Originally Posted by Casimir
I disagree with this hyperbole. The questions referenced above are similar to the interrogation one has on the way in and out of Israel, whose national airline has a pretty good security record despite the breezy dismissal of such practices above.
Moreover, travel by airplane is a privilege, not a right. Even our rights as a free people are subject to limitations, as the constitution is not a suicide pact. Privileges are subject to even greater limitations. I fail to see the argument that ten or twenty polite questions at an airport is the leading wedge of totalitarianism. Frankly, I want tight security at airports.
El Al is the one airline where I know that certain Indian terrorists -- including those who posed a real threat to a plane (even if not an LY one) -- have gotten on board planes and not been "flagged" by questioning of the sort.