Thinking Fool

Most empirical evidence indicates that profiling only works if the people you are profiling do not know they are being profiled.

I.e. A young muslim man would have to be functionally retarded to believe he wouldn't be searched upon boarding an airplane.

If young Muslim men realize they cannot bring bombs on to planes because they are being profiled, and thus decide not to do so, profiling has worked. Terrorists may have some difficulty recruiting a bunch of non-Muslims to conduct a suicidal jihad for them.

At any rate, our enemies in the war on terror are not extremely rational people. They are people who blame the Western world for all their problems and think that somehow if they can just kill enough Westerners, their lives (or the lives of their surviving relatives) will improve.

I agree with Me's post.
If it saves lives do it.

Me thinks that some of you are confusing "Muslim" with an ethnicity. I would agree with the statement that a "Middle Eastern man would have to be functionally retarded to believe he wouldn't be searched upon boarding an airplane." (Although I probably would have chosen a word other than "retarded").

But there are plenty of Caucasian Muslims (and African American Muslims) that would be perfectly happy to carry out a jihad, so if Muslims are smart, and we know they are, then they'll send non-Middle Easterners.

It's kind of hard to profile a religion, if people aren't wearing the typical clothing of that religion. So, in that respect, I don't think that profiling is worth the imposition (??can't think of a better word right now) that it places on perfectly innocent people who happen to look Middle Eastern.

We don't have to depend solely on ethnicity; although, it is obviously a useful factor. If 10 white guys who frequently visit Pakistan are all getting on a plane from Boston to Los Angeles, somebody should take a closer look at them.

In most cases, a closer look might entail a secondary screening, or a more careful examination of someone's baggage. Not a terribly significant imposition, and far less intrusive than El Al's procedures.

No the solution isn't perfect. But it makes no sense to spend our resources completely randomly when extra information is available that can increase the probability of catching the bad guys (or girls).

Good point, please replace the word "muslim" in my original post with "brown."

Lots of different types can be converted to terrorism (I think that should be used in place of "brown" or "Muslim"). Hell, my last name is a Arab name and I'm a tall white chick who gets searched every time I take a domestic flight. Profiling? Kind of. Necessary? Probably.

Tracking telephone conversations seems so much easier, though.