The case of Anne Marie Murphy is a perfect example of how law enforcement officials can catch terrorists. Airport security kept an open mind about who could be a terrorist, and did not dismiss anyone, not even a young and pregnant woman. They then used many techniques to find the bomb, one of which was racial profiling. The fact that Murphy’s boyfriend was Palestinian caused the profilers to be suspicious.

Since September 11th, the United States has employed the use of racial profiling in an attempt to apprehend terrorists. However, the government h

as not considered other important factors that make a terrorist. Instead, it has used racial profiling to detain citizens, question immigrants, and encourage racial backlash at great costs to the American citizens . The government has used racial profiling liberally and irresponsibly. What should be a single factor in locating and capturing terrorists has at times become the sole crutch of terrorist investigations. Racial profiling is not always an effective method of catching terrorists, and blatant use of racial profiling is a violation of constitutional right. Negligent use of racial profiling is also very harmful on a societal level.

According to Dr. Angela J. Davis of the American University Washington College of Law, the capture of John Walker Lindh provides further evidence of the ineffectiveness of racial profiling of Arab-Americans. Lindh is a white American male from an upper middle class family. As a young man, he traveled to Afghanistan, where he joined the Al Qaeda network. If Lindh attempted to imitate the September 11th hijackings, racial profiling would not have prevented another catastrophe (Davis 2).

The United States government could learn much from the El Al profilers. Currently, El Al, and Israeli airline, is the safest airline in the world. It has also been one of the most targeted airlines by terrorists since the 1960s (Simon 1). However, the Israeli profilers who interrogate those who fly on the airline are very well trained. Bill Maher believes American airlines should employ the same techniques as El Al. “Security should consist of trained human behavioral experts who know how to read body language, eye contact, and voice inflection and how to conduct a rapid-fire, on-the-spot grilling” (41). Unfortunately, United States airport officials cannot do this. They do little more than pull aside anyone who happens to be wearing a turban. If U.S. security could expand their profiling techniques to incorporate behavior as well as race, they would see much better results.

Because of the secrecy surrounding the government detentions, it is not known how many people are still incarcerated or where they are located. It is also unknown how many of these people have had proper legal counsel. All that is known is that over 1,200 people have experienced discrimination and violations of their civil liberties due to blatant racial profiling.

Some topics in this essay:
Middle Eastern, Marie Murphy, Arab Americans, Supreme Court, Pre-Screening System, Michael Chertoff, racial profiling, Japanese Americans, Liberties Union, Lindh Davis, Rights Watch, middle eastern, september 11th, law enforcement officials, eastern people, enforcement officials, law enforcement, middle eastern people, hate crimes, september 11, american citizens, el al, anne marie murphy, racial profiling liberally, john walker lindh,