July 10, 2008, - 11:47 am
O’Hare Airport Worker Was Hezbo, Tried to Smuggle Weapons; Kudos to You, ICE Agents!
By Debbie Schlussel
On this site, I’ve repeatedly decried the fact that we don’t screen airport workers at all. They don’t go through security the way passengers do. This allowed airport workers to successfully smuggle arms and drugs on board planes without detection. And it’s a policy rife with opportunities for Muslim airport workers to take advantage of, to our peril.
Now, my stated fears have come to fruition. And if we don’t both screen these people and profile Muslims out of such jobs, we will get more and more of this:
It might have looked like easy money to O’Hare International Airport worker Riad Skaff: $26,500 to help smuggle night-vision goggles, rifle scopes and cash aboard Paris-bound jets.
But the payment was part of a federal sting operation that netted Skaff, 69, a two-year prison sentence handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall.
The judge brushed aside the claim by defense attorney Robert G. Clarke that Skaff was an unsophisticated laborer who didn’t belong in the same category with big-time international arms smugglers.
“I don’t see this offense as trivial – I see this as a very serious offense,” the judge said. She dismissed the claim that Skaff was merely trying to make money and did not intend to jeopardize national security by agreeing to help smuggle military scopes and goggles.
Skaff is a naturalized American citizen born in Lebanon. He formerly was employed by a company that services Air France jetliners.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in January 2007.
Federal prosecutors said he pocketed a total of $26,500 from an undercover ICE agent in return for agreeing to smuggle night-vision scopes, goggles, a cell phone jammer and $396,000 in cash, aboard three outbound planes.
Skaff pleaded guilty to all nine counts in the indictment.
His attorney lobbied for a sentence of probation with no prison time, saying that Skaff was in “delicate health and he is of very old age.” He said his client’s ailments include diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and swelling of the legs and feet.
The judge said she might have given Skaff a stiffer sentence if not for his health woes.
Kudos to the ICE agents involved in the sting, who showed up the incompetent TSA and its obvious vulnerability. This time it was, fortunately, ICE agents. Next time, it could be Hezbollah.
FYI, Skaff, is a Shi’ite Muslim surname, common to Hezbollah supporters in Lebanon. And apparently, this guy is not different from the rest of his family.
When I lived in Korea, they would ALWAYS profile. If there were any Muslim-looking passengers at the airport, they would immediately be frisked and their bags searched. Amen to that.
But here, where we are the target, liberals actually try to hire Muslims as pilots, stewardesses, and Customs officials.
At Newark airport last year, the customs official deciding who would enter and be searched was Muslim. Hello?! Two weeks ago, on a Continental express flight from Cleveland, the only stewardess was a Muslim (and very rude to passengers, too). How many Muslim pilots are Muslim pressure groups ordering airlines to hire?
I say the next 9/11 is going to happen with Muslim crew members, aided by Muslim DHS officials, and Muslim TSA employees.
If pilots are allowed to carry guns onto planes and lock cabin doors, that means that MUSLIM pilots are allowed to carry guns and lock cabin doors because they refuse to do any profiling in hiring decisions.
Gabe on July 10, 2008 at 12:25 pm