Reverse Profiling

We are all familiar with the controversy surrounding the use of profiling to identify criminals. Law enforcement agencies are being closely watched for any evidence of racial or ethnic profiling, despite clear evidence that some demographic groups are, for a myriad of reasons, more prone to criminal activity than others.

With respect to terrorism, involving acts with much greater potential for serious harm, the overwhelming majority of identified terrorists are young Arabic or African Islamic males. Not too many blue-haired octogenarian females in this bunch. Notwithstanding, Islamic organizations, like the identified terrorist-supporting CAIR, immediately wax loudly indignant at any real or imagined incidence of profiling by Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies involved in counter-terrorism.

I believe that it has gotten so bad that airport and other travel port security personnel have been instructed to bend over backwards to avoid any hint of profiling, to the extent of practicing reverse profiling--specifically relaxing examination criteria for Muslim/Arabic/African travelers.

No-one will of course acknowledge the existence of special criteria for certain ethnic categories. The recent near disaster on Christmas Day involving an attempt to blow up Northwest Flight 253, a trans-Atlantic flight from Amsterdam to Detroit with 289 souls on board, by a young Nigerian Muslim al-Qaeda wannabe trained and equipped in Yemen reputedly by Quantanamo releasees is, sadly, a clear case in point.

We have been assured that security procedures at the Amsterdam Schiphol Airport point of origin mirror those in the U.S. (Why am I not assured?) O.K., let's recreate the scenario as accurately as possible given the information available.

A young Nigerian male buys a last-minute one way trans-Atlantic ticket costing $2,800, with a wad of cash. He plunks down 28-$100 bills on the ticket counter in payment. The ticket agent says, "Thank you, sir, Let's see if I have your name right--Mr. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab? O.K. Would you like to check your luggage, Mr. Abdulmutallab? Oh, you don't have any? Fine, sir. We'll be boarding Flight 253 through Gate 27 on the International Concourse in two hours. Have a nice flight."

Now imagine being a middle-aged Caucasian male in the same scenario. Can you picture yourself handcuffed naked to an iron chair bolted to the floor in a secluded room in the airport being interrogated by several very large, unsmiling security agents? I can.

The rather unspecific warning from his father, overseas contacts, a web site and other signs detected by several security agencies, none of which were a clear-cut smoking gun but, admittedly, given some pretty sophisticated information sharing, should have resulted in this guy  being blocked and arrested. The media, in an apparent attempt to deflect responsibility and in concert with the Administration, is emphasizing lapses in inter-agency coordination which, in my opinion, is blame misdirected. The simple fact of an ethnic African with an obvious Arabic name buying a last-minute one-way ticket with a wad of cash and without luggage for a trans-Atlantic flight should have raised every red flag and rung every alarm bell in the place. There is no way he should have been allowed to board the aircraft.

The fact that he waltzed through unimpeded constitutes the real danger here. The PETN* bomb Abdulmutallab smuggled aboard should have destroyed the aircraft and killed all 289 persons on board. The fact that it didn't I believe qualifies as a miracle. It simply wasn't their time. It would be folly, however, to continue to depend on divine intervention to save us from future disasters. We forgo the valuable weapon of profiling in the fight against the evil Islamic tactic of terrorism at our peril.

All responsible, peace-loving Muslims should support appropriate profiling to identify potential Islamic terrorists if only to prevent inappropriate stereotyping of all Muslims.

*PETN: Pentaerythritol Nitrate, a major ingredient of SEMTEX, is an extremely powerful explosive, crystalline in nature, 100 grams (about 3-1/2 ounces) of which can destroy a car.

NOTE: Ann Coulter has just published a column making many of the points I have. To allay any suspicion of plagiarism, be aware that I wrote this article in longhand two days before hers appeared.