Who's your (al-Ma)Dadi?

When will the US wise up?

Yesterday, a diplomat from Qatar on a flight that departed from Washington, DC decided he needed to smoke and did so in the first class bathroom several times while the plane was in flight. Smoking is not allowed on any domestic flight anymore and anyone that flies in the United States knows this. The illuminated signs tell you this in words and in pictures. The flight attendants remind you of this. But this dude thought he was cool and had the authority to do whatever he felt like doing because he was a diplomat!

The last time Mohammed Al-Madadi exited the bathroom, one of the other male passengers sitting near the bathroom door noticed smoke, as he had noticed each of the times this Mohammed had exited the bathroom. He asked him "why does it smell like smoke in there?" and according to news sources, the diplomat muttered that he was trying to light his shoes on fire. Supposedly this was said in a tongue in cheek way. However, he said this to the wrong fellow. YAY!! The man who he said that to was an Federal Air Marshall, one of 2 that were on this flight. Mohammed Al-Madadi was held until the flight landed in Denver where he could be investigated.

I am sorry to say that he has since been released and had gone on his merry way. You see, he has DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY!! Even though the authorities investigated the situation and found no evidence of bomb materials in his shoes, the fact that he was from a Muslim country and smoke was coming from the bathroom where he was located during much of the flight, the Air Marshalls had a good reason to be suspicious of this man. His arrogance and flagrant disregard for a Federal Regulation should have some consequences. He should at the very least have been booted back to Qatar ASAP. And if he thinks that saying what he said was humorous, he is really out of touch!

Whether the more liberal of us like to admit this, the free world is at war with radical Islam. We didn't ask for this conflict but baby, we are in it. They want to kill us, lots of us, as many of us as they can at one time. The airplane seems to be their weapon of choice over the last 9 years. They have tried and tried to get bombs and weapons aboard planes. They have buried weapons in their shoes, and in their underwear. They have brought liquids on board in water bottles. They are trying to use female suicide bombers with breast implants as a means to transport explosive liquids onto planes in order to then inject them with a catalyst and cause an explosion. They have attempted to attack people at airports. They have tried to use planes as missiles and have been somewhat successful doing that. When are people going to wake up to the fact that if we continue to obsess about political correctness, and don't do the things we need to do to keep us all safe, lots of us are going to die?

We need to profile, and we need to prevent these dirtbags from ever getting into the United States at all. If there is even the slightest doubt as to whether someone should be on a no fly list, let them stay home and not be allowed to come here. Too bad if we hurt someones feelings.

If they are already here in the US, we need to keep serious track of each and every follower of radical Islam. You want to create new government jobs, Mr. President? How about adding thousands of new intelligence agents to track all of our domestic enemies? Those are government jobs we need and those kinds of agents are in short supply. Those are government jobs we could get our heads around.

Back to the aggravating subject of Diplomatic Immunity. After a little research on the subject, I found out that this concept has been around for centuries in one form or another. We are, however, living in unprecedented times. Lots of countries have endured incidents that have featured diplomats committing crimes while out of country and being protected under the umbrella of Diplomatic Immunity. These have included but are not limited to parking and driving violations, drunk driving, vehicular homicide, drugs, murder, the list goes on and on. What is supposed to happen in these circumstances is that the mother country of the diplomat brings the offending diplomat home and deals with the crime committed abroad within their own legal system. That is what is supposed to happen. It is all up to the discretion of the diplomat's own country and that means sometimes, there will be no consequences at all and there isn't a darn thing we can do about it.

These days, we have enemies that are not operating under any particular flag...they are not an army against us, they are a secret band of terrorists from many nations with a common ideology that is diametrically opposed to ours. There is the possibility that a person posing as a "diplomat" could get in to our country and perpetrate a crime or a terrorist act and get away with it under that same immunity umbrella. That has to change or there has to be some exceptions to this rule. Diplomats are allowed to carry a "diplomatic bag or pouch" that has the same level of immunity. The bags cannot be searched or confiscated if they display the diplomatic seal on the outside. This could potentially allow someone who means us harm to transport a biological/chemical/radiological weapon into our country in a diplomatic bag and release it in a subway or crowded stadium.

When will these rules adapt to the realities of the world we now live in? The incident that occurred on that Denver bound plane yesterday may have ended with no harm, no foul but it could have gone another way just as easily. We need to keep one step ahead of those that mean to destroy our way of life. And as for Mr. Al-Madadi, I would like to see him banned from the US for life. How is that for starters?