TSA will begin psychoanalyzing air travelers in 40 major airports

[donsu]

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1644

Chatting Up the TSA

Next time you go to the airport be sure to put on a happy face, even if you’ve been informed that your flight has been delayed by an hour and that you’ll miss all your connections. You’ll need this cheerful façade to make it through the TSA airport security checkpoint.

As if being asked to strip off shoes, coats, belts and other clothing before going through a metal detector and getting your personal belongings x-rayed is not enough, the TSA will begin psychoanalyzing air travelers in 40 major airports next year. TSA screeners, who are not even fully trained law enforcement personnel, let alone professional psychologists, will perform behavior analysis screening on all passengers. The screeners will look for “suspicious” signs that might indicate a passenger could be a terrorist: having dry lips or a throbbing carotid artery (I’m not kidding), failure to make eye contact with or say hello to the screener, or evasive or slow answers to casual questions asked by the screener. Travelers who exhibit such nefarious characteristics will undergo extra physical searches—the infamous “pat down” frisk and bag rummage—and could even face police questioning.

This further invasion of the public’s privacy is part of a trend in law enforcement to go beyond merely responding to criminal activity in an attempt to prevent it. But allowing security personnel to question people, conduct intrusive searches, and possibly even make arrests on such flimsy criteria, instead of on hard evidence of criminal activity, should raise alarm bells with all Americans concerned about their civil liberties. Even psychologists who believe that analyzing body language in a controlled lab environment can detect deceptive behavior admit that studies are needed to see if it will work in the field—in this case, en masse and at chaotic airport checkpoints.

-snip-

The law enforcement community and the Bush administration are enamored with the Israeli model of anti-terrorism. Israel’s policy includes aggressive behavior toward perceived external threats, as well as toward its own citizens, including monitoring travelers’ behavior at airports. But Israel is a quasi-police state—one which has failed to end continuing anti-Israeli terrorism by removing its underlying cause—and is certainly no model for the “home of the free and the brave” to emulate in any way. In fact, the United States should take the opposite approach. Instead of piling on yet another unnecessary and ludicrous layer of “big brother” airport security, the United States should tone down its foreign policy overseas in order to dramatically reduce anti-U.S. terrorism by removing its primary underlying cause.
-snip-
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it's like we got sucked into a some intersteller science fiction novel

their smirking must be uncontrollable

[htuttle]

1. Greetings, Citizen!

How are you feeling on this glorious day?

Double plus good!

[sakabatou]

18. "Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death."

:scared:

[AX10]

2. FASCISM

[area51]

3. WTF?

More republinazi insanity. :freak:

[MoonRiver]

4. Airlines are on a path to self-destruction.

The hassles are reaching the point that it's just not worth it. I travel several times a year to visit my parents. What used to take less than 2 hours by air (previously there was a direct flight), now takes me about 8 hours, with two stops (one a plane change involving several hours between flights). This December, in addition to the normal incredibly long travel time, my flight had a long delay. I was so fed up, that I'm now considering the train or just driving. Air travel is becoming a major pain in the arse.

[SheilaT]

6. I drive lots of places I used to fly to before

because the hassles just aren't worth it.

I used to fantasize being rich enough to fly first class everywhere. Now I fantasize being rich enough to charter my own airplanes instead, and bypass security crap altogether.

[MoonRiver]

7. Me too! When I dream about how I would spend lotto money now,

one of the first things I'd do is fly a chartered airplane everywhere. Or better yet, buy my own jet! :D

[CrispyQ]

11. After 9/11 my boss did just that!

He goes via NetJets, a company that provides "fractional jet ownership." He can depart from Jefferson County Airport instead of DIA (closer by approx 40 miles!), no traffic/parking hassles, no security, no invasion of privacy, no stops at other airports. Of course, he is a multi-millionaire. :)

[AndyTiedye]

13. Amtrak is a Much Nicer Way to Travel

and they don't treat you like a criminal.

[SheilaT]

17. About three years ago I took Amtrak

from Kansas City to St. Louis to attend a conference. I could have flown, but would hardly save any time, what with needing to get to the airport two hours ahead of flight time, and then getting from the airport to the conference site which was at Union station in St. Louis. And my husband was driving out a couple of days later and we'd drive home together.

Unfortunately, a five hour train ride took ten hours, because heavy rains had apparently washed out some tracks and freight takes priority over people, so we kept on being put off on siding so that freight trains could whiz on by. Needless to say, by the end of the trip I was ready to kill someone, just not sure who deserved death.

At the beginning of the trip I browsed through a timetable, thinking about taking other train trips, but by the end of the journey I could no longer imagine taking a train anywhere.

I've taken the trains in many other countries and just love train travel. But at the moment I have no faith in Amtrak.

[alarimer]

20. I know it

I missed several flights when I traveled for the holidayd, due to weather, not really the airline. But I was still pissed off. They gave me a voucher for a discounted hotel room in Atlanta (still cost me $50) but it took me 36 hours to get where I was going. And 4 hours in a hotel room did not give me enough sleep to be a happy camper. My lips were dry because of the lack of humidity in the air (have they ever thought that people who have missed flights and slept in airports may not be terribly happy and, thus, subject to these ridiculous tactics?)

Why not just hand out Valium?

[SheilaT]

5. This would be amusing if it weren't so

stupid.

I'm thinking of the "slow to answer" part. My older son has Asperger's Syndrome, which means he's mildly autistic and somewhat socially impaired. Slowness to answer questions is his normal behavior. I can just see him being refused boarding for that.

Airline security has always been a joke, although the original measures instituted in the 70's did a good job of what was intended: putting a halt to the increasingly frequent hijackings of airplanes to Cuba. But to think that the terrorists are just waiting for another chance to fly airplanes into buildings is beyond silly. If or when they strike again, it will be by some other means entirely. I can think of a few possibilities myself, although I'm not foolish enough to post anything in an open forum. Nor do I want to do such things.

There's so little common-sense employed in the whole screening process. Witness the recent story of a four-year old who has a name that belongs to someone on the no-fly list. Or when Senator Edward Kennedy was having problems because "Edward Kennedy" was on the same list. No matter what you think of the man's politics, it was beyond idiocy that the screeners didn't just laugh and wave him on through every time his name came up.

[CrispyQ]

12. The story that stands out in my mind

is the one where the woman was forced to drink some of her own breast milk that she had bottled for her baby. WTF????

[alarimer]

21. I don't smile much or make eye contact

because I am usually so pissed off at the stupid security bullshit that moves too slow.

[donco6]

8. As if those GD airport Nazis weren't bad enough.

Now we have to make eye contact?

Don't even get me started. I had a long post about this a few weeks ago.

[Gunit_Sangh]

9. On my next trip

I'll play Doom on my laptop. Wonder what they'll think of that :evilgrin:

[donsu]

10. LOL

nt

[Silverhair]

14. Not new. Behaviour profiles have been used for decades...

...in security situations to spot suspicious people. I remember reading about airlines doing that back in the 70's when hijackings were all the rage.

[MercutioATC]

16. Israel has been doing this for years.

Their system is MUCH more secure than ours.

It's a question of how much liberty you're willing to trade for security.

(I tend to agree with Ben Franklin)

[Neil Lisst]

15. TSA can't even hire people competent to say "you want fries w/ that?"

This should be a disaster.

[DELUSIONAL]

19. As someone with a B.A., M.A. and post grad work in Psychology

this pisses me off.

In the first place these TSA idiots . . . are inept and some are power mad -- in fact some are certifiably insane.

Now give them a bit of information about "body language" and some of these idiots are going to misuse this in their class warfare.

Dumb idea -- from an even dumber administration.

[AZBlue]

22. Israel has had this in place for a long time.

[Freedom_Aflaim]

23. Don't walk through with your fist clenched

Doing so subjects you to the patdown.

This happened to me early last year. Walked through the detector with both my hands in a ball (similiar to a clenched fist, but it was unconcious with absolutely no intent on my part, although I was annoyed at going through what I feel to be a ridiculous and facist procedure)

When I objected several times in a friendly manner why I was being patdown etc when the detector didnt go off, the screener finally told me and the fist "flag".

I fly all the time and I know the procedure quite well. Nowadays I add "walkthrough with open palm" to my procedure of getting through the Nazi checkpoint quickly.