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New York Times - July 25, 2005
Muslim groups say police officials may
engage in religious profiling
By Sarah Kershaw
SEATTLE, July 22 - …. the growing relationship between Israeli and United States law enforcement, expanding now after the London bombings, has prompted criticism among some Muslim groups, who say they fear that American police officers will engage in religious or ethnic profiling.
Some officials talk about receiving reports from the public about what the police refer to as "M.E.W.C.'s" - Middle Eastern with a camera - perhaps taking pictures of a bridge, a hydropower plant or a reservoir.
"Israel's anti-terror tactics are largely based on profiling, whether it's on airlines or at checkpoints," said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, based in Washington. "And they've produced tremendous resentment and hostility in the Palestinian population through humiliating tactics and through abuses on a daily basis. And I don't think that's something we want to replicate."
But Chief Kerlikowske said that the focus of the work with Israelis - an Israeli police general based at the Israeli Embassy in Washington is expected to come here for training next month - was on technical skills, and that the police were focusing on the behavior of potential bombers, not on race or religion….
Many police and federal officials have gone to Israel through a program organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, a nonprofit group in Washington that promotes close ties between the United States and the Israeli military and the police. Marsha Halteman, director of corporate and community programs for the institute, said that it got its money from private donors and that it had been sponsoring such trips for American officers since 2002.
Since the London bombings of July 7, Ms. Halteman said, interest in cooperation between the countries' police agencies has increased considerably. The institute pays the cost of the trips to Israel, roughly $6,500 for each state or local officer; it does not pay for federal officers' expenses, Ms. Halteman said. Since 2002, the institute has sent dozens of American law enforcement officials to Israel and sponsored several conferences here with Israeli security experts. An itinerary for a recent institute-sponsored trip to Israel listed among the lessons "The Mind-Set of the Suicide Bomber," "Security Technology" and "Enlisting the Public in the Fight Against Terrorism."
Barnett Jones, chief of the Sterling, Mich., Police Department, with 259 employees, was one of more than a dozen officials who went to Israel for training in April. "One would say it is the front line," Chief Barnett said of Israel. "We're in a global war."
Asked whether he had specific concerns because of the large Arab and Muslim population in the Detroit area, he responded delicately, saying: "The reality is we have a large population in our community that immediately become suspect, whether that is right or wrong, because of the global war. For me to sit here and say, 'I'm not concerned' would be wrong, but for me to sit here and say, 'Yes I'm concerned' would also be wrong."
The New York City Police Department has worked with the Israelis since soon after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has permanently stationed a Hebrew-speaking detective in Israel, who returns to the city often to train other officers. Since the July 7 London bombings, the department, which has an annual budget of $2 billion, has spent an additional $2 million a week, primarily on mass transit security, said Paul J. Browne, the deputy commissioner for public information. He said he did not expect that the new policy of searching backpacks and packages would add significantly to the cost.
Chief Kerlikowske of the Seattle police, which pays its own way for trips to Israel, said his department, with an annual budget of $182 million, would spend up to $30,000 for additional training on suicide bomber response….
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/national/nationalspecial3/25bombings.html
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