« High Anxiety | Main | Leave Those Kids Alone »

August 14, 2006

None So Blind

I've seen a lot of talk about how foolish it is to do a thorough pre-flight search of babies and their formula. Think so?

One senior Government security adviser warned of a race against time to identify individuals who might pose a threat.

The adviser said: “It may be beyond belief, but we are convinced that there are now women in Britain who are prepared to die with their babies for their twisted cause. They are ruthless, single-minded and totally committed.�

The nightmare is that mums carrying tiny tots would provide “very good cover� and not raise suspicions among even the most alert security guards.

It wouldn't even have to be a fanatic. Honestly, how hard would it be to slip something innocuous appearing into the diaper bag of some harried mother of 3 waiting for a flight? Or to pay some addict $1,000 to be a drug mule, only the contraband would have a hidden surprise?

Not so much.

The problem with the informal profiling that we all do is that it is often colored by what Mike calls "like-me syndrome". It is inconceivable to most of us to deliberately harm a child, so we unconsciously assume that no one else would either. Or that a grandmotherly type does something besides bake cookies. Or that a clean-cut white all-American boy could deliberately kill hundreds of people.

But, you may say, those are outliers, aberrations. True enough, but in this area, it only takes one aberration to commit mass murder.

And that's the problem with formal profiling. It's based, in part, on statistical analysis of what's happened in the past. Which is fine as far as that goes, but you don't have to know much about statistics to know that there's always anomalies. Just because statistically suicide bombers, et al, are predominately Middle Eastern males, doesn't mean they all have been.

We sometimes make the mistake, I think, of thinking that we are dealing with rational, civilized people whose only goal is our removal from Iraq or Israel. And that's simply not the case.

Our deaths are their express, do-not-pass-go direct ticket to Heaven.

And just because some of them have been bumbling idiots doesn't mean we should blindly underestimate their cunning. Or their resources.

That's a deadly mistake we can't afford to make.

Posted by Rita at August 14, 2006 07:31 AM

Comments

The other day when I posted a comment on the airport screening process, I was feeling that our government should stop the ridiculous p.c. and immediately and aggressively profile. That law enforcement agencies should first search all of the Muslim males of Arab or Asian descent (since most of the terrorists and planners or instigators of terrorist acts that have been exposed are from that group), and then, if there was any time left, they should search all the rest of the Muslims. After looking at the photos of the demonstration sponsored by Answer that took place in Washington D.C. on Saturday, I've decided that they need to skip the profile and go straight to a strip/body-cavity search for everyone, and not just at airports. The core concept of the D.C. demonstration was provided by the current manifesto of the Worker's Socialist Party, which attempts to, among other things, assure its acolytes that the U.S. government destroyed the World Trade Center. They must have had the perfect lure because they had and endless supply of soccer moms and dads waving anti-America and anti-Israel signs as they marched happily around the White House with their grade-school aged children (most of whom were waving Hizbullah and Hamas flags). Well then, ignore my previous comment. Profiling Arab/Asian males as possible terrorists might have worked last year, but that opportunity seems to have passed.

Posted by: Kenneth at August 14, 2006 12:55 PM

Don't get me started on those who believe the U.S. gov't brought down the WTC. That has got to be the most asinine thing I've ever heard....along with the recent British terrorists arrests were just due to U.S. politics. Talk about willful ignorance.

I think you're right, there was a time during which profiling would've worked. But they have too many willing helpers these days for such profiling to be safe.

Posted by: Rita [TypeKey Profile Page] at August 14, 2006 01:42 PM