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Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9 11
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Flying Blind: How Political Correctness Continues to Compromise Airline Safety Post 9 11
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by Michael Smerconish
Sales Rank : 697126
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Hardcover: 232 pages
Publisher: Running Press; 1st edition August 31, 2004
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0762423765
ISBN-13: 978-0762423767
Product Dimensions:
8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
From Publishers Weekly
Flying with his family, Smerconish, a radio talk-show host and newspaper columnist based in Philadelphia, twice had his eight-year-old son chosen for "secondary screening"—and was twice able to substitute himself without incident, despite his carrying odd-looking electronic broadcast gear. Mulling the ease with which he made it though the process, he then learned of a federal policy to fine airlines "if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning." (The actual testimony from an airline industry rep was that the Justice Department said a screening system would be discriminatory if it flagged more than three people of the same ethnic origin.) Contacting the Department of Transportation, Smerconish was told secondary screening is random or behavior-based. Tracing down the decisions that led to these policies in detail—and decrying the policies themselves—Smerconish argues that the U.S. should give some weight to stereotypes. His hero is an immigration inspector in Orlando in 2001, who stopped a Saudi national (likely the 20th hijacker) who became visibly upset when asked why he lacked a return ticket. Designed to provoke Congress to address the tension between nondiscrimination and airlines' capacity to refuse passengers, this book, with its senatorial foreword, may do just that.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Product Review
"Before you get on another airplane, read this book." -- Glenn Beck, nationally syndicated radio host
"Fasten your seatbelts and prepare to be enraged. This incisive book is a must-read for Washington policymakers and airline passengers." -- Michelle Malkin, nationally syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times bestsellerInvasion
"Michael Smerconish has produced a shocking, accurate and very readable contribution to the debate surrounding airport security." -- John Lehman, 9/11 Commissioner and former Secretary of the Navy
"Michael Smerconish is saying what many Americans are thinking-we need to have this debate." -- Sean Hannity, Hannity & Colmes
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