The internet is currently full of scarcastic comments by various bloggers and others about the Transportation and Security Administration’s practice of patting down some children and the elderly as they pass through security gates at airports. Proudly defending the civil rights of Americans, they either ascribe all sorts of improper motives to the federal security people, or laugh at the supposed absurdity of searching four- and five-year-olds and senior citizens before they board a flight.
I thought about these critic when I read yesterday’s news item from Kabul, about an eight-year-old Afghanistan girl who had been tricked by the Taliban into carrying a bomb. She was given a large package to hold, which was then detonated by a remote device when she approached a police vehicle. Her mutilated body was later returned to her family.
And I ask myself: don’t those witty critics of the TSA have any concern about the fact that terrorists still harbor the dream of blowing up an passenger plane? Aren’t they aware that these terrorists will use any tactic to achieve that end? And that they will not hesitate to use a child, an unwitting child, as the instrument for carrying an explosive onto a plane? I, for one, appreciate the fact that TSA staff at the airports take serious steps to prevent that from happening — that instead of simply play-acting at their job, they actually attempt to outwit the ingenious efforts of terrorists. We should be grateful that the TSA examines children, invalids in wheel chairs, senior citizens, and others who may very well be the means by which Al Qaeda or the equivalent of Al Qaeda attempts a repeat of 9/11.
Similar Posts:
- TSA to test ‘trusted traveler’ program
- A little confusion can make your flight safer
- You can’t be too careful with these things
- TSA denies forcing woman to remove diaper
- Three arrested after mass in-flight brawl
