From http://OpinionJournal.com

Best of the Web Today - January 3, 2002
By JAMES TARANTO
Shattered  http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/03/secret.service.agent/index.html

The Secret Service agent who was booted from an American Airlines flight on Christmas Day has hired a team of Washington lawyers to press his case that he was the victim of "profiling." Actually, the accusation has changed somewhat since the agent--identified by The Weekly Standard's  Christopher Caldwell  http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/735hkywz.asp  as Wallid Shatter--first lodged the allegation last week. As we  noted Friday  http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001658 , a press release from the  Council on American Islamic Relations  http://cair-net.org/asp/article.asp?articleid=559&articletype=3  claimed that the pilot had singled him out not only because he is Arab-American but because he is Muslim--though how anyone was supposed to have known Shatter's religion is a mystery. (Did he unfurl a prayer rug in the aisle of the airplane?) Presumably the folks at CAIR are aware that three out of four Arab-Americans are Christian.

CNN reports the pilot submitted a report on the incident to the airline:

*** QUOTE ***

In the report, the pilot said the incident began when a flight attendant said she and other flight attendants were concerned about the actions of a passenger. The passenger had left the aircraft while leaving a carry-on bag still in his seat, telling flight attendants not to leave without him.

While the passenger was away, the flight attendants "observed books in the individuals (sic) seat which were written in what she assessed was Arabic style print," the pilot wrote.

When the passenger returned, the pilot decided to review the paperwork required by law enforcement officials who carry weapons onto planes.

"The form was unreadable because it was a carbon-copy and there were missing items," the pilot said. "I then had the agent come back and re-check his credentials" and fill out a new form, the pilot said, but the new form was "filled out improperly."

The passenger "appeared nervous and anxious," the pilot said.

The pilot said that as he tried to verify the Secret Service agent's credentials, the agent "became very hostile."

"In the interim, I was given a third improperly filled out (form). This had no signature of the (law enforcement officer), no phone number."

*** END QUOTE ***

Shatter, of course, was carrying a gun, which, as a law-enforcement agent, he was entitled to do--but one can hardly fault the pilot for wanting to be absolutely certain the firearm-toting passenger was who he claimed he was. It's certainly easy to imagine, and even to sympathize with, Shatter's becoming "hostile." Airport-security bureaucracy can be maddening, and as a cop, he's probably not used to having his authority questioned. But one also must sympathize with the airline, which, as Caldwell notes, has of late "seen a good deal of its personnel and clientele blown out of the skies by people who fit Shatter's profile." He goes on:

*** QUOTE ***

Or, if you don't like profiling, let's ignore Shatter's profile for a moment. Christmas would have to be a high-alert day--a day on which a bomb or a hijacking would have especially great news value, and on which both security and in-flight personnel were likely severely understaffed. Some guy who claims to be going to see the president tries to get on a plane--with a gun--and the captain doesn't like the look of his paperwork. Specifically, Shatter was taking Flight 363 because he had been bumped from an earlier flight. According to the captain, the information he gave on the form for the second flight didn't match the information he'd given on the same form for the first.

Then, to top it off, the guy tries to get back on the plane. Have you ever left a sweater or a cell phone on a flight and tried to get back down the jetway? Being a forgetful person, I have. What happened, even before September 11, was that everyone standing near the gate surrounds you. If you show the slightest hint of insisting ("Aw, come on . . . that sweater's got my return ticket on it"), they get ready to call the cops. I was never (up until September 11) a big fan of this kind of draconian security on airlines. But the point is, the airlines have a longstanding record of not messing around when it comes to access to their planes--no matter what the passenger's color is. When American Airlines spokeswoman Laura Mayo says the incident was not about racial profiling but about "confirming that an armed individual is who he says he is and that he is qualified to travel," we ought to believe her.

*** END QUOTE ***

Caldwell quotes CAIR head Ibraham Hooper: "If [Shatter] had had the name John Smith and hadn't been of Arab-American background, there wouldn't have been a problem." Wrong, says Caldwell. " 'John Smith,' trying to board the flight with the same gun and the same iffy paperwork, would have been booted unceremoniously, and you'd never have heard another word about it, because Smith has no 'civil rights' groups to agitate for kid-gloves treatment. In fact, if Wallid Shatter had been named John Smith, American Airlines would now be demanding an apology from him, rather than vice versa."

India Gets Serious  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001570023-2002002040,00.html

Last month's attack on the Indian Parliament pushed New Delhi to the edge of its patience with Pakistani-backed terrorism, the Times of London reports:

*** QUOTE ***

From ordinary working men and women, up to Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Prime Minister, there is a strong consensus that the Kashmiri insurgency, which has been dragging on for a decade, with support from Pakistan, must be tackled with the same determination that the United States has shown in its campaign against the Taleban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan after the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11.

*** END QUOTE ***

Another Times report  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001570023-2002001379,00.html  says the terror group Lashkar-i-Taiba, which is believed to have perpetrated the Parliament attack, has threatened to blow up the Taj Mahal--a Muslim mausoleum. And the  Press Trust of India  http://www.hindustantimes.com/nonfram/030102/dlfor77.asp  picks up a  Washington Post  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54251-2002Jan2.html  report that, as PTI puts it, "President Pervez Musharraf has left terrorists in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) free to continue their activities in Jammu and Kashmir, confining his mild crackdown to Pakistan proper."

National Review's  Jay Nordlinger  http://www.nationalreview.com/impromptus/impromptus010302.shtml  takes an optimistic view of Musharraf:

*** QUOTE ***

Pakistan and India moved toward war after the attack on the Indian parliament by al Qaeda-like militants from Pakistan. Musharraf responded that Pakistan was prepared for war if it came to that: but he made unmistakably clear that the Pakistani militants were enemies of Pakistan itself. He said that such militants had engulfed the country in a "nightmare." He said that Pakistan faced an "internal challenge" as much as an external one. He said, "No wicked, bigoted extremist will be allowed to derail us, and we, the vast, silent majority, must vow not to be voiceless, passive onlookers to our own internal destruction."

You won't often find me tipping my hat to a military dictator: but it's hard to see how anyone could "ride the [Pakistani] tiger" more ably or more daringly than Musharraf is doing it now. And let us hope that he is right about that "vast, silent majority" part. I suspect he is. But they had better recover their voice. Perhaps, through this dictator/leader, they are.

*** END QUOTE ***

Did the Caged Bird Sing?  http://kausfiles.com/

Speaking of optimism, here's Mickey Kaus's take on the courtroom defiance of the "20th hijacker":

*** QUOTE ***

Is everything what it seems? If you were accused terrorist Zacarias Moussoui, and you really had been part of the 9/11 al Qaeda plot, but you'd broken down and were blabbing everything to the authorities, would you want to give that impression in open court, making yourself a potential target for your former comrades? Or would you seem defiant and say "In the name of Allah, I do not have anything to plead"? Just a thought.

*** END QUOTE ***

So Long, Salam  http://www.tribuneindia.com/2002/20020103/main1.htm

Pakistan has refused to grant political asylum to the Taliban's former ambassador to Islamabad, Mullah Abdul Salam, the Frontier Post reports. "It is also learnt that these Taliban leaders have also been officially asked to leave Pakistan at the earliest."

Arab Rocket Science  http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/01/03/News/News.41049.html

Hezbollah,  France's favorite terrorist group  http://opinionjournal.com/best/?id=95001676#french , tried to help Hamas acquire "homemade Katyusha rockets" to use in attacks on Israeli civilians, the Jerusalem Post reports:

*** QUOTE ***

According to the Palestinian Web site Al-Bawaba, Palestinian security officials told Time magazine last month that the rockets are a locally produced adaptation of a North Korean design, and that Hizbullah had acquired the rockets from Syrian soldiers in Lebanon and passed them on to Hamas. The rockets were then smuggled into the Gaza Strip, where a Hamas engineer began duplicating them.

*** END QUOTE ***

Shin Bet, Israel's security agency, foiled the plan when it "arrested a Hamas operative at the Rafah border crossing as he attempted to travel to Saudi Arabia to organize funding for the project." The suspect, Osama Zuhar Hamed Karika, "told investigators that he was instructed . . . to travel under the pretext of wishing to make a pilgrimage to Mecca; once there, he met with Hamas officials and solicited financial backing."

Iranian Rocket Science  http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/01/02/LatestNews/LatestNews.41021.html

The Post also reports that an Iranian newspaper is criticizing ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani's threat to destroy Israel with nuclear weapons:

*** QUOTE ***

Rafsanjani told a crowd at the stadium in Teheran University that the day is approaching in which the Islamic world will possess atomic weapons.

"On that day, the strategy of the West will hit a dead end, since a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy Israel, while an Israeli counterstrike can only cause partial damage to the Islamic world," he said.

*** END QUOTE ***

Noruz, a reformist newspaper, criticized Rafsanjani and, "saying the ex-president's statements caused damage to the state's national interests."

Our Friends the Belarusans  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54510-2002Jan2.html

"Belarus is quietly acting as a leading supplier of lethal military equipment to Islamic radicals--with terrorists and militant organizations in the Middle East, Balkans and Central Asia often the recipients," Mark Lenzi writes in a Washington Post op-ed:

*** QUOTE ***

While it is deplorable that Belarus's weapons have been responsible for prolonging civil wars and internal strife in countries such as Tajikistan, Angola and Algeria, it is particularly disturbing that Sudan, a country where Osama bin Laden used to live and one that is known as a haven for terrorists, has obtained from Belarus such proven and capable weapon systems as T-55 tanks and Mi-24 Hind Helicopter gunships. Weapons sent from Belarus to Sudan either fall into the hands of terrorists or are used in a civil war that has already killed more than 2 million people. . . .

Despite strong denials from Lukashenko, Belarus has been a key partner of Saddam Hussein in his effort to rebuild and modernize Iraq's air defense capability. Belarus has violated international law by secretly supplying Baghdad with SA-3 antiaircraft missile components as well as technicians. Given that Iraq has repeatedly tried to shoot down U.S. and British aircraft patrolling the U.N. no-fly zone--with more than 420 attempts this year alone--covert Belarusian-Iraqi military cooperation is disturbing and should set off alarm bells in Western capitals.

*** END QUOTE ***

Women for War  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54012-2002Jan2.html

The Washington Post quotes Celinda Lake, "a Democratic pollster who is an authority on reaching female voters," as saying the war on terror has drawn strong support from the fairer sex:

*** QUOTE ***

Lake . . . said Bush's war message has had the unusual effect of appealing both to "women on the left who are concerned about rights and equity and traditional feminism, and to women on the right who were concerned about the Taliban's treatment of female Christian missionaries." Lake said this is the first war in which polls have shown American women to be as supportive of the hostilities as men.

*** END QUOTE ***

"This is big news," comments  Andrew Sullivan  http://andrewsullivan.com/ . "And the economy may be perking up as well. If I were a Democrat, I'd be worried right now."

Stupidity Watch
The real purpose of World War IV is to increase property values, according to  John Stigloe  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2002/01/02/carollloyd.DTL , a Harvard professor. "The federal government was badly shocked after Sept. 11," he tells the San Francisco Chronicle. "The elites thought they had to get the American people focused on something else. And so we're bombing the hell out of Afghanistan. I'm sorry to say this, but I think that's what this whole war on terrorism is all about: It's about maintaining urban property values. It is necessary to do whatever they can to keep people willing to pay exorbitant prices for a small apartment in Manhattan or San Francisco or Los Angeles."

Sean Penn  http://www.nydailynews.com/2002-01-02/News_and_Views/Daily_Dish/a-136912.asp , ex-husband of Madonna, doesn't like Fox News Channel host Bill O'Reilly. Now, we'll admit O'Reilly is an acquired taste, but Penn really doesn't like him. The New York Daily News reports that in the forthcoming issue of Talk magazine, Penn manages to compare O'Reilly unfavorable with Joe McCarthy, Osama bin Laden and even Hitler:

*** QUOTE ***
 
I think that people like the Howard Sterns, the Bill O'Reillys and to a lesser degree the Bin Ladens of the world are making a horrible contribution [to society]. . . . I'd like to trade O'Reilly for Bin Laden. . . . This is not a man sitting on the toilet with a smile on his face. He's a grumpy, self-loathing joke. There's a long history of people who capitalize on the lowest common demominator of people's impulses, Adolf Hitler being one of them. Not everybody wants to hit the wall in a violent rage and break their knuckles, so [O'Reilly] does it for them. He'll get very rich and get his rocks off that he's powerful. . . . These guys--Joe McCarthy, Bill O'Reilly--die like everyone else. And when they do, their legacy is one of damaging the spirit of good things, and they become rather broken, pathetic figures. And that is going to happen to him.

*** END QUOTE ***

Don't Know Much About History  http://www.wral.com/News/1160696/index.html

Ben Ruffin, chairman of the University of North Carolina board of trustees, claims in a speech in Chapel Hill that, as WRAL-TV puts it, "black Americans have known terrorism for hundreds of years, and few people have cared about their suffering." It's certainly true that, as WRAL puts it, black Americans "been the victims of bombings, lynchings and other acts of terror." But if Ruffin really thinks few people have cared about their suffering, he might want to brush up on his history--specifically the Civil War, Brown v. Board of Education and the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Homelessness Rediscovery Watch

*** QUOTE ***

"If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition's arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation."-- Mark Helprin  http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/mhelprin/?id=65000507 , Oct. 31, 2000

"Surge in Demand Strains Shelter"--headline,  Dallas Morning News  http://www.dallasnews.com/metro/plano/news/STORY.eb20a202f3.b0.af.0.a4.423e6.html  (link requires registration), Jan. 2, 2002

"Homeless Left out in the Cold"--headline,  Boston Herald  http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_regional/home01032002.htm , Jan. 3, 2002

"For Baltimore's Homeless, a Season of Misery Begins"--headline,  Baltimore Sun  http://www.sunspot.net/news/local/bal-md.olesker30dec30.story , Dec. 30, 2001

"Winter, Economy Hit Valley's Homeless Hard"--headline,  Idaho Statesman  http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/daily/20020103/FrontPage/204201.shtml , Jan. 3, 2002

*** END QUOTE ***

Will They Boycott Quarters and Dollar Bills?  http://www.usatoday.com/life/2002/2002-01-02-washington-portrait.htm

USA Today reports on an effort by New Jersey businessman William Sanders to hang portraits of George Washington in classrooms. Sanders persuaded the New Jersey Assembly to pass a bill that would require the first president's portrait to be hung in all Garden State classrooms, but it died in a Senate committee. What's amazing about the story is the knee-jerk opposition to this innocuous proposal from all the usual suspects:
-Nancy Volte, New Jersey Education Associaiton: "Requiring legislation to honor one person does a disservice to many individuals. There are so many others who were also instrumental in securing our country's freedom."
-Stephen Rohde, president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California: "I'm very suspicious of forced patriotism. Probably it would be constitutional if a school district or school system required George Washington's picture in every classroom. [But] I'm suspicious about imposing something one would hope that school districts would voluntarily want."
-Lee Formwalt of the Organization of American Historians: "George Washington, yes, played a critical role. No one will deny that at all. But to get a full understanding of the American past, we have to include all the different groups that played a role."
-Currie Ballard, historian in residence at Oklahoma's Langston University: "America was not a pretty place for black people when George Washington was president. Our people were still in slavery. . . . This country doesn't have much to celebrate when it comes to 200 years ago and its treatment of people. I love my country, and that's why I can say that."

Buddy Clinton, RIP  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56485-2002Jan3.html

It hasn't been a good year for Bill Clinton. Not only is his legacy in shambles, but now his dog is dead after having been left home alone in Chappaqua, N.Y. "Buddy, former president Clinton's ebullient chocolate retriever, was killed by a car near the Clinton home, police said Thursday," the Associated Press reports. "Officer Bruce Cathie of the New Castle police said Buddy was accidentally struck Wednesday afternoon on Route 117, a busy two-lane road at the end of Old House Lane, the cul-de-sac that includes the ex-president's home."

Bill and Hillary put out a statement through spokeswoman Julia Payne: "We are deeply saddened by Buddy's death. He was a loyal companion and brought us much joy. He will truly be missed."

"Deeply saddened," eh? Hmm,  where have we heard that before?  http://google.yahoo.com/bin/query?p=+clinton++%22deeply+saddened%22&hc=0&hs=0

(Elizabeth Crowley helps compile Best of the Web Today. Thanks to Damian Bennett, Raghu Desikan, Paul Music, Olly Vanos, C.E. Dobkin, Nathan Wirtschafter, S.E. Brenner, Martha Taylor, Ed Morrissey, Gregory Brunt, Gad Meir, Dale Hollar, Steven Breyfogle, Mark Schulze, Mitchell Alexander, Jim Orheim and Brian O'Rourke. If you have a tip, write us at  Review & Outlook  mailto:opinionjournal@wsj.com : Leahy cites Sept. 11 as an excuse to stall judicial nominations (link requires registration).
- Claudia Rosett  http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/cRosett/?id=95001678 : After Sept. 11, America discovered mortality. It's about time.
- John Fund  http://opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=95001672 : An Amtrak loophole so big you can drive a train through it.
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