Friday, June 28, 2002

Weapons or Terrorists?

Recently I heard (on one of the News Channels) a security guy from Israel say that the USA will never achieve security if we continue to search for weapons instead of terrorists. The logic is stunning. Israel, the most obvious target for terrorists, has NO hijackings on its airline. They reason that a terrorist does not need a weapon, he uses terror and violence, weapons are secondary. Our government, obsessed with the need to avoid criticism regarding racism and profiling, is willing to sacrifice the lives of citizens if the price of effective security is the possible loss of votes. Just one example: recently, they took away a pair of blunt-nosed scissors from my pre-teen son, who was singled out for a random search, while I breezed through with a Swiss Army knife I had inadvertently failed to leave at home.

Another name for profiling is good solid police work. How many more innocents must die on the altar of political correctness? How many children will be searched while full grown men are waved through checkpoints? Why do Norman Minetta and Robert Mueller still feed at the public trough, while they still insist that the only person who absolutely must never have a weapon on an airplane is the PILOT.