1. It was a completely serious terrorist attack intended to and capable of taking down a large jet above a major American city, so 9/11 is vividly back in our consciousness.
2. But no one — other than the bomber — was seriously hurt, so we can discount it or play with it and be flippant or political in ways that we would avoid if there were specific and numerous victims.
3. There are lurid details: A man set his own pants on fire and did who-knows-what to his genitalia.
4. It's happening with a new President, so there is much potential for turning around the usual political arguments and making accusations of hypocrisy.
5. Ass-covering officials are saying mockable things like "The system worked."
6. There's a hero to laud. Yay, heroes. Yay, Army of Davids, etc. etc.
7. It was Christmas!
8. Obama's in Hawaii. He's trying to bask in the sun and the success — or seeming success — of the healthcare bill and now here's trouble. Attack him/defend him, etc. etc.
9. We haven't figured out yet what to call the suspect — whose actual name (Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab or Abdulmutallab) is hard to remember or even to figure out how to spell. The Pants Bomber? I used that in my post title because I saw that no one was saying that yet, and I thought it would do well in Google searches. The Christmas Day Bomber? Abdul-mutilate-a-balls?
10. See? It's funny and it's terrible — all at once. And then you can get outraged at the people who laugh or laugh at the people who don't laugh or analyze the trajectories of outrageous humor and the criticism thereof. The possibilities are endless.
ADDED:
11. The guy was privileged, rich, and well-educated.
12. His father ratted on him. Intra-family conflict. Is this extra-great evidence — even his own father turned him in? Or are you thinking: Is the government going to stop you from flying if your parents call up and say you're a radical? Discuss!
13. If the plane had exploded where the detonation was attempted, what would the parts of the plane have hit? Was there an attempt to hit specific sites on the ground? Which ones? How close was the targeting?
14. Coverage. Is mainstream media covering the right things? Is it giving cover to the Obama administration?
15. Can we get somebody fired? Come on, try. Blogswarm!
December 27, 2009
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218 comments:
1 – 200 of 218 Newer› Newest»Reason #1:
He was on a watch list. He was using his real name. And they let him on the fucking plane anyway.
That's inexcusable.
11: Jets weigh a lot. An Airbus A380 weighs 1.2 million pounds. Dropping an entire flaming jet, in pieces, over an American city such as Detroit, would cause a lot of collateral damage.
Abdul-mutilate-a-balls
DEFINITELY.
Cheers,
Victoria
wv: phreakda. LOL.
This one: coldisc! To go with his hot balls.
That list about covers it. Who needs the comments section?
The Pants Bomber?
I agree with John's perspicacious comment above, but just to note that Americans don't use "pants" like we in Britain do, right?
For us, pants are solely underpants, whereas for you guys it's the more unisex word for trousers.
Since Mutilate-a-balls did tape the explosive near his groin, the British public have been calling him the Pants Bomber already, although it's not conclusive if his undies were pants/tidy-whities or boxers.
To our Demonrat elite PR bosses the system is always working...for them, but never for us.
'Christmas Day Pants Bomber' is too long.
Correction: ten reasons why it will be endlessly blogged BY YOU.
But then if we're going to be honest--for a change--we could reduce the list to one reason: because Althouse has Obama on the brain.
A sad case of ODS.
'Christmas Day Pants Bomber' is too long.
I could tell that from the nosebleads ;)
Re: #9, call him UFA.
Unidentified Flying Arab
Unsearched Firebearing Abdul
Unsexed Flammable Asshole...
My vote: Panty-Bomber
By the way the funniest part of this whole thing is this guy frying off the very appendage he'll wish he still had once he meets his 72 whores.
"A sad case of ODS."
No ... this is a sad case of Barack Obama not taking his job seriously.
The terrorists are working overtime 24x7. Are they taking vacations? No, they're not.
Obama is fucking golfing. That says everything.
Priorities.
Sam -- Isn't it sad that there are only three blogs out there (in addition to government-funded public Internet)?
I envision a world where Internet consumers will have up to 100 websites to choose from, offering everything from traditional sitcoms to movies to sports to news. One day, I believe there will be Internet sites that specialize in cooking and even cartoons. Who knows? Maybe there will even come a time when you can make purchases right from your computer.
10...The possibilities are endless..
Sure thats easy for you to say.. you a law professor ;)
@SamU
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-shiftless.html
. Can we get somebody fired? Come on, try. Blogswarm!
If you describe it like a tag-team thing, it becomes a petty revenge story by bloggers and commenters inflated with visions of their influence or importance. It will be spun as nothing but a blog-pitchfork crowd event.
Instead, Napolitano's incompetence should be apparent even to liberals and worthy of censure by all.
Unsexed Flammable Asshole...
LOL!
15? No, not 15. 10 was pushing it. I'll give you 5, or maybe 6. Or, since it's Christmastime and we ought to be generous, 7. Yup, 7.
Was this post meant to be serious? Or was it a thoughtful self-parody? I'm leaning toward the disappointment of it being the former, but if it is the latter then Althouse is a fucking genius.
Ride the line, baby! Ride the line!
I write this from the perspective of agreeing with you. I think you lost the hardcore Leftists long ago.
Barack Obama hasn't even been President for a year, but he's demanded two vacations now:
1) Martha's Vinyard
2) Hawaii
Shiftless.
Do you get two exotic vacations a year?
I took a spin around the Blogosphere and saw these nicknames already:
Mr. Crispy
The Panty Bomber
Fruit of the Booms
I suppose "Brown Bomber" is too un-PC, although it was used by another person who made Detroit famous.
The Crotch Bomber
The Nigerian Muslim Who Lost His Balls Over Detroit.
It will be blogged endlessly because the administration is showing its total lack of concern for the American people. If the word impeachment re-enters our lexicon in the next three years, it will likely be an accumulation of incidents such as this and Ft. Hood and The Zero's unwillingness to focus on anything other than making Mommy proud of him that puts it there.
Of course, the supra-Chicago level of corruption might also work.
Weenie Roasted Bomber.
Do I detect a hint of disgust from Althouse?
Here was Tiger dominating headlines for weeks over his personal indiscretions.. then here comes a genuine story over witch she (Althouse) is called "stupidity on display" for suggesting that because the number one job of the president of the US is to defend the country, perhaps he should be physically closer to that priority at all times.
I would only hasten to add that I believe Obama's no 1 priority in not the defense of the country.. That is regrettable.
Flash in the pan(ts).
I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN.
Gawker is starting the chorus of Schuringa-bashing by calling him a payday whore. They detail what they say went down in negotiations, in order for Schuringa to appear on CNN.
The commentaries are filled with people saying that they don't know why people consider him a hero. After all, nothing happened. Like Schuringa would know that when he jumped over 4 passengers to stop a FREAKING TERRORIST.
My predictions for this summer:
1. A rash of shark attacks
2. The disappearance of some perky breasted intern who was being shagged by a member of Congress
What are your predictions for the autumn?
If Obama is the top layer of this chain of command and is taking it this lightly, perhaps all the underlings are also lighting up their spleefs. But who is in the whole chain of command?
There is probably someone on the ground who checks the data entry.
But now that Obama is in, and marijuana is now legal, the pilots are all lighting up and missing their destinations.
Obama is probably lighting up a huge spleef right now, while hanging out on some reef.
That's Hawaii for you.
I prefer Alaska.
I wish Obama and Bill Clinton would have been reversed. Obama would have been a perfect president for our Holiday from History. We need serious Democratic leadership right now.
And there's not a scintilla of sarcasm in that statement, fellow conservatives.
If it was a day later he could have been the Boxer Bomber.
Although clearly a nut case, the terrorist wannabe didn't have the testicles to roast his chestnuts over open water.
There is probably someone on the ground who checks the data entry.
You missed no 7?
It was Christmas!
Goverment 'workers' get every other day off ;)
Rick -- Disagreed. We need to stop calling these people crazy. The label of insanity immediately stops any attempt by you and us to understand just what is motivating this behavior.
I'm not saying, by the way, that we need to have some agreement or sympathy or any of that. I want these motherfuckers all dead. But we need to understand the motivation if we want to defeat them.
Pantyhosed Bomber
Next time....underarmor
Detective Snowball had such a nice ring to it.. it may be impossible to fly over it.
Seven Machos wrote:
I want these motherfuckers all dead.
Oh, that's sophisticated. Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out, right?
The fact is that since its founding, Islam has considered Western Civilization to be a "House of War" upon which Jihad must be made. Jihad must continue until the West becomes Muslim. Now modern followers of Islam can accept that, or they can disregard it as an antiquated relic of a violent past. Mindless promotion of violence (like what you write) just serves to conflate the two into one big Islamic morass of "motherfuckers" who must all be killed.
Seven Machos said...
I wish Obama and Bill Clinton would have been reversed. Obama would have been a perfect president for our Holiday from History. We need serious Democratic leadership right now.
You use Mr. "Ah did not have sex with that woman, Mizzzz Lewinsky" and the phrase serious leadership in the same sentence?
You must be joking - or smoking.
The last serious leadership the Demos had was Hubert Humphrey.
I went in search of the link, but couldn't find it. In it, it said Mr. Crispy shouted "AFGHANISTAN!" just before passengers heard the pop.
That's the only time I heard that he had shouted anything, especially since he showed very little resistance when caught, even seeming smiley afterwards.
I consider this rather unbelievable. What man, when they have just ignited their franks and beans don't reference it in pain? OW MY BALLS!, etc.
Seven Machos .... that was my lame attempt at humor(nut, testicles,chestnuts). However I disagree with you regarding the sanity of these clowns. Anyone who subjects themselves to the whim of leader(s), that clearly is going to result in their demise, along with others can not be called sane - no matter who influenced them.
Julius Ray Hoffman...The Klu Klux Klan in the defeated southern states after 1882 was the violent wing of the white political establishment. No one could really stop their violent acts until MLK shamed the white establishment into cutting its ties with the KKK. Think that thru.
How about: The Botched Crotch Bomber ?
Julius -- There is no evidence in anything that I have said to indicate that I want to eradicate Muslims or Islam. How you made that mental leap is incomprehensible.
I rest assured, however, that you fancy yourself the sort of fellow who judges others for gross generalization, though. Which is hilarious.
How about: The Botched Crotch Bomber ?
Sung to the melody of Cat Scratch Fever.
@Seven Machos- I realize that you didn't explicit state that you wanted to eradicate Muslims or Islam. What you did do is promote a brutish sort of violence by your statement that you want "these motherfuckers all dead". Who is a motherfucker who deserves to die, in your account, and who isn't? With the idea of jihad so ingrained into Muslim society right now, as traditionalguy point out, how can you tell the difference?
Detroit, huh? He wanted to destroy Detroit.....
Obviously Al Qaida is upset because of the Auto bailout. Maybe the wealthy bomber had a lot of stock in Chrysler?
Now, if the administration is true to form, it will immediately apologize for the quagmire that is General Motors, and then withdraw.....
EDH.....new meaning to the term "crotch rocket"
Less is Moor.
How about: The Botched Crotch Bomber ?
Sung to the melody of Cat Scratch Fever.
Plus, I forgot, Ted Nuget is the "Motor City Madman" !
Oh, that's sophisticated. Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out, right?
That very method worked very well with the last group of Jihadis who tried suicide bombings on us.
Remember the Kamakazi's?
Yeah, we just randomly picked a couple of cities and let the fuckers know what the score was going to be.
Worked pretty well.
Seemed to focus their minds.
Eunuch Bomber.
"Anyone who subjects themselves to the whim of leader(s), that clearly is going to result in their demise, along with others can not be called sane - no matter who influenced them."
How, then, do you explain the Democrat Party?
These motherfuckers are people who are actively seeking to kill Americans.
Incidentally, the idea of jihad is by no means ingrained into anything approaching Muslim society. Not right now nor at any time recently. Muslim society includes a billion people and most of them care no more about jihad than you or I do.
Perhaps you'd like to post again to provide further hilarious evidence that think you are magnificently intelligent but you have no idea what you are talking about.
Hey, if the lefties like Gil Scott Heron can sing it...
We Almost Detroit, Revisited
A billion Muslim people.
Let's say 1% accept the idea of jihad.
= 10 million people who want to destroy Western Civilization.
OK, let's say 0.1%. One out of a thousand who might be a little nuts like this Nigerian dude and are willing to do something like this. That's 100,000 jihidists.
No matter what, there are a lot of them and the idea of treating this as a simple problem of "motherfuckers" who should be killed is not going to solve anything.
How's about Mr. Falaffel Hot Pants?
I really like Steyn's "Panty Bomber" it's short, to the point, and appropriately humiliating. I'm picturing a nice pair like this.
wv: datie (he wore his pretty panties on his datie with death - although he didn't make it...)
"No matter what, there are a lot of them and the idea of treating this as a simple problem of "motherfuckers" who should be killed is not going to solve anything."
That's absolutely true. It will be necessary to kill them, their families, their villages, their cities, and their nations.
It's a horrible thought, but that's what it will come to in the end. Depend upon it. Unless, of course, you'd prefer it to be your family, your village, your city and your nation.
The Fundamental flaw in the Obama, Napolitano, Holder response to global man made disasters is just that, it's that they think it calls for a response, and a reaction to an attack. a First response, a grand jury, and a trial.
That was the context of her "the system worked" comment. The response system after the attack worked. whoopie doo
Offense always beats defense and does it cheaper. Because they guys on offense get to chose the time and place and only need to get lucky once. Defense has to be there 24/7 and get lucky all the time.
These guys are really clueless and dangerous. I think that in the coming days when the public understands what idiots they put in charge, we'll see some behavior modification. When the trial in NYC blows up in Holder's face (well it will take a couple of years to try) in 2012, that will put an end to Obama and Holder. Janet? she won't last more than 6 months. She's way over her head... and it shows.
oooo...kimsch...I need to get Victoria some of those! ;)
wv:emeade LOL!
First of all, Julius, in all of your wisdom you should probably seek to understand a little of the complexity of jihad. Jihad doesn't mean blow shit up.
Secondly, if it's 100,000 or one million or 10 million motherfuckers, that's fine. Find them and kill them. Numbers do not concern me. Probably more reasonable minds among the motherfuckers would begin to prevail after a fractional part of the total meets a gruesome end.
Since you know so much, you surely must know that the Jacksonians always prevail in this country. It's sad that it always ends up being so late in the game because so many more people die than is necessary.
We must destroy people who are trying to destroy us. There's really nothing complex about this.
Calling them motherfuckers is indeed a fruitless approach. Having them in a separate line at airport security would be helpful, however.
Since there are only a billion of them only the well off ones fly and only the well off ones appear to be anxious to blow us to bits. Let them be a bit inconvenienced. I fly all the freaking time and once again I am going to suffer so that these asshole muslims don't. I thought all this egalitarian approach to airport security was supposed to make us look up to date and unwilling to do the obvious which is to profile every single person who even looks like a muslim. God knows that when you start up this multiculti road you would expect the world to love you, but apparently not. But at least the system worked. There's always that. Perhaps we could hire a few hundred thousand TSA dweebs who can feel up the old ladies and be all bossy. We have lost our fucking minds.
"crotch rocket"
Thankfully, "Firecrotch" is taken. It describes the awful red mess between Lindsay Lohan's legs.
oooo...kimsch...I need to get Victoria some of those! ;)
Don't forget the matching bra!
It's a horrible thought, but that's what it will come to in the end. Depend upon it. Unless, of course, you'd prefer it to be your family, your village, your city and your nation.
It was said that a roman citizen could walk from one end of the empire to the other without fear of attack. Why, because whereever he went the locals knew that if he was harmed, the wrath of Rome would descend on their community. Pax Romana was often the peace of the unburied dead...
We have come a long way from "Peticaris alive, or Raisuli dead".
Maybe we made a mistake and should rethink our behavior.
Why don't why we fight the war on "man caused disasters" the way Tiger Bill fought the war in the Balkans. That is from 20,000 feet.
Yemen feeds the beast; so does Iran, parts of Pakistan. Pick out major targets and have at it. Hildebeast would so proud.
No. 16
He just got caught, when we all know the Don't ask, don't tell policy of what happens under those airline blankets.
16. It might have been a conspiracy.
http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/12/flight_253_passenger_says_at_l.html
I guess Janet Napalitano is going to have to reassess whether there "evidence of a wider terrorist plot."
Michael -- This guy doesn't look like a garden-variety Arab Muslim. Unless you can tell the difference between Christian Nigerians and Muslim Nigerians (and various other Nigerians), that's a problem with your approach. The name would obviously have helped. Still, it's a bad road to go down.
The better approach, frankly, would be to single out men between the ages of 15 and 50 traveling alone. My guess is that you would still be inconvenienced.
Anyway, this particular guy should be summarily executed and his corpse should be treated in a way that is very upsetting to Muslim sensibilities. And we need to unleash our military to kill the leaders who are planning these atrocities. Collateral deaths are unfortunate, but we can't continue to live like this. It's a problem that is going to come to a terrible, terrible head.
Victoria,
The matching bra is nice too. Just wish I had that body.....
wv: oconed - the bra cups were oconed...
oooo...kimsch...I need to get Victoria some of those! ;)
Don't forget the matching bra!
Your command is my wish, ever-Britastic Victoria!
xxxoooo
Michael said...I thought all this egalitarian approach to airport security was supposed to make us look up to date and unwilling to do the obvious which is to profile every single person who even looks like a muslim
Before somebody says, "but they'll just recruit blonde Swedes...".
1. Yeah, they can do that, however, profiling does work, but it's not foolproof. what it does is focus more scarce resources on where they are most valuable. Searching 70 y/o Swedish American grandma's flying out of St Paul rather than 20 y/o Somali males flying out of St Paul may make somebody feel like we're a color blind society, but its a waste of resources.
2. Making AQ go outside the family, clan, and tribe to recruit Swedish blondes is hard work, and far more Swedes are going to rat AQ out than Abdul's second cousin would. If they start turning Swedes in large numbers, we can start adding them to the profile :)
It's all about using scarce resources smartly, instead of as political statements...
Anagrammes for "Umar Mutallab" yielded this nugget of truth.
Ma Brutal Maul
Some religious significance, peut-être?
Altar Bum Alum
Mula But Alarm
Perhaps he sent Obama an SOS in Hawaii for burn salve at his local:
Luau Balm Mart
And my favourite:
Um, Ball Trauma!
Cheers,
Victoria
Jets weigh a lot. An Airbus A380 weighs 1.2 million pounds. Dropping an entire flaming jet, in pieces, over an American city such as Detroit, would cause a lot of collateral damage.
Not necessarily. There's a lot of open space in the Detroit area, unfortunately.
I wonder if geography was a mistake here. Was he watching that moving map thingy that international flights have? The airplane would not have been over US territory until the very end of the flight, as a flight from Europe to Detroit flies over a LOT of Canada before crossing into Michigan. So the pants bomber couldn't light his fire until the flight was almost over, and descending. If he'd have been flying to, say, Dallas, he'd been over US territory for a long time and could have set his pants on fire at his leisure.
How's NapalmNads for the alliteration?
Before somebody says, "but they'll just recruit blonde Swedes...".
I'm guilty of having said something similar, Drill Sgt and though I do realise it's a stretch, my point is...
Let me introduce you to Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sweden's best footballer, who is the son of a Muslim Bosnian who emigrated to Sweden.
I know today it seems like a stretch, but Norway, Denmark and especially Sweden are going to be filled tomorrow with blonde, blue-eyed Muslims who happen to be Scandinavian, who also have access to the internet.
And then what. :)
NapalmNads
LOL!
You people do realize that the Christmas Balls Bomber looks much more like Yinka Dare or your friendly Chicago cab driver than Osama Bin Laden, right?
No one really freaked out about the shoe bomber and this is pretty much the same thing. Apparently it is easier to get crappy explosives on a plane than decent explosives. The terrorists win if we start to think flying isn't really safe. Other than the usual response to a failure in the security process I say fire Napolitano if for nothing other than her idiotic statements about the attack.
Richard Reid and this guy are the equivalent of the silly amateurs who tried to detonate a bomb in the World Trade Center.
No problem. The system worked and that failure was certainly no cause for alarm for the people who worked there.
Remembering a childhood taunt, I suggest:
The shoe bomber -- three joints up
We've been saying "Shoe Bomber" for a long time. I like "Underwear Bomber".
Accessorise? Si! Terrorise? No!
Rule 2 and rule 9. We haven't figured out yet what to call the suspect
I think Theo wins with:
Great balls o'fire!
Just heard on Fox News someone (Julian...?) defending the Obama Administration from guilt for the terror incident by saying, wait for it, "We inherited a flawed system from the Bush Administration".
As another commenter said, the blame Bush excuse won't take long to come.
Instead of flying by the seat of our pants, why dont we go the boring route of a court of law, gov agency, our gov appointed doctor?
Plane Bomber #____
Not only would it adhere to the Obama Doctrine (solid B plus, nothing to see here) it would also make it easier for the attacks and would be attacks to become the new normal that had been predicted and Bush stupidly thought it was his job to try to prevent ;)
btw.. this latest bomber was inherited by Obama - Bush's fault.
wv - hoati - Napolitano
steven machos
He might look like a Chicago cabbie, but his name suggests a certain religious affiliation that I would use to make him get in the blue line at security.
Oh, and let them "recruit" blue eyed Swedes to blow themselves up in their stead. Right. And grandmothers too. Those are certainly two groups that can easily be "recruited" to muslim terrorism. Bull Shit. Focus on the muslims and those with muslim sounding names. If we get it wrong and they get a little extra look in the security line who gives a shit? Perhaps they could use the experience to get a little riled up at their co-religionists who are causing all the trouble.
We have completely lost our minds. Every time I go through security and I see these little old ladies getting the extra treatment it makes me want to scream. Everybody so polite, everybody thank you this and thank you that to the moronic TSA people. Everybody needs to get pissed every time they go through that bullshit Kabuki, because that is what it is. On stilts.
Mutallab is a Soldier of Allah.
One of millions.
I think Andy McCarthy has a good point. If one's view of Muslim terrorism is that it is basically a law enforcement problem, well, banks get robbed and people get murdered all the time. We have accepted that reality for a long time.
That the rest of us don't view terrorism precisely that way seems not to register with liberal Democrats.
I'm also wondering whether Obama thinks events are important to the people of the United States only if he thinks they're important. But it doesn't work that way.
Big Mike:
I think you have it just right. It is not a problem if he doesn't see it as a problem.
Besides, the system worked!! Right?
Napolitano is a stooge of Allah.
Like I said, the Mutallabs are profiling the screeners. Instead of the other way around.
And now every major airport has hole the size of Grand Central Station.
TestiBomber
Jihadi Gelding
Did the guy even yell abadoo snackbar before he self-gelded
Flaming asshole.
Is that a fire in your pants or are you just glad to see me?
Solder of Allah
After this latest terrorist attack I wonder how likely Kerry's trip to Iran to kiss the Mullah's asses is? I think we all knew deep down liberal democrats make shitty war time presidents. I guess we had to elect one to prove it I guess.
Jihadi Gelding
Wasn't that the Kentucky Derby horse owned by the Saudis?
I hope one of the parties adopts a "let's pass laws making TSA sane".
We should be spending a ton more on preventing these SOBs from getting on planes and a lot less time and money on inconveniencing flyers.
These are NOT mutally exclusive goals.
Solder of Allah
WE MAY HAVE A WINNER!
People -- It is blatantly unconstitutional to treat people differently because of their religion.
We would need a change in the Constitution to do what you are suggesting. Not saying that's not the right thing to do, but you should understand that it would be politically difficult and slow.
It's a lot easier to make political hay with a failed attack than a successful one. If that plane had actually blown up I'd be pretty appalled about the blame Obama rather than the fucking terrorist. Same with Bush. The Dems tried to play that card and look what happened.
Jumpin' Jack Flash
The BloomerBomber
NoNuts Abdul
Florida said...
Oh, that's sophisticated. Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out, right?
That very method worked very well with the last group of Jihadis who tried suicide bombings on us.
Remember the Kamakazi's?
Yeah, we just randomly picked a couple of cities and let the fuckers know what the score was going to be.
Worked pretty well.
Seemed to focus their minds.
Actually, that's not what happened. The only difference between Hiroshima and Tokyo was the number of weapons dropped to achieve the same effect. The reason Hiroshima and Nagasaki were atom bombed was that all the other more important cities had been turned to ash by massive B-29 raids dropping thousands of incendiaries. (Ironically, both were secondary targets).
The idea was to cut war production and the raids were devastatingly successful. The use of the atom bombs was a last-ditch attempt to get Japan to surrender short of an invasion of the home islands.
Chris-
I think we are long overdue for making political hay about our response to terrorism.
But I don't think it should be a partisan issue.
I was just reading a NYT editorial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/26/opinion/26sat2.html?_r=2
I read it, and I immediately thought-- if some cop gets his panties in a wad, I don't want him searching my Blackberry. Nothing illegal on it; not even positive there is anything embarrassing. But what if there was something on it that could be taken out of context or used against me? Do I want the police to have the right to grab it at a traffic stop where he doesn't like the way I looked at him? So I kinda like the Ohio Supreme Court's ruling.
At the same time, I want them searching the cellphones and PDAs of anyone that is a legit terrorism suspect.
I don't know what the right answer is, but I am sure that part of the answer is to make political hay about it, and replace our current political class with people who actually get what needs to be done.
Hint- making people not be able to have blankets on their laps on cold planes is not the answer. No putting people on the No-Fly list because of PC concerns (assumption on my part) is not the answer.
What's crazy is that we Americans don't feel as safe today as we felt yesterday, and Obama is out golfing.
The Jihadis are but the latest in a long line of people puzzled, annoyed, dismayed, by how hard it is to get Obama's attention.
Obama is like Bush - he wont listen ;)
Althouse, don't get your hopes up . No one lost their job as a result of errors after 911. The best thing our govt does is cover their asses.
The 911 Commission was joke - all dog & pony. Christ, Sandy Burglar got away with larceny.
oops - almost left out my favorite.
wv - cones
"People -- It is blatantly unconstitutional to treat people differently because of their religion."
We are treating them differently not because of their religion but because they tend to launch murderous terrorism attacks. There is a difference.
Pat -- The vast majority of Muslims -- particularly here in the United States -- does not tend to launch murderous terrorism attacks. What a silly statement.
We shouldn't hire female firefighters because the they tend to fail the physical exam.
We shouldn't allow black people into our colleges because they tend to have lower standardized test scores.
I could play this game all day long. But it doesn't matter. It is a fact on the ground that singling people out at the airport based on religion is blatantly unconstitutional. If you want to do it, you have to amend the Constitution. A nation of laws, not men. And all that.
It is easier for a plane to go through the eye of a needle than for Obama to cancel his vacation.
Just treat them differently (stricter search) because of their place of origin when they are going through airport screening. That's already done with the way visas/immigration quotas are allocated. Nothing unconstitutional about that.
Stricter searches on international flights wouldn't be as much of a problem constitutionally. I don't think. The problem is that the United States doesn't control what goes on in other countries. So it's kind of moot.
You'll recall that the September 11 hijackers flew started in U.S. airports.
Reason # 6
Hero today, gone tomorrow.
Vigilantes by weeks end.
Charges soon thereafter.
It’s the new normal.
Profiling assumes that nonMuslim terrorists would never act on behalf of their Muslim brothers. But white terrorists such as Ayers allegedly worked alongside African-American terrorists. And non-Muslim terrorists like the Baader-Meinhof gang surely did support young anti-Shah Iranians.
JRH:
I think you lost the hardcore Leftists long ago.
You say that like it's a bad thing. Go hang out on Huffington Post.
Obama cares more for the 'Muslim brothas' than he does for us Americans. His every effort since he became president has been to go easy on them—including shipping some off to Bermuda, or was it the Bahamas, to frolic in the surf?
We don't talk about terror but about man-caused disasters.
He never mentions either Muslims or Islam in relation to terror; I guess his job is apologist in chief for Islam and Muslims.
He can't be bothered to break his vacation to tell the American people either Jack or Squat—which is pretty much what he's done as president and what his presidency amounts to.
He's on vacation, and he's going to enjoy his damned vacation no matter how many of us are [almost] killed.
Who should be fired? Let's start with Obama then head south to everybody who was hired for a government job during Obama's disastrous one-year reign. Let's get rid of this Quisling and all the trash he brought in.
I've got to go to bed, but this whole thing fascinates me to no end for all kinds of reasons.
Here's one: when Richard Reid did basically this same thing, I don't remember such an uproar. Why is the response so different this time? I offer two theories:
1. Consciously or subconsciously, we all know that radical Islamists are getting close to pulling this thing off. The next one, maybe the one after that. It's going to work sooner or later.
2. Purely subconsciously, we felt safer under the Bush administration and previous Congresses. All of us felt safer, even hardcore leftists and you people who voted for foolishly voted for Obama and hope and change, whatever that is. Thus, whether that feeling reflected reality or not, there was no hue and cry when a failed terror attempt occurred.
It's possibly both.
I like this:
Janet 'Mission Accomplished' Napolitano Achieves Coveted 'Eternal Beclownment' Status As Bomber Links to Ft. Hood Shooter Revealed
I love the assignment of Eternal Beclownment status.
Profiling assumes that nonMuslim terrorists would never act on behalf of their Muslim brothers.
It assumes no such thing; profiling Muslims is based on a preponderance of evidence - which hasn't changed in a thousand years.
There is no preponderance of evidence against a group of people associated only by religion. Moreover, preponderance is a term of art used in regard to verdicts, not discrete facts.
It's already history and will be mostly forgotten my mid January, even if nothing else happens to over shadow it, and we know something will.
ATTENTION!
BARRY WILL SPEAK TO THE NATION ABOUT THIS INCIDENT!
...in the "next few days".
You know. No hurry.
(And that's the first time I've ever referred to Barack Obama as "Barry")
The fatal mistake is designating a violent political movement as a religion.
Somewhat related -- just flew today, and I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the TSA. They're usually lazy -- you sometimes sit there and wait while one TSA agent wanders off to look for another TSA agent who can operate the machine or look to make sure passengers have their tickets after they step through the metal detector, or while a couple agents chat or whatever, but today, they looked like they were actually taking their job seriously -- a welcome change. That alone would have made the lines run faster than usual, but they also had like 3X the usual number of agents on duty, it looked like, so they were able to open all the lanes and process more passengers that way too. This was at LAX, in the American terminal.
Last link of the night, and this one has potential to be huge if true.
Did the Solder of Allah talk to AN ACCOMPLICE IN AMSTERDAM?
Two lawyers, Kurt and Lori Haskell, who were also aboard the flight say they witnessed Umar talking to a well-dressed man about boarding the plane without a passport.
"A Michigan man who was aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 says he witnessed Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab trying to board the plane in Amsterdam without a passport.
Kurt Haskell of Newport, Mich., who posted an earlier comment about his experience, talked exclusively with MLive.com and confirmed he was on the flight by sending a picture of his boarding pass. He and his wife, Lori, were returning from a safari in Uganda when they boarded the NWA flight on Friday.
Haskell said he and his wife were sitting on the ground near their boarding gate in Amsterdam, which is when they saw Mutallab approach the gate with an unidentified man.
Kurt and Lori Haskell are attorneys with Haskell Law Firm in Taylor. Their expertise includes bankruptcy, family law and estate planning.
While Mutallab was poorly dressed, his friend was dressed in an expensive suit, Haskell said. He says the suited man asked ticket agents whether Mutallab could board without a passport. “The guy said, 'He's from Sudan and we do this all the time.'”
Mutallab is Nigerian. Haskell believes the man may have been trying to garner sympathy for Mutallab's lack of documents by portraying him as a Sudanese refugee.
The ticket agent referred Mutallab and his companion to her manager down the hall, and Haskell didn't see Mutallab again until after he allegedly tried to detonate an explosive on the plane. [...]"
...my God, if Amsterdam security let Mutallab board with no luggage, having paid cash for his ticket, without proper screening, AND WITHOUT A PASSPORT, there'll be international hell to pay.
Cheers,
Victoria
Welcome back safe and sound, Balfegor. Thanks for the positive review of the TSA this weekend. :)
Cheers,
Victoria
Off topic, but Sherlock Holmes was very good.
Off topic
Hi Fred.. I heard 'you' on the radio in Georgia.. the Fred Thompson Show..
You were great ;)
You could call it "Worldwide Pants, Inc." but that name's already been taken by another flaming a-hole.
It's a big bus. There's definitely room under it for more officials, including she of "the system works". Of course, maybe she simply means that's the way the system works...in which case I'd tend to agree.
The WSJ opines
It is a death spiral to which we are perilously close. We must pull up now.
albeit on a financial crisis, but it will apply anywhere.
The good part is that pulling up is what causes a death spiral.
To get out of death spirals you have to level out first.
Add it to "each one better than the next" and "fills a much-needed gap."
"(And that's the first time I've ever referred to Barack Obama as "Barry")"
He's really starting to seem like Barry Lyndon to me. Basically since he entered the White House it's been Part II: Containing an Account of the Misfortunes and Disasters Which Befell Barry Obama.
Unfortunately those Misfortunes and Disasters will land squarely upon all of us.
16. al-Qa'ida built the bomb.
Breaking ABCNews: "The plot to blow up an American passenger jet over Detroit was organized and launched by al Qaeda leaders in Yemen who apparently sewed bomb materials into the suspect's underwear before sending him on his mission, federal authorities tell ABC News."
The system worked! I wonder if Homeland Security Chief Janet Napalitano will consider this to be "evidence of a wider terrorist plot."
Simply not allow any Muslims on airplanes. End of problem. In fact come to think of it if there would be a law against Muslims on airplanes there never would have been a Lockerbie or a 9/11 or anyone of the countless other terrorist attacks by Muslims
There is no preponderance of evidence against a group of people associated only by religion. Moreover, preponderance is a term of art used in regard to verdicts, not discrete facts.
I agree that preponderance of the evidence is really irrelevant here. And the usage of such a term in this respect may be indicia of a 9/10/01 law enforcement mentality when it comes to terrorism.
The reality is that every known terrorist who has tried to attack us through air travel since that date has been a young adult (18-40?) Muslim male. It is flat silly wasting resources double checking 80 year old northern European grandmothers at anywhere near the same frequency as for the above demographic. And, ditto for a lot of other data points, such as round trip tickets purchased months in advance by credit card, as contrasted with one way tickets recently purchased with cash.
But, in order to make sure that the screening process is politically correct and not offensive to the demographic that has provided us with all of the air travel terrorists since 9/10/01, the screeners apparently cannot take into consideration race, sex, age, religion, etc. for additional screening, except that too many of said demographic cannot be subject to extra screening even if triggered by other than racial/ethnic profiling (such as when extra screening is triggered by recently purchased by cash one way tickets).
It is theater of the absurd, because most people who are subject to additional screening do not fall into that demographic, and know that they are being subject to such because of such political correctness.
Florida said...
"Anyone who subjects themselves to the whim of leader(s), ..How, then, do you explain the Democrat Party?"
The majority. The republicans are the minority. get it?
Volokh.com has a copy of TSA Security Directive SD-1544–09-06 which apparently does require that anyone flying into the U.S. before the end of the year is subject to silly, unproductive, and extraordinarily uncomfortable and inconvenient additional restrictions, such as not being able to get out of their seats for the last hour of their flights.
Here's the latest spin ... the warning about this terrorist wasn't "loud enough" for the Obama Administration to hear it.
Washington Post: "The lack of attention was not unusual, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who said that thousands of similar bits of information flow into the National Counterterrorism Center each week from around the world. Only those that indicate a specific threat, or add to an existing body of knowledge about an individual, are passed along for further investigation and possible posting on airline and border watch lists.
"It's got to be something that causes the information to sort of rise out of the noise level, because there is just so much out there," one intelligence official said.
Handing the FBI the identity of a card-carrying member of al-Qa'ida just isn't enough these days.
You have to give the FBI their actual terrorist plans before they'll take you seriously and order a pat-down for the terrorist at the airport.
What a bunch of fucking buffoons we have put in charge of our national security.
The Obama administration and the TSA invert Orwell's classic observation: "To avoid seeing what is in front of one's nose is a constant struggle."
These are unserious people in serious times. This sort of inept bureaucratic comedy was pathetic in the 1970s, now it's dangerous.
Actually, I suspect he waited till the descent not in hopes of creating some urban destruction but simply because he lost his nerve for most of the flight. Also, flight paths almost never pass over prime downtown areas. Finally, the plane was headed to Detroit. Even if a plane crashed in the urban core it's such a wasteland how would you tell the difference?
Obama said nothing about the law of semantics when he ruled out military tribunals. He determined, in fact, that the world would be safer based on the preponderance of evidence.
If you disagree with Obama's law enforcement approach, run his pansy-ass out of office.
Meanwhile, in the court of last resort, you fly at your own peril. Even if you strut on board like an offended peacock.
You know, I thank the MOSSAD! The detonators don't work for a reason! And, we just got to see one way the Israelis fight the saudi flow of money; and the palestinians. Who put the bombs together.
And, yet? We don't even use the words. Folks, there's no Al-Kay-Duh's trucking company, nor is there any such catering company. Large sums of money are in banks, NOT CAVES!
So, thank you, Mossad. Obama is an ungrateful POS.
It is flat silly wasting resources double checking 80 year old northern European grandmothers
"That nice young man wearing a dishtowel on his head asked if I could carry a present for his godchild in Detroit. I said sure." Last words of 80 year old Swedish grandmother.
Drudge yesterday had a report from a couple who had been on board this aircraft. And, in Amsterdam, they saw a 'well suited gentlemen' lead the terrorist to a counter where it was announced "THE MAN HAS NO PASSPORT, BUT HE'S FROM SUDAN."
Islamists murder some Sudanese with ease. Others get "free tickets to America." A nice touch. The FBI would never have figured out the "who-done-it." Except that the detonator failed. Yes, our CIA is also out to lunch!
FLS - former law student said...
Profiling assumes that nonMuslim terrorists would never act on behalf of their Muslim brothers. But white terrorists such as Ayers allegedly worked alongside African-American terrorists. And non-Muslim terrorists like the Baader-Meinhof gang surely did support young anti-Shah Iranians.
1. No, profiling assumes multiple threats and that individuals of varying characteristics and "group identities" need to be examined closer than the general public. Profiling means you don't just focus on one demographic as source of a particular problem, but all groups that are part of it. (It isn't enough to just look at young black male thugs in CA as source of street drugs. You also have to profile white motorcycle gangs as source of crank, the Mexican Mafia, and Asian Tongs...)
2. Thus for terror, you not only profile (ideally, acknowledging the world as it is vs. how black leaders and the ACLU NYC types wish it was) Islamoids, but you profile like crazy anyone from here or abroad tied to the global anarchist movement AND Greenie AND animal fanatic's terror.
3. As things stand, you may find some Westernized enemy Islamoids tasked with logistics, making identity documents, doing crimes to raise money for Jihad, and doing scouting missions to set up the actual Islamoid enemy combat teams or bomb-makers do associate with other criminal elements or extreme radicals to advance Jihad.
But AQ and other Islamoid organizations have been served well by keeping recruiting limited to vouchsafed Islamoids from certain Muslim tribal groups, vouchsafed for by family honor..or Islamoids watched and vetted for many months if not years before being allowed in.
Limited membership to those of common blood, ties has served other groups like MS-13, the Italian Mafia, ETA, Tamil Tigers very well. It makes them tough to penetrate.
4. One of the downfalls of the IRA was that it went outside "blood" to work with other extremists internationally, including a group or two that unknown to the IRA, were pure MI-6 creations - providing an intelligence bonanza to the Brits.
Barack Obama, superhero, battles terrorism:
http://biggovernment.com/2009/12/28/monday-open-thread-vacay-edition/
Is it reasonable to have special airport screening for any person who has spent any amount of time in Yemen or Pakistan ? Clearly the state department also needs to review how it is giving out visas.
"Last words of 80 year old Swedish grandmother."
And because you can imagine a possibility where profiling might fail, you'll stick with the current system which has failed, 'miserably' as Napolitano now describes it.
Letting perfect be the enemy of the good again, I see.
for the name, since he used explosive underwear, i suggest "The Underbomber."
Sorry, but it is hilarious and horrible at the same time.
"Profiling assumes that nonMuslim terrorists would never act on behalf of their Muslim brothers."
No. This is not what it assumes, at all.
The assumption is that if they can't do it themselves and they have to turn to new recruits or proxies who don't fit the profile, there will be net less terrorism.
To me, this is a very reasonable assumption. If every want-to-be terrorist who fits 'the profile' has to find (or have found for him) a surrogate, it seems overwhelmingly likely that there will not be a 100% success rate on their part in finding one.
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TORTURES 300 PEOPLE ON CHRISTMAS DAY
Patricia Keepman of Oconomowoc, a passenger on Flight 253 with her husband and newly adopted Ethiopian CHILDREN:
"They got us off faster than anything you've ever seen, and then they shuffled us off to a room where we spent quite a few hours. . . . . [T]here was never water distributed. There was one bathroom for 300 people, and it was very hard because there were kids crying. Nobody knew what was going on. We were not allowed to call anybody."
Fellow passengers of the Crotch Bomber now say that someone was videotaping the whole thing from further back in the plane. But of course he was working alone. Dammit Janet says so.
""That nice young man wearing a dishtowel on his head asked if I could carry a present for his godchild in Detroit. I said sure." Last words of 80 year old Swedish grandmother."
So argues, with a strawman hypothetical, someone trying to make the perfect the enemy of the good.
I do not think anyone thinks that profiling will prevent any and all attempts at terrorism. Instead, the belief is that it will allow us to more effectively focus our resources, resulting in fewer attacks, less wasted money, and significantly less inconvenience for most travelers.
It is blatantly unconstitutional to treat people differently because of their religion.
I don't care if non-US citizens don't get constitutional protection while they are not in the US. Big deal. Let the laws of their country apply to them.
PS Look at the terrorist acts over the past 40 years. See a pattern?
Proponents of profiling seemed to be suggesting elderly Swedes would get some cursory level of examination, opening an avenue for terrorists to exploit. If profiling were merely added to the existing levels of screening, I would have no problem with it. But if screening was reduced for non-swarthy Arab types, I'm opposed.
We were not allowed to call anybody.
Very reasonable to prohibit passengers who may be terrorists from calling their henchmen, until the passengers can be cleared.
Privatize the TSA. As long as there are no attacks that company is paid extraordinarily well. One successful attack and you lose the contract to the next company who is already set up and ready to start. In addition, you must maintain a 70% approval rating by the public.
I actually like the job the TSA is doing right now but, it could be much better and cheaper. It will deteriorate and there will be no fixing it. That's the formula for government agencies.
interesting tidbit in a nytimes article today about millimeter wave screening systems, currently not used in the US due to privacy concerns:
To date, only 40 of these machines have been installed at 19 airports across the United States — meaning only a tiny fraction of passengers pass through them. Amsterdam’s airport has 15 of these machines — more than just about any airport in the world — but an official there said Sunday that they were prohibited from using them on passengers bound for the United States, for a reason she did not explain.
hmmm.... i'm not sure what the millimeter wave image would look like, but do think it should be possible to tune the machine in such a way that reflections from things like PETN are the intent. Even if they get an outline of whatever, I'd rather that then for a bomb to be on an airplane !
the article is here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/29/us/29terror.html
LS - former law student said...
Profiling assumes that nonMuslim terrorists would never act on behalf of their Muslim brothers. But white terrorists such as Ayers allegedly worked alongside African-American terrorists. And non-Muslim terrorists like the Baader-Meinhof gang surely did support young anti-Shah Iranians.
In the early-70s, I recall members of the Japanese Red Army, trained in Lebanon, massacred a bunch of people at an airport in Israel, at the behest of the PFLP.
Are there any explosives experts reading the professor's blog? The news today suggests the bomber was carrying a condom full of PETN. Just how big a blast could that have made? Could it have taken down a 1.2 million pound jetliner.
I'm a bit reluctant to put myself on some FBI watch list by googling the information.
The Lockerbie bomber and the Air India bomber used suitcases in the checked baggage to hold their bombs, according to wikip.
Proponents of profiling seemed to be suggesting elderly Swedes would get some cursory level of examination, opening an avenue for terrorists to exploit.
No, proponents are suggesting profiling Muslims, and skipping the Swedes altogether. And the reason should be obvious, since never has a Swede -of any age or gender- attempted, much less exploded, a bomb on a US-bound airplane.
Hang in there wingnuts, this one almost worked. Maybe next time! Surely, then, Obama must be impeached.
Regarding profiling;
To me, this is a very reasonable assumption. If every want-to-be terrorist who fits 'the profile' has to find (or have found for him) a surrogate, it seems overwhelmingly likely that there will not be a 100% success rate on their part in finding one.
If the militants in Islam are forced to go "off the farm" to recruit non-Muslim or non-Arabic stooges, not only does that mean the risk of terror attacks will go down, but it also drastically increases both the opportunity for successful intel interception and/or infiltration or sting operations.
As far as the explosives being used, check out where he was sitting. You don't have to have enough explosive to blow up the plane on their own. You need enough to breach the protective seals of the fuel tanks (which he was sitting right over), which will in turn start secondary explosions that will destroy the aircraft.
C4 said...1. No, profiling assumes multiple threats and that individuals of varying characteristics and "group identities" need to be examined closer than the general public. Profiling means you don't just focus on one demographic as source of a particular problem, but all groups that are part of it. (It isn't enough to just look at young black male thugs in CA as source of street drugs. You also have to profile white motorcycle gangs as source of crank, the Mexican Mafia, and Asian Tongs...)
Jesse Jackson once commented, “There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.” Jesse Jackson asserted a relationship between race and crime. Does that make him a racist?
all rational people who interact with the public profile most of the time. That's what a car salesman does when he decides that you are worth the effort to chat up as opposed to that other smuck across the sales floor.
all sales people profile
cops profile
doctors profile
advertisers profile
politicans profile voters
etc
to do anything else wastes resources
@Drill SGT
to do anything else wastes resources
But it does allow you to claim some moral high ground and get that nice, warm, fuzzy feeling.
Almost Ali said...
No, proponents are suggesting profiling Muslims, and skipping the Swedes altogether
No, I'm not. It's about allocating resources and calculating probabilities, but everybody deserves at least the threat of full screening. You should screen a Swede once in a while :)
Profiling plus scrutiny seems prudent.
Scrutiny means attention paid to known high-risk behaviors (one-way flight, prior travel to Pakistan, no baggage, etc.), plus looking for nervous and odd behaviors.
Frisking the pilots and confiscating a cane from Pa Kettle is just a waste of time, and exposes the unseriousness and incompetence of the current system. Moreover, it is now proven to be ineffective.
Think about this scenario. Kidnap a Swedish granny and several of her grandkids. Behead one of them right in front of her and let the body flop around on the floor while the head is blinking for the minute or so it takes the brain to die. Strap a bomb on granny and tell her to get on an airplane or the others get the same treatment. I for one do not want grannies to get a pass through airport security. OTOH, I have little faith in the effectiveness of airport security. I do not fly anymore unless I absolutely have to.
Those who suggest focusing only on Muslims should realize that Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by Sikh separatists.
Properly detonated, Mutallab's 80 grams of PETN would blow a catastrophic whole in ANY passenger plane - this according to explosive experts who appeared on the various cable channels.
It also follows that the bomber was not out to cause a simple disturbance, but to collect his 72 virgins.
FLS:
Those who suggest focusing only on Muslims should realize that Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by Sikh separatists.
Your goal in life is to be a contrarian for the sake of it? How many terrorists are Sikhs or Swedish grandmas? Oh yeah if 100% of terrorists aren't Muslims we shouldn't profile. Only 98% are.
Need I remind anyone who perpetrated the last horrific terrorist attack in Mumbai? Yeah it was blond Swedes.
"Letting perfect be the enemy of the good again, I see."
Thank you.
The bomber has now said that other Yemenis are waiting to be sent over to do the same thing. The British police confirm that. Can we now constitutionally screen people from that country? Or will someone object on the grounds that it's discrimination since Yemenis tend to be Muslim? That's simply not logical.
El Al's method is not discriminatory. They question people, then question further the ones who are suspicious. There is no mass searching or random pat downs. Of course, we would need real screeners then, not union members.
OT: Link of the morn / Headline of the Holiday
Iranian protesters are dying for freedom – where is Barack Obama?
Don't worry.
Ambinder says it's all part of the strategy. Nothing like Bush seeking a few precious days of vacation during Christmas whilst a tsunami erupted, as people accused him of unfeeling behaviour and lack of leadership. Nope, nothing like that at all.
Cheers,
Victoria
Get somebody fired?
How about you, professor! You are clearly the least productive member of the Wisconsin Law School faculty.
The MSM is scrabbling to cover for Napolitano.
But here - hidden in another update on the situation-- Napolitano says:
"He was properly screened before getting on the aircraft in Amsterdam."
He was?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091228/ap_on_go_ot/us_airliner_attack_explosive
PatCa wrote:
Can we now constitutionally screen people from that country?
As Mutallab is Nigerian, I think the response is, sure, but chances are the terrorists ready to be sent over are not Yemenis proper.
You could screen passengers to see if they have visas into Yemen, but they could be travelling on altered passports, and the stamp not be present.
BUT BY ALL MEANS - PROFILE, SCREEN.
Those who suggest focusing only on Muslims should realize that Air India Flight 182 was destroyed by Sikh separatists.
Regarding profiling, what's the difference between a Sikh separatist and a Muslim?
Also, we're talking about profiling, not execution (ie summarily killing likely characters).
Wallenstein wrote:
Sorry for the bad joke, but the terrorist's father is a *Nigerian banker*, so his message ot the embassy probably went into the spam folder.
You know, that little theory is hardly implausible.
Imagine a junior staffer at the Embassy receiving a letter
"I am Abdula Jinmuh Mutallabdullah, a very prominent banker in Nigeria. I am writing about a most urgent problem regarding my overseas son, some funds he has and his activities that you need to copy this letter and send it to all your superiors about.
This situation about my son, which requires your help, and as one of Nigeria's most prominent bankers, I will be most grateful as well as the government and many others..
One part of his activities involve contacts in Yemen and London that... blah-blah-blah..."
The staffer circ files it with 20 similar "prominent banker letters", not to mention 8 princes, 4 "major executives with oil firms. Probably doesn't think of it again or read the 4th paragraph about the millionaire, most exceptionally wealthy scions Islamist activities.
The Staffer may mention a new variant of the scam - like the CEO of Africa's largest telecomm network who desperately needs 20,000 dollars deposited in a bank account as collateral to free 5 million in frozen investor funds...of which the depositor of the 20,000 will get a "most generous reward of 80,000 dollars cabled by "conclusion of banking hours in 3 days at former leading General Akmasullah Binimbidi's Lagos Central Investor Repository, LTd..."
Yes, I didn't mean nationality, I meant they happened to be in Yemen.
I applaud the mention of El Al. Years ago, a friend's MIL, an archetypal twinkly-eyed Jewish grandmother, described to us the third degree El Al gave her before they let her on the airplane.
Here's the difference between a Sikh separatist and a Muslim: a Sikh's religion does not encourage him to blow up infidels to attain rewards in the afterlife.l Sikh's aren't of a mind to destroy an entire way of life. Plus they make Sikh's put up their curvey knives before they board the plane. They let them keep their snakes in their turbans, however.
I'd give Ethel Merman the third degree, too.
If properly used, profiling puts a closer scrutiny on demographics that are shown to have a higher rate of "whatever". Could be blacks for high blood pressure; could be young males from the MidEast/Africa for terrorist activities. That does not mean that all other demographics are completely ignored. There is nothing wrong, or unconstitutional with doing that.
While we're at doing away with or preventing any profiling at all, how about we do away with congressional redistricting?
From "Profiles in Courage" to "Profiles with Courage" is but a prepositional change. The legend could remain intact.
wv: "queup" I suspect there is a lot of that going on today.
Barack Obama in images
I wonder what he's reading?
Protesters do not leave him alone, worse than Cindy Sheehan
The President and family wanted to go to the beach, so they had the Marine base beach closed down to all Marine families for their exclusive use Sunday
The President's sister and her husband after dining with the First Couple at Alan Wong's restaurant including the Michelle Obama and the President
Editorial Cartoon from Aussie Newspaper
Incidentally, he's set to address the nation at 1 PM EST today.
Cheers,
Victoria
fls isn't content making perfect the enemy of the good, but demands low yield be preferred over high, the rare over the common.
If fls were a fisherman, he would cast into dried riverbeds, backyard kiddie pools, and alleyway puddles, because a fish might possibly end up there. I mean, you never know.
former law student said...
Profiling assumes that nonMuslim terrorists would never act on behalf of their Muslim brothers. But white terrorists such as Ayers allegedly worked alongside African-American terrorists. And non-Muslim terrorists like the Baader-Meinhof gang surely did support young anti-Shah Iranians.
In the early-70s, I recall members of the Japanese Red Army, trained in Lebanon, massacred a bunch of people at an airport in Israel, at the behest of the PFLP.
If only there were some common thread amongst these other non-muslim groups that could have been profiled.
Fess up Dr Pogo.
Don't you profile patients?
as in, consider their age, race, risk factors, and other info when you consider what illness their symptoms may be caused by?
This is how a President vacations!
A just unearthed photo showing JFK sunning himself on vacation on a yacht. Check out the company he kept. Had this photo been published, game over for his chances to be President.
(Via TMZ)
Had this photo been published, game over for his chances to be President.
Ah, but that was the Draperian era...do you really think it would have sunk his boat?
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