Speaking of Crackpots…
By The Annie Jacobsen piece has been finding its way around the internet. Here is a fine shredding at Salon; beware the ad.
If you’re not familiar with the story, Ms. Jacobsen had the misfortune of getting on a domestic flight with fourteen Syrian musicians. The musicians apparently engaged in aberrant behavior of some sort, including speaking with one another and using the restroom. Ms. Jacobsen concluded that they were about to blow up the aircraft, and freaked out. After landing, the proper authorities explained that the gentlemen involved were, in fact, Syrian musicians and not terrorists. This answer was insufficient.
Ms. Jacobsen ends her original piece with this:
So the question is… Do I think these men were musicians? I’ll let you decide. But I wonder, if 19 terrorists can learn to fly airplanes into buildings, couldn’t 14 terrorists learn to play instruments?
Is she asking if we believe they were terrorists, or if we believe she believes they were terrorists? It’s unfortunate that she can’t even master the Fox News assertion-without-asserting lingo; the rest of the piece is pretty bad, too. As for the second question, yes, 14 terrorists could learn to play instruments. If you think that the natural corollary to that answer is that we should treat every group of 14 Arab men holding musical instruments as terrorists, then congratulations; you’re an American conservative, or, more to the point, a colossal moron.
The right wingers who take this seriously are arguing that the biggest problem with airport security comes from the crushing oppressiveness of POLITICAL CORRECTNESS. Airport checkers are unwilling to deal with the fact that the 9/11 bombers were swarthy Arabs, and not light-hearted Irishmen. Thus, they simply allow groups of Arab men to board planes with hardly a glance, except for the rigorous inspection of their luggage, their clothing, their shoes, their documents, and any metal items they may be carrying. In John Wayne’s America, any attempt by three or more Arabs to board a plane would be dealt with harshly.
Seriously, what do these people even want? The fourteen Syrians in this case were screened, just like any other group of passengers. They didn’t have bombs, they didn’t have guns, and they didn’t take over the aircraft. Because of the lack of any apparent evidence against them, they must have been engaging in a “dry run.” Guh? We’ll set that stunning display of logic aside for a second, and point out that, if true, there is nothing we can do about it, short of banning Arab men from boarding aircraft. If they were engaged in a “dry run,” no amount of additional screening would have helped, unless by “screen” you mean “take into a back room and beat until they confess.”
Last but not least, let’s not forget that extra screening would not have prevented 9/11. The hijackers were successful because they followed the rules. They didn’t have any bizarre weapons in their shoes; they carried knives allowed by FAA rules. Extra screening wouldn’t have made a damn bit of difference. “Political Correctness” only causes terrorist attacks in the minds of right wing ideologues.