01-09-2004, 05:15 PM
There are quite a few people of Arabic and Middle Eastern descent in the US. One result of an obviously racist exclusionary policy would be to push that population towards (further) the radicals. What we don't need is a large group of US citizens sheltering and providing succor to terrorists and terrorist groups.
In the US the concept of "racial profiling" has been tainted in the US publics mind due to abuse by law enforcement. It would seem obvious though that a native of Iceland or Sweden is much less likely to be associated with terrorist groups than a native of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or Syria.
So how do you implement "racial profiling" without making it look like "racial profiling". I'm glad I'm not in politics.
One other note on Brazil that hasn't been mentioned in the press. Because of the PATRIOT act, my company is required to screen all the names of the people and companies that we do business with against a database supplied by the justice department of known "bad guys". About half that list is from South and Central America and is related to narcotics trafficing. I am guessing that the Bush administration is taking advantage of the "threat of terrorism" to do double duty on the travel restrictions to also make it harder for narcotics trafficing. So, why doesn't Tom Ridge just come out and say that?
In the US the concept of "racial profiling" has been tainted in the US publics mind due to abuse by law enforcement. It would seem obvious though that a native of Iceland or Sweden is much less likely to be associated with terrorist groups than a native of Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, or Syria.
So how do you implement "racial profiling" without making it look like "racial profiling". I'm glad I'm not in politics.
One other note on Brazil that hasn't been mentioned in the press. Because of the PATRIOT act, my company is required to screen all the names of the people and companies that we do business with against a database supplied by the justice department of known "bad guys". About half that list is from South and Central America and is related to narcotics trafficing. I am guessing that the Bush administration is taking advantage of the "threat of terrorism" to do double duty on the travel restrictions to also make it harder for narcotics trafficing. So, why doesn't Tom Ridge just come out and say that?
”There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." - Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio.
![[Image: yVR5oE.png]](http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img924/329/yVR5oE.png)
![[Image: VKQ0KLG.png]](http://i.imgur.com/VKQ0KLG.png)