American counter-terrorism organizations believe they have discovered a new form of Islamic terrorism. It's basically intimidation via staged controversy. One tactic has Islamic clerics boarding an aircraft as a group and deliberately acting suspiciously, but legally, hoping to attract the attention of security officials and being removed from the aircraft. In one case, three years ago, the six clerics involved then sued, claiming discrimination. They also tried to sue other passengers who had pointed out the odd behavior to flight crew. A year before, a similar incident occurred at a football stadium in New Jersey.
You'll recall the Flying Imams saga (I wrote about them here and here, for example).
As I wrote in the latter post:
The FBI should investigate these imams to see if they were in fact trying to provoke an incident. Trying to give the impression that they were guilty of "flying while Moslem" rather than "flying like a bunch of jihadi suicide bombers" would have the effect of weakening our defenses for actual terrorists. Criminal charges should follow if appropriate.
US Airways should consider a law suit for civil damages for the attempt by the Flying Imams to portray the airline and its employees as violating their civil rights. Passengers should file suits for damages both to their lost time and the fear that the imams appeared to deliberately inflict on pasengers and employees on that flight. A jury should have the option of weighing the evidence.
Our enemies and their sympathizers engage in lawfare to tie us up under our rule of law to inhibit our ability to fight our enemies. If such incidents dull our responses, the effect will be that actual terrorists will get on our flights. It is time for our goverment, corporations under threat, and citizens who are the targets of our enemies to use lawfare to the extent we can.
The war on terror is far more than just the kinetics. We must fight it everywhere. Or the kinetics will return to our shores.
