TSA ramps up program to psychologically screen airline passengers

[LynneSin]

Wouldn't be easier to just see what books they are reading when they board a plane? If they have something by Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly, Hannity, Weiner et al - then WARNING WARNING!!!

:eyes:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/TSA_performing_emotional_screening_of_passengers_0729.html

TSA ramps up program to psychologically screen airline passengersNick Langewis and David Edwards
Published: Tuesday July 29, 2008

In addition to having your bags scanned, taking off your shoes and emptying your pockets on the way to your plane, prepare to have an on-the-spot psychoanalysis as well.

The TSA is in the process of training "behavior detection officers" to seek out involuntary physical and physiological signs of "stress, fear or deception" among air passengers to help determine who to subject to additional screening at airport security checkpoints.

SPOT, short for the Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, has so far been tested in major airports such as Boston, Providence, and Minneapolis-St. Paul. In addition, the Los Angeles Times reported, a "handful" of airports were added last December.

"There are certain thresholds that this individual needs to meet in our behavioral detection program," TSA spokesperson Andrea McCauley told KXAN. "We don't just see someone who is nervous and pull them over to talk with them."

Another TSA spokesperson, Jennifer Peppin, told the Los Angeles Times that SPOT has helped catch drug smugglers and people holding fake passports. "Have we caught actual terrorists? That remains to be seen," she said. Caroline Fredrickson of the ACLU, however, worries of profiling, adding that the program sets "a very dangerous precedent" in trying to train TSA screeners to be "behavioral scientists."

[Parche]

1. I Can See Them Asking Stupid Questions

"Have you ever been in a Turkish Prison"
"Have you ever sniffed glue"

[TexasObserver]

2. Are these guys training for Scientology?

Don't they do that kind of stuff, too?

[Gormy Cuss]

3. "Have we caught actual terrorists? That remains to be seen," she said

Translation: hell no, but as long as we can catch somebody doing something not kosher, it's all good.

If the behavioral detection process was done expertly and it replaced the shoe dance and other make-work security procedures, it would be worth it but of course the TSA is going to try to do it on the cheap with minimally trained staff.

[Tempest]

4. Terrorists would easily get around this

They can be trained to control their behavior so to not give off any warning signs.

[DebJ]

11. Flying makes me very nervous. If I were a terrorist, I'd be less

nervous!

[MindPilot]

5. This story is now so ubiquitous that I'm calling bullshit

It has popped up at least a dozen times in the past year, and I think it has taken the place of the ever-changing color coded "terralerts" of the last election.

I doubt the average TSA screener is ever going to be competent to make snap judgments about a person's psychological state and the reason for that state by looking at their "micro-expressions".

[readmoreoften]

10. What makes you think the TSA is competent enough to assess their employees lack of competence.

Most likely they'll say: "Roger seemed to really "get" that psych training. He did real well in the practice sessions. So if Roger says you're planning a terrorist attack, I'm going to trust him."

[GirlieQ]

6. I wish they'd start with psych screenings for their employees.

It seems like I always get stuck with the moron who failed the police officer's screening for anger issues or just being a complete dunce.

[donco6]

7. "So, let's create a really stressful situation . . . "

"like, say, standing in an interminably long line, while taking off your shoes, belt, wallet, rings, laptop out and in a tub, etc. etc. . . . and then see if anyone looks stressed."

Yeah, that's going to work.

[ixion]

8. Disband the TSA and the DHS... they are threats to our civil liberty

and should really go the way of the dinosaur.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. What is really going on is this

the regime is using us as guinea pigs to test out their mind games.
Betcha they got this "psy-ops manual" from the Koreans too.

Google for news articles on military mind experiments.

Of course the main problem is "they" feel it is ok to treat the sheeple any way they want.
and the sheeple are letting this happen.

If enough folks would refuse to fly.......

[readmoreoften]

12. The people who fly regularly are sales and management and unlikely to strike anything.

They're not "sheeple" they're often the ones directly benefitting from the financial hysteria. Are thousands of executive sales reps going to boycott their jobs? No.

Without a general strike or a strike of key industries this will continue.