"U.S. Plane Wrong on Airport Security"

Thursday, June 24, 2004

Column
U.S. PLANE WRONG ON AIRPORT SECURITY
By Michael Smerconish
The Philadelphia (PA) Daily News


AS YOU travel through our nation's airports this summer, take note of
those who, after walking through the metal detector without incident,
still get pulled for what's called random secondary screening.

If your experience mirrors my own, you'll see plenty of 85-year- old
ladies with aluminum walkers, and young kids get the treatment. I used
to chalk this up to a necessary evil in a post 9/11 world, and curse
Osama bin Laden under my breath.

Now, I blame our government for yielding to political correctness.

And today, I will have the chance to say exactly that to a U.S. Senate
subcommittee hearing convened by Sen. Arlen Specter on this subject. I
applaud Sen. Specter for his willingness to allow me to air the issue in
the Senate.

I will tell them how my curiosity was sparked when I heard Secretary
John Lehman pose a single question to Dr. Condoleezza Rice in the midst
of the 9/11 Commission hearings. The implication of the question was
that our Department of Transportation (DOT) limits the number of young
Arab males who can be pulled aside for secondary questioning.

I will also explain that when I asked Secretary Lehman the basis for his
question, and then reported what he said, the heavy- handed DOT issued a
written statement trashing my report.

Now, after months of inquiry, I get it. It's an Emperor Has No Clothes
mindset that has taken hold. The system is totally screwed up, everybody
knows it, and yet no one wants to say so for fear of being called
insensitive. Not me.

Here is the situation:

Lehman's question to Dr. Rice was based upon the testimony of airline
executives, one of whom, Edmond Soliday, former security chief for
United Airlines told the 9/11 Commission that he was warned by the
Justice Department not to question more than a few people of the same
ethnic origin at once. If they did not comply, their system would be
shut down as discriminatory.

The mindset of the DOT comes from the top, directed by Secretary Norman
Mineta, who carries the scars of his own internment in a
Japanese-American camp in WWII. As a result, he refuses to give
heightened scrutiny to young, Arab males.

The DOT, and now Transportation Security Administration, refuse to look
for individuals who have religion, race, ethnicity, and appearance in
common with the 19 hijackers on 9/11.

Not only will the DOT and TSA not look at those factors, they fine
airlines that do. In the aftermath of 9/11, the DOT pursued enforcement
actions against American and United Airlines (who lost a combined 33
employees on four planes on 9/11) for their alleged noncompliance with
Federal statutes prohibiting air carriers from subjecting any air
traveler to discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin,
religion, sex, or ancestry. This overlooked the airlines' mandated
responsibility to refuse to transport a passenger or property, which the
carrier decides is, or might be, inimical to safety. Each airline had to
pay $1.5 million toward civil rights training for employees.

We have street smarts, and yes, profiling, to thank for the fact that
the White House and Capitol were not struck by Flight 93 on 9/11. But
for the work of Jose Melendez Perez, a U.S. Customs and Border
Protection Inspector at Orlando International Airport, things could've
been different. On Aug. 4, 2001, he refused to let into this country the
20th hijacker, Mohammed Kahtani, whom Mohammed Atta had come to pick up
at the airport.

Presumably, this is why Flight 93 had four terrorists, while the other
airplane had five.

Today, I look forward to saying these things at a hearing of the U.S.
Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and
General Government in the presence of Sen. Specter.

I intend to relate to them what I believe many others are thinking.
We're long overdue for a detailed look at how political correctness
compromises airline security.


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