Debbie, ask Dalia Mogahed about it – she’s Obama’s Muslim outreach adviser. I’d bet she’d say exactly what the Toronto Pearson airport cops concluded: its none of our business.

Yup – they’re testing the system and seeing what they can get away with. And so we’ll come across incidents like this one more and more often.

No – they don’t make shoe inserts like they used to!

NormanF on April 21, 2010 at 4:58 am

NO! This really takes the cake. And my poor deluded Obamabot in-laws don’t understand why my bearded, very Semitic looking (Jewish) husband won’t fly over to visit them in NC. We’ve already been threatened with the Patriot Act when we tried to rent an apartment and our credit score was a few points too low for them. I mean a very few. That was about 3 years ago in FLA. DH also had death threats against him and other Jews and all the cops did was shrug that it was “freedom of speech.” And people wonder why we feel safer here in Israel? We knew then it was time to leave and when Hussein won Super Tuesday we got serious about setting a date before the election.

mk750 on April 21, 2010 at 5:06 am

Oh yeah, I have a friend here who won’t leave home without her magnetic insoles. Wanna bet if they were detected, she’d be booked and tossed in prison with no
hope of release? She’s American BTW and probably smart enough not to wear them if she flies but you never know.

mk750 on April 21, 2010 at 5:13 am

I had through security screening twice four years ago even though I only changed flights and I had to have them examine my shoes in detail. I would think my northern European appearance would save me all the added hassle. But with the politically correct airport screenings in North America (which might as well be no screening at all) some people turn out to be more equal than others. I noticed in reading the original story that the religious identity of the perp is not stated. But I think its obvious… we’re just not allowed to draw that conclusion. So if you’re any one else but Muslim, expect airport check-ins to be as truly unpleasant as ever.

NormanF on April 21, 2010 at 5:15 am

Those ostensible “police officers” should be decommissioned and charged, and the prime minister should take the podium and publicly reassert his noble nation’s resolve, etc. But alas, sanity has departed, and the time of cravenness is here. Let us all now channel our inner Neville Chamberlains. Did you ever think to live to see such a thing in North America?

Dernon Ruton on April 21, 2010 at 8:07 am

Police Sgt. Zahir Shah?

Zippy on April 21, 2010 at 8:08 am

Here is what I don’t get. Either this was an attempt to see what could pass through Security, practicing for a terrorist hit, or the actual thing. If it was the latter and the detonation and explosive devices were not discovered on this guy, then someone else had them. It is scary that this was the only guy who was caught.

I_AM_ME on April 21, 2010 at 8:13 am

That’s right. Let’s keep Jonathan Pollard, a man who helped expose Islamic terror plans in order to help keep the world safer, in prison for life so he can do no more “damage” and let’s let the terrorists and potential terrorists roam free because how dare we upset the religion of peace!

rebecca on April 21, 2010 at 8:33 am

I’d bet these terrorists could even get away with saying that they were going to use these round pieces of shrapnel to play marbles on the flight to pass the time.

Jarhead on April 21, 2010 at 12:38 pm

Somewhere, there is a meeting of these terrorists laughing hysterically at the buffoons in the US and in other countries who continue to believe their line of crap. “I said I wanted to look taller and they believed it! Bwa-hahahahahah!”

When do we all wake up? I’ll tell you when…..when we see another 9-11. Then there will be finger pointing and “Congressional investigations” that will continue to ignore the obvious signs that could have prevented it. We’re doomed.

Musiccgirl on April 21, 2010 at 1:06 pm

“Peel police Sgt. Zahir Shah says the issue is a private matter and the man is now departing for a U.S. location.”

Hmm, “police Sgt. Zahir Shah”, why do I have a problem with such “private matters?”

And the perps name was Muhammad, was it?

sheik yer'mami on April 21, 2010 at 1:58 pm

Let me guess. He was to carry the power (the shrapnel was for mass testing the scanner), his partner the plastique, and another the detonator.

pat on April 21, 2010 at 2:05 pm

as someone said earlier….terrorists are just testing our system now….they are planing another attack and not very far away…i travel from east to west coast several times a year…what a bunch of A@@ H@@les at TSA…because i was in a wheelchair i had to go to a seperate area from my bags….i caught a TSA person taking a zip lock bag of jewlery out of my bag (real cool-this man was probably 60yrs old at that) i got out of my wheelchair and walked over there and said “will u b using my jewlery tonight at the queens ball”but the jewlery back and give me my bag…he did so, and i reported him to the supervisor…i feel much safer after this incident….you have got to be kidding…….TSA at airports are a laugh..jmc

pink bunny on April 21, 2010 at 2:56 pm

I dont think you give our homeland security enough credit. I’ll assume this battery-bomber is being watched very closely right now. Obviously this mastermind didn’t put this together himself so maybe they’re just trying to climb the ladder.

Joe Schmo on April 21, 2010 at 3:30 pm

Even the man know to history as the great appeaser, Neville Chamberlain, eventually got it, that appeasement doesn’t work. On 31 March 1939 Chamberlain, after watching Hitler grab more and more of Europe, informed Parliament the the British government would come at once to Poland’s aid. But Obambi doesn’t get. Homeland Security doesn’t get it. The State Department doesn’t get it. And we the people are going to suffer for it.

kenny komodo on April 21, 2010 at 4:11 pm

Having it in the shoes is better than this guy at LAX:

LAX passenger hides objects in his body; bomb squad called
His plane was diverted but deemed safe. The Iraqi national, a legal U.S. resident, said he was trying to ease stress. He is turned over to ICE.
March 07, 2007|Andrew Blankstein, Times Staff Writer

Authorities called in the bomb squad early Tuesday and diverted a flight to Las Vegas after Los Angeles International Airport security screeners found hidden wires and other objects in a body cavity of a Philadelphia-bound passenger.

Fadhel Al-Maliki, a 35-year-old Iraqi national living in Atlantic City, N.J., had been flagged by security officials at LAX and was undergoing a secondary “selectee screening” when he set off a metal detector.
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Al-Maliki, a former security guard, told screeners that he knew what had triggered the alarm and proceeded to remove items from his rectum, including a rock, chewing gum and thin wire filament.

Concern that the objects might be components for an explosive device led airport authorities to call in the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI bomb technicians as well as a hazardous material team.

A preliminary investigation appeared to rule out a theory that Al-Maliki may have been looking for weaknesses in security or was rehearsing for a terrorist act, federal and local law enforcement authorities said.

During questioning, Al-Maliki said the objects in his rectum were used to alleviate stress, federal law enforcement sources said.

The rock, authorities said he told them, was from another planet.

As Al-Maliki was being detained, his two bags were loaded on to US Airways Flight 1422, which took off for Philadelphia with 143 passengers and six crew members on board, said Liz Landau, a spokeswoman for the airline.

Federal officials said the bags had been checked for explosives, chemicals and other hazardous materials using the most modern and extensive screening devices available. Even so, they diverted the aircraft to McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas “out of an abundance of caution.”

There, passengers were taken off the plane, which was parked away from the terminal.

Passengers had to leave their carry-on bags aboard, and the plane and their luggage were searched, Landau said.

Federal officials also said a search of Al-Maliki’s luggage turned up nothing “hazardous or illegal.”

“Based on our investigation, there was no threat to Los Angeles International Airport or the airports in Las Vegas or Philadelphia,” said Ethel McGuire, the FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

ender on April 22, 2010 at 6:16 pm

TSA is on the job

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2011663160_airmarshal22m.html

ender on April 22, 2010 at 9:17 pm