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Archive for the ‘Airline’ Category

USA – Britain – And Much Of Asia Raise Their Levels Of Preparedness

Oven the last four days, eleven countries publicly announced elevated levels of preparedness against Islamist terror and six other countries raised their levels, but in a quieter manner.

Just today (January 24) Osama bin Laden took credit for the failed Delta bombing attack at Christmas and asserted that there would be more attacks, adding that, America would have no peace unless there was "security for Palestinians".

Palestinians however were generally dismissive of his call for ‘Palestinian security’ saying, "What good does Bin Laden’s speech do for us? All his talk is very well known among al-Qaeda, therefore, this speech is merely to prove he exists’, and "Pro-al-Qaeda jihadists should refrain from finding excuses for Bin Laden’s twisted ideology. First of all, Bin Laden ought to disavow the killing of innocent people around the world and stop verbal attacks on Hamas. It’s time to revise al-Qaeda’s ideology".

Airlines and airports in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka went on high alert for a possible airplane hijacking by al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taibem, and the U.K. elevated its terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" which is one below the highest and it suspended direct British airline flights to and from Yemen.

Just last week, five Britons were apprehended at Islamabad airport attempting to pass their boarding passes to five others, and Yemen stopped issuing entry visas at Sanaa airport. Britain said it had evidence indicating that an attack would be carried out by "International terrorists" and was careful to avoid saying the words Islamic or Muslim.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates have taken their own precautions and Jordan’s security services have been fully mobilized since the attempt to blow up an Israeli embassy convoy on Jan. 15.

U.S. airport authorities were warned that at least two female suicide bombers of "non-Arab appearance" and bearing Western passports may have been sent to America by al Qaeda-Yemen – either to blow up U.S. bound flights or to commit suicide attacks inside the country and White House counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke told ABC, "There are others who are still out there who have been trained and who are clean skins, and that means people who we do not have a record of, who may not look like al Qaeda terrorists, who may not be Arabs, and may not be men".

I have no idea what "clean skins" means, and only the phrase "the great unwashed" comes to mind.

ACLU Accuses DOJ of Using Racial, Ethnic and Religious Profiling …

www.mainjustice.com10/21/11

The ACLU alleges that information obtained through a FOIA request showed FBI policies that allowed for investigations based on stereotypes over the past decade.

ACLU Accuses The FBI Of Racial Profiling | News One

newsone.com10/21/11

The American Civil Liberties Union has accused the Federal Bureau of Investigations of racial profiling. The ACLU claims that FBI used information on race to guide investigations.

Americans Mistrust Muslims More Than Other Faiths

Not unsurprisingly, an analysis just released by the Gallup World Religion Survey (a partnership of Gallup and the Coexist Foundation) indicates that Americans are more than twice as likely to express prejudice against Muslims as they are against Christians, Jews or Buddhists.

In the poll:

43% acknowledged at least "a little" prejudice against Muslims.
18% of respondents said they had some level of prejudice against Christians.
15% toward Jews.
14% toward Buddhists.

Given the follow facts, I am personally very surprised that only 43% feel a “little” hostility towards Muslims, and I suspect that many people were reticent to honestly express their views.

1. 1968 Bobby Kennedy was shot and killed by?
2. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by ?
3. In 1979, the U.S. embassy in Iran was taken over by?
4. During the 1980′s a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by?
5. In 1983, the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by?
6. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by?
7. In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked in Athens , and a U.S. Navy diver trying to rescue passengers was murdered by?
8. In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by?
9. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by?
10. In 1998, the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by?
11. On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into the U.S. Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the passengers.
12. In 2002 the United States started a war in Afghanistan against?
13. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and brutally murdered by?
14. At Fort Hood Texas in 2009, 13 people were murdered and dozens injured by?

Attacks in recent history that were perhaps carried out by Christians, Jews and Buddhists pale in comparison with the above, and one hears little if any condemnation from Muslims in America or in any other host nation

Perhaps the strongest response that one ever hears from supposedly moderate Muslims is that they wouldn’t personally carry out an attack, and of greater concern is that several polls suggest that a large percentage of young Muslims would fail to notify the police if they knew that an attack was going to be carried out.

The report suggests somewhat euphemistically that Muslims feel alienated from broader society and therefore resist integrating, which in turn makes them more vulnerable to radical ideas.

The Obama administration has banned both profiling and enhanced interrogation techniques but Scott Brown said throughout his successful Ma campaign that he is in favor of both ‘enhanced interrogation’ and ‘profiling’ and he still got elected by a large majority in Ma.

Something that should but probably won’t cause Obama and other liberal democrats to reconsider their use.

Israel, which has used profiling for at least 40 years, and perhaps has more enemies than the United States has never had an Israeli plane sky-jacked to the best of my knowledge, and it is the only country that I know of that implements decompression of all luggage to check for pressure sensor detonators.

A reader pointed out that although the sky-jacked plane that was taken to Entebbe was a French flight (Air France Flight 109), it departed from Ben Gurion (then Lod) airport and underwent the normal Israeli security checks.

One major difference was that the French plane didn’t carry sky-marshals who might well have prevented the sky-jacking. Several sky-marshals did and do fly on all El Al fights.

The survey was carried out by the Muslim West Facts Project, which is a partnership of Gallup and the Coexist Foundation, and it was based on a random telephone survey of more than 1,000 adults, conducted from Oct. 31 to Nov. 13 of last year and the margin of error is plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.

January 23, 2010

An example of political correctness that appeared in today’s newspapers.

LONDON — Britain raised its terror threat alert to the second-highest level Friday, one of several recent moves the country has made to increase vigilance against international terrorists after a Christmas Day bombing attempt on a Europe-U.S. flight.

The threat level was raised from “substantial” — where it had stood since July to indicate a strong possibility of a terrorist attack — to “severe,” meaning such an attack is considered highly likely.

In making the announcement, Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the raised security level means that Britain is heightening its vigilance. But he stressed that there was no intelligence suggesting an attack is imminent.

“The highest security alert is `critical,’ and that means an attack is imminent, and we are not at that level,” he said on British television.