Posted on 08/15/2006 6:07:30 AM PDT by TrebleRebel
THE Government is discussing with airport operators plans to introduce a screening system that allows security staff to focus on those passengers who pose the greatest risk.
The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background.
The system would be much more sophisticated than simply picking out young men of Asian appearance. But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra checks.
Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) have discussed the practicalities of introducing such a system with airport operators, including BAA. They believe that it would be more effective at identifying potential terrorists than the existing random searches.
They also say that it would greatly reduce queues at secur-ity gates, which caused lengthy delays at London airports yesterday for the fifth day running. Heathrow and Gatwick were worst affected, cancelling 69 and 27 flights respectively. BAA gave warning yesterday that the disruption would continue for the rest of the week.
Passengers are now allowed to take one small piece of hand luggage on board but security staff are still having to search 50 per cent of travellers. Airports have also been ordered to search twice as many hand luggage items as a week ago.
BAA was criticised yesterday for failing to commit itself to recruiting more security staff and for claiming that its existing 6,000 staff at seven airports would be able to handle the extra searches. Tony Douglas, the chief executive of Heathrow, said that X-ray screening of hand luggage would be much faster under the new rules on size and contents, leaving staff free to carry out more searches.
The new measures, which include a ban on taking any liquids through checkpoints, are expected to remain in place for months. A DfT source said it was difficult to see how the restrictions could be relaxed if terrorists now had the capabil-ity to make liquid bombs.
The DfT has been considering passenger profiling for a year but, until last week, the disadvantages were thought to outweigh the advantages. A senior aviation industry source said: “The DfT is ultra-sensitive about this and won’t say anything publicly because of political concerns about being accused of racial stereotyping.”
Three days before last week’s arrests, the highest-ranking Muslim police officer in Britain gave warning that profiling techniques based on physical appearance were already causing anger and mistrust among young Muslims. Tarique Ghaffur, an assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “We must think long and hard about the causal factors of anger and resentment.
“There is a very real danger that the counter-terrorism label is also being used by other law-enforcement agencies to the effect that there is a real risk of criminalising minority communities.”
Sir Rod Eddington, former chief executive of British Airways, criticised the random nature of security searches. He said that it was irrational to subject a 75-year-old grandmother to the same checks as a 25-year-old man who had just paid for his ticket with cash.
Philip Baum, an aviation security consultant, said that profiling should focus on ruling out people who obviously posed no risk rather than picking out Asian or Arabs.
A DfT spokesman refused to make any comment or answer any questions on profiling.
IMHO Our Governnment lacks the will to wake up and call a spade , a spade.
Your poor father. I can empathize. I am a 5'0" white woman. Both of my knees have been replaced. When I flew a couple of years ago, I set off the alarm and was wanded and patted down, even though I had cards from my doctor proving my surgery. My husband and I are flying on Sept. 1st. Wonder if I will be strip-searched this time? SHEESH!
Simple solution, airlines offer flights for those willing to comply with tighter restrictions and those that wish not to participate can fly together.
Speaking of profiling. Did you know how the FBI caught all those "students" that disappeared instead of showing up at U. of Montana? They Walked like Egyptians!
They should be riding on camels not on our infidel airplanes.
LOL!! Good one!! Seriously, though, those guys scattered all over the US once they landed. The Feds can say all they want, but they were up to no good, as far as I am concerned.
I don't have anything against random profiling. Two of the 24 terrorists arrested in Britain were Anglo converts, and if we were only targeting Middle Eastern males, they would have walked right by.
That said,
22 of the 24 arrested terrorists in Britain were Pakistani. Almost every single act of terrorism, especially suicide attacks, is committed by a military aged male of Middle Eastern descent.
If we're serious about stopping terrorism, we need to have a strict focused search with a random component as well.
"Muslims may be welcome, but islam is not acceptable. Yes, it's that simple."
Hmmm, one of us is confused. If you were to replace Christian in that statement it would be:
Christians are welcome but Christianity is not acceptable.
You expect people to check their religion at the door? Not likely. Besides, an adult muslim is already tainted with hate from the death cult. I doubt they can assimilate.
Perfect Westbrook. Concise, accurate, and should be included in the header of every post relating to mudslimes.
"My question is. Why should we care what they think of us? They want us dead."
Liberals care. They are just oozing feelings.
I don't. I know muslims want me dead, and I return the sentiment. One of the reasons I voted for W is I knew, for a fact, that he would kill more muslims than Kerry. I know that's a pretty disgusting statement, but war is disgusting, and we are at war.
YEAH!!! Wish they did it here!!
Until the muslim clerics, intellectuals, world leaders, etc. get on TV every single day to tell these nut-cases that they will NOT go to heaven (and get their 72 virgins)--but will instead ROT IN HELL--this crap won't stop. Their silence is more than complicity--it is ENCOURAGEMENT!
Again, why in the world do we even let them ON airplanes?
Yeah, not real accurate grouping."
This is not correct. 'Asians' as a designation tends to be used generically for Indians, Pakistani's and Bangladeshis (pretty much the bits we used to own). Arabs would be referred to as Arabs, I don't believe I've ever seen the designation 'Asian' applied to an arab.
"It is funny that muslim arabs don't even consider asian and black muslims are real muslims and there aren't too many black and asian muslims who commit terrorist acts."
All of the people involved in the London bombings last year were of Pakistani-descent, rather than Arab, as were most of the people arrested last week.
In my mind people Saudia Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afganistan, Syria are Arabs. But that is just me.
What about the Dell "Jihad" laptops that explode? or the prohibition on eating Krystal hamburgers before embarking?
I stand corrected. I had some dealings with a muslim of Indian extraction a while back and encountered the term "Asian" to describe him. I didn't think to distinguish between asian and arab muslims, so I stand corrected.
Plenty of Islamofascists aren't Arabs.
-Eric
Unfortunately it won't stop them. It may slow em down a bit, but it won't stop them.
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