Here's a thoughtful piece on profiling at airport security gates by the Dean of American Conservative faculty, William F. Buckley, Jr.

The commentary can be found at:
[url]http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/buckley.shtml[/url]

Some blurbs from article -

"And of course the classical expression of this was done by Jesse Jackson, who in 1993 confessed that '[u]There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved[/u].'

"Now here is the constitutional challenge we are looking at. When airport security sees someone coming through whose ethnic background is the same as that of the 19 hijackers whose faces we have become familiar with, is security defensibly more curious than in inspecting others?"

"But airport security people are talking about imitating the practices of other airports. In Tel Aviv, for instance, as also in Stockholm, rigorous questioning takes place. I have seen it operate, and the questioner takes his/her time over it, satisfying whatever curiosity is stimulated. Question before the court: If an Arab passenger is detained longer than others, and a pattern of profiling emerges, how will the courts rule on the question? What will airport security adduce, as a reason other than ethnic background to justify special curiosity? How will the government defend the practice? Will the government be permitted to say that a profile of known hijackers informs us that 90 percent of them were of Arab racial background? Can the security practitioners inquire into the religious affiliation of the passenger? "[u]Mr. Atta, you are a Moslem? What Moslem sect do you belong to? Have you ever had training in self- defense? Training with weapons? Have you ever used knives other than to eat with?[/u]"

"And so on. Distasteful. But 30 minutes from now, all those people are going to be in the airplane at 30,000 feet above the ground; above where the police are; out of reach of the ACLU. We will be hoping for, and expecting, a safe landing. But we will be counting on sensible security procedures to maximize that possibility."

Eric The(FiringLineFanatic)Hun[>]:)]

[url]www.nationalreview.com[/url] rules. Always a couple of good articles/essays every weekday.