Tougher screening for flyers from 14 countries, including Pakistan

Passengers from Pakistan and 13 other countries the United States considers terrorism-prone face "full body pat-downs" and carry-on searches before boarding U.S.-bound flights, it was announced Sunday night.
The Transportation Security Administration said the new procedures, prompted by the attempted bombing of Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas day, will take effect Monday.
"TSA is mandating that every individual flying into the U.S. from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening," the agency said in a statement.
The TSA also announced U.S.-bound travelers from all foreign countries will face more frequent random screenings, ABC News reported Sunday.
"These are changes that weren't widely in place for all carriers or countries on (December 24)" a senior administration official was quoted as saying in media reports.
But American citizens, and most others who are not flying through those 14 nations on their way to the United States, will no longer automatically face the full range of intensified security that was imposed after the attempted bombing of the Northwest Airlines flight, officials said.
Citizens of Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, countries considered state sponsors of terrorism, and those of countries of interest including Afghanistan, Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Yemen will face the special scrutiny, officials said.
Passengers holding passports from those nations, or taking flights that originated or passed through any of them, will be required to undergo full-body pat downs and will face extra scrutiny of their carry-on bags before they can board planes to the United States.
In some countries that have more advanced screening equipment, travelers will also be required to pass through so-called whole-body scanners that can look beneath clothing for hidden explosives or weapons, or may be checked with a device that can find tiny traces of explosives.
The changes will mean that any citizen of Pakistan or Saudi Arabia will for the first time be patted down automatically before boarding any flight to the United States, according to The New York Times. Even if that person has lived in a country like Britain for decades, he now will be subject to these extra security checks.
Nawar Shora, the legal director at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, says the rule wrongly implies that all citizens of certain nations are suspect. I understand there needs to be additional security in light of what was attempted on Christmas Day, Shora said, adding that he intended to file a formal protest on Monday. But this is extreme and very dangerous.