TSA Coddles the Terrorists

According to an article on National Review today, the Transportation Security Administration ("TSA") is boasting that it provides "sensitivity training" for security workers during the Hajj timeframe. Recall that on September 11, 2001, Muslim terrorists hijacked four aircraft and murdered thousands of innocent Americans. Now, six years after that day, the agency tasked with securing the skies is instructing its employees on how not to insult or upset those who have historically been the perpetrators of mass terror.

CAIR (Council on Islamic American Relations), which has ties to Islamic terror in the Middle East has, of course, welcomed this news in a press release in which they argue that

This proactive effort on the part of the Transportation Security Administration demonstrates that there is no contradiction between the need to maintain airline safety and security and the duty to protect the religious and civil rights of airline passengers.

Maintaining airline security means being on the lookout for those who are most likely to commit a crime. The TSA has to this date refused to profile airline passengers. It is simply inconceivable that the agency whose sole purpose is transportation safety would ignore or even accomodate those who are most likely to attempt another Sept. 11 style attack. Clichéd - yes - but when is the last time a 70 year old grandma was at the center of a terror plot?

There has not been another terrorist attack in this country since Sept. 11. Ronald Reagan argued once that

We are at war with the most dangerous enemy that has ever faced mankind in his long climb from the swamp to the stars, and it has been said if we lose that war, and in doing so lose this way of freedom of ours, history will record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening

Of course, Reagan was speaking of communist aggresion in the 1960s, but the statement is still fitting. Policies such as those enacted by the TSA compromise the years of effective anti-terror work this administration has done and presents a perfect opportunity for future attacks.