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Flying Blind - How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety |
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The U.S. government's airport security policy does not make common sense, and Michael Smerconish knows why. Consider this: If Muhammad Atta and the four thugs who crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center showed up to board YOUR flight, airline security personnel - even after 9/11 - could not pull them out of the boarding line to ask them a single question. Why can't the airlines pull them out? Precisely because they resemble Atta and his terrorist gang - they are young Muslim men of Middle East descent. Now under U.S. law, the airlines have the duty to refuse to carry any person or thing that might pose a danger to the safety of a flight. And the Federal Aviation Act gives the plane Captain wide discretion to yank people or cargo off a flight provided only the Captain's exercise of his discretion is not arbitrary or capricious. But the way the law is written is not the way it is enforced under the upside down policy of political correctness imposed by Department of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. DOT claims to apply a "but for" test, meaning that if there are any other factors besides race, religion, sex, age, or national origin that arouse suspicion it is okay for the airlines to send a passenger to secondary screening. But in reality, DOT sues the airlines even when those additional factors - like a one-way ticket paid for in cash or concerns expressed by a Federal Air Marshall directly to the pilot - are present. Since 9/11, DOT has forced Continental, Delta, United, and American to pay millions in fines for the 1 in 10 million passengers who has complained even when that passenger was questioned for suspicious factors other than ethnicity. The way the law is applied, if the airlines do stop someone who resembles the 9/11 terrorists they are guaranteed to get sued no matter what other circumstances are present. Mineta's mad-dog political correctness was unearthed by the 9/11 Commission through a single question asked by Commission member John Lehman during Condy Rice's televised testimony: "Were you aware that it was the policy...to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning?" Not a single network, not a single newspaper picked up on this question. But attorney and Philly talk-show host Mike Smerconish did. Flying Blind is a riveting account of Mike's one-man quest to discover how Mineta's DOT was perverting our law and bring the swiss cheese we call airport security to the attention of the public and Congress. Along the way we get a fascinating inside look at how the wall of political correctness keeps the government and the media from facing the facts about who the enemy is in the War on Terror. DOT first lied about their policy then tried to discredit Smerconish as a bigoted kook. CNN dumped the story after calling him for an interview. But a handful of courageous men - Senators Dick Shelby and Arlen Specter, former SECNAV John Lehmen, and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani - helped Mike Smerconish bring the issue to a Senate hearing. Did the 9/11 Commission fix the problem? No, though they did praise the efforts of one airport screener who blocked the 20th hijacker from coming into the United States precisely because he fit the profile of a young Muslim man of Middle East descent. Has Congress fixed the problem? No, but only they can, by writing a law to make clear it is okay to screen Muslim men of Middle East descent between the ages of 17 and 40 - the description of the perpetrators of every terrorist attrocity inflicted on our nation for the last 20 years. And that's why you need this book. Your congressman and senators need to hear about the problems with airport security from you. Get Mike Smerconish's Flying Blind then write some letters - before the next terrorist attack. Come to think of it, you might also drop President Bush a note, and ask him to accept Norman Mineta's resignation. |
Order Flying Blind securely at amazon.com |
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