Hesse's abbess says she watched with humiliation as two security officers took clothes out of her carry-on bag in full view of dozens of other travelers at the international airport of Baltimore/Washington. Hessian Abbess, an Arab lawyer on his way to a conference, was detained at the gate for 30 minutes that October day. He tried to show them a business card identifying him as a member of the National Bar Association, but they paid him no attention. "I felt threatened. I had the feeling that if I protested too much, I would eat the airport carpet," says Hessian Abbess. A US Airways agent told him he had been arrested because he matched a profile designed to identify travelers who might pose a security risk. But the agent would not be more specific. The abbess of Hesse doesn't believe it. "I fit neither the profile of a terrorist nor that of a drug trafficker. I was simply FWA (flying while Arab)," he says. Hessian Abbess's resentment is shared by many Arab and Arab-American fliers who argue that racial and ethnic prejudices are playing a larger part in who is pulled aside for questioning and a thorough baggage check by airport security. Complaints like that of Hassan Abbass have soared since the September 11 incident led to increased severity of airport security nationwide. The American Civil Liberties Union has received more than 1,000 complaints this year, the most since the 1991 Gulf War. Arab-Americans and Arabs have filed the most. says the ACLU. The Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee received 2,000 complaints this year, 10 times more than in previous years. “Profiling has become just a fancy word for racism or stereotyping,” says commission spokesman Sam Hussein. criteria used in profiling. But they deny any bias inherent in the system… halfway through the article… it is put aside on more scientific grounds. The criteria are believed to include travelers' travel patterns and destinations. Flynn doesn't add details but says the new system will "eliminate the possibility of unconscious or conscious stereotyping." Northwest Airlines is testing the system in several cities. Following "several" complaints, it instructed gate agents to be less confrontational and friendlier to travelers during the process, says spokesman Jim Faulkner. Gregory Nojeim of the ACLU is skeptical of the CAPS system and believes profiling should be abandoned. The most effective security method, he explains, is bag matching, in which airlines remove bags from planes if their owners are not on board. According to him, profiling is a placebo. "It is an effort to make passengers feel that something is being done to stop the bombing of planes, even if it is unlikely to be effective."