IN THE WAKE of last week's London terrorist-plot arrests, some Americans are calling on the U.S. government to apply racial profiling to airport screening. Their argument goes something like this: Why should the federal Transportation Security Authority search little old white ladies when young Arab and Muslim men were behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and other terrorist plots?

The answer is: The feds should avoid racial profiling because it breeds discontent without enhancing security.

Strict profiling can't work as it will prompt terrorist cells to recruit outside the profile. They already are. The London suspects include the English son of a conservative politician, a convert to Islam, as well as a young mother and father whom authorities believe planned to bring their six-month-old baby on their target plane. [Link]