This past weekend, the mere rumor of someone walking past airport security in Newark — unnoticed by security but passed along by a concerned bystander — was enough to purge an entire airport and force some 10,000 people to get back in line and go through security again.
Meanwhile, from the UK Telegraph, the British government had given the U.S. specific information on Umar Abdulmutallab and his terrorist ties a year ago. Yet despite this, Abdulmutallab was allowed to board a U.S.-bound airplane with TNT in his BVDs.
This isn’t just about the Obama administration and its embarrassing incompetence over one incident. It’s also about the Bush policy, the entire post-9/11 policy on aviation security.
We’ve made air travel unbearable for Americans, yet we haven’t made it any more difficult for a known terrorist to blow up an airplane. Abdulmutallab surely would have done had he just had the presence of mind to light his crotch on fire in the bathroom instead of attempting to do so in his seat.
Something is very, very wrong with this picture.
