Real World Event Discussions

If you speak Arabic, you're a terrorist.

POSTED BY: citizen
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 23:13
VIEWED: 9253
PAGE 2 of 8

CITIZEN

Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:36 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:
Only when I'm on it..What Finn said.

So its okay for us to label people based on religion and ethnicity, but when they do it, it is a product of their hateful culture, hateful religion and hateful language.

You have double standards, I get it.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

USBROWNCOAT

Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:37 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by misbehaven:
Quote:
Originally posted by Finn mac Cumhal:
Historically, progressive attitudes have generally taken a back seat to getting blown up.

I think you're missing the point. Charles Krauthammer, Neo-conservative talking head and Fox News political analyst, wrote a column in the New York Times, "Politically Correct Screening Won't Catch Jihadists," advocating the practice of using ethnicity, nationality, and religion as the determinate factors when screening for potential terrorists at U.S. airports. This position is so flawed, it's hard to know where to start.

First off, this is racist, bigoted idea that will do nothing to enhance security. Think back to London after the recent bombings there. A police officer, obviously on edge after the recent bombings, chased down and put seven bullets into a Brazilian electrician. Why? Because the Brazilian panicked and ran from the officer, and the policeman thought he looked like an Arab Muslim. I mention this, because of Krauthammer's answer: security officials should concentrate on "young Muslim men of North African, Middle Eastern and South Asian origin." Krauthammer doesn't say how authorities should go about identifying "Muslim men" or how to distinguish non-Muslim men from Muslim men entering a subway station. Probably just a small detail easily overlooked.

The flaw in Krauthammer's methodology, is that his system includes huge numbers of men of color. How, just by looking, can security personnel identify a Muslim male of Arab or South Asian origin goes unexplained.

Reportedly, after Sept. 11, 2001, some "good" citizens of California took out after members of the Sikh community, mistaking them for Arabs. Oh, well, what's a little political incorrectness in the name of national security. Bang, bang -- oops, he was Brazilian. Two young black guys were London bombers: one Jamaican, the other Somalian. Muslim, too. Ergo: Watch your back when around black men -- they could be Muslims.

So while advocates of racial profiling would have authorities subject men and women of black and brown hues to close scrutiny for criminal suspicion, they would look right past:

· White male Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh, who killed 168 people, including 19 children, and damaged 220 buildings.

· White male Eric Rudolph, whose remote-controlled bomb killed a woman and an off-duty police officer at a clinic, whose Olympic Park pipe bomb killed a woman and injured more than 100, and whose bombs hit a gay club and woman's clinic.

· D.C.-born and Silver Spring-raised white male John Walker Lindh, who converted to Islam and was captured in Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban.

· The IRA bombers who killed and wounded hundreds; the neo-fascist bombers who killed 80 people and injured nearly 300 in Bologna, Italy; and the truck bombings in Colombia by Pedro Escobar's gang. Bombings carried out by Basque separatists, Germany's Red Army Faction, and the French's Action Directe.

But let's get really current. What about those non-Arab, non-South Asians without black or brown skins who are bombing apartment buildings, train stations and theaters in Russia. They've taken down passenger jets, hijacked schools and used female suicide bombers to a fare-thee-well, killing hundreds and wounding thousands. They are Muslims from Chechnya, and would pass the Krauthammer test for terrorists with ease. After all, these folks hail from the Caucasus; you can't get any more Caucasian than that.

What the racial profilers are proposing is insulting, offensive and -- by thought, word and deed, whether intentional or not -- racist. And just as importantly, ineffective. But don't take my word for it. Ask the Israelis. El-Al, the Israeli airline, doesn't now nor has it ever used racial profiling as a means for detecting potential terrorists. What do they do? They use a more thorough and direct approach:

"When El Al passengers arrive at Israel's Ben Gurion airport or any other airport that services the airline, they undergo an exte

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USBROWNCOAT

Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:42 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by citizen:
Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:
Only when I'm on it..What Finn said.
So its okay for us to label people based on religion and ethnicity, but when they do it, it is a product of their hateful culture, hateful religion and hateful language.

You have double standards, I get it.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

I am fine with that Especially when it comes to AIR travel.

AGENTROUKA

Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:

If I were in the area, and an APB come out and I fit the description, I would not care if the police "questioned me". If they didn't, they would not be doing due diligence.

But they were already in the plane.
Past all the checkpoints.
And it wasn't official security personell suspecting them, it was other passengers.

Basically, it's as if you were being picked up by a mob for questioning for resembling a suspect, not by the police. After having been officially cleared of suspicion by the police. (read: airport security.) That'd be a more fitting comparison.

CITIZEN

Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:
I am fine with that Especially when it comes to AIR travel.

Yes you should strike the infidel down, they have the wrong colour skin and everything.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

MISBEHAVEN

Sunday, August 20, 2006 10:57 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:

How is this racist? You know what a terrorist(THAT IS AN eminent THREAT..THE ONES WE ARE AT WAR WITH) looks like. To catch him you profile his "look".

No we don't always know what they look like. That's the point. If you focus exclusively on "looks," then your going to miss them. A person's looks can be altered, another language can be used, a religious preference can be concealed. I think you're underestimating the terrorists if you think they're unable to adapt to racial profiling. And if you don't see how ostricizing and demonizing people of another ethnicity, nationality, or religious group is wrong, after all that I already listed above, then I doubt I can explain it to you.

Quote:
If I were in the area, and an APB come out and I fit the description, I would not care if the police "questioned me". If they didn't, they would not be doing due diligence.

If security personnel recieved a description to be on the lookout for i.e.: "a 6"5' man, dark complexion, arab dress, bearded, wearing Muslim prayer beads, walking with a cane, and possibly hooked to a kidney dialysis machine etc.," then, yes it would obviously make sense to search for and question anyone matching that description. Again, the terrorists are malicious not moronic. It's resonable to expect that they will do everything within their ability to foil any attempts made at apprehending them using a racial profiling system.

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation."
-Bertrand Russell

USBROWNCOAT

Sunday, August 20, 2006 11:01 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by AgentRouka:
Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:

If I were in the area, and an APB come out and I fit the description, I would not care if the police "questioned me". If they didn't, they would not be doing due diligence.

But they were already in the plane.
Past all the checkpoints.
And it wasn't official security personell suspecting them, it was other passengers.

Basically, it's as if you were being picked up by a mob for questioning for resembling a suspect, not by the police. After having been officially cleared of suspicion by the police. (read: airport security.) That'd be a more fitting comparison.

My apologies, My comment was more about this idea we shouldn't profile. It just makes no sense to me. If the "Intelligence (USED WITH CAUTION)" comes in that a threat is from BLANKITY..BLANK, we should look for BLANKITY, BLANK. Not blankity, blank.

USBROWNCOAT

Sunday, August 20, 2006 11:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by misbehaven:
Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:

How is this racist? You know what a terrorist(THAT IS AN eminent THREAT..THE ONES WE ARE AT WAR WITH) looks like. To catch him you profile his "look".

No we don't always know what they look like. That's the point. If you focus exclusively on "looks," then your going to miss them. A person's looks can be altered, another language can be used, a religious preference can be concealed. I think you're underestimating the terrorists if you think they're unable to adapt to racial profiling. And if you don't see how ostricizing and demonizing people of another ethnicity, nationality, or religious group is wrong, after all that I already listed above, then I doubt I can explain it to you.

Quote:
If I were in the area, and an APB come out and I fit the description, I would not care if the police "questioned me". If they didn't, they would not be doing due diligence.

If security personnel recieved a description to be on the lookout for i.e.: "a 6"5' man, dark complexion, arab dress, bearded, wearing Muslim prayer beads, walking with a cane, and possibly hooked to a kidney dialysis machine etc.," then, yes it would obviously make sense to search for and question anyone matching that description. Again, the terrorists are malicious not moronic. It's resonable to expect that they will do everything within their ability to foil any attempts made at apprehending them using a racial profiling system.

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation."
-Bertrand Russell

Like what plastic surgery? Every time a plot is "foiled" they look like Arabs.

MISBEHAVEN

Sunday, August 20, 2006 11:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by USBrowncoat:
Like what plastic surgery? Every time a plot is "foiled" they look like Arabs.

Did you even bother to read the first post I made? The one listing all the other terrorists acts that have been committed by "non-Arab" looking indivduals. And what about the plots that aren't "foiled." Ever notice how the pictures that are released don't always fit into your "Arab" profile.

"The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation."
-Bertrand Russell

USBROWNCOAT

Sunday, August 20, 2006 11:19 PM

Yes I'm talking about lately.