Monday, January 18, 2010

Sleep Easy America -- Feds Terrorists Watchlist Nabs Cub Scout

We as a nation have become to politically correct as we don't want to hurt someone's feelings but it's alright to allow terrorists to board planes and kill innocent. My take on it is this: we should be profiling where the terrorism is coming from. As everyone out here in the real world knows, these attacks are coming from extremist Islamic men between the ages of 20 to 41. So we should be watching anyone that fits that description when they board a plane. If they have a problem with being profiled, then let them walk to their destination and the world will be a little safer.

"Mikey Hicks," said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. "It's not a myth." Michael Winston Hicks's mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name "was on the list," she recalled. 

As we've reported before, Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), encouraged by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, wants to prohibit anyone on the FBI's terrorist watchlist from possessing a firearm. Yet, the list and its criteria are secret, and Lautenberg's bill would criminalize the exercise of a constitutionally protected right while denying a person the opportunity to clear himself of accusations in a fair and open hearing before a court of law. Even today, thousands of people who aren't terrorists cannot prevent the list from misidentifying them, causing them delays and embarrassment when trying to board commercial aircraft.

It's one thing when an adult gets the run-around at an airport, because he or she has a name identical or similar to someone the FBI is watching. As the American Civil Liberties Union has pointed out, the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) "automatic selectee" list -- its list of people who are not permitted to board an aircraft without being given the once-over by the agency's machines and uniformed, latex-gloved personnel -- is based on people's names, not on physical factors like age. 

No comments:

Alabama Mountain Mans Blog

This Blog has had -- Site Meter --visitors since April 14, 2007