Detroit Christmas Flight Terrorist Attack – Is Ethnic Profiling the Answer? (w/UPDATE)

Coming back from a week-long holiday, I had to play some catch up today to understand the events surrounding the Christmas Day attempted attack on a flight into Detroit Metro Airport.  On Friday, a 23-yr old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab made it onto a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit despite numerous warning signs including paying in cash, having no luggage, a denied visa into Britain, and a father willing to go an American embassy to warn that his son will capable of committing terrorist attacks.  Much of the debate aftermath has been agreeable.  For instance, Janet Napolitano must resign for continued ineptitude. After saying that our security system worked over the weekend, she later recanted amid polling saying 96% (!) of people disagreed with her.  Also, most agree that making all passengers on international flights sit in there seats with nothing in their laps for the final hour of travel does not address the problem.  But one thing that keeps being hinted at around many circles is a tough question to ask: Is it time we began to handle flight security with an increased measure of ethnic profiling?

Read Full Post »