Airport security measures are window dressing

If government bureaucrats and politicians did their jobs, screening Grandma wouldn’t be necessary.

Okay, let me get this straight. Some Nigerian terrorist attempted to take down a U.S. airliner on Christmas day using liquid explosives. That much I understand very easily. A lot of people still hate the United States — apparently all the liberals were wrong. It wasn’t Bush they hate. It’s America.

As I start to look at the facts and consequences of this case I start to get confused.

This much we know: The alleged terrorist’s father warned U.S. officials that he thought his son had gone off the reservation and was up to no good. U.S. bureaucrats at the State Department put him on some sort of “watch list” which we have now learned is pretty meaningless.

We know this because terrorist has a U.S. Visa that is not immediately revoked. Rather, the nice people looking out for you and me at the State Department put a note in his file indicating he should be examined with further scrutiny the next time he applies for a new Visa.

Terrorist (he has a real name that wouldn’t surprise you is one of a terrorist, but we’ll just call him terrorist. Okay, his real name is Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and I’ll take the lashings for suggesting someone with an Arabic sounding name you can’t pronounce doesn’t make them a terrorist) proceeds to pay cash for a a one-way ticket to the U.S. and checks no bags.

Buying a ticket this way would of course be a huge Red Flag to the TSA thug at your local airport if your grandma bought a one-way ticket, paid cash and checked no bags to fly from Charlotte to Kalamazoo. But apparently when some guy with a name you can’t pronounce, flying from Nigeria, and wearing a turban on his head, hands over his one-way ticket paid for in cash with no checked bags, security just shrugs it off as another routine Arabic guy going to visit the family in Detroit. No threat. No worries. Now lets go full-body scan Grandma!

Back to the facts: don’t forget the terrorist’s dad told the U.S. Embassy in Lagos his boy was a potential threat to the U.S.

Dad being dad was right, and sonny-boy tries to make a Molotov cocktail out of an Airbus. Passengers and crew thwart the attempt and all ends well.

Well, at least until the government and Congress starts to get involved.

So now all the politicians, aviation security experts, and the Obama administration start using their smoke and mirrors to make you think they’re actually paying attention. They have to do this because they just proved they’re not.

They call for more screeners, screenings, better use of technology, longer lines, no pillows, no laptops, no use of the potty, nothing on your lap, and countless other inconvenient knee-jerk ”window dressings” to make you think they’re doing something about airport security. I saw some guy on the news this morning who said if it had been proven the terrorist had sung “Mary had a Little Lamb” prior to lighting the match, the TSA/FAA would ban singing on aircraft tomorrow.

Meanwhile no one has the spine to just stand up and say “if we had done our job by merely revoking this guy’s Visa” this threat would have never occurred. And as for the next guy who tries it? If someone who looks like a terrorist, smells like a terrorists, has a name like a terrorist, buys a ticket like a terrorist, and travels sans bags like a terrorist, assume he’s a terrorist.

As for the rest of us, when little old ladies carrying too much perfume in their bags and with poodles on their laps start taking down commercial airliners, I’ll stand for the inconvenience at the airport. But not until then.

For now, why don’t the bureaucrats and so-called “security experts” just start doing their jobs.

The next time somebody’s daddy tells you his boy is a scumbag, don’t let that guy get on the plane with a U.S. Visa.

Now go do your job and quit making airline travel so difficult because you can’t do your job right in the first place.

Re-posted from Irreverent View