The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
NOTE: The excerpt below is from the 12/29/10 BOTW archives.
What Big Arms You Have!
Why do grandmothers get frisked at airports? For years this rhetorical question has been a trope of the Transportation Security Administration’s critics. But maybe the TSA was on to something all along. FoxNews.com reports that “a 46-year-old Indiana grandmother is under investigation for her possible ties to suspected and convicted international terrorists.”
The granny, Kathie Smith of Indianapolis, “has blogged about her granddaughter.” Last year she “married a suspected German jihadist, and has been flying back and forth between the U.S. and Germany as recently as two weeks ago.”
According to Fox, Smith, “who now calls herself Zubaida,” appears in a pro-jihad video on YouTube, which depicts her standing behind hubby Salahudin Ibn Jafar, though only her eyes are visible as she is wearing a Saudi-style abaya and niqab. She brandishes a large rifle–all the better to hug you with, my dear.
The Indiana Department of Homeland Security confirms that the video is “being looked at and evaluated” by the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, a statewide clearinghouse in which federal agents participate. But the FBI, in accordance with its policy, refuses to confirm or deny that an investigation is under way.
Fox, however, conducted an interview with Smith consisting of “lengthy e-mail exchanges,” in which she “denied being anti-American” but also “called the Sept. 11 attacks an inside job, [called] the U.S. a terrorist organization and praised the American-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar al Awlaki.” Here’s a quote from one of the emails, in which Smith explains the YouTube video:
“The so-called ‘jihadists’ you have mentioned are actually personal friends of my husband from childhood. In the video he was expressing his love and gratitude to his friends, who have died fighting for freedom. Just like any other American or European citizen who displays pictures of soldiers who have died on their videos. There is no difference in gratitude and love. It is just that your government has deemed these noble men as ‘terrorists’ because they are not on the same side. Least us not forget the Mujahideen who fought the Russians for the U.S. They were deemed ‘heroes’ and lead [sic] by Osama Bin Laden at that time, and now because the government says so . . . they are “terrorists.’ “
Sounds as though she’s read the Reuters stylebook.
So, does this mean that TSA is right to treat grandmothers as potential terrorists? Not so fast. According to Fox, in her email interview “Smith claimed that she has been repeatedly subjected to hours-long interrogations by Homeland Security every time she travels. She said her luggage has been subjected to bomb residue tests, and that officials asked her numerous detailed questions about her husband. She also claims DHS officials on more than one occasion escorted her onto a departing airplane.”
Clearly what’s happening is that airport security is turning grandmothers into terrorists by subjecting them to such humiliating treatment.
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