Sometimes the Burqa Babe is Really a Burqa Guy

As Nice Deb, quoting AJ Strata, pointed out, the Obama administration has traded protection of terrorist's "rights" for protection of ordinary American citizen's rights. Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal summed it up on Meet the Press yesterday:

I think the American people are worried when they see an administration worried about reading Miranda rights to the underwear bomber. . . .[They're] so worried about rights of the terrorists, what about the rights of innocent American travelers?

Sharon Beshenivsky, mother of 5, murdered by Mustaf Jama's gang.

What's the point of protecting the sensibilities of Muslims at airports while trampling on the privacy of everyone else?

Back in 2005, 29-year-old Mustaf Jama, one of Britain's "most wanted" criminals and a immigrant from Somalia, eager to escape capture after the shooting of two British women, grabbed his sister's passport, threw on a burqa, covered his face with a veil, and hopped on a flight to his native Somalia.

Mustaf Jama, unveiled.

Turns out, security personnel at London's Heathrow Airport made no attempt to match his face with her passport picture, even though the airport was on a heightened state of alert after the 7/7 terrorist attack. Indeed, the Times (London) writes that "British immigration officers rarely carry out a visual check to match a passport photograph with a departing female passenger's veiled face."

Jama spent the next two years living in a remote region under the protection of  his powerful warlord family.

Back in the UK, Jama was still wanted for his part in the ruthless shooting of the two women, both of whom were police constables. One of the women, Police Constable Sharon Beshenivky, died almost instantly, on the fourth birthday of her youngest daughter. The other was seriously injured.

Paul Beshenivsky, Sharon's widower.

In 2007, the UK paid Somali authorities a "bounty" and then launched a secret military operation to capture Jama. When 15 armed soldiers caught up with him, he was armed and driving a Land Rover loaded with alcohol and 2 young women.

Two trials later, Jama was finally jailed for life. Almost. There's always a chance to appeal, and for Jama, that appeal began last week at the Court of Appeal in London.

There's no appeal for Sharon Beshenivsky's widower, Paul, her three natural children, and her two adopted children.

So why is it again that American and British authorities insist on protecting the privacy of anyone who traipses through an airport or a bank wearing a burqa and a veil?

The rest of us know that it's not for our protection.

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