In January, after the Department of Homeland Security announced that citizens of 14 (mostly Muslim) terror-prone countries would face extra security screening
Jul 31, 20203.5K Shares291.6K Views
In January, after the Department of Homeland Security announced that citizens of 14 (mostly Muslim) “terror-prone” countries would face extra security screening at U.S. airports, I wrote a piecepredicting a backlash. The U.S. was trying to convince Pakistan, for instance, that it was looking out for Pakistani interests — right as Pakistanis themselves were facing full-body screening. Kalsoom Lakhani, a Pakistani citizen who directs a Pakistan-based philanthropic organization, told me the new rules make her “nervous to travel.”
Sure enough, last week, the State Department brought a group of Pakistani legislators to the U.S. on a goodwill tour. It ended in what The New York Times calls a “public relations fiasco” after — of course — the dignitaries were told they’d be pulled out of a security line at a New Orleans airport and frisked. Instead, they refused to board their plane. Now, back home, they’re heroes. And we’re villains. One of them told a radio host: “Going through a body scan makes you naked, and in making you naked, they make the whole country naked.”
Imagine you’re a Pakistani official. You make a risky decision to start arresting your former proxies in the Afghan Talibanafter years of American pressure. And thisis how your legislators are treated by the Americans? How would you respond?