Pakistani Legislators Upset by U.S. Security

In a visit to the U.S. to help imporve relations with Pakistani leaders ended in a stir when the Pakistani visitors refused to go through a secondary airport security screening at Ronald Regan National Airport. A New York Times Article says:

Meetings with the Obama administration’s top policy makers on Pakistan, including the president’s special representative, Richard C. Holbrooke, and visits to the Pentagon and the National Security Council, did not allay the anger the politicians said they felt at being asked to submit to a secondary screening on Sunday before boarding a flight to New Orleans. They declined to be screened and did not board the flight.

Pakistan is one of 14 mostly Muslim countries whose citizens must go through increased checks before they fly into the United States, a procedure mandated by the Obama administration in the wake of the failed attempt by a Nigerian man to blow up an airliner flying from the Netherlands to Detroit on Dec. 25.

It is odd that we have a country on a security list that we consider as an ally and are currently trying to improve relations with. One would think that we would at least make an exception to the visitors that we invited into our country. the article says, however, that the Pakistani officials were warned taht they might be subjected to secondary searches and that the U.S. does not make exceptions for so called V.I.P. guests in the country. This still seems like an odd policy when trying to improve relations, although what is more important: national security or hurt feelings?