Idiots

WSJ Washington Wire:

Latest Republican Campaign Issue?

A congressional candidate in Florida has become the third Republican office-seeker to call for heightened screening of Muslim airline passengers since the foiling of an airline bombing plot in Britain. “It is a fact that over the past 34 years, starting with the Munich Olympics, the majority of terrorist attacks have been carried out by Muslims,” said Mark Flanagan, a candidate in the 13th District of Florida, in a statement released this morning.

No matter that the more important statistic is that the majority of Muslims haven’t carried out terrorist attacks.

Flanagan said he was the only congressional candidate calling for profiling of Muslim passengers. But Paul Nelson, a Republican running in the third district of Wisconsin, endorsed the idea last week on a local radio show. Asked on the show how screeners would spot a Muslim male, Nelson said, “If he comes in wearing a turban and his name is Muhammad, that’s a good start,” according to the Associated Press.

How delightful. It must be really fun to be an American Sikh right now, btw.

New York gubernatorial candidate John Faso also has supported profiling, saying, “If a 25-year-old Muslim man who has been traveling frequently to Yemen or Pakistan tries to board a plane, then not only statistical analysis but also common sense tells us that he is more of a potential threat than the grandmother from Queens.”

Here’s why profiling is unnecessary: Because anyone who travels frequently between the US and another country is already given additional scrutiny. When Mr. Shakes was starting to pile up the US stamps in his passport, he got more guff from customs about why he was here and how long his visit would be and where he was staying, etc. It isn’t contingent upon one’s name, ethnicity, outfit, or home country, and it doesn’t have to be. Customs can do its job well without profiling—and, let’s remember, that it was the failing of immigration to keep tabs on people here legally that left members of the 9/11 gang here when they shouldn’t have been. Anyone who’s dealt with the former INS/current DHS on immigration issues can tell you what a total mess that operation is. Clean that up and no one will have to worry so much about identifying threats at airports.