The Continental defence

If Continental Airlines really gets to a stage of needing a defence of its frisking of our former President, it might not do too badly to point
out that it was actually acting in perfectly good faith. The rules of passenger profiling and the criteria of various terror watchlists that US airlines follow would make Dr APJ Abdul Kalam a prime candidate for the kind of secondary screening that the he was forced to undergo.
South Asian? Check. Muslim? Check. Unusual amount and style of hair? Check. Grew up in a small town known for its places of worship? Check. Attended Arabic school to learn the Koran as a child? Check. Technical post-graduate degree? Check. Worked with ballistic missiles? Check. Played a significant role in nuclear weapons programme of third world country? Check.
Kalam, mercifully, does not carry the surname Khan, which has been the bane of other Indian celebrities who had earlier been at the receiving end of US immigration authorities. So in terms of basic profiling, Kalam would be a sitting duck.
All of this pales before the fact that the subject was a former President, and as per protocol, exempt. But to that defence, may we suggest that he was a Head of State who isn’t elected by the popular vote, and a Head of State of a large and fractious developing country with at least two domestic terror insurgencies that it is struggling to control.
So Continental seems perfectly justified in picking on Kalam.
24/07/09 Economic Times

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Categories: Airports Jul 2009, Foreign Jul 2009