Posted on 08/15/2006 4:55:38 PM PDT by mdittmar
The prospect of extra security checks for airline passengers on race and religion was being played down by UK government insiders on Tuesday for fear of alienating the Muslim community.
Passenger profiling is believed to be among a number of options being considered by ministers who are reviewing security at UK airports following the disruption resulting from last week’s alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. But the proposal has sparked criticism from Muslim groups, and police groups have refused to back the idea.
Passenger profiling, including security screening according to religion or ethnicity, would be designed to allow security staff to focus on the most likely terrorist suspects. Those passengers would then face more stringent checks before being allowed to board flights.
Though profiling would also include factors such as behaviour and travel patterns, the government is wary of introducing security screening with an ethnic component as it could alienate the very community the security sources rely on to provide intelligence about potential terror attacks.
John Denham, chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, said: “It seems to me that it’s likely to prove problematic. The sort of people involved in terrorist activities don’t tend to fit a certain pattern and include people of all races and potentially different ages.
“From a security point of view, it could prove to be quite misleading and from a political point of view, it could be a sensitive issue. The government have got to consider everything. … But it is likely to be counter- productive and cause great difficulties in applying it in practice.”
The Association of Chief Police Officers also warned that “stereotyping” terror suspects could “create a gap” in policing for terrorists to exploit.
“We consider that assuming the threat of terrorism to come from a particular ethnicity, faith, gender or age range would create a gap in our policing response that could be exploited by terrorists. Therefore, we brief staff carefully around these issues to ensure that stereotyping does not happen.”
However, some security and aviation industry experts said profiling could bring significant benefits for airlines and airport operators. Ascend, an aviation consultancy, said an efficient, co-ordinated profiling system could speed check-in times and reduce costs for airlines an airports.
It said: “Passenger profiling is not about invading privacy but it is about finding procedures whereby frequent travellers at the very least can go through some form of registration process, using biometric and screening procedures to bypass extra stringent security checks.”
While civil rights organisations have criticised the US government for implementing policies they say border on racial profiling, the US Transport Administration Authority says it does not use racial profiling to screen passengers at airports in the US.
David Heyman, director of the homeland security programme at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, said the US implemented new policies to screen passengers at airports in the wake of the 2001 September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. But he says the government abandoned the initial programme after it came under heavy criticism from civil liberties groups, who argued that the criteria used by the government to select high-risk passengers were likely to select a higher proportion of Muslims than other groups.
Stewart Verdery, former assistant secretary for homeland security, said the US public would “not stomach” pure racial profiling. But pointed out that the US does have a programme called National Security Entry/Exit Registration System, which imposes special requirements on citizens of certain countries, most of which have predominantly Muslim populations.
Mr Heyman adds TSA agents are increasingly being trained in using behavioural characteristics – a technique used widely in Israel – to identify potential terror suspects. But he says it is reasonable to assume that some screeners pay more attention to members of ethic and religious groups that are identified with terror attacks in the US and the UK.
Dennis Murphy, former spokesman at the department of homeland security, who agrees that racial profiling is ineffective, says monitoring behavioural patterns of passengers would be a much more effective way of identifying potential terror suspects.
I agree. Laurie Mylroi and Jayna Davis have convinced me. But there seems to be a greater interest in the Western world in covering up connections than uncovering them. Not a good way to wage war.
If McVeigh converted, yes, it was covered up then.
But, OBL already announced they are to be deployed. That is different.
I'm not dismissing PC as a factor. I am just saying, I don't agree with profiling at this point if there is a chance screeners would let their guard down only because a go signal was given for the non stereotypical, uh, socialists? Converts? Messes?
I'm still not convinced the man we called McVeigh is dead.
I've heard that before!
interesting.
At least they'll be able to go to their graves knowing they didn't hurt the feelings of any muslims!
Mark
Not all Muslims are terrorist, but pretty much all terrorists have been Muslims, so do the profiling.
Alienate them right out of England!
After the next attack,
Thousands will die,
terrorists were profilable, but not profiled,
public and media outrage,
BNP takes huge election gains,
Labor is permanently crippled by losing a plurality of working class Anglo-Scot Brits forever.
permanent Balkanization of housing estates.
Labor party officials might as well bury their heads in the sand as long as possible.
There's something in your FR name that reminds me of golf?
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