A Lovers’ Quarrel with Airport Profiling

atif

Excellent article!!!! You rock................

#178, #179

Lapdog, go screw yourself.

Or better still, go jump kiss the ass of your moronic suicidal jihadis and jihadans!

Then in the end, you can just hang around!

Like the Saddam!

... correction ...

BJ Kumar has now turned evangelical christian and quoting Bible ...

#176 by bjkumar

So I see BJ Kumar has now turned christian and quoting Bible ... rotfl ...

Ama Yaar ... you`re better as a sikhra ... at-least you provide good laughs at bara bajay .. (12:00 noon).

#174 by zeemax on January 13, 2007 10:06am PT


I see the jihadi elephant in the room using Israel as an excuse for flying planes into buildings...

#175 (add-on)

Besides, it was all their land, anyway!

#173 Zee

Ama yaar, Israel rocks!

And you know it!

.... contd ... forgot the punchline ...

8) Check mothers for baby milk, but won`t say a word to Israel.

;-)

...and your adopted country is helping matters by opening two new fronts ... Somalia and Iraq/Iran border (as if the existing ones are not enough). Wonderful ...

It will:

1) Invade Afghanistan, but won`t say a word to Israel.

2) Invade Iraq, but won`t say a word to Israel.

3) Allow Lebanon to be bombed and innocents killed, but won`t say a word to Israel.

4) Bomb Somalia and kill 150 sheep-herders, but won`t say a word to Israel.

5) Replenish 20,000 killed and wounded in Iraq for the same futile job the previous ones got killed/wounded doing, but won`t say a word to Israel.

6) Engage Iran and Syria in violent conflict, but won`t say a word to Israel.

7) Commit more sons to slaughter and be slaughtered, but won`t say a word to Israel.

Do you see the elephant in your drawing room .. you dummies?

ballukhan:

You are holding a very low bar for suspicion. But I agree with you that profiling could be refined to reduce its impact.

Oh calm down! Take your shoes, belt etc. off before getting in the x-ray line. Oh BTW make sure the gels etc. (tooth paste, shampoo.....) fit in quarter pounder bag.

In Pakistan we profile 100% hindu as well as Arab visitors. Now you know how they feel.

Ballukhan:
`` Do you believe that the democratic system in this country should be replaced by Shariat Laws``

I dont know if I would agree with such a question, as belief in shariat does not necessarily mean a person wants to blow the plane.

I would, however, accept this as a legitimate question to ask a potential immigrant to the country as this would say something about his/her willingness to accept the value system of this society.

Re: # 169

It is a legitimate query to elicit response regarding a visa seeker`s belief in the country`s political order. These questions are rightly asked by the visa officer from the visitor seeking a visa. And I would not mind answering to it if it gets raised by the airport security or even airlines security personnel since it only heightens my security of not being on an aircraft being targetted by a suicidal maniac.

It is a question like `` Do you believe that the democratic system in the country must be replaced by a Communist/Islmaist/Hindutva/Christain laws`` that gets asked the moment we find Communists , Hindutvadis and Christians blowing up the planes and commiting bombings of innocent civilians. Recall the days when the communists used to hijack and blow up planes and such questions were invariably asked because belief in such political order does indicate a possibility (though not a certainity) that the person does agree to the radical political goals and may go to an extent for its fulfilment. Such persons may facilitate, collaborate, provide ideological or propagandist support to those who may actually commit the violent acts.
The extent to which the person is commited to his political goals and the extent to which he may go to use violence to achieve his political goals depends upon other factors that need to be factored in the final ``Risk assessment`` such as his ``age group`` (based upon the empirical observation that old age radicals above 40 years do not often themselves commit suicide bombings) etc.

In the present context an Islamist`s interpretation of the Shariat Laws envisages a polity that is contrary to modern liberal democratic order. It is one of the parameters whose answer indicates a heightened factor of risk. When this risk factor gets added with other factors like person`s family and educational back ground, his age group, the pattern of his visits, the reasons for his visit and various other factors that may indicate his probability to be a potential risk then he should be certainly kept under surveillance during the flight or when he lands in the country.
The problems that present day ``profiling`` throw up is with the action authorities take when their software indicates that the person could be of higher risk. At least America needs to sort it out and should not arrest people just because their software indicates a higher risk.
But my take is that this is just the begining and things would be sorted out in a way that profiling would almost become un-intrusive for those who have nothing to be afraid of!!!

``do we have conclusive proof that profiling works? for example, the us industrial prison complex is filled with brown and black men. thanks to dna technology, we are finding that several are not guilty of the crimes for which they were sentenced and imprisoned. Many critics in the US contend that their ``crime`` was being of color and male.

there is something wrong in basic, ethical principle to target brown and black people of arab or s asian descent in airports and on subways-it is a form of racism that speaks more loudly than any justification. ``

Profiling should not be confused with racism. A more appropriate word for it is ``Risk-Assessment``. Every person who handles Large Financial or scientific Projects or IT Security knows about it and there are specialized software tools that do the ``Risk Assessment``. Incidently, the latest risk to the Airlines industry is coming from the Islamists of specific bent and behavioural pattern. So, it is understandable that the issues of nationality and religious beliefs are considered in the Risk Assessment of the passangers.

In the future , when hindu or christian extreme elements would get frequently into the business of blowing passanger airlines we would certainly find these religious beliefs getting into parameters of the software that increase the risk to the passanger airlines.

As , I said earlier- if a security guy asks a question like `` Do you believe that the democratic system in this country should be replaced by Shariat Laws`` then that is a question that does not bewilder me because I know that I would not struggle to fake the answer.

#164 by saminasha2 on January 11, 2007 7:38am PT

You need to get a new dictionary...throw away the one that says facetious means questions you don`t have answers to...

#162 saminasha: and after answering #165, please provide answers to the following question:

What is the cost of an airliner loaded with passengers (think of each individual as being a sister or a brother or child or a parent) blowing up in the sky?

Between the cost of profiling and the cost of the reason for profiling, there is a vast gap. That is why I find these complaints about ``profiling`` to be so self-centered. Are we really so full of ourselves that we cant understand what is at stake here?