Terror Profiling: Time to decide if we pat down grandmas or Muslims

By: Steve Yuhas

A potential terror disaster was averted with raids across parts of England and twelve people remain in custody for what would have been terrorism on a scale to rival September 11, 2001.  Since then television and radio are full of people worried that more scrutiny will be paid to individual ethnic groups rather than random and democratic searches of anyone traveling.  Were that method of scrutiny not so counter-productive it would be comical, but this is the real world and real people want to kill us so it is up to the people in government to implement a program that targets potential terrorists.

That means Islamic young men and now women and families before they get on an airplane, subway or bus.  Like it or not – politically correct scrutiny must make way for effective Israeli style terror profiling.

We know our enemy – that is not the problem; the problem today is that our enemy is not one particular state or a coalition; rather, it is a mindset of a religion that believes itself superior to all other religions, that Israel should be wiped off the map and that western civilization (especially the United States) should be attacked.  Our enemy is radical Islam and too many Americans think it wrong to profile effectively because it upsets their delicate idea of constitutional rights.

The Constitution of this nation is a great place to start as it relates to terrorism profiling because before anything at all is said about race or voting; Congress and the President or even the judiciary there is something mentioned that trumps all of that: life.  We have a right to live – not geographically, but physically and many men and women paid the ultimate price to preserve that right and too many people are placing the right to easily check in for a plane ride over the right to life and liberty.

Profiling works – we’ve seen it: serial killers are profiled and caught, kids in school who have likelihood for success at academics or athletics are recruited by colleges and we individually profile people every day when we decide who to hire or to associate with.  Profiling is human nature, but the idea of profiling at airports, subways and bus depots seems to put fear in the hearts of some in America who believe that profiling is wrong – despite the fact that it works and is the only way to assure ourselves the best chance of survival against our enemies.

Our enemy is essentially one group of people: Islamic males from teenage to forty (now we may have to add mothers and their children given what happened in the UK).  They may be citizens of the United States or they could be visitors, who hail from Europe, but one thing is clear – more needs to be done to check them instead of using the democratically random method of screening passengers. 

Given the fact that fear of travel is no longer a matter one of keeping the plane or subway mechanically sound and to have competent crews, but has morphed into assuring that intelligent killers with cell phones and explosives never reach the equipment in the first place; the mindset of America must change.

It can be done – quite easily in fact because terrorists today look like other terrorists – it is that simple.

Will terror profiling create a feeling of unease among Islamic folks who meet the profile?  Yes, it will, but will we be safer for it – you bet. 

Terror profiling, as used in Israel and begins the moment you enter airport grounds and long before you get to the terminal, has made El Al the safest airline in the world to fly and Ben Gurian Airport the envy of the world, but it didn’t just happen – a lot of bad things had to happen first.  Do screeners make people feel uncomfortable and have people been trained to look for signs that something is not right?  Absolutely, the only problem with the Israeli model in the United States would be objections from the far left, the Council for American Islamic Relations (a terror group in and of itself) and the American Civil Liberties Union.  Outside of that – terror profiling would save lives and should be used here and abroad; especially given the fact that we learned that terrorists are not done with our public transportation system.

Making terror profiling work will be a challenge because many Americans are used to being randomly searched.  How many of us have not been going through secondary screening when a person, clearly of Middle Eastern descent and meeting the profile of a terrorist, has walked through security without so much as a bag search and pat down?  This writer certainly has.

Terrorists are Middle Eastern – yes the ACLU will argue that Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City Federal Building, but that was an anomaly – but if you truthfully and without bias look at terror in the world today terrorists share a particular trait.  That trait happens to be their lineage and suffice it to say that if the tables turn and terrorists become Jewish white guys or women with babies from Missouri – then the terror profile could change with it.  Until then – we must profile those who fit the profile of a terrorist.

It is time to stop this democratic method of profiling because it neither works nor has it ever proven itself effective in averting a terrorist act.  Had terror profiling been in place at airports on September 11, 2001 it is possible that an incisive profiler at an airport, not a check in clerk or minimum wage screener, could have realized that at least one of the planes was jam packed with people meant to do harm to America.

Who is more likely to be a terrorist – a mother of three pushing a carriage through a train terminal or a Middle Eastern man or group of men standing around with a video camera ostensibly video taping the lovely ceiling at Union Station?  Every one of you said the latter – whether you’re willing to admit it or not.

Why all the problems with effective profiling?  Because we’ve become used to democratic profiling so that a mother with a carriage has the same chance as one of the group of Islamic men to be searched, but that is the wrong way to secure our infrastructure and the wrong way to look at terrorism. 

Do you think terrorists are not thinking about how to beat the Israeli model?  Of course they are, but haven’t been able to do it yet because it works.

The terrorists who want Americans dead have one thing going against them – only so many people are willing to die for their cause – there are a lot of them, but there are far more people who want to live than die.  The unfortunate thing is that those who want to die will find a way to do it and they want nothing more than to take as many Americans and Jews with them as they can.  Until we wake up to the fact that terrorism can be beaten by attrition and profiling we will continue to having breaking news of flights diverted and fighter escorts returning to an airport because a handful of Middle Eastern men decided to take out their cell phones and power them up during a flight.

There is little we can do to stop all forms of terrorism, but we can certainly implement one thing and that is profiling for terror and today terrorists are people from the Middle East and they are not little old ladies or college kids taking a trip to Europe with the money they earned during a year of shoveling snow or mowing lawns.

Time to terror profile and yes that means there will be a racial aspect to it, but that can all change if the terrorists do, but until today they all have one thing in common and that is they are from or their parents hail from Middle Eastern ancestry.  Those are the targets who should be profiled – yes – look at everyone, but pay special attention to Islamists who are traveling because they are more likely to be a terrorist than an Anglo, black, Asian or Latin male that gets more scrutiny than ever based on this democratic and random method of looking for those who want to kill us.

AGAIN they want to kill us and the United States cannot even respond to terror in the same manner as the United Kingdom because of the ACLU and the terror lovers at CAIR.  I never thought I’d see the day that I wish I was British – not because I love bad food, but because I love good security.

Steve Yuhas is a radio talk show host on NewsRadio 600 KOGO in southern California and may be reached at steve@steveyuhas.com or www.steveyuhas.com