Friday, April 2, 2010

Profiles in Profiling

The U.S. is going to start profiling--maybe, sort of, I think--people it thinks may fit the, er, "profile" of airplane 'sploders, reports the Beeb (my bolds):
The US has announced that it will begin profiling US-bound passengers to determine who should get extra screening.
The measures will replace mandatory enhanced screening of all travellers from 14 nations, brought in after the failed attack on a flight in December.
Travellers will be picked out according to how closely they match intelligence on potential terrorist threats.

The new screening strategy results from a review ordered by President Obama.

'Intelligence-led'

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the new measures would use "real-time, threat-based intelligence along with multiple, random layers of security, both seen and unseen, to more effectively mitigate evolving terrorist threats"...
So does that mean the Japanese granny gets pulled aside for a "random" screening, or does she get waved through since she doesn't fit the profile? Hard to say since Janet speaks that clear-as-mud security lingo. It is evident, however, that the Obami are trying to pre-empt criticism that the new measures constitute profiling by claiming

"This is not a system that can be called profiling in the traditional sense. It is intelligence-based," the newspaper quoted an official as saying.
It won't work, guys. CAIR is still going to have an anti-profiling melt down.

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