Citizens of 14 nations, including Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria, who are flying to the United States will be subjected indefinitely to the intense screening at airports worldwide that was imposed after the Christmas Day bombing plot, Obama administration officials announced Sunday. But American citizens, and most others who are not flying through those 14 nations on their way to the United States, will no longer automatically face the full range of intensified security that was imposed after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, officials said. The change represents an easing of the immediate response to the attempted bombing of a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit that had been in place the past week. But the restrictions remain tougher than the rules that were in effect before the Dec. 25 incident. And the action on Sunday further establishes a global security system that treats people differently based on what country they are from, evoking protests from civil rights groups.
But American citizens, and most others who are not flying through those 14 nations on their way to the United States, will no longer automatically face the full range of intensified security that was imposed after the attempted bombing of a Northwest Airlines flight, officials said.
The change represents an easing of the immediate response to the attempted bombing of a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit that had been in place the past week. But the restrictions remain tougher than the rules that were in effect before the Dec. 25 incident. And the action on Sunday further establishes a global security system that treats people differently based on what country they are from, evoking protests from civil rights groups.
The failed Christmas attack on a US airliner has reignited the debate in Europe over more rigorous passenger scrutiny. The German government reacted swiftly by tightening security requirements. But many regulations are little more than window dressing. Is the profiling practiced at Israeli airports the better answer? Kim Hyun Hee was lucky as she passed through the carry-on luggage inspection in November 1987. But it was the kind of luck that would end in the deaths of 115 people on board Korean Airlines Flight 858. It would happen eight-and-a-half hours later, when an alarm clock rang, setting off a bomb Kim was carrying in one of her bags. Kim, an agent with the North Korean intelligence service, had made it through the security checkpoint at Saddam International Airport in Baghdad. With a radio, filled with 350 grams of C-4 plastic explosive. And with the batteries she needed to ignite the bomb, and that airport officials had wanted to confiscate, until her partner managed to convince the woman at the checkpoint to let her keep the batteries. And, of course, with the bottle containing 700 milliliters of PLX, a liquid explosive, clear as water and deadly as nitroglycerine.
Kim Hyun Hee was lucky as she passed through the carry-on luggage inspection in November 1987. But it was the kind of luck that would end in the deaths of 115 people on board Korean Airlines Flight 858. It would happen eight-and-a-half hours later, when an alarm clock rang, setting off a bomb Kim was carrying in one of her bags.
Kim, an agent with the North Korean intelligence service, had made it through the security checkpoint at Saddam International Airport in Baghdad. With a radio, filled with 350 grams of C-4 plastic explosive. And with the batteries she needed to ignite the bomb, and that airport officials had wanted to confiscate, until her partner managed to convince the woman at the checkpoint to let her keep the batteries. And, of course, with the bottle containing 700 milliliters of PLX, a liquid explosive, clear as water and deadly as nitroglycerine.
Doubtless the anti-profiler in chief disapproves strongly of this unauthorized burst of partisanship. Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
