Schneier on Security: A "Typical" Terrorist:

A simply horrible lead sentence in a Manila Times story:

If you see a man aged 17 to 35, wearing a ball cap, carrying a backpack, clutching a cellular phone and acting uneasily, chances are he is a terrorist.

Let's see: Approximately 4.5 million people use the New York City subway every day. Assume that the above profile fits 1% of them. Does that mean that there are 25,000 terrorists riding the New York City subways every single day? Seems unlikely.

The rest of the article gets better, but still....

At least that is how the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) has 'profiled' a terrorist.

Sr. Supt. Felipe Rojas Jr., chief of the NCRPO Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division (RIID), said Friday that his group came up with the profile based on the descriptions of witnesses in previous bombings.

Rojas said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation has a similar terrorist profile.

But a source in the intelligence community derided the profile, calling it stereotyped and inaccurate.

The police profile does not apply to the female bombers who the military said were being trained for suicide missions in Metro Manila.

(Via Schneier on Security.)