Amnesty Condemns U.S. Use Of Racial Profiling

WASHINGTON, Sept 13 (AFP) - Racial profiling by US law enforcement agencies has increased over the past three years and now affects one in nine Americans, the Amnesty International rights group said in a report released Monday.
"State and federal agencies, under the guise of fighting terrorism, have expanded the use of this degrading, discriminatory and dangerous practice," said Curt Goering, deputy executive director for Amnesty Internaitonal USA.
According to its study, some 32 million Americans have been subject to profiling -- the targeting of people because of their ethnic or religious background.
Amnesty said use of profiling has seen a major increase since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
The report pointed to "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh and British shoe-bomber Richard Reid as examples of Al-Qaeda suspects who did not fit standard racial profiles.
The practice "violates human rights, undermines national security and simply does not work," said Goering.
According to Amnesty, people of Middle Eastern or South Asian descent and those of the Muslim and Sikh faiths are most at risk.