Senator James Inhofe Under Fire

The radical Muslim group, CAIR, is calling on Senator Inhofe(R-OK) to explain why he is in favor of racial or ethnic profiling as a security measure when screening passengers at the airport. Inhofe proclaimed his support for racial profiling at a Senate hearing on Thursday investigating the Fort Hood shootings.



CAIR Executive Director Razi Hashmi, stated  in response to Inhofe's comments "It is disturbing to hear a member of the United States Senate suggest that entire religious and ethnic groups should automatically be considered terror suspects."

CAIR is an illegitimate organization which has been identified by the Justice Department as a terrorist conspirator. They should have absolutely no say in determining security procedures at army bases, U.S. airports, or anywhere else for that matter.

Nevertheless, the issue of racial profiling is a legitimate conversation. Ideally, we should not have to implement racial profiling. However, we are living in very dangerous times. Constitutionally, the U.S. government can take drastic measures if it has a compelling governmental interest which seems to exist by all objective accounts. Unless we racially profile, the current security procedures will be ineffective in stopping future terrorist attacks which will undoubtedly occur. If airport security had screened the Christmas Day underwear bomber as he is now called, he would not have made it on that Northwest Airlines flight. And, if airport security had racially profiled on Thursday, they would not have been concerned by the man who wore phylacteries when praying on his US Air flight.

The fact is that primarily all of the terrorists who implement attacks on flights are of Middle Eastern descent. As Inhofe stated, "you hear that not all Middle Easterners or Muslims between the age of 20 and 35 are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims or Middle Easterners between the age of 20 and 35, that's by and large true." 

No one can escape those statistics.

On the other hand, proper racial profiling would not automatically assume that every Muslim flying is a terrorist. Certainly, most Muslims who fly in the U.S. do not have ties to Al Qaeda.

With proper racial profiling, every person flying whether they are Muslim or not  would be scrutinized prior to checking in bags at the ticket counter and perhaps prior to boarding. However, people who are of Middle Eastern descent (mostly men within the age bracket) have to  be subjected to more extensive questioning because of the current trend to determine if they are a threat. Once the trained security guard determines that they are not a threat, they would be able to board with unfettered access. If they fit the characteristic of a terrorist (i.e. boarding an international flight with no bags after paying for the flight with cash), they would not be allowed to board the flight.

Its not rocket science and  its the only way to prevent terrorist attacks.

Safety must supersede all other constitutional interests.

Body scanners will not stop terrorist attacks on flights all together as the terrorists will always find other creative measures to carry out their attacks.

However, if we are on guard for suspicious behavior through the use of racial profiling, we have a much better chance of preventing another 9/11 or an event of similar proportions.

We fail to accept the use of racial profiling to our own detriment.

Senator James Inhofe Under Fire

Mohammad Assad: I want to kill all the Jews

A man of Middle Eastern descent from Toledo, Ohio caused a disturbance  on a Northwest Airlines flight from Miami to Detroit today  when he stated that he wanted to kill all the Jews. That flight turned back to the gate and Assad was arrested. The police are treating this as a criminal matter and have charged him with disorderly conduct among other charges. They claim that this incident is not linked to terrorism. 

Mohammad Assad: I want to kill all the Jews

Obama Administration Concedes Airline Security Failed

 The Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, has finally admitted to a disturbing reality.  Airline security failed when Mutallab carrying explosives on a watch list(although he was not on " a no fly list" like he should have been) was able to board a U.S. airliner bound for Detroit. Secretary Napolitano, we can not afford to have airline security fail on us? I am glad you admitted to the reality we are experiencing. Namely, that airline security needs to be drastically improved. But, now that you have come to the realization that airline security has failed us, what are you going to do about it so that the NWA incident does not ever happen again? Was not 9/11 a big enough wake up call for airline security to never fail us again? Apparently not.

Obama Administration Concedes Airline Security Failed

Terror returns to the skies on NWA Flight 253

Vice-President Biden stated during the campaign that President Obama would be tested just like President Bush was tested with 9/11. Now, we may have had our first real test of the Obama administration by Al Qaeda with this latest attempt to blow up  NWA Airlines flight 253 on December 25th as it proceeded to make its final approach into Detroit. The NWA flight originated from Nigeria  with a stop over in Amsterdam before departing for Detroit. On board NWA Flight 253 was a Nigerian man by the name of  Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab. According to the New York Post and other news sources, Mutallab has ties to Al Qaeda. Apparently, Mutallab stated that he was instructed by Al Qaeda to blow up a U.S. Airliner.

Mutallab could have very easily blew up this aircraft or could have caused serious harm. Luckily, he was not able to detonate the bomb and only caused a small fire on board which was put out by the crew. The other passengers, particularly a Dutch man by the name of Jasper Schuringa, was able to restrain Mutallab until law enforcement authorities arrived.

This incident should serve as another wake up call for the U.S. to get their act together. We have already had the incidents on AirTran and  United Airlines this year. (See my earlier posts on those incidents http://kauffmanscommentary.blogspot.com/search/label/AirTran%20Airways
http://kauffmanscommentary.blogspot.com/search/label/United%20Airlines ). How many wake up calls can you get before its too late? You're lucky if you get one wake up call. We've now had three wake up calls with little or no damage caused. The fourth wake up call will not be so innocuous. Do we have to have another major terrorist attack again on U.S. soil, God forbid, before the U.S. intelligence community and aviation industry learns to connect the dots and provide better security on our flights?  The terrorists are professionally trained. They will take advantage of our inadequate security measures to our detriment.

We learned that the father of Mutallab warned the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria that his son could be dangerous.  Unfortunately, Mutallab was not put on any "no fly list." Why not? He should have at least been subjected to stricter security checks at the airport when boarding the flight.  Certainly, the information learned by the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria should have been conveyed to the FAA and the CIA and the FBI. And, if they knew about this information which they may or may not have been aware of until now, they should have immediately flagged Mutallab for greater surveillance.

I am sure in the coming days more information will be revealed about what the U.S. knew about Mutallab and when they knew it similarly to the investigation that occurred after 9/11. But, the aviation industry is missing the boat if security measures as they stand now will continue unchanged.

In the wake of this NWA incident,  the government is requiring that passengers remain in their seats for the last hour of the flight. And, on international flights, passengers are only allowed once carry on bag. There certainly will be longer lines.But, these new restrictions are not sufficient. More needs to be done to protect U.S. Airliners from another terrorist attack.

While I am no security expert and do not purport to be one, the problem  does not seem to be one of keeping passengers in their seats. A terrorist attack could still happen regardless of whether a passenger stays in his seat or not. Rather, the only way to really ensure that the aircraft is safe on the ground and in the air  is to profile passengers before they board the aircraft to determine who appears to be a threat to the flight. This procedure has been done for years in Israel.  Many have argued quite sensibly that this investigative questioning of passengers before they board flights, which is done by Israeli airlines and by the airport authority at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, could not be replicated in a massive capacity in the U.S. However, the time may have come where we do not have a choice but to do what the Israelis have been doing for years.

I would propose the following new security measures:

1) All U.S. Airliners must hire their own trained security to oversee the check-in procedures for all flights whether they are operating within the U.S or are originating from an overseas airport.  It can no longer be sufficient for U.S. Airliners to rely on other airports to solely run the security for their flights.  Nor can U.S. Airliners solely rely on TSA personnel who may not be trained in detecting a bomb or other explosive device.

2) All passengers going on a domestic or international flight must check in their bags at the ticket counter instead of curb side check in.

3) All passengers should expect that they may be subjected to questioning at the ticket counter by trained airport or airline-hired security. (The need for questioning of passengers will be greater on international flights) If there is a serious question as to whether a passenger may be a threat to a particular flight, that passenger will not be allowed to fly on that flight and will have to be rebooked on another flight once he or she is cleared to fly again.

4) All U.S. Airports should have the same security procedures. We are learning now that security procedures depends on which airport you are flying from.  Uniformity is vital to prevent another terrorist attack. Every airport in the U.S. must provide comparable security. (Fort Lauderdale's airport must provide the same security that JFK or LAX provides. Now, its true that Fort Lauderdale does not have the same flight load as LAX or JFK. But, passengers departing from Fort Lauderdale's airport must be subjected to the same security procedures that they would experience at a more busy airport.)

5)  If the FAA, CIA, or FBI learns of information pointing to an individual who may be a risk to a flight, that person should immediately be put on a "no fly list" or should be subjected to more stringent security checks at the airport by either airport or airline security.

I  know that these proposed security measures would probably significantly raise airline prices and cause more hassle at the airports including more wait time.

Ultimately, this may be the price that we have to pay  if we want to fly terror-free.

Terror returns to the skies on NWA Flight 253