New methods of secretly profiling individual airline passengers have been condemned by civil liberties groups. Alan Johnson, the British Home Secretary has announced that he is considering putting into practice checks on passengers based on gender, age and ethnic background. These checks may be kept secret so as not to alert potential terrorists.  Spokesman for the group Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti has said that such ethnic profiling was dangerous as well as irresponsible.

Proposed plans to heighten security at airports following the attempted bombing of a passenger plane bound for the U.S. on Christmas Day include more passengers being subject to pat down searches as well as tests for traces of explosive materials on their luggage as well as their bodies. Mr. Johnson has already said that new full-body scanners are to be deployed within weeks and has also promised that a greater number of sniffer dogs will be put into service in Britain’s airports. Airport staff are already undergoing additional training to enable them to better spot suspicious behavior. Transit passengers will now undergo more checks and those who are making multiple stopovers in countries that are considered risky will already be flagged up as potential security risks.

The new security measures are already causing delays at airports and some experts say that the addition of full body scanners will do little to protect airlines from the threat of terrorism. A British MP who worked on developing the scanners has said that they would not have been able to detect the explosives being carried onto the U.S. bound flight by Abdul Mutallab on Christmas Day.