Dawn: The Stupidest question "How does …
Mohamad Atta had security clearance --remember
Because the terrorist can use his finger nail to gouge the eyes of passengers or the crew
He will find a way to down the plane.
Discrimination in the air
www.Dawn .com Editorial page
It is about time lawsuits were filed in America against airlines for indulging in discriminatory practices against people of Middle Eastern or Arab origin. In the days and months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, several cases became known where people with a Middle Eastern appearance were offloaded after other passengers refused to travel with them.
Recently, the American Civil Liberties Union and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed suits against four major American airlines for offloading five passengers - four US citizens and the other a permanent resident - ostensibly on grounds of security.
The case of the men - that they were taken off their flights for reasons that had nothing to do with security but because of bias and prejudice - seems a strong one. In fact, in most such cases those disallowed to travel were informed that they were being taken off because fellow passengers or, in some cases, crew members were not prepared to travel with them.
The question to ask is: how does an individual, duly cleared by security prior to boarding, suddenly become a security risk as soon as he enters the plane? When many such cases were reported soon after Sept 11, senior US officials, including the transport secretary, took pains to say that airlines were not supposed to do that. It is high time those in the upper echelons of the Washington administration took notice of such cases of plain illegality, discrimination and harassment and put a stop to these.
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