Air Marshals Keep Close Eye on Travelers

[hang a left]

Air Marshals Keep Close Eye on Travelers



Apr 17, 12:14 AM (ET)

By LESLIE MILLER



WASHINGTON (AP) - When someone at an airport is sweating, is it because he's running late or trying to hide something? Could hand signals between people in a terminal be part of an inside joke or a terror plot?

A pilot program using "behavior pattern recognition" is under way at Boston's Logan International Airport, where two of the planes used by the Sept. 11 hijackers took off. Air marshals, passenger screeners and state police stationed there have undergone special training in things to look for that could indicate a terrorist plot.

Israeli officials have employed a version of the technique for years to protect air travelers against terrorists.

At Logan, uniformed and undercover security officials watch people as they move through terminals. They look for odd or suspicious behavior: heavy clothes on a hot day, loiterers without luggage, anyone observing security methods.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040417/D820AUD00.html

[eyesroll]

1. I observe security at airports

What else is there to do? I try to figure out the pattern (of who they're pulling in to the "special" line).

[wtmusic]

2. 100% pointless

The number of false positives, or people sweating because they're late for their flight, wearing a heavy sweater, etc. not only invalidate this approach but divert resources from much more productive avenues like thorough baggage checks.

[LastDemocratInSC]

3. The key is on your boarding pass, or how you bought your ticket ...

The next time you fly, look at your boarding pass. If you see a line of SSS or SSSS anywhere on it, you're due for extra screening. The passes on which this are printed are currently randomly selected. I've never been selected but my wife recently was, and we went through security at Charlotte's Douglas Airport without any extra security measures being applied to her.

She and I were in different rows on the airplane and wanted to sit together so I went to the guy at the gate desk and asked if there was any way that we could switch around. He saw the SSS on her boarding pass and just freaked out because there's supposed to be a special stamp put on your boarding pass if you're singled out for extra security and have undergone the extra search.

Within minutes there were several people at the gate waving wands around my wife and asking questions and poking into her carry-on pocketbook. No, we never got seats together.

The other issue is how you buy your ticket. My little 4 year old grandson flew down to see us last summer with my wife, who had a round trip ticket. Iain, my little guy, had a one way ticket because we were planning to drive him back home. So there he was, a little boy, being asked to take off his shoes, his shirt, empty out his tiny backpack, the wand thing, and all the rest. All they found were crayons, plastic dinosaurs, and an old donut. So much for security.

Welcome to the Brave New World.

[Buns_of_Fire]

4. One-way tickets are now UnAmerican

:eyes: Of course, these masterminds fail to understand that someone planning to do harm would now just spring for a round-trip ticket (it's not like Osama has a cash-flow problem). And God help you if you have a beard (which I assume your 4-year-old grandson didn't have :-) -- glad he made it thru okay).

Airport security is, by and large, a joke. An unfunny joke.