The policies are a rush reaction. They will add even greater delays to passengers and may not even prove to be successful in the long run. As has happened in the past terrorists will just find new ways to get around security measures and develop new ideas. For example, the restrictions on certain amounts of liquids led to the recent terrorist suspect concealing powdered explosives in his underwear.

Security experts have warned that the body scanners are not a 'silver bullet'. Conservative MP Ben Wallace said the scanners would probably not have detected the failed Detroit plane plot and would not have detected the Liquid explosives plot back in 2006. They body scanners which were trialled in the UK at Heathrow and Manchester airports recognise irregularities underneath clothing, but cannot define what these are. This means that explosives could be missed, or that huge delays could be caused by non-threatening objects.

It does not matter which country people come from, intelligence officials should be able to pick up suspects who are intending to travel before they get to airports and try to board planes. It was not the technology which failed to identify the suspect on Christmas Eve, but the intelligence services. He should have been on a no fly list after his own father expressed concerns about his extremist views to the US Embassy. What is more important than black listing certain countries is improving methods of gathering and trading intelligence within them.

Blacklisting people from certain countries will increase suspicion amongst other travelers and will create suspects out of many innocent people. This could lead to discrimination and prejudice on one side, and increased anger and isolation on the other.

Counter:

Muslims are NOT just 'brown'. Arabs are part European, Uzbeks are white, Uighurs are oriental and Nigerians are Black. Racial profiling means that: Christians(most are brown)/Hindus/Sikhs etc from these 14 countries will be frowned upon for no real reason and then in general, (even brown Europeans(Spanish/Italians)) brown people will continue to be ostracized.

Also non-Muslim terrorists(I.R.A etc) will also find it much easier to terrorize people.

Black/White/Oriental terrorists(and almost all terrorists on the news are American/Arab/British citizens/nationals) as a result get more leeway(lighter checks for/on them) to misbehave and get more meat on their cause(Look at these hypocritical racist westerners etc).

The London bombers were British citizens and Spanish nationals were involved in the development of the Madrid train bombings. Blacklisting people from certain countries will encourage terrorist organisations to use more home-grown terrorists, an arguably even bigger threat to national security.

Most terrorists are U.S, British or Arab citizens and not pure nationals of the 14 countries named. The recently caught British Nigerian bypassed security even though he was already on the terror suspects' list before boarding the plane. This goes to show that enough is not being done to check British/U.S/Arab citizens despite many being under the 'radar'.

And we know from New York's commissioner Raymond Kelly and Malcolm Gladwell's conversation that this does not work:

"We have a policy against racial profiling,"Raymond Kelly,told me(Gladwell),"I put it in here in March of the first year I was here.It's the wrong thing to do,and it's also ineffective.If you look at the London bombings,you have three British citizens of Pakistani descent. You have Germaine Lindsay, who is Jamaican. You have the next crew,on July 21st, you are East African, You have a Chechen woman in Moscow in early 2004 who blows herself up in a subway station, so whom do you profile?Look at New York City.forty percent of New Yorkers are born outside of this country(the U.S, and the rest have descended from foreigners). Look at the diversity here. Who am I supposed to profile? ....

"You think terrorists aren't aware of how easy it is to be categorized by ethnicity?"Kelly went on. "Look at the 9/11 hijackers. They came here. They shaved. They went to topless bars.They wanted to blend in.They wanted to look like they part of the American dream.These are not dumb people.Could a terrorist dress up as a Hasidic Jew and walk into the subway, and not be profiled? Yes I think profiling is just nuts" -^[1]

Point is, British/U.S/Arab citizens will get off the hook even more easily than they/we have in the past which means more terrorists/terrorism since all the BIG-Terrorist-dogs have these citizenships/nationalities: purely counterproductive move.

counter:

Local people(from the 14 countries named) do not go to the U.S/U.K for the purpose of terrorism (they go for tourism ,higher education and employment mainly) .

And "NO" immigrants aren't the issue. MOST terrorists are generally BORN in the U.K/U.S/Saudi-Arabia, unemployed or barely educated or frustrated by their maltreatment IN the west, they are 'western' because they are born there or that they have an incredible amount of international exposure(meaning they travel a lot).

This isn't about "Political Correctness" , it is about common sense: if BRITS/Americans/ARABS are let off the hook (even more than before (Nigerian(Brit) guy, shoe bomb-guy(Brit),7/7(BRITS), etc etc(mostly BRITS))

And people are hypocritically ostracized for being brown/or-looking-a-certain-way in countries that claim to be moderate/liberal; then home-grown terrorism (by racial/religious minorities) will naturally escalate.

1. ^ 'What the dog saw'-Malcolm Gladwell