[thechat] US criticised over Muslim checks

[Ken Kogler]

> > That still didn't keep China from holding me up at the
> > border. Until you are seen in person, some flags don't
> > get triggered.

> Did they asked you take off your shoes, did they took
> your fingerprints or did they kept your photograph?

I've gone through airport security 10 times (5 round-trip flights) since
9/11, and only ONCE did I NOT have to take off my belt & shoes. I'm a
non-descript looking young white American male from the suburbs, too...
It's not racial profiling. It happens to everyone. I've also had the
pleasure of getting patted down by some big (and rough) security guard,
had my luggage opened and inspected both at the security checkpoint AND
at the gate on multiple flights (nothing like hundres of people getting
a peek at your underwear to lighten up the day!), and I've had both my
luggage and my skin tested for bomb residue.

I take offense at none of this -- it's a pain in the ass, sure, and it's
even assumed-guilty-until-proven-innocent, but it keeps me alive.

I agree that these security measures are largely ridiculous, but until
we find something better, I'll play along.

> No offence, it seems that USA government still
> has some kind of sympathy for Osama, that's why
> he is still at large.

No way. The former mayor of New York (Rudy Guiliani, who was mayor on
9/11) makes no qualms about the fact that he asked Prez Bush if he could
be the one to execute Osama if he got brought in alive.

I can't speak on behalf of the entire government, but I'm reasonably
certain that no one *I* elected is a big fan of bin Laden...

> > The US has kept its doors wide open to
> > peoples of all nationalities for centuries.

> Not for humans, but for man power.
> This was for America's own interest.

  "Give me your tired, your poor,
   your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
   the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
   Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
   I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

Doesn't sound like we're looking for chear labor...

--Ken