Scenerio :
Two middle eastern travelers purchase one way tickets, using cash, to board a flight.
Should they be pulled aside and scrutinized by security?
If they are, is it considered racial profiling?
If they do that to all foreign passengers with one way tickets, then it is not racial profiling. If they do it only for middle-eastern passengers, it is profiling. I don't know about cash though. In many countries, credit cards are not popular. When I came here two years ago, I had bought a one way ticket to america with cash. I wasn't expecting to return within a year, so I did not buy a return ticket. I also did not have enough credit limit on my card to buy the international ticket. There are thousands of people like me who travel with genuine reasons with your scenario. If you think that is a high risk group, then the check should be done on everyone, including europeans, australians, asians and africans, not just middle-east asia.
Point taken. However, it was not 19 African Americans, 19 Italians, 19 Hasidic Jews or 19 Chinese people who hijacked tose planes and declared Islamic Jihad. It was 19 middle easterners. And therefore I believe that at this point, if a middle easterner purchases a one way ticket with cash, and he is scrutinized because of it, it is not racial profiling. It is criminal profiling. It's part of the M.O. of those who attacked this nation. Should others of other races who purchase a one way ticket with cash also be scrutinized? Absolutely. At this point in the game we don't know who really is a radical Muslim or who is a sympathizer.
If the middle easterner fits the M.O. of how things were done by former middle easterners who attacked this country, then he should be scrutinized based on criminal profiling. It's not racial profiling.
On the morning of September 11th 2001, Michael Tuohey, a ticket agent at Portland International Airport, notices that both Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari have $2,500 first-class, one-way tickets. He later comments, "You don’t see many of those. I thought they looked like two Arab terrorists but then I berated myself for the stereotype and did nothing."So it's the MO of the 9/11 hijackers. That, in my opinion, becomes grounds for criminal profiling and is in no way racial profiling.
