TSA ignores diplomatic immunity

[Jim Logajan]

TSA pats down Indian ambassador despite showing credentials:

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-53469820101209

"Asked about the incident involving Shankar, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said she had looked into the matter and concluded that "it was by the book." "It was a pat-down that followed our procedures, and I think it was appropriate under the circumstances," Napolitano told reporters."


Napolitano's book doesn't include U.S. or international law or treaties and the unintended consequences of violating same, it seems. In other news Hillary Clinton and the U.S. State Department are probably steaming - can't be good. Wonder if someone in the U.S. Administration is ever going to buy Janet a clue?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Can't be by these books, to which the U.S. is a signatory and has the full force of U.S. law:

http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/149353.pdf
http://untreaty.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/conventions/9_1_1961.pdf


"Article 29

The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity."

Gee, there is "MEERA SHANKAR" listed in the State Department document. Nobody can top the TSA in taking all appropriate steps in attacking the person, freedom, and dignity of a friendly visiting "AMBASSADOR EXTRAORDINARY & PLENIPOTENTIARY."

 

[Jim Logajan]

My favourite, at least so far as bombs are concerned, is when they find a ticking nuke about to go off. They open the bomb to find the explosive sphere set to implode and go nuclear. The protagonist is so careful about carefully defusing the bomb at this point, generally with a bead of sweat while he decides to cut the red wire or the green wire.

At this point, the proper solution would be a pistol round into the middle of the ball of explosives. A nuclear detonation is continent upon complete symmetry of the implosion of that sphere. If part of it is deformed or goes off a microsecond earlier than the rest, no nuclear detonation. All the careful disarming just gives the bomb more time for it's trigger to activate and cause an actual nuclear detonation.

Isn't there a James Bond movie (Goldfinger?) where Bond is desperately trying to figure out the complex circuitry on a nuclear bomb in order to defuse it, when someone else (Q?) simply steps up a few seconds before detonation and simply flips the "Off" button? (The countdown timer stops at 007, naturally.)