What I want to know

Ok, so we all know that a Nigerian man attempted to blow up a plane in America on Christmas Day.   We also know this means more security rules at the airports as if that will do any good (see Christopher Hitchens article in Slate).  I am also now convinced that if 9/11 had occurred on a Democrat’s watch, Republicans would not have rallied around the president and would have instead been gone all out in a fundraising spree to raise money off the tragedy for their own political gain. But what I want to know is how this guy got on the plane in Amsterdam.

There has been lots of talk about all the intelligence we had on this guy and how our agencies failed to connect the dots.  And while that is important, I am not sure that would have mattered in this case.  And here is why.  This man was allowed to get on a plane in Amsterdam bypassing passport control and security. All the security in the world will not work if the security personnel at a foreign airport allow questionable people to get on a flight! 

Now there are a lot of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories going around regarding what happened at the airport in Amsterdam.  And authorities are checking into the accomplice reports.  But until those reports are checked out and are actually verified, we won’t know what really happened there.  But I do think that our media should at least tell us that those investigations are happening instead of us having to read it on the conspiracy pages and then have to do our own research to find the actual report on where things stand on Reuters Africa!

I realize that focusing on Republican attacks on the president make for good TV.  But from a public policy standpoint, we do actually need to know how this guy got on that plane if we are going to fix the problem.  And I do agree that understanding our own failures is important.  But it seems to me that what happened at the airport in Amsterdam is just as important.  So mainstream media, please do your job and help us understand the big picture on this.  Stop abetting unconstructive partisan attacks to dictate your coverage.  We the people need to know all the facts and not just those that advance a partisan story line.

Note: The ‘facts’ in the conspiracy theory linked to above are mostly unsubstantiated and some outright lies. For instance there is no evidence that Umara Mutallab is the head of an arms dealership.  That accusation stems from a comment posted underneath Umara’s bio on the Sunday Trust website.  One person asks a question and the conspiracy nuts run with it as fact.  As a Humanist – I like to stick to verifiable facts when forming my opinions.  You should too.