Step This Way, Mohammed

David Weigel | August 15, 2006

Ah, the wonders a government can do when it doesn't have to answer to a Constitution. In the UK, law enforcement is weighing a new screening system that would prioritize checking young Muslims over randomly checking all airline passengers.

The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background.

The system would be much more sophisticated than simply picking out young men of Asian appearance. But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra checks.

The British - amazingly, still a target of ungrateful terrorists who don't want to thank them for liberating Iraq - are on the cutting edge of new anti-terror human tracking. Sooner or later they're going to introduce national ID cards. The Pet Shop Boys have already predicted it in song.