1. Why is it that the USA government cannot do the same thing?  It is preposterous that the UK, with its much more liberal attitude has instituted these types of airport background checks, but the USA is still wanding 80-year-old grandmothers.
2. I suppose it's not surprising that the liberal newspaper in the UK who wrote the article (The Times) chose to devote all of the content to how the Muslims feel about being checked, rather than explaining to the public about why the government sensibly instituted the additional checks.  It's not surprising, but it is counter-intuitive.

Muslims face extra checks in new travel crackdown
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

THE Government is discussing with airport operators plans to introduce a screening system that allows security staff to focus on those passengers who pose the greatest risk.

The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background.

The system would be much more sophisticated than simply picking out young men of Asian appearance. But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra checks.

Officials at the Department for Transport (DfT) have discussed the practicalities of introducing such a system with airport operators, including BAA. They believe that it would be more effective at identifying potential terrorists than the existing random searches.

They also say that it would greatly reduce queues at security gates, which caused lengthy delays at London airports yesterday for the fifth day running. Heathrow and Gatwick were worst affected, canceling 69 and 27 flights respectively. BAA gave warning yesterday that the disruption would continue for the rest of the week.

Passengers are now allowed to ta....

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