Perhaps Morning Has Broken on a new era in fighting the war on
terror — one in which the Bush Administration finally comes to
grips with the fact that our enemy is radical Islam, and enables
law enforcement to look for terrorists in all the right places.
It’s just a shame it has taken three years to stare down
political correctness.
Why the reason for my optimism? The diversion of the flight
carrying Yusuf Islam, a.k.a Cat Stevens. The handling of this
situation represents a reversal of the way in which similar cases
were regarded by our government in the aftermath of 9/11.
Up until now, our government has been levying fines against
airlines doing what it just did to Yusuf Islam. Specifically, the
government fined American, United, Continental, and Delta Airlines,
millions of dollars for instances in which those airlines exercised
their lawful discretion to remove passengers whom the pilot
believed were “inimical to safety.”
Here’s hoping the recent events represent an acknowledgment that
those fines were wrong, and that political correctness will no
longer compromise airline safety.
Yusuf Islam’s flight was diverted to Maine when it was
determined that he was on a “no-fly” list. Presumably this is due
to his alleged financial connection with Hamas, and support of
sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted for his role in the
first bombing of the World Trade Center. (The former conductor of
the Peace Train was also known to have supported the Ayatollah’s
death sentence for Salman Rushdie.)
Commenting on Yusuf Islam, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom
Ridge has said that if “that name appears on a watch list that says
you’re not to fly on airplanes, for whatever reason, the individual
at the port of entry…is responsible to make sure that
information is acted upon, and that’s precisely what we did.”
Which is the correct response. But which is totally at odds with
the way the Administration punished the airlines for their handling
of prior instances despite even more compelling facts.
CONSIDER ONE OF THE eleven cited instances that caused American
Airlines to pay $1.5 million for Kumbaya training at the behest of
Norman Mineta’s Department of Transportation.
On November 3, 2001, a 32-year-old naturalized American citizen
of Jordanian birth was refused entry while trying to board a plane
from Boston to Los Angeles. In the government’s complaint filed
against American, it stated that he was denied boarding after
responding to a page and reporting to an American counter. There,
he was greeted by an American employee and a U.S. marshal. He was
told that the pilot had denied him boarding on that flight. The
passenger informed the American employee that he had a “secret
level” security clearance from the U.S. Department of Defense
because he worked for a missile contractor. He was nevertheless
told he was being denied passage. (“I was calmly contesting the
pilot’s decision when a state trooper arrived and asked me to move
along and to deal with him. I was humiliated to be confronted by a
state trooper in full view of the crowded boarding area.”) The
passenger missed his flight, but was upgraded to First Class on a
later flight that day.
Sounds awful.
But American’s answer suggested that there was more to the story
in the eyes of the pilot at the time. American said “at least one
other passenger had reported what appeared to be his suspicious
behavior to an American gate agent.” Additionally, American said
“the Federal Air Marshal advised the pilot-in-command that the
passenger had been acting suspiciously and had created some kind of
disturbance and that his name was similar to a name on the federal
watch list.”
In other words, here is what was known to the pilot as he was
preparing for takeoff: 1) it was two months removed from the worst
act of terrorism ever initiated against the United States; 2) that
terrorism victimized his employer and colleagues — men doing
exactly what he was now doing when their airplanes were used as
weapons; 3) the point of origin of two of the 9/11 flights was
Boston’s Logan Airport, where he now sat; 4) the destination for
three of the 9/11 flights was Los Angeles, which is exactly where
he was headed; 6) the hijackers on 9/11 were, to a person, young
Arab males, like this gent; 7) there was at least one passenger who
is ill at ease with this particular passenger and reported that he
was acting in a suspicious manner; 8) the Federal Air Marshal had
advised that the passenger at issue has been acting suspiciously
and has created some kind of disturbance; 9) this passenger had a
name similar to one on the federal watch list, and 10) yes, let’s
not be afraid to say it, he was a 30ish Arab male like the 19 on
9/11.
Norman Mineta thinks that flight should have departed on
schedule! Instead, when the American pilot correctly requested that
this passenger be questioned further, the government called it
discrimination.
Which is why last week brought good news. Perhaps we’ve opened a
new chapter in the war on terror. One in which we face the fact
that the 9/11 hijackers had their race, religion, ethnicity, gender
and appearance in common, and consequently, we’ll permit a
heightened level of scrutiny when individuals present themselves
with those characteristics.
Unpleasant? Yes. But, oh baby, it’s a Wild World.
