bluefacedpixie

I didn’t blog this Atlantic article originally, but it keeps coming up in conversation. Read how a journalist deliberately and repeatedly repeats every airport security violation he can. Except without being a real terrorist of course.

On another occasion, at LaGuardia, in New York, the transportation-security officer in charge of my secondary screening emptied my carry-on bag of nearly everything it contained, including a yellow, three-foot-by-four-foot Hezbollah flag, purchased at a Hezbollah gift shop in south Lebanon. The flag features, as its charming main image, an upraised fist clutching an AK-47 automatic rifle. Atop the rifle is a line of Arabic writing that reads Then surely the party of God are they who will be triumphant. The officer took the flag and spread it out on the inspection table. She finished her inspection, gave me back my flag, and told me I could go. I said, Thats a Hezbollah flag. She said, Uh-huh. Not Uh-huh, Ive been trained to recognize the symbols of anti-American terror groups, but after careful inspection of your physical person, your behavior, and your last name, Ive come to the conclusion that you are not a Bekaa Valleytrained threat to the United States commercial aviation system, but Uh-huh, Im going on break, why are you talking to me?