America restricts large electronic devices on all flights from the Arab world

By M.R.

PASSENGERS flying nonstop to America from anywhere in the Arab world are now banned from bringing large electronic devices on to planes in their carry-on luggage. The Associated Press, citing American government officials, says the restriction applies to eight countries: Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. But the only other Middle Eastern or North African country with passenger flights to America is Israel (which is also the country in the region that American carriers fly to). Excluding Turkey, that makes the measure, in effect, an Arab ban. All devices larger than a mobile phone must be checked in under the new rules, including laptops, Kindles, cameras and portable DVD players.

The reason for the sweeping measure is not yet fully clear, but Reuters quoted officials as saying it relates to a terror threat uncovered several weeks ago. CNN has gone further, directly linking the ban to a US Special Forces raid targeting Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni wing of the Islamist terror group. Its master bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, is believed to have orchestrated at least three plots to detonate explosives aboard commercial airliners. In two of those attempts—the 2009 underpants bomb plot, and the 2010 printer-cartridge bomb plot—his devices were successfully smuggled through airport security, before either failing to explode or being discovered and disarmed. Intelligence officials have repeatedly said Mr al-Asiri is a creative and highly skilled bomb-maker who poses a clear danger to commercial aviation. His chemical explosives are particularly unnerving because they lack metallic components, making them harder to detect with conventional airport screening methods.

This is not the first time that America-bound passengers have been hit by carry-on restrictions. Three years ago, fears of bombs in battery compartments led to a directive from Washington that all electronic devices must be powered on before being allowed in aircraft cabins. Since 2006, passengers have also been limited to carrying liquids, aerosols and gels in containers no larger than 100ml. As annoying as these restrictions may be, most travellers willingly defer to the higher wisdom of intelligence agencies whose primary purpose is keeping them safe.

Nonetheless, the geographical limitation of this ban poses uncomfortable questions that will eventually need to be addressed. Let us accept, for the time being, that specific intelligence points to an imminent danger in allowing large electronic devices in passenger cabins. In this scenario, America’s decision to ban the items on nonstop flights from the Arab world—home to most Islamist terrorist groups—seems logical. But allowing such gadgets on flights from Europe, Asia, South America and other parts of Africa does not. Having breached security in a Middle Eastern airport, a suicide bomber could surely now transit through a foreign country before continuing his journey to America. At the time of writing just one European nation, Britain, has voiced a willingness to follow America’s lead with the electronics ban. As long as the measure is applied inconsistently around the world, neither the global air transport infrastructure nor America’s skies can be presumed to be safe.

Given what passengers know about the nihilistic motivations of Islamist terrorists, it is best to give America’s intelligence agencies the benefit of the doubt, for now. They are well-placed to assess Al Qaeda’s operational capabilities and the concomitant weaknesses in airports around the world; we are not. Perhaps there is top-secret evidence showing how hubs like Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport are immune to threats that imperil ones like Dubai International Airport. But it is doubtful. As time drags on, this ban should either be extended to all countries, or allowed to expire. Anything else would be prejudicial and ineffectual.