Originally Posted by dmitzel
Profiling need not be racial, as security in Israel performs this based upon behavior. It also makes sense as Islamic radicals can be Asian, European (Bosnian), etc. or does the fact it was perfected by the Israelis make it suspect in some PC circles? Not many people can keep their cool when they're about to blow themselves (and everyone around them) to bits.
I can only hope common sense is not outlawed once it can be scientifically proven to occasionally hurt people's feelings.
Profiling practiced by human beings en masse will be racist profiling (including tribalist profiling).
Common sense says that those who support racist/tribalist profiling are betraying not only American principles but also betraying the nation they claim to defend by ignoring the long-term, dangerous consequences of such attitudes (i.e., belief in racism/tribalism) in practice.
And cold-blooded murders operating out their political fanatacism in response to grievances, personal or otherwise, real or merely perceived/imagined, can often keep their cool. Any racist/tribalist "behavioral" profiling effort we get will have more false-positives than actual "catches". And such efforts create much bigger haystacks in the near-term; and those much bigger haystacks will mean that more terrorists will get through as a false-negative.
