This does not change the fact that most of the terrorism we have experienced originates with Mideastern males, who vocally commit the acts in the name of their god.

A smart tango would pick someone like you described but they are not always so smart and many want to get into the act just to win favor with Allah.

I have no doubt that it would be fairly easy to recruit from the various ‘stans you mentioned but I have noticed a fundamental difference in the motivation of that group of Muslims vs the Mideastern sects that justifies a closer look at the Mid-easterners.

The Chechnya and Afghans seem to be more secular and motivated for more secular reasons. Specifically, get out of our country and leave us alone.

The Shia leadership in the Middle East no doubt have secular reasons to hate us but they tend to use religious motivation to inspire attacks against us for our way of life as much or more than any perceived offense against them.

As for Christians, since the middle ages, any aggression against the Muslims has not been in the name of god.

Solving secular based differences is easier that fighting religious fanatics. I have no idea how to solve it. I only know which side I will be on at the end of the day.

And I’ve seen worse, much worse, from my Conservative friends. For instance, a recent one, deleted, says that no trace of Obama can be found before he ran for the US Senate, quotes Harvard Law as saying they never heard of him.

Wanna list of American crimes against Muslims since, say, 1950? Wanna know who started it?

Of course not.

For me, it is not unreasonable to take a closer look at people who are of obvious middle eastern appearance or wearing traditional Muslim garb. The fact that we feel leery about doing this is we know most, if not all those we’ll stop are innocent, and we are programmed as Americans to not look kindly on profiling because it violates certain assumptions of “innocent til proven guilty” that go back for centuries in English Common Law. Hell, we get pissed off when we have to empty our pockets and take off our shoes at airports, which is not unreasonable by any means.

I myself was once stopped and strip-searched twice, boarding in Tampa and again changing planes in Atlanta, when returning from Puerto Rico to Tennessee. In those days, they were looking for Cuban hijackers, and I fit the profile (I bought one-way tickets months ahead of time, and made an overnight stop in Florida). I understood why it happened, and I cut them a little slack. (Besides, they missed the two doobies I had stashed in my pack of Marlboros). In wartime, you assume your mail will be opened.

But “that author’s” point had nothing to do with stop and search procedures and guidelines, and I think you know that. Its all about hate, and as you point out, using that hate to do a little rabble-rousing for purposes that have nothing to do with protecting the airways.