RANDOM IDIOCY
By MICHELLE MALKIN
July 22, 2005 -- WHAT'S the point? In the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in London, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD announced plans to conduct random searches of packages and backpacks carried by subway riders.
"Random," of course, is a synonym for blind. And we all know what it means when you put blind bureaucrats in charge of homeland security: Grannies and toddlers, prepare to be on heightened grope alert.
Reassuring al Qaeda operatives everywhere, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pledged that his officers would not engage in "racial profiling." He also emphasized that passengers would be free to "turn around and leave" instead of consenting to a search.
Combined with New York City's inane sanctuary policy, which provides safe haven for illegal aliens, these new security-in-name-only measures prove that political correctness still trumps public safety.
A few weeks ago, I noted the vapidity of the trite phrase "heightened alert." New York's response yesterday underscores the point. It is madness to pretend that no profile exists of possible Islamist bomb plotters. It is reckless to prevent law-enforcement authorities from taking obvious national-security profiling factors (racial, ethnic, religious, nationality, behavioral or otherwise) into account. And it is deadly to refuse to enforce immigration laws in a manner that results in, yes, profiling.
"Look for things that are unusual," Commissioner Kelly implored. "Look at things through the prism of 9/11." Uh-huh. But don't dare note the obvious:
* The 7/7 London terrorist bombers were young Muslim men all but one of them of Pakistani origin.
* All of the 1993 landmark-bombing conspirators were Muslim men from the Middle East or Sudan.
* All of the '93 World Trade Center terrorist bomb plotters were young Middle Eastern Muslim men five of them, illegal aliens.
* The '97 New York subway-bomb plotters were also young, Middle Eastern Muslim illegals.
The terror-plotters' ability to take shelter in the city's non-profiling, non-immigration-enforcement sanctuary bears repeating: One of the '97 plotters, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, a Palestinian bomb-builder, entered the U.S. illegally through Canada in 1996 and '97. He claimed political asylum based on alleged persecution by Israelis, was released on a reduced $5,000 bond (posted by a man who was himself an illegal alien) then skipped his asylum hearing after calling his attorney and lying about his whereabouts.
In June 1997, after his lawyer withdrew Mezer's asylum claim, a federal immigration judge ordered Mezer to leave the country on a "voluntary departure order." Mezer ignored the useless piece of paper and disappeared into New York City's illegal-alien safe haven. He joined the N.Y.C. bombing plot before being arrested in July 1997 after a roommate tipped off police. His co-conspirator was another untouched illegal alien, Palestinian Lafi Khalil.
More:
* All three of the Millenium bomb plotters were young Muslim male illegal aliens from Algeria.
* Four of the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa were Middle Eastern Muslim men.
* Look, too, at the Islamist subway bomb plotters arrested last summer in a conspiracy to attack the Herald Square subway, three police stations on Staten Island, a prison, and the Verrazano Bridge. One of the men in the August 2004 plot, Shahawar Matin Siraj, was a 22-year-old illegal alien from Pakistan based in Jackson Heights. The other, James Elshafay, was a young, Jew-hating American man of Egyptian descent.
The usual civil-liberties absolutists are already complaining about the city's non-crackdown crackdown and warning of unconstitutional racial discrimination. Minority set-asides for public construction projects to ensure "diversity" in Brooklyn? No problem. Common-sense profiling to stop Islamist terrorists? Call in Amnesty International.
Yesterday's attacks in London, however inept, show that Islamists and their sympathizers aren't playing games. Meanwhile, we're playing eeny-meeny-miney-mo on New York's subways, buses, and trains.
Remind me: What's the point?
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/50165.htm
By MICHELLE MALKIN
July 22, 2005 -- WHAT'S the point? In the wake of the latest terrorist attacks in London, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD announced plans to conduct random searches of packages and backpacks carried by subway riders.
"Random," of course, is a synonym for blind. And we all know what it means when you put blind bureaucrats in charge of homeland security: Grannies and toddlers, prepare to be on heightened grope alert.
Reassuring al Qaeda operatives everywhere, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pledged that his officers would not engage in "racial profiling." He also emphasized that passengers would be free to "turn around and leave" instead of consenting to a search.
Combined with New York City's inane sanctuary policy, which provides safe haven for illegal aliens, these new security-in-name-only measures prove that political correctness still trumps public safety.
A few weeks ago, I noted the vapidity of the trite phrase "heightened alert." New York's response yesterday underscores the point. It is madness to pretend that no profile exists of possible Islamist bomb plotters. It is reckless to prevent law-enforcement authorities from taking obvious national-security profiling factors (racial, ethnic, religious, nationality, behavioral or otherwise) into account. And it is deadly to refuse to enforce immigration laws in a manner that results in, yes, profiling.
"Look for things that are unusual," Commissioner Kelly implored. "Look at things through the prism of 9/11." Uh-huh. But don't dare note the obvious:
* The 7/7 London terrorist bombers were young Muslim men all but one of them of Pakistani origin.
* All of the 1993 landmark-bombing conspirators were Muslim men from the Middle East or Sudan.
* All of the '93 World Trade Center terrorist bomb plotters were young Middle Eastern Muslim men five of them, illegal aliens.
* The '97 New York subway-bomb plotters were also young, Middle Eastern Muslim illegals.
The terror-plotters' ability to take shelter in the city's non-profiling, non-immigration-enforcement sanctuary bears repeating: One of the '97 plotters, Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, a Palestinian bomb-builder, entered the U.S. illegally through Canada in 1996 and '97. He claimed political asylum based on alleged persecution by Israelis, was released on a reduced $5,000 bond (posted by a man who was himself an illegal alien) then skipped his asylum hearing after calling his attorney and lying about his whereabouts.
In June 1997, after his lawyer withdrew Mezer's asylum claim, a federal immigration judge ordered Mezer to leave the country on a "voluntary departure order." Mezer ignored the useless piece of paper and disappeared into New York City's illegal-alien safe haven. He joined the N.Y.C. bombing plot before being arrested in July 1997 after a roommate tipped off police. His co-conspirator was another untouched illegal alien, Palestinian Lafi Khalil.
More:
* All three of the Millenium bomb plotters were young Muslim male illegal aliens from Algeria.
* Four of the U.S. Embassy bombings in Africa were Middle Eastern Muslim men.
* Look, too, at the Islamist subway bomb plotters arrested last summer in a conspiracy to attack the Herald Square subway, three police stations on Staten Island, a prison, and the Verrazano Bridge. One of the men in the August 2004 plot, Shahawar Matin Siraj, was a 22-year-old illegal alien from Pakistan based in Jackson Heights. The other, James Elshafay, was a young, Jew-hating American man of Egyptian descent.
The usual civil-liberties absolutists are already complaining about the city's non-crackdown crackdown and warning of unconstitutional racial discrimination. Minority set-asides for public construction projects to ensure "diversity" in Brooklyn? No problem. Common-sense profiling to stop Islamist terrorists? Call in Amnesty International.
Yesterday's attacks in London, however inept, show that Islamists and their sympathizers aren't playing games. Meanwhile, we're playing eeny-meeny-miney-mo on New York's subways, buses, and trains.
Remind me: What's the point?
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/50165.htm
