Whaddaya Know! I'm actually on the same page as Young Sheldon this morning.....
On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 8:57 AM, MJ <[email protected]> wrote: > > *TSA Intrusion Is One Price of Empire > *by Sheldon Richman <http://www.fff.org/aboutUs/bios/sxr.asp>, December 1, > 2010 > > How gratifying to see Americans increasingly angry at the Transportation > Security Administration (TSA) for using offensive full-body scans and frisks > in its latest production of what security expert Bruce Schneier calls > “security theater.” > > The government would have us believe these measures are safe and effective, > but its record for veracity is, to put it mildly, disgraceful. Meanwhile > Schneier, an independent voice who makes it his business to check this stuff > out, doesn’t believe the scanners would have caught even the would-be > underwear bomber: “The guys who make the machines have said, ‘We wouldn’t > have caught that.’” Maybe a full frisk indistinguishable from a sexual > assault would have found the potential explosive, but that wouldn’t have > caught the guy in Saudi Arabia who tried to hide one in a body cavity. Is > the TSA going to introduce cavity searches next? > > Let’s remember that the TSA has been incompetent from the beginning. No one > can name a single plot it thwarted, but over the years we have seen many > stories of TSA inspectors failing tests announced in advance. We can be sure > that countless forbidden items carried by innocents have passed through > security. One person unknowingly carried a full 9mm pistol magazine through > security in a carryon bag. While some TSA agents are missing contraband they > are supposed to be looking for, others have pilfered things from people’s > checked luggage. Flying is anything but secure; the main problem, however, > is not terrorism. > > So let’s hope the anti-TSA anger builds, but let’s also be aware of the > risks. I’m referring to the risk from right-wingers, such as Ann Coulter and > Charles Krauthammer. The conservative critics of body scans and frisks have > not hidden their agenda. They’ve made clear their hope that joining the > civil libertarians might get them what they have long wanted: ethnic, > national, and religious profiling of airline passengers. Why frisk a grandma > from Minnesota or a child from Vermont, they say, when “we know” whom to > target? > > Here’s how Coulter put it: “Is there any question that we’d be looking for > Swedes if the 9/11 terrorists, the shoe bomber, the diaper bomber and the > printer cartridge bomber had all been Swedish?.... Only because the > terrorists are Muslims do we pretend not to notice who keeps trying to blow > up our planes.... Swarthy foreigners stand out like a sore thumb in an > airport. The American domestic flying population is remarkably homogeneous. > An airport is not a Sears department store.” > > And Krauthammer: “[The] entire apparatus of the security line is a national > homage to political correctness.... The only reason we continue to do this > is that people are too cowed to even question the absurd taboo against > profiling when the profile of the airline attacker is narrow, concrete, > uniquely definable and universally known. So instead of seeking out > terrorists, we seek out tubes of gel in stroller pouches.” > > I concede there is surface logic here. The profile of those who wish us > harm is fairly narrow, although profiling would undoubtedly prompt a > revision in tactics. But in a way, the profile is even more narrow than > Coulter and Krauthammer would care to admit. At the top of the list of > likely attackers are people with ties to countries the U.S. military and CIA > are currently brutalizing with drone-launched Hellfire missiles, cluster > bombs, and assassination teams. All the would-be bombers fit that profile, > and when they have spoken in court they have said they wanted revenge for > America’s war on their people. Even the Nigerian-born underwear bomber, Umar > Farouk Abdulmutallab, spent time in Yemen, where the U.S. government > conducts a bombing campaign. (By the way, Abdulmutallab, a black man, > doesn’t look like an Arab. Would the profilers have netted him? The > authorities were alerted by his father, and he still got through.) > > If the truest profile marker is a link to a Muslim country that the U.S. > empire is occupying or bombing, that indicates there’s a better way than > profiling to secure American lives: Dismantle the empire. It’s worth a try. > > http://www.fff.org/comment/com1012a.asp > > -- > Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. > For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum > > * Visit our other community at > http://www.PoliticalForum.com/<http://www.politicalforum.com/> > * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. > * Read the latest breaking news, and more. -- Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups. For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum * Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/ * It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls. * Read the latest breaking news, and more.
