Boston Globe
by Robert Kuttner

07/20/05

The other day, the new secretary of homeland security, Michael Chertoff, scrapped the moronic rule requiring everyone to stay seated for 30 minutes coming in or out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The premise of the rule, enacted after 9/11, was that if everyone remained in their seats, it would be illegal for a terrorist to rush the cockpit. Apparently, it didn't occur to the genius who wrote the order that only law-abiding citizens would obey. It's a perfect, if small, example of the idiocy of unchecked state power. ... As his reason for granting relief, so to speak, Chertoff disingenuously declared that security conditions had improved. This was the week of the London bombings. ... It's a small example of a terrible trend -- the relentless accumulation of arbitrary authority and the slow erosion of liberties...

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Informant: Thomas L. Knapp