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 wont say anything publicly because of political concerns about being accused of racial stereotyping.
Three days before last weeks 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.
Christianity is a religion, mohammadanism is not.
"Christianity is a religion, mohammadanism is not."
Depends who you ask.
The American left and the MSM will tell you it is.
Even W once upon a time said it was a religion of peace.
I see it as a death cult and political system all rolled into one violent, evil filled package.
No of course not. We need to Profile, profile and before we do , we have to convince W, Congress, especially the Democrats, the MSMedia to do it. Since we will not achieve this, expect many American deaths just so we can be PC.
We are at war with Mohammetanism.
Mohammetanism is condemned by its own source texts as the blood enemy of Freedom, of all other faiths, and of the Jews as a race and a nation.
Mohammetanism is committed by its own source texts to the violent destruction of Freedom, all other faiths, and of the Jews as a race and a nation in particular.
A declaration of religious affilitation should be required in order to obtain tickets for international flights to the U.S. The declared religious affiliation should be fastidiously checked out by American Intelligence. All Mohammetans should be subject to questioning and thorough baggage and strip search before being allowed to board any aircraft destined for the U.S. or its possessions. Those of other declared faiths, or nonr, should be subject to questioning at random, and the same searches applied to them if questioning arouses any suspicions.
It would be even better if no more visas should be issued for any reason to Mohammetans, and that includes the ragheads in the UN. Revoke their visas, revoke their diplomatic immunity, and send them all back to whatever hellhole they crawled out of.
I know this won't happen, even after we, as a society, finally awaken and see that this is a TOTAL war of Mohammetanism against the West and everything it stands for.
We just don't have the guts anymore to do what we had to do in WWII.
My dad was a resident alien, and Italian national, living here in the States when the war broke out. He was subject to questioning and had to surrender anything and everything to the FBI that they thought he could use in espionage or sabotage, including the camera by which he made his living photographing weddings and portraits.
My father had no problem with any of this, but rather welcomed it, knowing that the American government was discharging its responsibility to maintain the safety and security of the Homeland.
There was no whining about how Italian-Americans feared a "backlash". Most of them sent their sons to war in battles that would pitch them against their own kin.
None of us expects a response like that from the Mohammetans.
.
Ever see a Chechen? Blue-eyed Caucasian Muslims allied with Al Quaeda... Look just like your average American or European.
So we need to obviously pay close attention to obviously Arabic types, sure, that's a no-brainer, but what about somebody like that, or like "Jihad Johnny"?
"So we need to obviously pay close attention to obviously Arabic types, sure, that's a no-brainer, but what about somebody like that, or like "Jihad Johnny"?"
I'm ok with protecting myself against a known threat, and dealing with others dynamically. Sure, you have precautions, but you focus on the Arab muslims.
Really, outside of Chechnya, how many Chechens have been involved with terrorism? When the Chechens begin to blow up buses in Iraq, Israel, or the US, then we can modify our behavior.
Too much "what if" can lead to inaction. Paralysis by analysis.
What we do know is that most terrorists are Arab muslim males between 18 and 50 years of age. Let's not ignore what we know so we can feel good about our multiculturalism.
Chechens don't bother with small stuff like blowing up buses, the go for the big splashy stuff, like blowing up apartments in Moscow, taking over theaters full of concert-goers, the Beslan massacre of schoolchildren, that sort of thing. And Osama has publicly stated he's trying to recruit them to use in attacks inside the US because they don't look like Arabs.
But your point is well-taken. And I assure you, I was not ignoring anything out of any need to feel good about my multiculturalism. But then, I'm sure you knew that. ;)
(BTW, Browns' fan here too. I live in Bedford.)
Yeah ... something about 3000+ citizens dying at the hands of terrorists motivated by religion makes me pretty angry when that religion fails to condemn it.
I'm confident that you were as angry as my brother was when they did that to Dad. BTW, my Dad died last November 1, a veteran of WWII, China/Burma/India. Not only is it asinine, but it's insulting and degrades the dignity these veterans are entitled to. Typical cowardly Liberal BS. Meanwhile, those that "fit the profile" aren't checked.
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