In the abstract there are excellent arguments here. In RI 3 weeks ago 3 men of Arabic heritage were asked to leave an area on several seperate occaisions when they were video taping submarine and military ship maneuvers. They were not arrested. They had done nothing wrong.
4 weeks ago 3 arab men and one woman that had videotape exclusivly of the Sears tower were detained only because their semi truck had unsafe violations and was taken out of service by its frieght company.
Like it or not terrorists are HERE and profiling is the common sense approach to determine who is who. To detain suspects long enough to investigate quickly with new codes is the plan.
We are to sit back and see if the greater good is served. We may never know if unspeakable horror was averted by these infringments on civil liberties. But we damn well will know when they are abused.