From today's Washington Post, an op-ed by Juliette N. Kayyem, a lecturer in public policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, and co-author of "Protecting Liberty in an Age of Terror":

[G]etting tougher on communities of interest -- including pronouncements that authorities will start profiling or focusing on minority populations -- is exactly what we ought not to emulate about Britain. The most serious homegrown attack on U.S. soil was by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Immigrant groups feel themselves part of America, and our success is that we have made them feel that they have a role in the nation's destiny. Tougher surveillance, profiling or efforts that risk alienation might give us a sense that we are doing something, but the long-term legacy of such efforts could well prove self-destructive. Investing in those communities and asking for their assistance in the fight against terrorism is a smarter strategy.

There is much to learn from the British: their reticence about disclosing details, their clear expertise in human intelligence, their non-hysterical reaction to very real threats. But how we deal with our immigrant and domestic populations is certainly not one of them. [Link]

Tags: Britain, terrorism, plot, profiling, Muslims.