POLITICS: Profiling Encouraged
Fund, John H.
POLITICS John t t . Fund Profiling Encouraged T HE DISCOVERY OF THE PLOT t o blow up airliners flying from Great Britain to the U.S. in August has tightened airport security again. Items no...
...Indeed, Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of the al-Arabiya news channel, wrote in the Arab News two years ago that extra scrutiny of some people was warranted...
...Mineta's department also undermined another important layer of security-the discretion of aircrews themselves-by harassing a number of major carriers on civil-rights grounds after suspicious passengers were removed from flights...
...policy remains frozen in amber, dictated by the decision made after 9/11 by then Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who refused to consider the use of religious or ethnic background as even minor factors in screening decisions...
...It's looking into your past, what is your background in terms of who you are, what have you done before, why are you traveling...
...The British went further and for a time wouldn't allow passengers to take on board anything other than wallets and identification...
...OCTOBER 2006 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 53...
...Mineta left office last year, but his influence lingers...
...John H. Fund, The American Spectator's Politics columnist, is author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books...
...We cannot clear our names unless we own up to the shameful fact that terrorism has become an Islamic enterprise...
...Bush administration officials seem afraid even to discuss the topic, despite the fact that President Bush has said the terror threat comes from "Islamic fascists...
...Yes, in 1986 the Palestinian terrorist Nezar Hindawi was foiled in an attempt to put his pregnant Irish girlfriend on board an Israeli E1 A1 flight with explosives in her luggage...
...Raft Ron, former chief security officer at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport, says psychological profiling that includes a variety of factors in the screening decision "not only stops terrorists in the act, but also deters them from carrying out serious attempts...
...But he refuses to consider any expansion of profiling to include ethnic and religious factors, saying that "behavior will give you away regardless of what you look like...
...O ONE IS SUGGESTING USING ethnicity or religion as the only--or even the primary--factors in rofiling possible terrorists...
...But here in the U.S., political correctness reigns...
...Airlines and airport authorities have no interest in seeing passengers blown out of the sky, and in the absence of government monopolizing security decisions would be expected to take all reasonable measures to prevent terrorist incidents, which would cost them enormous sums in compensation...
...Perhaps it's time to consult the airlines about ways to ensure our airplanes are secure without placing an undue burden on the rest of us...
...This makes sense...
...The British may soon take the sensible step of scrutinizing some airline passengers more than others...
...But the fact remains that the vast majority of potential terrorists fit a certain profile...
...The answer is yes, if we can prevent political correctness from trumpinglegitimate security needs...
...The sight of 85-year-old grandmothers being patted down while young students from a madrassa in Pakistan blithely pass through security to avoid the appearance of"racism" has infuriated passengers foryears...
...However, they would also be likely to take measures that represent a reasonable burden on their customers...
...Is there a better way to run airport security...
...So U.S...
...The whole point of a smarter profiling program is to forestall what would be far more onerous racial screeningifterrorists succeed again...
...POLITICS John t t . Fund Profiling Encouraged T HE DISCOVERY OF THE PLOT t o blow up airliners flying from Great Britain to the U.S...
...If the government refuses to expand profiling in a sensible manner, they should at least release airlines and airports from the threat of lawsuits if they undertake to do so...
...Ron says this approach could be particularly helpful in spotting inexperienced would-be terrorists previously unknown to the authorities, as they would be likely to have trouble dealing with questioning...
...It is true that terrorists will no doubt seek recruits that don't fit the profile of the 9/11 hijackers...
...It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims...
...The one-size-fitsall random screening in place today increases the chance that the terrorists will eventually succeed in downing an airliner...
...Government decision-makers who do not bear the costs of their actions cannot automatically be assumed to choose what is best for the rest of us...
...an almost exclu52 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 2006 JOHN H. FUND sive monopoly, implemented by Muslim men and women...
...Passengers who are behaving suspiciously, traveling by unusual routes, or are from key ethnic and religious backgrounds may trigger screening...
...Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the policy of random searches is likely to continue on the grounds that "if we become too focused on a particular profile, we're likely to be dropping our guard precisely where the terrorists are going to be acting next...
...That's what cops like to say about lie detectors, too, but liars sometimes fool them...
...But here in the U.S., political correctness reigns...
...All but two of the dozens of people arrested in the London terror plot were Middle Eastern...
...Bush administration officials seem afraid even to discuss the topic, despite the fact that President Bush has said the terror threat comes from "Islamic fascists...
...Just as high-risk individuals are singled out for higher insurance premiums, the Times of London reports, Britain's Department of Transport is talking with airport operators about better separating high-risk passengers from unlikely threats...
...Some passengers may be willing to go through police screening in advance of a flight to avoid delays...
...Items no longer allowed on board include liquids and gels...
...Lord Stevens, London's former Metropolitan police chief, notes that "Islamic terrorism in the West has been universally carried out by young Muslims--almost always traveling alone or in very small groups...
...Kip Hawley, the current administrator of the Transportation Safety Agency, has implemented some Israeli-style procedures including the use of more security personnel to single out those who exhibit suspicious behavior...
...Ron makes clear the right kind of profile doesn't target people on the basis of race or religion...
...Let's free Granny and her grandkids from the random whims of airport screeners...
...Western countries could use personal information databases and observations of crowds at airports to identify 1 or 2 percent of passengers on a flight to interview...
Vol. 39 • October 2006 • No. 8
