But the point of behavioural profiling is that these people WOULD be trained properly to do that – as the security personnel at El Al are.

Behavioral profiling has science behind it, while demographic and racial profile just don’t work. Sadly, it requires people who are more intelligent than the $7.00/hr rent-a-cops that TSA and CATSA like to hire. Its more effective, but also more expensive.

So really the bottom line is that airlines and the so-called transportation safety agencies are more concerned with saving money than being effective.

These are just security guards. They don’t have the psychological training to assess behaviour.

You might want to google Bruce Schneier and check out his blogs and writings – he is the ‘guru’ of computer security and encryption and is one of the leading experts in general security.

His position boils down to this – people are not security risks by who they are, but rather by what they do. He points out that quite simply demographic or any other kind of profiling based what a person is will not work, but rather by how one acts – behavioral profiling.

So, instead of targeting all Muslim and\or ‘brown’ men between 18 and 35 for special attention, you target those passengers who do suspicious things, regardless of who they are. So, look for patterns such as paying for a ticket in cash, one way tickets, little or know luggage. Target observed behaviors, such are nervousness, sweating, inconsistent answers to questions. Combine it all with good intelligence data.

This has the benefit of not only catching terrorists, but drug smugglers, counterfeiters, human traffickers, money launderers and other criminal elements that may cross borders.

Ahmad Ressam was captured in Seattle not because he was Muslim or Arab, but because the Border Patrol Officer who questioned him thought he was acting ‘hinkey’ and decided, based on his behaviour, to have a closer look.

Behavioral Profiling is what works for El Al, not “demographic” or racial profiling – that was how they discovered an pregnant Irish girl was (unknown to even her) carrying a bomb on board a plane about 20 years ago. She didn’t answer the questions right and her story seemed odd so they checked her out. Had they targeted only based on demographic, the plane would have been blown up.

Demographic or racial profiling seems to work on paper, but never does in practice.

Sikh Canadians? Aboriginal Canadians? Catholics who oppose abortion? Francophones Quebecois? Anarchists? These are all groups whose most radical fringes have committed or threatened to commit acts of terrorism in Canada.

Why does it need to end?

“What percentage of terrorists are Muslim?”

Wrong question. What percentage of Muslims are terrorists?

It makes more sense if you think of the vast bulk of the wingnuts like RightGirl as victims of the neoconservative “noble lie,” the nobility of which they seriously over-estimated given the ease of communication these days. In their reality (which the rest of us do not inhabit), “all terrorists are Muslim” is the truth appropriate to them, since a world without specific existential threats implies a world of unknown threats that is terrifying to them.

Have you read them? They’re great.

Four surly, un or under-employed misfits, previously unknown to each other, are summoned to a mysterious office in the middle of the night. Windy, with the supernaturally loud voice; Levy, gifted with the ability to raise an obscuring fog even in sealed room; Shaydie, a midget armaments geek, and Mac, who commands a horde of venomous winged monkeys, all brain dead but obedient.

They receive mysterious guidance from what appears to be a putrefying severed head in a bell jar, and have no end of jolly times and hijinks fighting evil terrorists, all of whom, of course, are Muslim. As of course we know all terrorists are.

Dear Michael,

When I lived in Canada for a period of 4 years, I regularly watched your show. I did not agree with some of your views but I liked the reasoned and calm way you put things across. I was therefore shocked to learn that you have invited Wendy of the website Girl on the right on your show. I believe that were you aware of the many hate filled columns she has written, you would not have invited her. Her writing was so bigoted that STEPHEN Taylor removed her from the Blogging Tories. Google her and you will read what she has written. Here are a few examples.

In this column she wishes that all Muslims are killed because she considers all of us terrorists. Read the last line.

http://www.girlontheright.com/2007/01/nothing-turns-me-on-more-than-dead.html

This is another example of her bigotry

http://www.girlontheright.com/2006/07/islam-must-be-stopped.html

In yet another column she accused native Canadians of f……g their own daughters.

http://girlontheright.com/category/natives/

These are just a few of the columns she has written. Tell me, is the kind of hate filled, racist bigot you want on your show?

I would appreciate a reply

Regards

Suhail

i am awaiting his response