Back to the 9/11 hijackers. Was the fact that they were Arab males between 16 and 39 enough to detain them? Of course not. But toss in that they were travelling together, with one-way tickets and no luggage, and at least one of them was here illegally courtesy of an outdated Visa, at least a couple of them should have been taken aside for closer scrutiny. At that point, perhaps more attention would have been paid to the box cutters they were carrying could make passable weapons, and maybe one or more of those flights would have landed safely.
I'm not saying that it would have happened that way, but it certainly could have -- IF those who are trained to protect us are allowed to use their knowledge and training and instincts to DO THEIR JOB.
I think that a combination of both types of screening is what we're going to have to have, if we're really going to be successful. Yes, we need to be examining luggage and carry-ons. No, we do NOT need to be "randomly" selecting people to pat down -- we need to be smart about it and pat down the people who (1)have suspicious items in their luggage or carryons or (2)fit the profile of a possible hijacker -- i.e., Arabs, Muslims, people traveling with one-way tickets, people whose visas or passports don't jive, people who look French, etc.
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