"The Power Of Probability"

Frum proposes another way to profile:

In the early 2000s, the airlines proposed "trusted traveler" programs. Individuals who wished to pass more easily through airports could volunteer to disclose information to confirm that they presented little threat: length of time at their current residence, for example. These pieces of information would together generate a risk profile, and people who scored low would pass more easily. (The governments of the U.S. and Canada operate an analogous program at North American customs and immigration crossing points.)

 

Repeatedly, however, civil liberties groups objected to these proposals. They complained that the information requested was intrusive and excessive. Perhaps they also surmised that the passengers who would speed through the lines would be older, richer, more employed, more native-born, and more married than those waiting for Murphy-style questioning.
 
But of course it is the younger, poorer, less employed, less native-born and less married who are more likely to commit an attack -- and who are thus more appropriate persons for scrutiny.

Huh? The Undie-bomber was a privileged member of the elite. Bin Laden was a former plutocrat. The terror profile is emphatically not poorer than many people. Most of them are fricking engineers. Apart from that, great idea.