Screening airline and airport employees
Bookworm on Aug 11 2006 at 2:57 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
While we’re all throwing away our sports drink as we head to the airport, the real problem may lie behind the scenes, with the employees themselves. The Times of India reports that one of the suspects may well have been an airline employee, enjoying the type of unlimited access to Heathrow that comes with such employment:
LONDON: Amin Asmin Tariq, who is among the 24 persons arrested over the alleged terror plot to blow up US-bound planes, is said to be an employee of a private Indian air carrier.
The airlines declined to comment when asked if Tariq, 23, was their employee.
A western media report said Tariq, a British national, is from east London and a security worker in Heathrow airport. He was arrested at Walthamstow dog track after a car chase.
When contacted, London Metrolitan Police said they would not give out details about the arrested persons unless they are charged.
Tariq is not the only terrorist suspect with an airport connection. According to Michelle Malkin, one of the recently arrested Dearborn suspects also had a close airport connection: Ali Houssaiky’s mother worked at Metro airport.
I’m irresistibly reminded of the fact that, whenever I fly, I clutch my luggage around me in the waiting area, for fear some light fingered thief will walk off with it. And I do this despite knowing that most airport theft results from employee crime rings stealing luggage in the back rooms. (Hey, I used to watch 60 Minute exposes.) What we’re seeing now is that concept taken to the n-th degree of ridiculous: as we’re all standing barefoot and thirsty in line at the airport, the terrorists wave their employee IDs and walk blithely onto the airplanes, armed and murderous.
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6 Responses to “Screening airline and airport employees”
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The only real solution is to begin looking for bombers……..
..spending ALL of our time hunting for the bombs means that we’re going to be bombed before very long.
Of course, looking for bombers means distinguishing between high risk and low risk individuals…..it means that we don’t treat everyone exactly the same. It means that Muslim imams may get more scrutiny than Catholic nuns. This is simply not acceptable to the leftists among us.
So……?
The real solution is to have the passengers kill the bomber before he can assemble the bomb or detonate the bomb.
These homemade contraptions sometimes don’t go off.
If the terroist is an explosives expert, you should be able to tell that by looking at his records and his Middle Eastern descent.
The only people that follow “rules” are law abiding citizens. DIsarm the citizens, and only the criminal insiders have it all. Fortifications can be taken down effortlessly via inside help. It was done at Jerich and plenty of other “impregnable fortresses”. There is no absolute defense, no impregnable fortress.
There is a reason why offense is the best defense.
“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” — Wendell Phillips, (1811-1884)
My husband has just written to our U.S. Senators and our Representative in Congress, asking that they sponsor passage of a law establishing a biometric National ID card and companion card-reading system. Every U.S. citizen would have to present the card before boarding any public conveyance or common carrier. NO CARD - NO TRAVEL. Every tourist, legal-resident non-citizen, or similar legal entrant would be issued a differentiated card immediately upon arrival at a U.S. point of entry. NO CARD - NO TRAVEL.
For people already in the country, cards could be issued at Social Security offices or the DMV, upon presentation of whatever documentation Congress decides to require. For those just arriving, cards would have to be issued at Customs stations at the point of entry - again, based on documentation. Each card would be encoded with a fingerprint or retinal scan, so that only the person to whom it was issued could use it. All public travel within the U.S. would require presentation of the card. Failure to carry the card on one’s person when traveling could be made a misdemeanor with an appropriate fine.
I’m hearing a loud cry bubbling up from the peanut gallery that this would turn us into Fascists. But this is really no different from being stopped by a traffic cop who is empowered to say, “Let me see your drivers license or ID.” You’d damn well better show it to him, or you’ve won an all expenses paid, one-way ticket to the pokey.
Nobody’s liberty would be infringed. The government would not stop you from traveling anywhere you want to go. The government would not stop you from doing anything legal. What they WOULD be doing is taking active steps to identify travelers who are on a watch list, and who shouldn’t be allowed into this country, or allowed to move about freely here (like, for instance, those Egyptian “students” who are now on the loose in New York City - or somewhere). In fact, if we had these cards, travel could become a lot smoother for everyone.
It’s not a foolproof system, and I can think of some holes right away. But I also believe that if we used such a system, along with profiling, many of the bad guys would be identified before they could melt into the population.
More effort should be made to examine PEOPLE, not just the contents of water bottles. It is high time that terrorists, not the innocent traveling public, were inconvenienced. If you agree, PLEASE CONTACT your senators and your representative in Congress and ask them to support such legislation.
Well, I’ll hold off on commenting about the ID cards, but how about changing ONE sentence, so that it reads like this:
“But I also believe that if we used…profiling, many of the bad guys would be identified before they could melt into the population.”
What would be wrong with that? Why haven’t we started five years (less one month) ago?
I’m all in favor of profiling. It’s just common sense and one of many things we should be doing. As for the Card, I think of it as just another travel document (like a passport), except that it would be used for travel inside the country as well as between countries. It’s the biometric coding and card-reading system, keyed into watch lists and other relevant databases, that would really help. Again, one of many things we should be doing.