A former British Airways call center employee has pleaded guilty to agreeing to take part in terrorist training/insurgent operations overseas. He also pleaded guilty to transferring funds for terrorist purposes.
The key part of this story, however, is what Rajib Karim denies: that he got a job at BA in order to pass on information on how to attack the airline’s computer systems.
Once again, we see that a determined terrorist does not have to sneak through airport checkpoints to compromise security. The TSA’s Orwellian mission statement is to "protect the Nation’s transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce." Perhaps they’d be more useful checking airline call centers than groping senior citizens and children.
Credit must be given to British Intelligence for tracking and apprehending Mr. Karim. Good intel is how we can best stop terrorism in the sky and that should be the focus of the United States Department of Homeland Security, not theatrics geared toward making Americans feeling safer while really doing little to make the skies safer.
“Setting aside my qualms with sentencing someone to prison for what is essentially a thought-crime”
You’re kidding this time, right?
“He also pleaded [sic] guilty to transferring funds for terrorist purposes.”
How is that thought, and not action directly benefiting terrorists? Oh wait, it is action. Good grief.
The scum bag deserved to go to prison for that. Note that I never said he shouldn’t go to prison–I do have a problem, though, with adding on to his time in prison for “agreeing to take part in terrorist training.”
Say I called you and discussed robbing a bank and we agreed to knock over a bank in Zurich. We later called it off. But suddenly the gov’t storms my door and sends me to prison for thinking [sic] about breaking the law. Are you comfortable with the government doing that?
Because I’m not. Even if a terrorist gets away once in a while.