately the State department tossed Umar's name into a database containing thousands of suspects and called it a day - good enough for government work as they say. We can obviously defend Janet Neapolitano if we want to and continue claiming that the new multi-billion dollar Department of Homeland Security is actually doing something useful or we can face reality. Reality being that the world's vigilance is the only mechanism that will protect us from terror, not a bunch of high level bureaucrats. When these high level bureaucrats ignore the warnings of a father then this undermines the entire point of citizen vigilance in the first place. Why would anyone bother reporting information if the information is ignored? Why wasn't Umar's visa revoked!? Does it have anything to do with the Obama administration's policy of skirting inconvenient labels and refusing to call terrorism, terrorism?
Once again, just to make it very clear. The State department failed here and the current administration is on the hook.
In case you were curious, our friends across the pond got the same kind of warning back in May over Umar's potential jihadist desires and revoked the bastard's visa! Meanwhile we are too busy drowning in our political correctness making sure that everyone's feelings are rightfully protected.
So instead of addressing the issue at the government level another wave of ridiculous security measures are being implemented. So it's not enough that we have to arrive hours before a flight to give the airport drones enough time to pull their crap together, forfeit all our liquids, take off our shoes and be subjected to random screenings, we now have to deal with this:
Pat downs of passengers at airport security, concentrating on the upper torso and legs;Now they are going to thoroughly examine your crotch and prevent you from getting up in the last hour of the flight. Are they kidding me? We can't use pillows? What if we are sleeping, will they wake us up?
Physical inspections of all carry-on bags at the gate;
Requiring all passengers to be seated for the full hour prior to arrival;
Banning the use of blankets and pillows one hour prior to arrival.
This is really embarrassing and it would appear that the jihadists are just laughing at us. I can just imagine a conversation in some Yemeni village.
"Hey Abdul, I bet I can make the Americans take off their shoes before each flight"
"OK, Richard you are on".
"Holy Allah that is awesome! Let's see if we can get them to take off their panties too!"
"OK, Umar you are on".
"Oooh, let's see if we can get them to bend over and touch their toes"
What if they start planting explosives in their teeth? How about up their rectums? Armpits? How about under their turbans or wigs?
Here is a real perplexing question. What if they decide to blow up the plane not within the last hour of flight, but within the last TWO hours of flight? Then what? You still going to take that free diet coke?
I think it is time we said enough.
We have watched our liberties and freedoms erode after 9/11. We have changed our lives while thousands of Americans died in Afghanistan and Iraq and for what? Meanwhile our administration cannot even admit that we are fighting terrorists. Consider the sad state of affairs in America today. Our banks ruin themselves and our government forces responsible taxpayers (you and me) to pay, when our own government fails to properly screen potential terrorists we are forced to give up more of our precious time and dignity. Instead of profiling and banning people we randomly screen 90 year old grandmothers and force 10 year olds to take off their flip-flops. Enough is enough.
If after 8 years of war they have not figured out that all terror tips must be pursued and profiling actually works, then we should no longer be flying. We are paying too much money to have hours of our time wasted on efforts that yield no results. The only reason those 300 passenger of flight 253 are still alive is because of a fluke, our system failed miserably and it failed on the government level. It is time to cancel vacations and start using buses/rail for domestic travel. We have the power to vote with our money and if the jihadists want to blow up an empty airplane, they can go ahead and do that.
I am done flying until logic and rational thinking return. Since we are dealing with government, this could take a long time and I am fine with that. No more, Mr. Nice Fly.
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