[Joeaksa]

Peter,

I did not say a word about racial profiling. There are several ways to profile and not all have a thing to do with the way a person looks.

I am not so much for profiling by the way a person looks as by their age. How many 80 year old granny's have we seen anywhere in the world active in terrorist activities? None that I have heard about. Same with 80 year old grandfathers. We need to stop hassling somone in a wheel chair and spend a bit more time on the younger people on board who have been proven to cause problems.

Now lets look at 16 to 40 year old males and recently 16 to 40 year old females in the Middle East. About 99% of the bombings have been done by individuals in this age range. Everyone of the 9/11 terrorists fit in this age range. Every bombing that I know of in Israel fit in this age range. Every one of the London and Spain bombers fit this age profile. Are we getting my drift yet? Everyone of the Sydney bombers again fit this profile.

I know your argument will be that when they start profiling these ages that they will start trying to find an old fart to carry a bomb or weapon. This may happen but the numbers that might get through are so small that right now I would not worry about it.

I have been in the aviation field for 35 years and was the head of safety/security for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft in Saudi Arabia while I was posted there. This is not coming from someone who has "read about it on the internet or Time magazine" and has no security training or experience in the field.

Again, lets look at the Israeli's and see how its done professionally. They profile and it works. Oh yea, just because they do profile it does not mean that everyone is not searched, its just that the suspect people are searched in a different manner and perhaps several times.

Joe