IT is time for Canadian Arab Federation president Khaled Mouammar to disengage the loop tape, and for Yemeni citizens to quit complaining about being 'profiled' when returning to Canada from their pilgrimages to Makkah. This woe-is-us Arab refrain is getting tiresome. If toner-cartridge bombs emanating from Canada were being directed at Yemen, we suspect every person with a Canadian passport landing in its capital of Sana'a would be screened six ways … and held in custody after more than just a body scan. A Yemeni passport is now a red flag, and rightfully so, since Yemen has no qualms being a haven for Al Qaeda terrorists, or allowing itself to be a launching pad for bombs directed at targets on our side of the ocean, or to blow planes out of the sky. One of two toner-cartridge bombs recently discovered as originating in Yemen, for example, was set to explode over Canadian air space.

So what are Yemenis expecting over the next few days? …What they should be expecting, and getting — and Khaled Mouammar needs to understand this — is being hauled before security the moment their Yemeni passport hits the customs desk. And then they should be expecting to be patted down, body scanned, and thoroughly questioned by CSIS agents at Toronto's Pearson international airport before boarding any connecting flight to other parts of Canada. This type of 'racial profiling', which Mouammar complains “has been happening for a long time and has to stop”, is not without valid reasoning, and neither is Canada's decision to ban all cargo shipments from Yemen. On Christmas Day 2009, for instance, one Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab boarded a flight in Yemen, his skivvies allegedly packed with explosives, and attempted to blow up a 300-passenger airliner over Detroit. …Mouammar needs to disengage his woe-is-us loop tape, and face the realities. Yemen cannot be trusted. … — (Nov 18)