Why Not Waterboard Him?
by digby
New Jersey’s senators said Saturday that the Jan. 3 security breach at the airport should not be downplayed as merely the act of a romantic man.
“What he may have thought was a cute trick turned out to be a disaster,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg said about Jiang, a doctoral student arrested late Friday for the airport breach that stranded thousands of travelers.
Jiang was with his girlfriend, a former Rutgers student who was flying home to Los Angeles. She has not been identified.
“People who say he was just a Romeo don’t understand the gravity of this situation, when you look at all the inconvenience to over 16,000 people, the delays, the concerns, the fears and the costs in financial terms,” Lautenberg said.
Lautenberg called for harsher penalties for Jiang, who faces arraignment on a “defiant trespassing” charge for the breach. He faces a fine of up to $500.
Lautenberg, a Democrat, said he would push for a review of federal statutes “to see if there is any course of action” that could be taken against Jiang.
“I’d like to see if we can bring this under federal jurisdiction, as opposed to just a misdemeanor and a $500 fine, that’s a slap on the wrist,” Lautenberg said. “He maybe thought he was being a Romeo, but he added to our woes, to the unease about travel. An example has to be made of this.”
The senator also said that Jiang, who Lautenberg said appears to be here as an international student from China, should have his visa revoked, though he is not personally pursuing it with federal authorities.
“He’s really an unwelcome guest,” Lautenberg said. “He should be returned to his homeland.”
The guy is a dweeby, microbiologist who screwed up without possibly knowing that he would cause that kind of problem. I don’t think anybody did. He didn’t actually have any ill intent. And I seriously doubt he or any other decent citizen who might like a final few minutes with his girlfriend will ever do it again after all this brouhaha.
I don’t think the threat of deportation or a federal rap will deter a terrorist who plans to blow up an airliner, though. So this is just more stoopid.
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