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After Chicago bomb plot arrests, Bo Dietl argued for more racial profiling in "your 7-Elevens"

Summary: Commenting on Fox News' Your World, private investigator Bo Dietl argued that the recent arrest in Miami of seven men on charges of conspiracy, which allegedly included plans to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago, illustrates that "we can't go off ... where we are going with [racial] profiling." Dietl referred to the men as a "crew of mutts" and stated that law enforcement officials should "[g]o into your 7-Elevens or go into one of these stores that keep rotating young men who are Muslims," and say "identify yourself."

During the June 23 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Bo Dietl, chairman and founder of the private investigation firm Beau Dietl & Associates, argued that the recent arrest in Miami of seven men on charges of conspiracy, which allegedly included plans to bomb the Sears Tower in Chicago, illustrates that "we can't go off ... where we are going with [racial] profiling." Referring to the men as a "crew of mutts," Dietl suggested that "[t]he people that are coming in to our country" are "like a cancer" and "[w]e need some chemotherapy now." He further stated that law enforcement officials should "[g]o into your 7-Elevens or go into one of these stores that keep rotating young men who are Muslims," and say "identify yourself." However, when host Neil Cavuto asked if "racial profiling [would] have worked" in the case of the Chicago plot, Dietl responded that it wouldn't, because "[t]hey look like Americans." Dietl then added: "[M]y point is that the attack will come from a Muslim person," so law enforcement should go to Muslim communities, "knock on the door," and say "[w]e would like you to identify yourself."

The New York Times quoted a top FBI official saying that the alleged Chicago bombing plot was "more aspirational than operational." Similarly, U.S. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said that the seven men arrested posed "no immediate threat." The Times also noted that five of the seven arrested are U.S. citizens, while one is a legal immigrant from Haiti and the other is an illegal Haitian immigrant. Moreover, their religious affiliations are in question; neighbors of the men said they belonged to a religious group "that appeared to mix Christian and Muslim beliefs," and Reuters noted that "[t]he Council on American-Islamic Relations said the suspects did not belong to the Islamic community" in their South Florida neighborhood.

From the June 23 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto:

CAVUTO: Well, lots of attention that five of the seven arrested are American citizens, but all seven, radical Muslims. My next guest says if this doesn't make the case for profiling, he can't imagine what will. Bo Dietl is the chairman and founder of Beau Dietl & Associates. What do you think?

DIETL: Neil, first of all, these -- this crew that I see, this crew of mutts -- that's the only thing I can look at them and say -- you know, we can't go off the -- where we are going with profiling. My beliefs are, there were $50,000 involved there. They're looking for $50,000 from Al Qaeda. I would like to know if this plot was serious. But let's get right to the profiling. Nineteen of the 20 hijackers that crashed into our World Trade Centers were in this country -- I talked to my friend who was one of the heads of the former -- of the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service]. They were in this country illegal. The people that are coming in to our country, it's like a cancer. We need some chemotherapy now. And we have got to go and we got to identify them.

They're, right now, in our bloodstream, right in our system. And where are they? They're on the streets, on Atlantic Avenue, wherever the Muslim community is. You have 1.2 million Muslims around the world. They say at least --

CAVUTO: 1.2 billion.

DIETL: Two -- two -- 1.2 billion. There's about 20 percent of them that are radical, fundamentalist. So, we are talking about --

CAVUTO: How do you know that many are?

DIETL: You -- you have a following. You have these things called imams. They're supposed to be religious figures. What they're doing is, they're bringing people over from Muslim countries over -- and this is -- this is facts -- with different IDs, different names. They come to United States. They disappear. What would be the problem about all our law enforcement to drive down the street -- come here. Go into your 7-Elevens or go into one of these stores that keep rotating young men who are Muslims.

CAVUTO: So, you would go into the Muslim areas.

DIETL: Identify yourself.

[...]

CAVUTO: But I -- what I'm asking you, would racial profiling have --

DIETL: Well, you --

CAVUTO: -- worked with these guys?

DIETL: No. They look like -- they look like Americans.

CAVUTO: Right.

DIETL: They do not look like Muslim. But my point is that the attack will come from a Muslim person, someone who is willing to give --

[crosstalk]

CAVUTO: So, you would go in to the Muslim communities --

DIETL: Yes.

CAVUTO: -- that are very big in Michigan and elsewhere --

DIETL: Yes.

CAVUTO: -- and -- and -- and target them?

DIETL: Yes, and identify people. You knock on the door. We would like you to identify yourself.

— B.A.

Posted to the web on Monday June 26, 2006 at 6:06 PM EST