Cactuspete, most of the people thrown off planes weren't even Arabic. They were Pakistani, Indian, Sikh, or any of the other 'collateral damage' from the collective bigotry.

Some were frequent flyers, some were not. In either case the only thing that stood in the way was bigotry. We do not accept such behaviour on the ground, and just because it's an airplane doesn't mean we have to accept such behavior in the air.

Did we ban all people who look like McVeigh (ie, Caucasian) from renting trucks? After all, one guy did blow up the Oklahoma City building, so to be safe, we shouldn't let any of them rent trucks. That way the country will be more safe.

Of course there's no answer to that (I pose that argument every time and never hear an answer) ...

BTW, On the initial topic of this post 'racial profiling' even as someone who's been profiled in the past, I don't mind being racially profiled. I expect to , and have been, examined doubly closely through security and customs. Doesn't bother me as long as its polite and doesnt presume guilt. I will not accept pilots taking the law into their own hands.. and I hope they and their airlines pay dearly for their judgement mistakes.

I'm one of the business traveller's that Joe talks about. I'm a US Citizen. I'm not Arab. I'm not Islamic. But I'm afraid to fly because people who look like me (who are not Arab or Islamic) are being discriminated against, and so far nothing has been done about it.

This may change soon, however. Utah Attorney General threatens to sue Northwest over three Arabs thrown off flight:

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010927/n27285299_1.html
http://attygen.state.ut.us/Attorney%...0Sept%2028.htm