Originally Posted by SirFlysALot
No it isn't. How many males of middle eastern descent between the ages of 17 and 40 have been caught at airport check points? Is it OK to single out dark skinned people who have lived here all of their lives? Or were here for an education? It is just plain silly. It is just a few middle eastern folks at this small point in time.
In the past it was France, Britain, Spain, Mexico, Germany, Japan, the Phillipines, Porter Rico, the American South, North Korea, North Viet Nam, Russia, China...... The list goes on and on... Are we still singling these people out? Why not? Did ANY of the Japanese Americans interred in WW II cause any problems?
As I said in an other post, we had a problem with about 25 Muslim terrorists most of whom are now dead. Considering how many millions of Muslims are here legally and have given us no problem, statistically it is not a very good predictor of behavior. In fact it is down right worthless.
You COMPLETELY missed the point of my post. I never said that we should prejudge passengers based SOLELY on their race or SOLELY on any characteristic. BUT, it shouldn't be ignored if there are other factors causing alarm bells to go off. Not only should it not be ignored, but it should be included as an ADDITIONAL risk factor. You obviously don't know the first thing about risk assessment.
Again, what is more important and immediately falls into the common sense category is what factors are most important in REDUCING the element of risk, and that we should take these into account when screening passengers. As numerous posters have mentioned before, SSSSing 70+ year old little old ladies of Norwegian descent is a complete waste of time and energy.
Again, it is called common sense. Is it perfect? No. Is it a better way to proceed? Yes.
End of discussion for me.