A redneck speaks:
You gotta kill the spider by striking at the body, not the pincers.... Much talk about "sleeper cells" but I'd bet that autonomy's not a big priority with these guys. Where is OBL?
Also - supposedly 20,000 men have attended the Al Queda training camps. Why not concentrate on them? Why not develop a profile of THEM - surely the vast majority come from just a few nations and are of a certain age. All are male.
Remember, Danny et al, we are not talking about detaining those who are profiled. 10% of passengers are pulled out at the gate and searched anyway - why not apply a small amount of reason to whom the guards will spend time on? By the way, it is NOT random now - if you are a deadheading pilot you will most certainly be pulled out of line and searched (one way travel is a big flag).
One final thing (God help me I just gotta say this): if any of these terrorists had applied at United back when they were hiring, their application would have gone into a special pile and they would have been interviewed with much less flying qualifications than guys like meself. So profiling has already been endorsed in this industry, no?