THE DAILY BLADE: Is TSA Trying Hard Enough To Stop Terror In The Sky?
Testing of a new X-ray security scanner at Terminal 4 of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport has been delayed indefinitely because of technical glitches involving the airport's wireless connections. A Transportation Security Administration spokesperson told Associated Press, “The last thing we wanted to do was start this during one of the busiest travel times of the year.”
With the holiday crush of international travelers passing through Terminal 4 from countries known to shelter or sponsor terrorists and harried airport security screeners more likely than ever to overlook a weapon or other contraband, The Stiletto can’t understand why the last thing the TSA wants to do is to improve aviation security. It’s debatable how serious the agency is about preventing another 9/11, else the backscatter X-ray machine would have been installed and run through its paces months ago so as to be online when needed most.
Meanwhile, the ACLU has taken to calling the X-ray, which can see beneath a person’s clothing down to the bare skin, “a virtual strip search.” The first iteration of the machine produced high-def images of male genitalia and female breasts that bordered on pornographic. In response to a drumbeat of protests by the ACLU and privacy advocates – the likely reason for the deployment delay at
The modified X-ray screener can still detect a gun or box cutter taped to someone’s leg - as would a conventional pat-down - but a thin, even coat of plastic explosives “spackled” onto a terrorist’s upper thigh would be invisible to the machine, according to one security expert.
1,400 Turks Hospitalized After Ritual Animal Slaughters
More than1,400 Turks spent New Year’s Eve – also the first day of the Muslim feast Eid al-Adha (or Eid ul Adha; for some unfathomable reason, no two Muslims can agree on a standardized spelling for anything) - in hospital ERs after stabbing or otherwise injuring their hands and legs while sacrificing thousands of cows, sheep, goats and bulls. Four of the injured were crushed by the weight of large animals falling on them; three others suffered fatal heart attacks.
The rite is meant to commemorate G-d having provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in place of his son to reward his unquestioning obedience. As part of the ritual, Muslims chant "Allah Akbar" as the unlucky animal’s throat is slit.
Under pressure from the European Union, which
The Stiletto much prefers these inept "amateur" butchers to the ruthless, all-too-professional Ottoman Turks who systematically slaughtered the Armenian people to near-annihilation between 1915 and 1923 (video link; archival news footage and photography).
On a related topic, The Wall Street Journal published an editorial, "Justice for a Tyrant," on Saddam Hussein’s execution that notes most mass murdering heads of state throughout history escaped punishment for their crimes against humanity:
Stalin and Mao died in their own beds. Hitler escaped the hangman by committing suicide, while Nicolae Ceausescu was shot by a vengeful mob after a perfunctory trial. Idi Amin and Pol Pot were ousted from power but lived into old age without punishment. Slobodan Milosevic made it to trial but died before a verdict could be rendered.
The Wall Street Journal has a moral and historical blind spot when it comes to reporting the Armenian Genocide as settled history – the majority of the paper’s editorial writers and columnists are so pro-Turkey as to be apologists for the Ottomans, repeatedly aiding and abetting Turkey’s ongoing genocide denial.
Thus, The Journal’s editorial did not reach back far enough into 20th century history to divulge what happened to the triumvirate of Young Turks who orchestrated the mass murders of Armenians. Here’s what The Journal left out:
† Minister of War Ismail Enver (AKA Enver Pasha) was killed leading a cavalry charge against an advancing Armenian batallion of the Red Army on August 4, 1922, near Baldzhuan in Turkestan.
† Ottoman Governor of Syria Ahmed Djemal (AKA Jemal Pasha) was assassinated by by Stepan Dzaghigian on July 21, 1922 in Tiflis, a town in Russian Caucasia.
† Minister of the Interior Mehmed Talaat (AKA Talaat Pasha) was assassinated in Berlin in 1921 by Soghomon Tehlirian, Tehlirian was acquitted of murder by a jury in Berlin.
All The News That’s Fart To Print
As you know, The Stiletto has stooped to bathroom humor (second item, The Daily Blade,
†
† A 400-page UN report on global warming suggests that cows emit more greenhouse gases than all the planes, trains and automobiles on the planet put together. In addition to the CO2 and methane pouring into the atmosphere from their flatulence and manure, cattle produce more than two-thirds of the world's emissions of ammonia, a main cause of acid rain.
† American Flight 1053, from W
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