We're the TSA and You Can Count on Us! (to overreact to tiny threats and ignore big ones)

With thanks to Facts Not Fantasy

Saudi students studying in U.S. whine about "unfair" airport security measures

Unfair? Why? Do they have something to hide? "Saudi US Students Fear 'Unfair' Enhanced Security," by Hadi Faqihi and Mina Al-Oraibi for Asharq Al-Awsat, January 10

Dammam, Washington D.C., Asharq Al-Awsat- There is deep concern among Saudi students with scholarships to study in the United States, following the introduction of enhanced security search measures affecting passengers from 14 states, including Saudi Arabia.

These measures have been taken against the backdrop of the attempt by a Nigerian extremist to blow up an American airliner on 25 December 2009.

The fear of these students is all the more acute as they have returned home to spend the New Year holidays with their parents.

Groups of these students have started to return to the United States as the New Year holidays come to an end.

Meanwhile, the sequestration of a Saudi student at Amsterdam airport in the Netherlands, for two days, has fueled these fears. In fact, many students fear a return to the measures that were taken in the wake of the 11 September incidents: enhanced checking of Saudi passengers, delays in granting entry visas, and other complications that followed the blowing up of the World Trade Center in 2001.

Ahmad al-Kaabi, a Saudi scholarship student in the State of Texas, in the United States, returned to Saudi Arabia a few days before the attempted airliner bombing.

He said that he had noticed a great deal of concern among his fellow scholarship students, and mainly the fear that the enhanced security checks would affect their entry into the United States and their return there to finish their studies.

Al-Kaabi pointed out that the particular treatment of Saudi nationals at checkpoints on their way to the United States is not the result of this incident; in fact, it has been in force for years, but the announcement that Saudi travelers are part of the list of the nationals of 14 states who will be subject to enhanced security searches will further complicate the situation. Al-Kaabi added: "During our trips to the United States we notice that we are treated differently by the security agents as soon as they see the green passport," which is a sign of Saudi identity.

In the same context, Osama al-Naqli, director of the information desk at the Saudi Foreign Ministry, said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat that the ministry, through the Saudi Embassy in Washington, has asked for clarifications about the enhanced security checks that will be imposed on Saudi nationals traveling to the United States.

Asked about the details of this clarification request and the measures that will be taken to follow up the situation of Saudi scholarship students, Al-Naqli said that an answer to this question will be given later.

For his part, Dr Muhammad al-Isa, cultural attaché at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, said that these measures will not affect the situation of Saudi students who are sent to study in the United States.

This will not affect students and should not frighten them, and the measures in question are quite normal, he said....

Thanks to JihadWatch

Stopping the Next “Underwear Bomber” – by Alan M. Dershowitz

My dire New Year prediction is that Islamic terrorists may well succeed this year in blowing up a civilian airliner. They have already twice proved that suicide bombers can get through security. And those are only the successful security bypasses that we know about.

Who knows how many other potential terrorists, who have been tasked to test our system, have made it through?

For all we know, the Christmas Day “failure” was also a test, at least in part—a test that included the potential for catastrophic success, but a test designed to probe weaknesses in our airline security system.

Only ten days later, another person got past security at Newark Airport and was never found.

Who knows how many other people have simply managed to walk around the metal detectors or through the security exit. I myself saw a man run passed security at Newark Airport several years ago. When I notified security, their response was to search my briefcase and nearly make me miss my flight. There was no search for the security evader and no shutdown of the concourse.

Airport security in many parts of the world is a cruel joke. Worse, it is an invitation to terrorism.

In many international airports, security is no better than in the least secure country from which any flyer begins his flight. Once in the secure area of some airports, there are no further checks when boarding a second flight. There must be security checks at every gate, not merely at the entrance to the general boarding area. Otherwise, passengers whose flights begin at low security airports can board planes without going through reasonable security.

Nor have we learned enough from the near successes of the shoe and underwear bombers. In both cases, we should have acted as if they had succeeded. That they did not had absolutely nothing to do with our security, but rather with a factor over which the would-be terrorists had complete control, namely improving the effectiveness of their explosive triggers. Imagine what the reaction would have been if hundreds of Detroit-bound passengers had been murdered. That is what the reaction should now be to this near-catastrophe.

We must adopt a multi-tiered approach to airline security. Frequent flyers who pose no security threat should be eligible for a non-transferable telemetric security card that is keyed into their retina for near foolproof identification.

They could quickly pass through metal and explosives detection. Other fliers can opt for increased security or increased privacy. Those who opt for increased security would be subjected to intrusive scanning, without a metal box protecting their private parts. After all, it was the private parts that were the location of the most recent explosives. If you are too prudish to have your private parts scanned, then opt for privacy. In that case, you have to come to airport three hours early and be subjected to a thorough external pat down and a lengthy sit-down interview.

The time has come to take airline security seriously. We must also upgrade security in railroad and bus terminals, but Al Qaeda’s obsession with airlines should influence our priorities.

Those civil libertarians who claim that increasing security will not work are simply lying. It will work, though not perfectly, and it will also diminish privacy and civil liberties, though not significantly. Life is composed of tradeoffs. Those civil libertarians who deny that there are tradeoffs are serving neither the interests of civil liberties nor of truth. Among the most important civil liberty is our ability to travel without excessive fear of terrorism, and without excessive intrusion into our privacy.

We must increase the quality and training of the security personnel at the airports. It should become a job for retired and experienced law enforcement officials. It should pay well and it should be subject to rigorous testing. Security “testers” should be using every available tactic to try to evade security. Those in charge of protecting us should be graded by their ability to spot terrorist threats.

There must be more searching interviews of travelers who do not opt for the security card or the scanning. There is nothing wrong with profiling, so long as it does not lump together all members of a particular race, religion or ethnicity. Profiling, based on a wide variety of characteristics that are directly associated with the risk of terrorism, is a good thing. So is “negative profiling”—that is, excluding certain categories of travelers from super-scrutiny based on their obvious non-involvement in terrorism.

Finally, we must have air marshals on every flight. This will be expensive, but nobody ever said that safe travel coupled with reasonable privacy would be cheap. We will implement all of these proposals—and more intrusive ones—as soon as the first plane is blown out of the sky and hundreds of innocent travelers are murdered. Why not do it now, before a preventable tragedy occurs?

FPM

U.S. Requests Pat-Downs on All Flights From 14 Nations

American authorities announced that as of Monday, anyone traveling from or through nations regarded as state sponsors of terrorism — as well as "other countries of interest" — will be required to go through enhanced screening techniques before boarding flights.

The Transportation Security Administration said those heightened security measures would include full-body pat-downs, carryon bag searches, full-body scanning and explosive detection technology.

The U.S. State Department lists Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria as state sponsors of terrorism. The other countries whose passengers will face enhanced screening include Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen.

The new measures followed the arrest of a Nigerian man, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who allegedly tried to set off an explosive device on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day.

Germany announced increased security at all airports following the failed Christmas Day attack, but authorities on Monday said no further measures have been taken since.

U.S. officials in Washington said the new security measures would be implemented Monday but there were few visible changes on the ground in Europe, which has thousands of passengers on hundreds of daily flights to the United States.

Large hubs such as London, Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt alone account for 20-30 trans-Atlantic flights a day each.

In Britain, a major international transport hub, a spokesman for the Department of Transportation said he was still trying to decipher the practical implications for Britain of the new U.S. rules. He refused to give his name due to the sensitivity of the subject.

In Switzerland, authorities were studying the new U.S. security measures, but so far the old controls were still in place, said Jean-Claude Donzel, spokesman for Swiss International Air Lines.

And a security official in Spain, who spoke on condition on anonymity in line with agency rules, said U.S.-bound passengers from countries on the new watch list were not being singled out for body frisks.

Muslim advocacy groups bristled at the new TSA rules and urged the agency to consider alternatives. “It comes pretty close to across-the-board profiling of Muslim travelers,” said Ibrahim Hooper, communications director for the Council on American-Islamic relations, adding that it would unfairly single out not just foreigners but Muslim Americans traveling to see their families in the selected countries. “It only serves to alienate those whose hearts and minds we’re trying to win.”

Alejandro Beutel, government liaison for the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the ruling would cast such a wide net as to ultimately be ineffective.

“We do see this as profiling, and profiling is very poor policing,” he said.

Elsewhere in the world, there has been a general ramping up of security since Christmas.

In Jordan, a key U.S. ally, security was beefed up at Amman's main international airport since the Christmas Day bombing attempt. An official at Queen Alia International Airport said "enhanced techniques" were being applied, especially in screening passengers bound for the United States. He declined to elaborate.

Pakistan's national airline said it was intensifying security checks for U.S.-bound passengers, even though there are no direct flights to the States from Pakistan. Screening was also stepped up for those flying to the U.S. from other parts of Asia and the Middle East.

"It is beyond my imagination what more they could do," said Nadim Umer, 40, a Karachi-based linen merchant who said he was subjected to a strip search when he arrived in New York last June. "Those who are dying to go to America at any cost can put up with all this inhuman behavior, but I cannot."

A spokesman for Pakistan International Airlines said the company began applying the new security standards Jan. 1 on U.S.-bound passengers.

Sultan Hasan said the passengers are subjected to special screening, including full body searches, in a designated area of the departure lounge. He said the airline had run advertisements in newspapers to warn prospective passengers of the increased safety measures. maintaining strict security standards at all airports for all flights.

"We are already carrying out all possible security arrangements at our airports which can be compared with any Western airport," Pervez George, spokesman for Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority. "Safety of the airliners and passengers as well as security at the airports is a top priority and we are maintaining it irrespective where the flight is going."

In South Korea, an official at Seoul's Incheon International Airport, Lee Ji-hye, said U.S.-bound passengers are now required to go through additional security before boarding their flights, and security officials also compile lists of "suspicious" passengers to monitor based on their nationalities, travel patterns and ticket purchases.

Australian Transport Ministry spokeswoman Moksha Watts said all passengers flying to the U.S. would continue to be patted down and have all their cabin luggage searched.

Baghdad's International Airport already has extremely tight security, with passengers having their luggage sniffed by dogs and getting patted down before entering the airport.

"Our security procedures at the airport are more intensified than that in any other airport in the world," said security official Umran Idris.

Maayan Malkin, spokeswoman for Israel Airports Authority, declined to discuss security arrangements. The Ben-Gurion International airport is considered one of the safest in the world.

FoxNews

What Can Israel Teach the U.S. About Airport Security?

It's not what's in their shoes or underwear. It's what's in their minds.

For eight years, travelers in the United States getting ready to head to the airport have had to think hard about their footwear.

Knowing that we’ll be forced to remove our shoes to go through the X-ray machines, we make sure that they are an easily removed pair — and that socks have been recently washed to prevent embarrassment.

In warm weather, the ordeal can’t be prevented by a clever choice to wear open sandals that expose the feet, as the TSA employees are under strict orders to closely examine even the strappiest shoes.

But Israelis heading for Ben-Gurion Airport need not worry about donning even the most complicated pair of lace-up boots, as passengers are never asked to take off their shoes as part of the security process.

Airport security in Israel is not about what’s on your feet, or in your pockets, or — god forbid — in your underwear. It’s about what’s in your head.

While the Israeli security system is certainly not perfect, it is unlikely that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab could have successfully boarded a plane without being detained, questioned in-depth, and hopefully caught — even if his risk level hadn’t been so clearly documented.

The secret of Israeli airport security doesn’t just lie in super-sophisticated technology. Simply put, in Israel’s airport, there are simply far more opportunities to get caught. As Rafi Sela, an expert on security, outlined for the Toronto Star, the security system at Ben-Gurion Airport is multi-layered, comprised of the following elements:

– Roadside check: Drivers are stopped and asked who they are and where they came from. Even at that early stage, they are examined for behavioral giveaways that would mark them as suspicious.

– Armed guards at the entrance to the terminal and the entrance of the airport give you the visual once-over as you enter. They can pull you aside for a random check.

– Before you arrive at the main check-in counter, you stand in a security line where a young, clearly intelligent young man or woman examines your passport and ticket, looks straight into your eyes, and asks you about who you are, where you came from, where you are heading, who packed your luggage, and whether you are carrying any packages for anyone.

If you offer an ambiguous answer, or raise any red flags by your behavior, the grilling continues, and the questions can frankly become irritatingly personal. My ire was up in an airport stop pre-9/11, when, to check whether I was in fact an American Jew, I was asked questions about my Bat Mitzvah. Suspicious behavior results in closer examinations.

– Luggage is X-rayed before check-in. Suspicious items are put in blast-proof containers and moved away to a safe area. The airport doesn’t shut down over a suspicious object.

– Only then comes the walk through the X-ray machine (with your shoes on) and the check of your hand luggage. Yes, they are checking out your bags, but again, they are mainly checking you out. Nobody cares about your bottle of water, baby formula, moisturizer, nail scissors, or tweezers.

The journey through this process, with multiple stations at every stop, is usually fairly rapid for low-risk travelers, even at the height of holiday season.

So, as the Star points out, the Israeli way is both more efficient and more effective. So why not adopt it in the U.S.?

More at Pajamas Media

Dutch to use full-body scanners

The Dutch government has said that it will commence using full-body scanners on flights to the US from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport within three weeks, after a failed Christmas Day airliner bomb attack.

The interior ministry made the announcement on Wednesday after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a 23-year-old Nigerian, boarded a flight from Lagos to Detroit in the US, via Schiphol, with highly explosive material sewn into his underwear.

An investigation by the Dutch government will look into the incident, but a preliminary inquiry said that the plot was of professional standard but its execution was "amateurish".

"It is not exaggerating to say the world has escaped a disaster," Guusje Ter Horst, the interior minister, said.

Abdulmutallab passed through a security check that included a hand baggage scan and a metal detector, during the lay over in Amsterdam on Friday, Ter Horst said.

For his part, Erik Ackerboom, head of the Dutch counterterrorism bureau, dismissed suggestions that Abdulmutallab should have aroused suspicion when he paid for a round-trip ticket from Lagos to Detroit in cash and had no check-in luggage.

Paying cash in Africa is not unusual, he said, and the lack of a checked suitcase "wasn't a reason for alarm".

Schiphol airport already has 15 body scanners, but privacy concerns have restricted their use and the issue has been previously raised in the European parliament.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Ter Horst said: "We will use them for American passengers flying to the United States and we do not need the approval of the European parliament."

Nadim Baba, Al Jazeera's correspondent in The Hague, said: "We've been hearing from people in the Netherlands that they are quite willing to undergo that [full-body scanning] to make sure that they're safe when they travel.

"The Dutch authorities want to widen the use of these full-body scanners that can see through people's clothes.

"Now there have been objections to that in Europe for privacy reasons, and health reasons, and not so long ago the European parliament actually blocked the introduction of these full-body scanners across Europe.

"They did allow Schiphol airport to introduce them on a reduced basis and they [the Dutch authorities] say that they've tweaked the technology now so that a computer, rather than a person, looks at the first image, so the privacy issue is now out of the way they say."

Abdulmutallab carried 80 grams of the highly explosive PETN onto the Northwestern Airlines flight, and allegedly assembled the device in the aircraft's toilet.

He is then believed to have attempted to detonate the device with a syringe of chemicals.

Part of the aircraft's cabin wall was set alight and Abdulmutallab suffered burns, before the situation was brought under control by passengers and crew.

Schiphol airport was said to have carried out the required security checks correctly and US authorities had cleared the passenger list.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that two US officials, who it did not name, had said that the US government had intelligence from Yemen before Christmas Day that leaders of a branch of al-Qaeda had mentioned that "a Nigerian" was being prepared for a terrorist attack.

"No suspicious matters which would give reason to classify the person involved as a high-risk passenger were identified during the security check,'" Ter Horst said.

She said that full-body wave scanners are able to identify chemicals, unlike metal detectors currently used on passengers.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Norman Shanks, ex-head of security at the British Airport Authority, said: "Since 9/11 there have been significant increases in airport security.

"The European Community then set common standards for all its states and some others joined those measures, such as Switzerland.

"These are higher than other nations' standards."

Shanks said that trials of body scanners had been held at airports, for example at Schiphol and London's Heathrow, and that they are quite effective in identifying items under clothing.

"The reason they are not used as a matter of routine is the belief held by many people that it infringes human liberties," he said.

The use of body scanners, which cost the equivalent of $125,000-$140,000 per unit in the UK compared to $6,500-$9,500, is set to increase the cost of security measures, Shanks said.

It will also require extra space and time to scan passengers.

"I think we will see a growing trend towards observation of passengers to select those who appear not to be acting normally," Shanks said.

"This has been called profiling, but it is assessing people's behaviour."

Al Jazeera

Somali arrested at airport with chemicals, syringe

A man tried to board a commercial airliner in Mogadishu last month carrying powdered chemicals, liquid and a syringe that could have caused an explosion in a case bearing chilling similarities to the terrorist plot to blow up a Detroit-bound airliner, officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Somali man — whose name has not yet been released — was arrested by African Union peacekeeping troops before the Nov. 13 Daallo Airlines flight took off. It had been scheduled to travel from Mogadishu to the northern Somali city of Hargeisa, then to Djibouti and Dubai. A Somali police spokesman, Abdulahi Hassan Barise, said the suspect is in Somali custody.

"We don't know whether he's linked with al-Qaida or other foreign organizations, but his actions were the acts of a terrorist. We caught him red-handed," said Barise.

A Nairobi-based diplomat said the incident in Somalia is similar to the attempted attack on the Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day in that the Somali man had a syringe, a bag of powdered chemicals and liquid — tools similar to those used in the Detroit attack. The diplomat spoke on condition he not be identified because he isn't authorized to release the information.

Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the African Union military force in Mogadishu, said the chemicals from the Somali suspect could have caused an explosion that would have caused air decompression inside the plane.

However, Bahoku said he doesn't believe an explosion would have brought the plane down.

A second international official familiar with the incident, also speaking on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to discuss the case, confirmed that the substances carried by the Somali passenger could have been used as an explosive device.

In the Detroit case, alleged attacker Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab hid explosive PETN in a condom or condom-like bag just below his torso when he traveled from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Like the captured Somali, Abdulmutallab also had a syringe filled with liquid. The substances seized from the Somali passenger are being tested.

The November incident garnered little attention before the Dec. 25 attack aboard a flight on final approach to Detroit. U.S. officials have now learned of the Somali case and are hastening to investigate any possible links between it and the Detroit attack, though no officials would speak on the record about the probe.

U.S. investigators said Abdulmutallab told them he received training and instructions from al-Qaida operatives in Yemen — which lies across the Gulf of Aden from Somalia. Similarly, large swaths of Somalia are controlled by an insurgent group, al-Shabab, which has ties to al-Qaida.

Western officials say many of the hundreds of foreign jihadi fighters in Somalia come in small boats across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen. The officials also say that examination of equipment used in some Somali suicide attacks leads them to believe it was originally assembled in Yemen.

Law enforcement officials believe the suspect in the Detroit incident tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.

Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national, is charged with trying to destroy an aircraft.

A Somali security official involved in the capture of the suspect in Mogadishu said he had a 1-kilogram (2.2-pound) package of chemical powder and a container of liquid chemicals. The security official said the suspect was the last passenger to try to board.

Once security officials detected the powder chemicals and syringe, the suspect tried to bribe the security team that detained him, the Somali security official said. The security official said the suspect had a white shampoo bottle with a black acid-like substance in it. He also had a clear plastic bag with a light green chalky substance and a syringe containing a green liquid. The security official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

The powdered material had the strong scent of ammonia, Bahoku said, and samples have been sent to London for testing.

The Somali security officials said the Daallo Airlines flight was scheduled to go from Mogadishu to Hargeisa, to Djibouti and then to Dubai.

A spokeswoman for Daallo Airlines said that company officials weren't aware of the incident and would have to seek more information before commenting. Daallo Airlines is based in Dubai and has offices in Djibouti and France.

YahooNews

El Al Israeli Arlines Security - We Need It Here

Perhaps there are some useful tips worth taking note of.

Europe: Al-Qaeda practiced passing explosives through airport security

A central intelligence source says in response to the additional scanning equipment at Schiphol airport that al-Qaeda have their own scanning and x-ray equipment with which they practice making bombs as much as possible.

More than that: al-Qaeda practiced in the past in passing body-scanners at major European airports.

"Al-Qaeda is being constantly under-estimated. They have at their disposal high-quality technical equipment and train with it.

They undertook 'test-runs' in European airports in order to deceive the inspections," according to the intelligence source, who was active in the Dutch military security service for years.

Schiphol purchased in recent years fifteen body-scanners, which looks at the bodies of passengers through their clothing using sound waves. they also see non-metallic objects and materials.

Due to strict European privacy regulations, the body-scan can only be used now in trials on internal European flights and for inspecting airport personnel.

Schiphol doesn't guarantee that the body-scans would have detected Umar Farouk Abdulmuttalab's explosive powder.

Al-Qaeda says on a website that Friday's unsuccessful attack was a retaliatory operation for an American attack on the group in Yemen and calls to kill workers in Western embassies in the region.

Source: Telegraaf (Dutch)

See also: Netherlands: Airport guards cheered 9/11

With thanks to Islam in Europe

Security incident aboard AirTran Flight 297 suggests terror “Dry Run”

By Doug Hagman

On November 17, an incident took place aboard AirTran Flight 297 scheduled to fly from Atlanta Hartsfield Airport to Houston that the media does not want to cover and everyone from the airline to the TSA and other government agencies want to keep very quiet.

The reasons, I have been told, is fear of predatory lawsuits, negative publicity from accusations of religious profiling, and the obligatory subjugation to mindless mandatory Muslim sensitivity training that make a mockery of our American system of values.

Interestingly, one airline official told me “we don’t want to become another flight 300,” which is a reference to a very similar scenario that took place aboard US Airways Flight 300 exactly three years ago.

I was first contacted about this incident two days after it happened by a passenger who was aboard AirTran Flight 297.

Based on the allegations made by this passenger, we conducted additional research, interviews and investigation, all of which takes time to insure accuracy, and are now able to release our report of the incident that took place aboard that aircraft.

Be prepared to be shocked, angered, and perhaps saddened by our national and corporate acquiescence to mafia-type tactics by Islamists who are engaged in a full frontal assault, and laughing about it.

Unsurprisingly, the facts we developed during the course of our investigation are inconsistent with those being reported in the media, despite the media having the responsibility to report the truth.

A group of thirteen men dressed in traditional Muslim attire were among 73 passengers who boarded AirTran Flight 297 on Tuesday, 17 November 2009, a routine flight scheduled to depart Atlanta Hartsfield Airport, gate C-16 at 4:43 PM ET to Houston Hobby Airport.

Reports developed by this investigator found two witnesses who observed direct interaction among all of these Muslim men at the terminal.

As the passengers boarded the aircraft, two of the Muslim men took seats in first class, while the remaining eleven were seated throughout the remaining rows of the aircraft. Most had carrying-on bags that they stowed in the overhead compartments above their seats.

As the aircraft began to taxi to the runway, a female flight attendant was beginning to issue the normal passenger advisories over the PA system.

Almost on cue at the time passengers were told to turn off all electronic devices, one of the Muslim men seated in the front of the plane began to use his cell phone in a manner that was described by a flight attendant and passenger “as deliberate and obvious.” He was talking loudly in Arabic, nearly at the level of the flight attendant.

Some reports suggest that this man actually called another Muslim passenger, although this has not been immediately confirmed. It is possible, however, as another passenger reported that a Muslim man seated toward the rear of the plane answered his cellular phone at the same time the man in the front began using his.

More at CFP

H/T: David F.

CAIR Protests Cleveland Airport Security

When they are not trying to make excuses for, or fund terrorism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is usually looking for a way to make it easier to commit terrorism. In the heart of Rock and Roll (Cleveland, Ohio) the Airport Security has come up with a rule to make things more secure and convenient for airport customers. No Praying on the cuing line. If it was time for prayers you have to pull out of line and go pray and then get in line when you are all done. Read more ...

Source: Yid With LidCAIR
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award

Supporters of Hamas should be:
	I am a Muslim
	Praised
	Left alone
	Shunned
	Jailed until the War on Terror is over
	Forever rotting in Gitmo
	Shot on sight
	I am not a Muslim
	Praised
	Left alone
	Shunned
	Jailed until the War on Terror is over
	Forever rotting in Gitmo
	Shot on sight

UK Muslims stage protest over being questioned at airports

Protesters accuse the authorities
of "psychological torture"

By Robert Spencer

"Psychological torture." Come on. If these demonstrators had any concern at all for preventing another terrorist attack in the U.K., they would accept the inconvenience of questioning as the price of preserving British society. I myself am often singled out for extra screening, and while it can be annoying, I would never term it "psychological torture" -- I am glad to see security personnel doing their jobs.

And then Mohammad Asif affects high dudgeon at Afghans being asked to become "informers and spies"! You would think that he and the people he represents would be honored at being asked to join the war effort against those they themselves would call hijackers of their religion. I am about to go out to speak at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and I know what I will find there: large numbers of angry Muslims pretending that I am fabricating the jihad terror threat and the textual grounds within the Qur'an and other Islamic texts that jihadists point to in order to justify their actions. They will loudly complain about the bare suggestion that some Muslims might be waging a jihad against the West. But ask them to join, then, in the defense of the West, and they'd be as outraged as these protesters in Scotland. Read more ...

Source: Jihad Watch

CAIR warns muslims about 3D airport scanners

Airport Scanners Stripping You Naked?
A new type of three-dimensional scanners have begun to appear at several airports around the world. Airports in Canada, Moscow and Osaka as well as those in several U.S cities such as Phoenix, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque, and New York all use the body-scanning machines on randomly selected passengers. These, for the time being, voluntary scanners are being described as virtually stripping passengers naked.

The scanners use high frequency electromagnetic waves to produce a detailed 3-D image of the body without clothing. Any suspicious items appearing in the image are further investigated by a conventional security pat down. Read more ...

Source: Creeping Sharia

Muslims to get floor sinks at airport by fall: New, sanitary facilities for ritual foot-washing will serve taxi drivers

Floor sinks to accommodate prayer requirements for Muslim taxi drivers will be installed at Indianapolis International Airport by fall.

David Dawson, a spokesman for the airport project, said this week that two bathrooms, one for men and one for women, will have the sinks. Both will be in a 900-square-foot building where taxi drivers gather before picking up passengers at the terminal.

Many of the taxi drivers are Muslims who pray five times a day. The prayer involves many rituals, including washing the feet.

Drivers now use hand sinks at the existing terminal, which has caused safety hazards. Read more ...

Source: Indianapolis Star