Bibliography – My Writings on Profiling to Find Terrorists

My writings arguing for the profiling as a tool of counterterrorism have clustered around three basic arguments:

• Profiling can take at least three different forms. Going from least to most effective, these are: looking for suspicious behavior, looking for young males with Muslim names, and looking for persons who ascribe to Islamist views.
• Law enforcement pretends not to profile Muslims, when it in fact does. This is most evident when the police snoop around Muslim institutions or arrest Muslims for actions that would be seen as benign if done by non-Muslims.
• Given that Islamist terrorism is conducted exclusively by Muslims, profiling Muslims is legitimate and effective.

Here are my articles of profiling, with additions as necessary.

• "[Not Profiling at Airports:] A Deadly Error." New York Post, January 21, 2002. Criticizes U.S. Department of Transportation airport security guidelines for failing to acknowledge who the enemy is.
• "The Enemy Within [and the Need for Profiling]." New York Post, January 24, 2003. Asks and answers some difficult questions: Does singling out Muslims for additional scrutiny serve a purpose? And if so, is it legally and morally acceptable?
• "Does Law Enforcement Profile Muslims?" DanielPipes.org, May 31, 2003. Agrees with the Islamists that profiling does in fact take place.
• "Look Now Who's Profiling - CAIR's Staff Is." DanielPipes.org, August 1, 2003. Notes how four employees of the famously anti-profiling Council on American-Islamic Relations themselves engage in profiling.
• "Should the U.S. Military Profile for Militant Islam?" DanielPipes.org, September 21, 2003. Argues in the affirmative.
• "Let the Profiling Begin." DanielPipes.org, December 5, 2003. Reflects on the implications of a U.S. government warning about explosives disguised as personal items as threats to airplanes.
• "A Call for Intelligent Profiling[ by Frederick Schauer]." The New York Sun, December 30, 2003. Notes how Schauer's Profiles, Probabilities, and Stereotypes (Harvard University Press) acknowledges the "strong argument" in favor of including a person's Middle Eastern background as a factor in airport security.
• "To Profile or Not to Profile?" The New York Sun, September 21, 2004. Looks at the case of Abdullah al Kidd to take issue with Amnesty International on the utility of profiling.
• "[Michael Smerconish and I Debate:] What Kind of Airport Profiling?" The New York Sun, October 5, 2004. Are young Arab men the issue? Smerconish says yes and I say no.
• "Will Mohammed Mansha Walk?" DanielPipes.org, March 30, 2005. Follows a British case of profiling to its conclusion. No, Mansha got six years in prison.
• "'A Lot of It Is in the Nose'." DanielPipes.org, June 26, 2005. Notes with surprise that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection endorses gut instinct on the part of its agents.
• Mohammad Radwan Obeid, Jehovah's Witness?" DanielPipes.org, June 29, 2005. Follows an Ohio case of a Muslim suspected of tterrorism who claims to have converted out of Islam.
• "Do Canadian Islamists Approve Profiling or Not?" DanielPipes.org, August 17, 2005. Notes the contradictory statements of two Canadian organizations, the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Canadian Islamic Congress.
• "Pretending Not to Profile Muslims." DanielPipes.org, December 22, 2005. Builds on an earlier weblog entry, "Does Law Enforcement Profile Muslims?" to show repeated cases of hypocrisy by counterterrorism authorities.
• "American Law Enforcement Really Does Profile Muslims – The Siraj Case." DanielPipes.org, May 2, 2006. Notes how the New York Police Department surveillance of city mosques amounts to profiling.
• "Does the Police Department Profile? Should It?" The New York Sun, June 13, 2006. Uses the same Siraj case as above to argue in favor of a bill proposed by Dov Hikind in the New York State Assembly that authorizes law enforcement "to consider race and ethnicity" in counterterrorism efforts.
• "What Security Measures vis-à-vis Western Muslims?" DanielPipes.org, August 10, 2006. My criticism of "illegal, immoral, impractical, and inefficient" counterterrorism methods that discriminate against Muslims.
• "Time to Profile Airline Passengers?" The New York Sun, August 22, 2006. Reviews recent developments in airline passenger profiling and predicts their future course.

(June 13, 2006)