[thechat] US criticised over Muslim checks

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Fri Oct 4 14:13:01 CDT 2002


On Thu, 3 Oct 2002, Ken Kogler wrote:

> > > 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.

In which case, all well and good, and *much* better than the 'I can stroll
in and out of air-side without anyone questioning me' previous situation.
ISTR even major airports like JFK were a lot laxer pre-9/11 than I'd
expect from an average UK airport.

> 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.

As long as the number of false-positives (where they *really* put you
through the 3rd degree) aren't stupidly high without providing any greater
assurance of security.

> > 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...

...these days. However, the 1980s and much of the 90s was a different
story. Even ol' Sadaam was a 'good guy' then.

(oh, semi-related question: How come the same objects are a nuclear
capability when we and our friends have them, yet weapons of mass
destruction when a non-friend has them..?))

Mind you, what's this I read about upcoming detente with North Korea (the
country which is happy about the odd million people dying of starvation as
7 million population is enough to defend the country in a war).

> > > 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."

Aye, nice rhetoric which it would be good for America to follow in action
now and again these days. Or am I imagining the guards on the Mexican
border?

Cheers
Martin

---------------------------
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie




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