more on more on more on DHS Passenger Scoring Illegal?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Dave Crocker <dcrocker () bbiw net>
Date: December 14, 2006 9:00:47 AM JST
To: dave () farber net
Cc: ip () v2 listbox com, David Reed <dpreed () reed com>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on more on more on DHS Passenger Scoring Illegal?



> From: "David P. Reed" <dpreed () reed com>
>
> David - the repetition, in this email as well as the prior one, of  
> outright falsehoods and distortions about the actions of the imams,  
> is offensive to me.
...
> But IP should be above that.


We all should be above that.  Yet a tone of entrenched hysteria  
continues to grip the U.S., the results of which are actions that we  
would otherwise call hate crimes.

The long-term, strategic damage that we are doing to ourselves, in  
the world community and within our own borders, does not seem to  
register.

David cited factual errors about reports on the behavior of the  
Imams.  So, I looked around for credible news stories that indicated  
what they actually did.

So far, I can find nothing indicating that their prayer activity was  
done in a theatrical manner, that they sat in anything other than  
their assigned seats, or that they actually did talk in Arabic about  
"hostile" topics or actions.

It increasingly sounds as if what took place really was the type of  
quickly escalating group hysteria that we have seen repeatedly.   
(Here in Silicon Valley, many of the taxi drivers are Indian Sikhs.   
After 9/11 most of them stopped wearing their head pieces, because so  
many idiot American's thought they might me Muslims.)

Yet we see articles about the authority of airline captains, as if  
their authority was at issue.  It wasn't

And we see embarrassing articles, like the Wall Street Journal one by  
Debra Burlingame's, cited in IP, that is impressive for its attempt  
to excite emotions and apply some astonishingly dangerous logic.  The  
imams said "Allahu Akbar" and so did the 9/11 terrorists.  Gosh. If  
any of the terrorists ate peanuts should we refuse travel to anyone  
eating peanuts?

In other words let's stop demonstrating the cliche about correlation  
not indicating causation.  Or rather, if we are worried about real  
danger, we had better worry a lot more about things that correlate  
well with it.  Praying and speaking in Arabic are really bad correlates.

We need to stop using superficial observations and characteristics,  
with justifications that rely on hyperbole, bad logic, and  
inflammatory emotional appeals, for doing stupid, hateful, and  
ultimately self-damaging things.

What is most ironic about this particular event is that was they were  
so obviously *not* terrorists.  Terrorists make a point of being  
*less* noticeable, not *more*.

Either these guys were exactly who they say they were -- and they  
were therefore treated egregiously -- or they were intending to  
create a media event.

Neither case has them as dangerous, and throwing them off the plane  
ensured that the latter goal was achieved.

d/
--

  Dave Crocker
  Brandenburg InternetWorking
  bbiw.net


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