Muslims face extra checks in new travel crackdown

[Craig]

Controversial, I'm sure.

On the one hand, a compliment to western society that it took this long, on the other, an indictment of common sense.* Radical Islamists are blowing people up ... westerners are concerned about offending them.* Perhaps a better solution than screening Quaker grandmothers the same as young Saudis.*

When the Muslim community is generally more outraged about bombings than cartoons, we'll make more progress against radical Islam.* The Muslims I know are disgusted with their radical brethren.

_________________________________________________http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...313135,00.html
_________________________________________________
Muslims face extra checks in new travel crackdown
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

THE Government is discussing with airport operators plans to introduce a screening system that allows security staff to focus on those passengers who pose the greatest risk.

The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background.

The system would be much more sophisticated than simply picking out young men of Asian appearance. But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra checks.

Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) have discussed the practicalities of introducing such a system with airport operators, including BAA. They believe that it would be more effective at identifying potential terrorists than the existing random searches.

They also say that it would greatly reduce queues at security gates, which caused lengthy delays at London airports yesterday for the fifth day running. Heathrow and Gatwick were worst affected, cancelling 69 and 27 flights respectively. BAA gave warning yesterday that the disruption would continue for the rest of the week.

Passengers are now allowed to take one small piece of hand luggage on board but security staff are still having to search 50 per cent of travellers. Airports have also been ordered to search twice as many hand luggage items as a week ago.

BAA was criticised yesterday for failing to commit itself to recruiting more security staff and for claiming that its existing 6,000 staff at seven airports would be able to handle the extra searches. Tony Douglas, the chief executive of Heathrow, said that X-ray screening of hand luggage would be much faster under the new rules on size and contents, leaving staff free to carry out more searches.

The new measures, which include a ban on taking any liquids through checkpoints, are expected to remain in place for months. A DfT source said it was difficult to see how the restrictions could be relaxed if terrorists now had the capability to make liquid bombs.

The DfT has been considering passenger profiling for a year but, until last week, the disadvantages were thought to outweigh the advantages. A senior aviation industry source said: “The DfT is ultra-sensitive about this and won’t say anything publicly because of political concerns about being accused of racial stereotyping.”

Three days before last week’s arrests, the highest-ranking Muslim police officer in Britain gave warning that profiling techniques based on physical appearance were already causing anger and mistrust among young Muslims. Tarique Ghaffur, an assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said: “We must think long and hard about the causal factors of anger and resentment.

“There is a very real danger that the counter-terrorism label is also being used by other law-enforcement agencies to the effect that there is a real risk of criminalising minority communities.”

Sir Rod Eddington, former chief executive of British Airways, criticised the random nature of security searches. He said that it was irrational to subject a 75-year-old grandmother to the same checks as a 25-year-old man who had just paid for his ticket with cash.

Philip Baum, an aviation security consultant, said that profiling should focus on ruling out people who obviously posed no risk rather than picking out Asian or Arabs.

A DfT spokesman refused to make any comment or answer any questions on profiling.

AIRPORT UPDATE

British Airways plans to cancel forty short-haul and four long-haul flights from Heathrow today as well as eleven domestic flights from Gatwick. Other airlines expect to operate near-normal schedules.

All airports will allow passengers to carry one small piece of hand luggage, but no liquids are allowed through the security search point other than prescribed medicines and baby food.

[Mwsinron]

"Controversial, I'm sure"


Why?

[Marshac]

Originally Posted by Mwsinron

"Controversial, I'm sure"


Why?

You must be white if you're asking that question.

[Sheryl]

Or living in a vacuum. Whether or not you agree with the policy, it seems obvious that it is going to cause controversy.

[IntoTheMystic]

Traveling Nude might be required soon

[youbet]

There appears to be a lack of diversity in the above picture.....

Oooops....wait....I think I see a token representative now!

[Nords]

Didn't the Supreme Court already weigh in on profiling?

[brewer12345]

Originally Posted by Nords

Didn't the Supreme Court already weigh in on profiling?

I got the strong impression that the article in the original post was talking about the UK.

Its great: now not only will the radical muslims hate us, but we wil be giving the moderate muslims reasons to detest us!

[IntoTheMystic]

Originally Posted by IntoTheMystic

Traveling Nude might be required soon

Originally Posted by youbet

There appears to be a lack of diversity in the above picture.....

Oooops....wait....I think I see a token representative now!

You mean the uncircumcised fellow?

and you know I misread the thread topic, thought it was face extra cheeks....

[maddythebeagle]

You mean the uncircumcised fellow?

I dont want to know why you keep bringing up this topic

Reminds me of the guy in my geometry class that instead of saying "circumscribed" would say "circumcised"....

[Robert the Red]

Originally Posted by brewer12345

Its great: now not only will the radical muslims hate us, but we wil be giving the moderate muslims reasons to detest us!

Unless they (the UK) register people by religion, they'll have to profile by national origin or ethnicity or skin shading.* Certainly not all Arabs (for example) are Muslim.* A significant fraction of expatriate Arabs are Christians, and they in general have less sympathy for Islamoid terrorists than (say) Ann Coulter.

[IntoTheMystic]

Originally Posted by Maddy the Turbo Beagle

I dont want to know why you keep bringing up this topic

Reminds me of the guy in my geometry class that instead of saying "circumscribed" would say "circumcised"....

Good! I sure don't want to be sexually analyzed by you..

[brewer12345]

Originally Posted by Robert the Red

Unless they (the UK) register people by religion, they'll have to profile by national origin or ethnicity or skin shading.* Certainly not all Arabs (for example) are Muslim.* A significant fraction of expatriate Arabs are Christians, and they in general have less sympathy for Islamoid terrorists than (say) Ann Coulter.

Oh, agreed. But start harassing people because they "look like" members of a certaain ethnic group or religion, and there are just SO many ways for it to be taken the "wrong" way by people who might otherwise have been sympathetic to law & order.

I find the virulent racism and religious discrimination that has been going on to be disgusting, personally.

[IntoTheMystic]

The TSA is rolling out to 12 airports a visual & question screening process they learned from the Israelis...they supposedly can tell if you are suppressing your true feelings 8)

SPOT -- short for "Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques." It's a fancy name for behavioral profiling.

The Transportation Security Administration says its approach, which was tested at Boston's Logan International Airport in 2003, will not be as intense as Israel's. Security people will be trained to ask questions after observing unusual behavior -- such as failure to make eye contact, inappropriate clothing for the season, or loitering that might be a scouting mission.

TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis confirmed the agency is expanding SPOT this fall, though she declined to say where.

"We're looking for those behaviors that are indicative of extremely high levels of stress, fear and deception," said Davis. "This program is the antidote to racial profiling, because the program focuses strictly on behaviors, and not on the passenger's race or ethnicity."

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index....100.xml&coll=1

[brewer12345]

When they start tattooing bar codes on people's foreheads, I am out of here...

[ash]

Originally Posted by brewer12345

When they start tattooing bar codes on people's foreheads, I am out of here...

I'm sure people in the past set lines in the sand as well:

"When everyone needs to register with the federal government just to work, I'm outta here..."
"When the government spends half the national income, I'm outta here..."
"When the government takes over our schools, I'm outta here..."
"When the federal government tells me how big my toilet tank can be, I'm outta here..."
and so on...

The problem is, like the proverbial unaware frog being slowly boiled to death, tyrrany slowly creeps up on us until it's too late to notice.

[razztazz]

Traveling Nude might be required soon

If nothing else this will keep Moslems off of airplanes. They have a hang-up about that sort of thing. That's one reason why they hate us. *Too much T&A.

Its great: now not only will the radical muslims hate us, but we wil be giving the moderate muslims reasons to detest us!

This is unfortunate and will be seen however, anybody who gets jacked up becaus ethey look the part but ar eoterwise nnocent really sjould be directing their anger at other Mooslims or thsoe Arabs who are moslims becvause THAT is who create dtheir problem NOT "Westerners" and if you even vaguely drift to talk of "racisim" as it rergard security techniques you mean WHITE people . It's the otehr side of teh same coin

Personally I LOOK like a general purpose mediterranean. Italian, Spanish, East Coasters think I'm Puerto Rican, Canadians *always assumed I was French, Jews think I'm Jewish.... and since 9/11 I've been sort of Arab looking I guess because, before I stopped flying (costs, hassles and less need to fly, not terrosits) *I had been selecteed *A LOT for screenings on top of screenings. I always cooperated. And anybody who bitches about being asked a few questions under the circumstances does not get my sympathy. In fact I would inferr a certain anti American anti White racism in their resistance to being scrutinized.

Reminds me of the guy in my geometry class that instead of saying "circumscribed" would say "circumcised"

And another thing. I hate it when somebody is telling me about their "prostrate" when they mean "prostate"

[Nords]

Originally Posted by brewer12345

When they start tattooing bar codes on people's foreheads, I am out of here...

So we're not arguing against human barcodes, just their location, right?

Personally I'd rather have an RFID microchip... more info, and it could automatically broadcast my phone number to mutually-compatible chips!

Originally Posted by razztazz

This is unfortunate and will be seen however, anybody who gets jacked up becaus ethey look the part but ar eoterwise nnocent really sjould be directing their anger at other Mooslims or thsoe Arabs who are moslims becvause THAT is who create dtheir problem NOT "Westerners" and if you even vaguely drift to talk of "racisim" as it rergard security techniques you mean WHITE people . It's the otehr side of teh same coin

Originally Posted by razztazz

And another thing. I hate it when somebody is telling me about their "prostrate" when they mean "prostate"

Is that like referring to them as "Mooslims"?