Britain May Profile Muslim Air Passengers

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 secur-ity 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 capabil-ity 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.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...313135,00.html



--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

In message . net,
Steven L. writes
But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community

What ****ing doesn't!!?

because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra
checks.

Hmmmm... Wonder why?



--
Aramis Gunton

"Aramis Gunton" wrote in message
...
In message . net, Steven
L. writes

But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community

What ****ing doesn't!!?

because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra
checks.

Hmmmm... Wonder why?

Maybe the extra inconvenience to the Islamic community will encourage them
to flush out the extremists in their midst.

In message , Arminius
writes
But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community

What ****ing doesn't!!?

because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra
checks.

Hmmmm... Wonder why?

Maybe the extra inconvenience to the Islamic community will encourage
them to flush out the extremists in their midst.

Nah!!! Silly; They will riot over the 'infringement to their Human
Rights'

--
Aramis Gunton

Maybe the extra inconvenience to the Islamic community
will encourage them to flush out the extremists in their midst.

It would be nice, but I doubt it. Seeing as no Islamic cleric has ever
expressed any regret or apology for the killing of innocent people in
the name of their religion. Note that the often-quoted London Imam
blamed the most recent airline plot on the government's foreign policy.
No spokesman in this religion (actually it's a cult, and not a
religion) questioned why his religion {cult} is creating nut-cases in
ever increasing numbers.

Israel's airline, El Al, has been profiling passengers since their
first flight. With the results being that no one has been able to
interfere with any of their flights. None. It is past time for other
airlines to start this same practice. And without offering an apology
to those who might be inconvenienced.

In article ,
Arminius wrote:
Maybe the extra inconvenience to the Islamic community will encourage them
to flush out the extremists in their midst.

Real or perceived unfair discrimination against a community has
historically had the opposite effect, by causing members of that
community to become more hostile to whoever is seen as practicing
the unfair discrimination. What if the tipster who alerted the
police in the first place (triggering the investigations in the
UK and Pakistan that revealed the whole plot) had felt victimized
enough by the government that he refused to do anything to help
the government?

--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Timothy J. Lee
Unsolicited bulk or commercial email is not welcome.
No warranty of any kind is provided with this message.

"RatherBeSwimming" wrote:
no Islamic cleric has ever expressed any regret or apology for the
killing of innocent people in the name of their religion.

This is not true.

Israel's airline, El Al, has been profiling passengers since their
first flight. With the results being that no one has been able to
interfere with any of their flights. None.

This is not true.

miguel
--
Photos from 40 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Malaysia; Thailand; Singapore; Spain; Morocco
Airports of the world: http://airport.u.nu

"RatherBeSwimming" wrote:
no Islamic cleric has ever expressed any regret or apology
for the killing of innocent people in the name of their religion.

This is not true.

On the date is the anniversary of the London bombing which killed 53
innocent civilians.
This is what a British Muslim spokesman said:
Asaf Hussain, a lecturer on Islam at Leicester University, said the
raid fed the fears of British Muslims that they are all suspects. "For
those people who are potential terrorists, they will say: 'Look, we'd
better do our action, look how much they hate us,"' Hussain said.

No condemnation of those who killed in the name of their Prophet, no
expression of sympathy for those who lost friends or relatives in the
bombings, and no concern voiced that such should never again happen.
No, instead it was a response of, 'What do you expect?'. Tell us, how
much sympathy are you reading in that response?

Of that fatal bombing, Tony Blair said the following:
" This is a time when our country unites across all races, religions
and divides and stands in solidarity with all those who have suffered
so much, in sympathy with them and in defense of the values which we
share."

Read both quotes again. And then draw your own conclusion.

[2]
Will Woodward and Stephen Bates
Saturday August 12, 2006
The Guardian

Leading UK Muslims have united to tell Tony Blair that his foreign
policy in Iraq and on Israel offers "ammunition to extremists" and puts
British lives "at increased risk".

An open letter signed by three of the four Muslim MPs, three of the
four peers, and 38 organisations including the Muslim Council of
Britain and the Muslim Association of Britain, was greeted with dismay
in Downing Street. It has courted the MCB and several of the
signatories, such as key Labour MPs Sadiq Khan (Tooting) and Shahid
Malik (Dewsbury), whom it believes can shape Muslim opinion.

The letter says, in part: " It is our view that current British
government policy risks putting civilians at increased risk both in the
UK and abroad. "
.............

Got that? As with the London bombing, no apology, no sympathy, and
placing the blame on others. This time it is the foreign policy of the
UK. The classic -- refusal to take any responsibility -- answer of an
immature religion (actually, Islam is a cult - not a religion). A cult
which holds as worthless the lives of all those outside of their own
community.


Israel's airline, El Al, has been profiling passengers since their
first flight. With the results being that no one has been able to
interfere with any of their flights. None.

This is not true.

That is correct. I neglected to say that, 'since the beginning of
Islamic-based terrorism'. There was a hijacking of an El Al in 1968.
But none since that time.


''Death to America is not a slogan. Death to America is a policy, a
strategy and a vision." So vowed Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's
chieftain, on his Al-Manar television on April 17, 2003. Later in 2003,
the respected Foreign Affairs journal reported that "Before 9/11,
Hezbollah was responsible for more American deaths than any other
terrorist organization.

If that doesn't say it all, nothing does! Except for Entebbi that is.
But we handled that too and rubbed that idiot Amin's nose in it.

RatherBeSwimming wrote:
Maybe the extra inconvenience to the Islamic community
will encourage them to flush out the extremists in their midst.

It would be nice, but I doubt it. Seeing as no Islamic cleric has ever
expressed any regret or apology for the killing of innocent people in
the name of their religion. Note that the often-quoted London Imam
blamed the most recent airline plot on the government's foreign policy.
No spokesman in this religion (actually it's a cult, and not a
religion) questioned why his religion {cult} is creating nut-cases in
ever increasing numbers.

Israel's airline, El Al, has been profiling passengers since their
first flight. With the results being that no one has been able to
interfere with any of their flights. None. It is past time for other
airlines to start this same practice. And without offering an apology
to those who might be inconvenienced.

"RatherBeSwimming" wrote:
"RatherBeSwimming" wrote:
no Islamic cleric has ever expressed any regret or apology
for the killing of innocent people in the name of their religion.

This is not true.

On the date is the anniversary of the London bombing which killed 53
innocent civilians.
This is what a British Muslim spokesman said:

You can come up with ten thousand such quotes and that will not bring
you one step closer to proving that no Islamic cleric has ever expressed
any regret or apology blah blah blah. Your statement can only be proven
wrong; it cannot be proven right.

miguel
--
Photos from 40 countries on 5 continents: http://travel.u.nu
Latest photos: Malaysia; Thailand; Singapore; Spain; Morocco
Airports of the world: http://airport.u.nu