Terror in the Skies - Conclusion

Mr. Kerrey (Commissioner):
"There's a couple of relatively simple things that could be done prior to people getting on the airplane and I think, for political reasons, we don't want to do it... You've got to figure out how to keep people off planes that are willing to die in the act of killing passengers and killing other people on the ground, because I think -- I personally feel that unless you provide us with that information, it's not likely to come from anybody else." (p. 96)

Note that there is no reference to ethnicity (Arab). Also, Soliday says an unnamed Justice Department official provided not written but verbal direction that United could not question three members of an ethnic group without potential discriminatory action. Lehman said two. Most of the testimony deals with denied boarding and there is only a possible fine.

What do we make of this? First, Lehman was working from memory (two versus three). Second, there is no smoking gun -- in other words, I haven't found a written policy that supports either Lehman or Soliday on secondary questioning. [By the way, before anyone is moved into secondary questioning, there should be a reason other than color of hair or skin -- if a Justice official said anything along those lines, I'd guess that was the context.] And finally, there is written and sworn testimony to the contrary. Can we please put this legend to bed?