IT'S NOT THE LITTLE OLD WHITE LADY.
IT'S TIME TO GET HONEST!

Washington DC Examiner Newspaper,
The ExaminerAug 11, 2006 4:00 AM


WASHINGTON - Thursday’s foiled terrorist plot to smuggle liquid-based bombs on board nearly a dozen trans-oceanic commercial airliners flying to and from the U.S. and Britain caused near-panic and gridlock in airport terminals in both nations. Suddenly alerted government and airline officials were scrambling to stop passengers from boarding with mundane items like toothpaste, suntan lotion and sodas.
The disruption, frustration, delays and inconvenience will continue for an unknown period of time because airports lack technology to sniff out separate ingredients that will create a lethal bomb when combined. The arrests made thus far by British authorities may not have captured all of the plotters, so there is still reason to fear some of the plotters will yet succeed in exploding an airliner packed with hundreds of innocents.
There is much more to be said of these matters but for now we offer two observations: First, thanks and praise for the British investigators who (with help from U.S. officials) spied out the plot and then carried off a well-coordinated series of arrests.
A key to their ability to crack the conspiracy was the ability to sneak and peek — that is, to enter suspected plotters’ homes covertly to gather information. U.S. law enforcement officials are not permitted to carry out such operations, except as provided under Section 213 of the Patriot Act. The ACLU is doing everything in its power to hamper or otherwise force the repeal of part or all of that law.
Second, scan the many news photos of the long lines of frustrated travelers Thursday, and it is impossible not to notice how few match the typical terrorist profile — natives of or descended from families that came from or still live in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or another Middle Eastern, Asian or African nation with a Muslim majority or significant Muslim minority.
We recognize that the vast majority of Muslims do not share the Jihadist obsessions with killing Americans, Brits and other Westerners. But there is one undeniable fact about the 1993 World Trace Center bombers, the Sept. 11 murderers, the Madrid bombers, the London subway bombers and the present liquid bomb plotters — all are clearly identifiable as being from Muslim nations. We’ve yet to see bombers who look even remotely like a gray-haired governess from Southampton, a harried middle-aged U.S. sales executive from Los Angeles or a haggard dad and mom with kids in tow returning home to Atlanta.
There is no room left for the blind politically correct procedures that ignore this reality — our enemy is nearly always a young to middle-aged man from a Muslim nation or culture, and it is madness not to focus mainly on those who most readily match the known profile. If preventing another Sept. 11 horror means delaying all travelers from such nations, well, then so be it.
Maybe the resulting inconvenience and discomfort will help induce officials back home to get serious about helping the U.S. and Britain stop terrorists from succeeding in their deadly aims.