It's just a shame the author seems reflexively negative regarding the FBI, and why I have to question his grip on the idea of combatting terrorism. He seems to have a typically leftist myopia regarding anything that might look like profiling.
In this post he (reasonably) questions the credentials and expertise of apparently self-annointed "terrorism expert" Gary Perlstein, and goes on to give us this passage:
Take a deep breath for a moment, then come back and re-read the first part of that quote. ""The fact that a person was under suspicion because he was a Muslim, used a computer, transferred large sums of money, that's fine," Perlstein says in that article. "I want people to investigate that."
Abuse of innocent people via arrest and prosecution is something Perlstein apparently rejects. But abuse of innocent people by investigating them for spurious and illegitimate reasons, that's okay with him.
Sorry for the nested quotes, but here is my understanding of Perlstein, and then of B!x.
Perlstein thinks it's okay for law enforcement to go looking for people who might be terrorists, and thinks that looking for some combination of factors, including in this case (a) being Muslim, (b) using a computer, and (c) transferring large sums of money.
B!x seems to think that those three factors are the only factors present, and promptly starts to hyperventilate.
Go back to the original links on B!x's page, and you start to see that there is more afoot. If you think it's just "use a computer" - that could be anyone, and it supports B!x's paranoia. But the case at hand involved a person accused of operating web sites to support terrorism - which is a higher threshold of involvement than the generic "use a computer".
From the Spokesman-Review article:
Al-Hussayen, a UI graduate student in computer science, was the first person charged with providing material support to terrorists by operating Web sites. [William Banks, a law professor at Syracuse University and an expert on domestic and international terrorism] said the case seemed to show him as "what most of us would think of as the model for a Web administrator – you're a medium through which materials pass, you're not responsible for the contents, nor do you edit or survey the contents."
So the reality is that even being a web site operator isn't enough involvement under the law to make you culpable (thank goodness) . So, it's good that stupid provisions in the original misbegotten Patriot Act are being struck down.
As for profiling, once you get rid of race as a factor it becomes standard police procedure. Like Perlstein, I too expect the Feds to be looking for Muslim extremists who are doing some combination of things, such as (a) posting or reading extremist anti-American materials that justify terrorism; (b) transfering large amounts of money internationally; (c) attending any group meeting at which terrorism is promoted or encouraged or where potential terrorists are recruited; (d) writing or actively disseminating or helping disseminate pro-terrorist literature; (e) learning to fly large aircraft but not take off or land; (f) attending or seeking to attend terrorist training camps; etc.
Note that "being Middle Eastern" or "being Arab" aren't on the list - because the terrorists are recruiting across race and ethnic barriers.
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