every couple of months i read a story about someone who is not permitted to board of flight because of what it says on his t-shirt. i'm not all that interested in discussing the details of today's story, but i've been thinking about this ever since the last time this happened.
my question is this: does it make any sense to bar anyone from a flight because of what it says on his or her shirt? does wearing a t-shirt with a really provocative word on it really make it anymore likely that that person is a terrorist?
i don't think it does. in fact, anyone who wears a shirt with arabic writing,1 or with the word "terrorist" is probably less likely to actually be a terrorist than the average traveler. a real terrorist, after all, is going to try to blend in and make as few waves as possible. wearing a provocative shirt, or even just a shirt with something middle eastern looking on it, rightly or wrongly, is likely to trigger heightened scrutiny of that traveler. and that's the last thing that an actual terrorist would want.
so whenever one of these t-shirt stories comes out, the authorities always look so stupid. can anyone actually defend the logic behind this?
---------------------
1- i'm thinking of an airport in the non-arab world.
