It is a remarkable instance of coordination in the air, when the greater imperative of concerted action on the ground to confront terrorists has floundered on the rock of prevarication. The United Kingdom has joined the United States to reinforce the latter’s anti-immigrant agenda. Whitehall has followed up the sweeping ban imposed by the White House on laptops and tablets on inbound flights from six countries ~ Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia ~ all predominantly Muslim. Only mobile and smart phones of a specified size will be allowed inside the cabin. These countries or points of origin of flights do not figure in Donald Trump’s list of seven nations whose citizens have been barred from stepping into the United States of America. Not even Saudi Arabia whose nationals are believed to be involved in 9/11. President Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May ~ nationalists both ~ emerge as siblings together in the war against terrorists intent on blowing up planes. The latest imprimatur which has readily been accepted by 10 Downing Street raises the number of “suspect nations” ~ viewed through the US prism ~ to thirteen, though unconfirmed reports suggest that Iraq might now be spared the humiliation. In a sense, a not dissimilar prism is now in use in the United Kingdom. No one denies the potential technological threat that these gadgets could pose; and yet the fact remains that this threat cannot possibly be confined to Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa. Equally, a wider application would have dislocated civil aviation. It is a pregnant targeting of innocent civilian passengers from certain Islamic nations, indeed a ban that has been announced almost simultaneously in Washington and London. Hence the sniper attack from Lebanon: “We have come to expect this from Trump ~ the court jester of global politics. Even Gaddafi thought before he spoke.”

The statement of the US Department for Homeland Security mirrors the threat which is dangerously real ~ “The US government is concerned about terrorists’ ongoing interest in targeting commercial aviation, including transportation hubs over the past two years, as evidenced by the 2015 downing of an airliner in Egypt; the 2016 attempted airliner downing in Somalia; and the 2016 armed attacks against airports in Brussels and Istanbul.” The fear can scarcely be minimised even if laptops, tablets, and e-reading devices such as Kindle are checked in and kept in the hold. The international check-in counters can be less stringent in Pakistan, however. And thereby hangs a tale.