"It is time to profile for terrorists, to actively discriminate...Islamists, some would call them"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Gingrich openly says let’s ‘profile’ and ‘actively discriminate’

By Sahil Kapur
Thursday, December 31st, 2009 -- 10:19 am

http://rawstory.com/2009/12/gingrich-openly-profile-discriminate/



WASHINGTON -- Another prominent Republican has joined the chorus of conservatives championing open discrimination against Muslims after the failed Christmas terror plot.

In an op-ed published Wednesday for the conservative magazine Human Events, former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich forcefully slammed the Obama administration's counter-terrorism policies as insufficient and said his approach "must now change decisively."

"It is time to know more about would-be terrorists, to profile for terrorists and to actively discriminate based on suspicious terrorist information," Gingrich wrote.

"We know our opponents are radical extremists of the irreconcilable wing of Islam (Islamists, some would call them)," he added.

In an unabashed endorsement of discrimination based on background, Gingrich posited that "e know how to identify these enemies but our elites have refused to do so."

[liberal N proud]

1. I want to add New Gingrich to the terrorist watch list.

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Beat me to it!

LOL

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Newt Gingrich is a waste of oxygen, protplasm, space and any other ingredient essential

to sustain the human race.

[el_bryanto]

3. The argument will, unfortunately, resonate

It won't go anywhere fortunately - they couldn't do it in the Bush era, they aren't going to able to do it now.

Bryant

[Cant trust em]

4. Michael Chertoff was on NPR yesterday talking about how ineffective profiling is

The Christmas bombing is a great example. This guy was from Nigeria, not the middle east. He's African, not Arab-looking.

[Sebastian Doyle]

Yeah, but that's not a problem for the Freepers

You mean we get to profile the ni**ers too? Hell, that's a good thing !11!!1111!!!

[Cant trust em]

9. Let's not forget about Jose Padilla.

We can get all of the Latinos too.

[mix]

5. Racial profiling is not just wrong and bigoted, it does not work...

...this proposed policy is for the consumption of the Republican base, it is meant to be divisive in supposedly pointing out the naivete of liberals as opposed to the non-elite conservatives who know who America's enemies really are.

Islam is a universal religion, in that conversion has been historically possible for all ethnic and cultural groups...for this reason you could never "profile" Islamists anymore than you could cat lovers. If you want to end terrorist attacks, US foreign policy needs to stop giving radicals an excuse for resistance and retaliation, i.e deal fairly with the Israelis and Palestinians and end the occupations of Muslim lands.

[timeforpeace]

11. Don't believe it's been tried.

[mix]

12. your "belief" is incorrect

http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling

[timeforpeace]

15. No, as an official goverment policy it has not been tried.

[mix]

17. as de facto government policy is has and continues to be

Newt is arguing for the legitimation, both legally and through public approval, of racial profiling policies that have long been practiced by law enforcement, private interests, and government agencies...interesting pre-9/11 fact:

A General Accounting Office study revealed that approximately 67 percent of the passengers subjected to personal searches upon entering the United States were people of color. Black and Latino Americans were four to nine times as likely as white Americans to be x-rayed after being frisked or patted down. Black women are more likely than any other U.S. citizens to be strip-searched. The GAO found that in 1997 to 1998, an astounding 97 percent of passengers forced to submit to pat down searches, and 77 percent of the passengers forced to submit to strip searches, were innocent.

http://www.aclu.org/stop-racial-profiling-american-airports
http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/sweeping-homeland-security-investigation-muslims-was-unconstitutional-and-discriminat

[timeforpeace]

20. But you can't say it doesn't work when it hasn't been tried, which it hasn't nor will it be.

[mix]

22. If you read the link, you will see it has been tried and failed. nt

[NoSheep]

6. Yes. Newt goes on the terrorist watch list first. There. I actively discriminated.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

7. idiot. there is a reason racial/religious profiling doesnt work. i hate these people

there can no tragedy that they will not exploit to further propagate bigotry

[KG]

8. guess the timmy mcvieghs would get a pass then.

[timeforpeace]

10. Even if 100% of airplane terrorist incidents are committed by young Muslim men, we should not do

this.

[mix]

16. No, we should not do this.

Despite not being official policy, racial profiling exists in the public and private spheres, typically resulting in false arrests and accusations.

There is no empirical evidence that racial profiling works either. In fact, its discriminatory nature exacerbates social relations.

[timeforpeace]

21. It probably happens in Muslim countries to non-Muslims but we don't do that here.

[mix]

23. lame argument

Racial profiling is an ongoing fact of American life, in both the government and private spheres...if you quibble with that you're a troll. The ACLU has and continues to document this fact.

[guruoo]

14. Has Newt run out of original material?

[Sebastian Doyle]

18. Yeah, he did

About 1996. It's all been recycled since then.

[mix]

19. so true

and Gingrich types use 9/11 to argue for the same old reactionary garbage they did back in the 90s