but, the system worked...

 

 

This is bush's fault. Obama has made the system much safer, by ignoring "terrorists" and calling them "man made disasters"...

 

We are all much safer and the system is so much better now than it was. We don't discriminate against people with muslim names that are on watch lists... That wouldn't be fair.

 

Instead we cause all the mothers with babies more trouble on planes since they could be wanting to cause man made disasters.

 

 

 

The moral is to remember that you are responsible for taking care of yourself as that is "the system working"...

 

what a joke.

 

Oh yeah, None.

 

 

How many muslims?...

 

 

Hmm... That is weird, all of the terrorist acts were by muslim extremists.... It reminds me of tv today, we watch all these shows that profile the criminal. And they have a board with all the attributes that the terrorists have, then they build the profile... But, we can't do that as we have to be politically correct.

 

 

Yeah, its silly to think that profiling muslims would be logical.

 

Here is an idea. How about guys on a terror watch list... Lets really look at them before we let them on a plane... Especially when their father told the US that their son had become a jihadist.

 

 

 

Naa. That would be silly.

 

 

 

NO carry on or other luggage.

 

NO passport.

 

On "terror watch list".

 

Passed thru "decent" security...

 

And the entire flight was video'd by another guy that the FBI is still trying to find...

 

Yeah, I can see how they missed all that.

 

We better hurry up and ban books on flights.... And blankets. No more blankets.

 

 

No wonder I drive the RV instead of flying.

Probably one of the smarter things said in this thread so far.

Forget these ridiculous flight rules, lets take the time to overhaul the "no fly" system and make it work.  Right now its a complete joke: innocent people are getting detained at the airport for having a similar name and the ones we should be watching are apparently still getting on planes with bombs or weapons.

We don't need to start profiling, we need to start using the tools set-up before and after 9/11

 

But thats just my $.02.

 

Plus Obama is releasing dozens of the terrorists at guantanamo bay back to Yemen... That is a bright move... No way they will attack us again...

 

 

But, you can't have a blanket or book or go to the bathroom, so big brother can watch your hands for the last hour of the flights... Next they will cover up the windows of the planes...

 

 

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_us_airliner_attack - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091227/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_yemen_us_airliner_attack

 

try and make it all the way to the bottom of the article, as it goes into much needed detail about the ties of this attack with yemen and the terrorist attack at Ft. Hood.

 

 

Oh, and there was this too...

 

"A video posted online four days before the bombing attempt featured an al-Qaida operative in Yemen threatening the United States and saying "we are carrying a bomb." Though it was not immediately clear whether the speaker was anticipating Friday's bombing attempt, it has attracted scrutiny because of reports that the bombing plot may have originated in Yemen."

 

 

Guess they were too busy with pushing through government takeover of our healthcare to worry about little stuff like that... Gotta get to Hawaii for some golf, too busy to worry about the safety of our citizens...

 

 

Just keep your head in the sand... And vote for the democrat, they always have the best intentions...

He was given a lawyer because that's how America works, you reactionary <KRL>. That's one of the most basic premises of a free society. In case you didn't notice, that kind of proper respect for human and civil rights is actually what we fight for- those of us who actually DO anything instead of spouting off on the internet about how we need to watch the brown people at airports. Criminals get rights in America, because the easiest way to protect the rights of ANY is to protect the rights of ALL.

You clearly still don't get it- they barely NEED to do anything. One window-licking idiot who can barely even light his leg on fire manages to get the most powerful nation in the world in a frenzy of paranoia, disrupting most of the planet's system of international travel, because Americans are so willing to be afraid whenever the terrorist boogeyman comes out. Never mind contrasting the infinitesimally small chance of being a victim of terror with the myriad REAL risks we face in our day to day lives.

Short of getting a nuke, terrorists cannot really hurt us or cause us any harm- but they've proven pretty adept at making us tear the fabric of our own society, aided along by those of you willing to piss away 233 years of American principles and liberties for a warm fuzzy feeling. You want to talk about head in the sand? Look at what your damned country has done to ITSELF.

You could lead by example.

Agreed. Intel and security agencies need to be consolidating databases into something that actually makes sense, they need to include immediate measures for redress for passengers who are stuck with the 'wrong' name, and they need to be implemented consistently.

There are over a billion Muslims in the world. Yes, from amongst them have come most of the current security threats- but we're talking MANY orders of magnitude in comparing the real security threat (maybe in the thousands or so?) with a billion people. On top of that, Muslims come in every colour and msot nationalities; Whites from Bosnia and Chechnya, blacks from Nigeria, Indonesians, Chinese, Mongolians, Pakistanis, Egyptians, Turks... Canadians, Americans and Brits of various ethnic backgrounds, some of whom were born here and are citizens in every legal way. Simply put, ther eis no one race that presents an identifiable security threat.

There are about a billion person-flights per year. A billion. Out of a billion people, less than ten might try to hijack or blow up a plane. Far more will get rowdy or disruptive in other ways. In the past 20 years there have been an average of 36 plane crashes per year. Terrorism is so far down on the list of things that might statistically kill me that it doesn't even figure, and I'm hardly a person who can be called unaware of or blind to the threat. I personally feel far more fear for the loss of my own civil liberties and freedoms as a result of reactionary legislation than I fear terrorism itself. So long as we are careful to a reasonable degree, we have nothing real to fear. Anyone who thinks we can 'win' the war on terror, or make terrorism go away is deluded. It's here to stay. We can only mitigate its effects and fight it where it appears; the 'war on terror' is as perpetual (and as idiotically named) as the 'war on drugs' or 'the war on crime'. In the meantime, having accepted that a small part of the world's population will always be willing to sacrifice themselves for a chance at killing us, all we can do is stand resolute and show that we WILL NOT compromise on our own principles, regardless of what they should try to do to us. When we chang eour way of life because of some amorphous 'terrorist' enemy, they (whoever 'they' are) have won a victory against us.

Those who would argue for racial profiling haven't thought of the practicalities. Out of the billion fliers a year, how many are probably Muslim? Many. There are at least two and a half million Muslims living legally in the U.S., perhaps as many as 7. Never mind all those who may travel to the U.S. on an annual basis for business, vacation, etc.  Profiling Muslims is an idiotic waste of resources- a shot in the dark hope of catching the 'right' Muslim, and that's assuming he isn't a white Chechen travelling as any other eastern European, or an Indonesian who doesn't have a stereotypically Muslim name. And it still doesn't do much about the Timothy McVeighs or John Walker Lyndhs.

Whale hit on something- behavioural profiling. While there is no universally accurate profile for who is going to try to blow up a plane, behaviour will often be noticeably different; it's the same kind of stuff we were trained to look for in suicide bombers. Very few people can face their own imminent death knowingly without manifesting some sort of odd behaviour.All staff at airports or on airlines need to be trained to recognize this and point it out. Most of the time it will result in nothing more than a 'please can you come with me for a minute, sir.", a couple of questions asked and perhaps an extra search conducted and that will be that. Far more justifiable and effective than simply picking out everyone named Khalid, or Mohammed. 

 

This demonstrates a portion of why I hate hearing all the fear mongering about terrorism so much. Of course its bad! But do we set up a national security program that invades peoples lives to prevent them from being eaten by sharks, or hit by lightening? How about automobile accidents? 42,000 people die in car accidents every year, 20,000 people die a year on average from the common flu, while 15,000 die a year on average from murder. We don't really do all that much to prevent these things. Got the flu? have some chicken noodle soup. Drive? wear a seatbelt. Most people's plan to avoid being murdered is to lock their door when they go to sleep. Why does terrorism get such special treatment?

 

I for one would like to congratulate our Commander in Chief for doing the right thing in this case.

 

It may have taken a year... But, he finally recognized that you can't have bombers from certain countries who are muslim extremists and pretend they don't exist while our grandmothers get strip searched.

 

 

Way to go Obama.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/us/04webtsa.html - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/us/04webtsa.html

 

 

Oh, yeah. Guess I won again...