[guest post by JVW]
I took a quick check in the Patterico’s Pontifications archives and I don’t think we discussed this story when it broke back in June. As a follow-up to the story that Patterico reported on concerning TSA agents enjoying a pathetic 5% success rate in detecting weapons and bombs, a week later we learned that the TSA employed 73 “aviation workers” whose names also appeared on a terrorism watchlist, despite having supposedly put the workers through what we were assured was a rigorous screening process.
Remember that the next time some preening progressive tells you that you are being bigoted in not wanting, ahem, “Syrian” refugees to start making their way into this country because you do not trust our federal bureaucracy to have the wit or the will to properly screen them. I mean if they can’t even successfully screen government workers who already have social security numbers and green cards and who will be working in sensitive security situations, why should we think that they will do anything more than the most cursory and incomplete check on Tariq and Youssef coming in from Aleppo?
CORRECTION: The Newsweek article, to which the American Spectator story links, provides a bit more context. Apparently not all (or maybe even any) of the workers who were not properly screened were TSA agents, many of them were employees of the airport vendors and airlines, such as ground workers, bartenders, food workers, etc. Nevertheless, the TSA was charged with vetting these workers and they clearly failed in that task, so the main point of my post stands. I have made a slight edit in the second paragraph to make this clear.
– JVW
Animals:
Malian special forces have entered the Radisson Blu Hotel in the capital, Bamako, to try to free hostages taken after it was stormed by gunmen.
The hotel says 138 people remain inside. The gunmen stormed it shooting and shouting “God is great!” in Arabic, eyewitnesses say.
Malian officials said 30 hostages have been freed. State TV earlier put the figure at 80.
Three people have been shot dead and two soldiers wounded, officials say.
The motive remains a mystery to officials.
Nothing says “presidential material” like a proposal to force members of a particular religion to register in a database:
Donald J. Trump, who earlier in the week said he was open to requiring Muslims in the United States to register in a database, said on Thursday night that he “would certainly implement that — absolutely.”
Mr. Trump was asked about the issue by an NBC News reporter and pressed on whether all Muslims in the country would be forced to register. “They have to be,” he said. “They have to be.’’
When asked how a system of registering Muslims would be carried out — whether, for instance, mosques would be where people could register — Mr. Trump said: “Different places. You sign up at different places. But it’s all about management. Our country has no management.’’
Asked later, as he signed autographs, how such a database would be different from Jews having to register in Nazi Germany, Mr. Trump repeatedly said, “You tell me,” until he stopped responding to the question.
Is it OK to make the Hitler comparisons yet? Tell you what: I’ll hold off for now, and simply (again) declare this man a hopeless buffoon.
But I’m starting to lose patience with his supporters, not one of whom is likely to be disturbed by this.
UPDATE: The video is here. Trump seems to be talking about immigrants. But that’s not what he was asked. Let’s see whether he wants to walk it back.
UPDATE x2:
