Tweet me!| The Obama administration has announced that citizens of 14 selected countries—as well as travelers whose itineraries have taken them through any of these countries—will be subjected to enhanced scrutiny before they board planes to the United States, including full-body pat-downs. The countries comprise four “state sponsors of terrorism” (Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria) and 10 “countries of interest,” a euphemism for terrorist breeding grounds. These last are Afghanistan, Algeria, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, and Yemen. |
Security measures will include whole body scanners (countries who have access to advanced screening equipment), full body pat downs, and extra scrutiny of carry-on luggage. The legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee claimed “This is extreme and very dangerous. All of a sudden people are labeled as being related to terrorism just because of the nation they are from.
Nigeria’s Information Minister Dora Akunyili said that United States’ decision was unreasonable and they cannot declare the entire population suspects for the reason that a 23-year-old Nigerian man was accused of hiding explosives in his undergarments on a flight to Detroit.
“It is unfair to discriminate against over 150 million people because of the behavior of one person,” The New York Times quoted Akunyili, as saying.
Algeria, Another African nation subject to the new rule, has also complained.
Algeria's US ambassador Abdellah Baali wrote in a newspaper article that the measures discriminated against Algerians, "who pose no particular risk to Americans", the Associated Press reported.
Why do other countries and other races have to pay the price of an obvious failed intelligence 101 follow up test?
The man who tried to blow up the aircraft full of passengers on Dec. 25, Farouk Abdulmutallab Umar, had a multiple entry visa to the U.S. In November, Umar was denounced by his father at the U.S. embassy in Nigeria. The man told the embassy officials that his son had radical ideas. The CIA allegedly took note and, as they say, worked together with officers from the embassy to make sure his name was entered into the database of U.S. government terrorist suspects. According to the CIA, they also sent the information to the National Counterterrorism Center in Washington.
How is it possible that this character has passed through security checks in The Netherlands with high explosives sewn into his underwear, without any difficulty?
Michael Moore will love to turn this to a conspiracy theory story, but it is in fact a big failure of the security system of The U.S.
Nigeria should get a medal of honor from the U.S. government for having the well civilized father go voluntarily to the US Embassy to denounce his own son of not behaving correctly and that he is to watch. Who in the world would do such thing for free towards another country?
And the strangest of all: who in the world would not pay attention to such information when one knows there is a war on terror going on our planet?
Why would Algerians be suspects all of a sudden? Was there an Algerian father informing the U.S. embassy about a plot targeting a U.S. flight? The answer is No. Hundreds of Algerians flee the country every year to seek a better situation. They sneak up the borders, cross the sea, land in Europe and try to work hard and struggle to leave a better life. These Algerians escape to many security checkpoints or controls; nonetheless, they never were caught trying to blow up a boat, a plane or even a bike.
Young Algerians leave their home country to look for a better future, to pursue the Algerian dream: to have a peaceful future, proud career and be respected.
The only Algerian planning to explode an Algerian plane was in a Hollywood movie “Executive Decision”. But the fictional Algerian terrorist was well accompanied. The movie featured Steven Seagal, Kurt Russell, Halle Berry, Oliver Platt and other good Hollywood actors. He didn’t even use his underwear to get the bomb on board.
Hollywood already knows that Algerians trying to blow up American planes is fiction, especially using their underwear for that. Therefore, please don’t touch Algerian’s underwear, or don’t even look at them. It is offending, disturbing and ridiculous. Algerians' underwear can be used for many things, but definitely not to explode a plane.
Algerianamericans.com - January. 06, 2010
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