Secure Air Travel -- Ban muslim Passengers

Whenever a policy affecting hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, is embraced, it is a simple matter for a small percentage of people to evade or thwart the policy. In the case of air travel, the policy is aimed at stopping people from boarding commercial aircraft and committing terrorist acts such as attempting to detonate bombs inside the aircraft, or commandeer the aircraft and thereby convert it into a flying bomb.

However, in our own brand of lunacy, our security people have designed a strategy incapable of stopping the people we most want to stop. Our security policy for protecting air travelers is based on fairness and sensitivity to those who might feel wrongly implicated due to religion or ethnicity.

On the other hand, we face an enemy who understands we consult our lawyers before approving any security procedure that might identify too many people from one or two groups of people worldwide.

To ensure this fairness and sensitivity, we inconvenience and hassle hundreds of millions of passengers. We infuriate huge numbers of paying customers with the false hope that our policy will protect them.

Instead, how about infuriating a much smaller number? Let us focus on few thousand people by simply prohibiting them from flying into the US. Our "No-Fly" List contains the names of problematic travelers. Let those on the list remove suspicion from themselves before they are allowed on a plane. Let us make flying a privilege that can be taken away in the name of public safety.

How about some reality? In the 1960s and 1970s a number of commercial airliners were hijacked. In virtually all of those hijackings, the hijackers forced the planes to land in places like Cuba where they then attempted to escape. Passengers were rarely injured, and few if any were killed. Unfortunately, things changed.

Terrorists realized the value of destroying an airplane. After the joyriding hijackings of the 60s and 70s ended, muslim hijackers added the new dimension of murder, then graduated to total destruction of aircraft in flight. In short, with only two exceptions, every commercial aircraft destroyed in flight was destroyed by muslim bombers or hijackers.

What is the solution to airborne muslim terrorism? Ban them from commerical airliners. At least 99% of air travelers would fall down in weary glee and relief.

Spotty enforcement for new US air screening rules

On the first day of what was supposed to be tighter screening ordered by the U.S. for airline passengers from certain countries, some airports around the world conceded Monday they had not cracked down.

The United States demanded more careful screening for people who are citizens of, or are flying from, 14 nations deemed security risks. But enforcement of the U.S. rules appeared spotty.

"Everything is the same. There is no extra security," said an aviation official in Lebanon, one of the countries on the list. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

The Obama administration ordered the changes after what authorities say was a failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up a jetliner bound from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration said the enhanced screening techniques would include full-body pat-downs, searches of carry-on bags, full-body scanning and explosive-detection technology.

On Monday, passengers arriving on international flights reported they had been patted down individually, or had their luggage inspected by hand - steps that have been in place on many international flights since the failed bombing.

Passengers on a flight from Stockholm to Newark, N.J., were patted down and had their bags checked at the gate, flier Mark Biddle said. He said no passengers had been singled out for special attention.