$1B TSA Behavioral Screening Program Slammed As "Junk Science" 224
schwit1 writes The Transportation Security Administration has been accused of spending a billion dollars on a passenger-screening program that's based on junk science. The claim arose in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has tried unsuccessfully to get the TSA to release documents on its SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques) program through the Freedom of Information Act. SPOT, whose techniques were first used in 2003 and formalized in 2007, uses "highly questionable" screening techniques, according to the ACLU complaint, while being "discriminatory, ineffective, pseudo-scientific, and wasteful of taxpayer money." TSA has spent at least $1 billion on SPOT. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2010 that "TSA deployed SPOT nationwide before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for using behavior detection and appearance indicators as a means for reliably identifying passengers as potential threats in airports," according to the ACLU. And in 2013, GAO recommended that the agency spend less money on the program, which uses 3,000 "behavior detection officers" whose jobs is to identify terrorists before they board jetliners.
Security theater (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Security theater (Score:5, Interesting)
I refuse to visit the US because of this. It's not because of the people.
When the TSA makes unreasonable demands of me and they try to explain it with "if you have nothing to hide..." I'll have a very hard time not to reply with "Post your private parts on the internet. Or do you have something to hide?"
I don't think this tactic would go well over for the TSA employees. :)
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I can assure you it's not just bad for people coming to the US, it's bad for everybody traveling within the US. The TSA security theater causes more delays than bad weather and the current "open, transparent" administration has put billions more into this charade. I travel sometimes every week and it's a pain in the ass. Because of this I always opt out of being scanned and force the pat down. It frustrates the officers and other travelers because you get to stand aside while a screening agent comes to
Re:Security theater (Score:5, Insightful)
The TSA is bad you US citizens including those that don't fly.
Re:Security theater (Score:4)
The driving one is actually a really important point that deserves its own mention. Driving is a *lot* more dangerous than flying, even including Sep 11 and everything since. It not only wastes more of your life (takes longer), it (on average) shortens it. Keep people pissed off about TSA bullshit enough to drive instead of fly for long enough, and the TSA will (actually, quite possibly already has) be responsible for more American deaths than the Sep 11 terrorists.
One site reporting the story (though not the primary source): http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-... [thehill.com]
Re:Security theater (Score:4, Insightful)
The TSA security theater causes more delays than bad weather.
Citation please. While I agree that the TSA is mostly annoying security theater, my personal experience has been that bad weather has delayed me in getting to my destination more that the TSA has.
I travel sometimes every week and it's a pain in the ass. Because of this I always opt out of being scanned and force the pat down.
If you travel that often, why haven't you signed up for the PreCheck program? It lets you go back to the pre 9/11 security screening procedure. Truly frequent travelers can get in the program free via their airline, otherwise the application fee is not significant with respect to other travel costs and is worth it.
I get special satisfaction in doing it especially if I haven't used deodorant that day.
You intentionally frequently travel on a plane in tight quarters with lots of other people and you opt not to use deodorant?
Re:Security theater (Score:5, Insightful)
Ihre Papiere Bitte.......
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An alternative would be to default people to PreCheck, call it "regular", and do away with the security theater parts of TSA immediately and forever. Like the quart container of liquids limit - which you can easily circumvent if you are a terrorist in several undefeatable ways - such as hiding liquids in prescription liquid bottles (hint: they do not ask you to produce any prescription
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> It lets you go back to the pre 9/11 security screening procedure.
You mean, the excessive procedure that was security theater and hardly needed EVEN THEN? Yes paying more to get back to what was already excessive theater sounds like quite a win.
at least back then the fact that the security had to answer to people with a reason to keep customers happy was a very important check on how ridiculous it got, we lost that.
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If you travel that often, why haven't you signed up for the PreCheck program? It lets you go back to the pre 9/11 security screening procedure. Truly frequent travelers can get in the program free via their airline, otherwise the application fee is not significant with respect to other travel costs and is worth it.
I'm already PreCheck but a lot of places don't have it yet and there is the random factor. For example, Las Vegas which is one of the worst places to go through with a domestic 2 hour pre-flight arrival recommendation. I guess they do that so you can gamble more before boarding the flight or going through the checkpoint.
You intentionally frequently travel on a plane in tight quarters with lots of other people and you opt not to use deodorant?
Not intentionally but only when I go through special airports on my list. It also cuts down on people reclining their seats. ;-)
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If you travel that often, why haven't you signed up for the PreCheck program? It lets you go back to the pre 9/11 security screening procedure.
No, it doesn't. It just moves a lot of the intrusive, unnecessary searching into the electronic realm instead of the physical. Personally, I think this is the worst possible option. I won't touch precheck with a ten foot pole.
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PreCheck isn't in all airports and terminals, yet. Of course there's been a resurrection of Clear as well but again, it's competing with PreCheck.
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If security theatre is the reason you refuse to visit the USA, you're an idiot. There's dumb stuff happening in other countries too, I assure you.
Re:Security theater (Score:5, Insightful)
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You are the problem (Score:5, Informative)
Only if you're utterly ignorant or a complete coward. The TSA hasn't actually stopped any terrorist attempts. They haven't even stopped people from making terrorist attempts - there have been a few (leading to the reasons we now have to take off our shoes, for example) - but the TSA missed those.
If you know how, it's utterly trivial to get shit past the TSA. I routinely opt out and go with the pat-down (which is significantly better security than the scanners, though only about half the time does the agent do a decent job of it) and still get prohibited items through the X-ray in my carry-on bags all the time. It's easy. For example, you're allowed to leave tablets in your bag (apparently, the dangerous part of a laptop is its keyboard? That's all that distinguishes it from a tablet these days) and the ones with metal cases do a pretty great job of blocking X-ray. You can get bottles full of liquids and gels through that way, no problem. I haven't actually tried it with anything that could plausibly be considered a weapon, but that's only subset of prohibited stuff anyhow...
If security theater makes you "feel nicer", you're a weak-minded idiot and part of the problem.
Note that I have no problem with the security practices of a lot of the rest of the world. Unlike the USA, India actually has a terrorist problem, and they are way, *way* better about screening people... but it still takes less time than the USA's checkpoints! (At least, that was my experience the two times I've flown through Delhi.)
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TSA policies are security theater. Film at 11.
It's a toss-up as to what irritates me more, the assertion/fact that it's crap or that they spent/wasted $1 Billion on it (even if it weren't crap).
Re:That's right. (Score:5, Funny)
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Yep. And how much are these "behavior detection officers" making? 6 figures?
They have to be paid those high salaries. Cause otherwise, if they really have the skills it is claimed they have, they could be making a fortune on the World Poker Tour.
Re: Security theater (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem here isn't the science, it's the pork.
Behavioral science is half of a police officer's job. Problem is (besides pork barrel mismanagement) is that minimum wage TSA don't have the training, experience, or often the intelligence to use it effectively. Many airports that do this effectively will simply hire a good local police department to accomplish it.
As for bashing the TSA, every time they try to do something reasonable (like ok nail clippers) they get fired by the politicians. So track the problem down to the source - dishonest politicians and the apathetic and ignorant public that votes them in.
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Re: Security theater (Score:4, Insightful)
There is no silver bullet, but calling psychology a delusion only shows ignorance of the science.
"Soft Sciences" are really just those with many variables. Training and experience deal with those rather than hard formulas that can be computed through software.
Is that person nervous or relaxed? That comprises hundreds of variables. Are they defensive to questions? What about their return trip (while they are thinking they won't return)? etc etc etc
Security is also layered. First is basic software profiling based on information about the person and flight. Second is physical screening. Third is behavioral screening. The list goes on.
I'm a frequent traveler and see the TSA has 90% theatre. That won't change because the voters only want a warm fuzzy feeling, the politicians only care about votes and kickbacks, any sensible TSA executive gets fired, airlines are constantly trying to eliminate security for cost savings, and screeners are minimum wage employees (untrained, inexperienced). There's simply no driver to improve the situation.
Re: Security theater (Score:5, Informative)
The Israelis seem to have a pretty good method [washingtonpost.com]
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Re: Security theater (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm a frequent traveler and see the TSA has 90% theatre.
Do you care to identify the 10% that you consider non-theater? Because I travel often, and I don't see it. There is, for example, not even a consistency with respect to how they do pat-down when you refuse the scanners. It really seems like they are making it up as they go along (or maybe it is city-based, I haven't compiled data). The only consistent thing they are taught to do is to check behind the ankle.
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The delusion is that someone who is not by any stretch of the imagination a psychologist will be able to apply it well enough to pick out actual terrorists with any success beyond chance based on a 5 minute interview. Particularly when a number of passengers will be nervous about flying in general, about security in general, or possibly nervous about their destination no matter how they get there, etc etc.
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Behavioral science is half of a police officer's job. Problem is (besides pork barrel mismanagement) is that minimum wage TSA don't have the training, experience, or often the intelligence to use it effectively.
You mean TSA employees are to dumb to tell when someone is black?
Because that's how the police do it.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Keep the public scared and you keep getting re-elected. Keep making the opposition government look incompetent then you keep getting re-elected. Thus if someone wants to allow nail clippers it's a two-for-one win: remind people why they're scared and point out how a government agency is too stupid to ban nail clippers.
The incentive program for politicians is wrong, they're not being paid more if they do a good job.
Re: Security theater (Score:5, Informative)
The problem here isn't the science, it's the pork.
Pork has nothing to do with it and the science isn't all that bad.
The problem is that SPOT is a diet-version of Israel's behavioral screening program, which is what makes it a waste of money.
SPOT leaves out the naked profiling that Israel uses and it also completely neglects the intrusive (and lengthy) questioning of travelers.
Basically, the two pieces that make it at all effective.
To summarize, the Israeli system could never be fully transplanted into the USA because
1. It profiles based on race, religion, and country of origin
2. It is manpower intensive
3. It puts security before anything, including your family of 5 missing their flight.
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Or we could embrace the power of AND..... they all belong under the same heading of "worthless waste".
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One of my favorite blogs calls these BDO's "truth wizards". Too bad the blog is dormant, it was always good for a laugh. Www.takingsenseaway.com.
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Taking Sense Away is/was a great blog. I hope we get more from it soon. Since discovering it, I've found a few other TSA-focused blogs, but none that amused and informed me as much.
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Heres a better link: https://takingsenseaway.wordpr... [wordpress.com]
Now I read Papers Please [papersplease.org] . similar content, unfortunately lacks the humor/absurdity of taking sense away.
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Good luck with that in a world where the public consider Rand Paul a model libertarian based on the media telling them its so ignoring both his actual party affiliation and that his stated policies are to libertarian philosophy what cheese product is to sharp aged cheddar.
Re: Security theater (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually thats demonstrably false. The only evidence I need is.... the entire history of airport security prior to the creation of the TSA.
Was airport security always a joke? You bet it was. It was always as much of a joke as it is now, but, it was a lot cheaper and, private security was not NEARLY as abusive to paying customers.
Fact is, without government intervention, all this security mumbo jumbo would quickly blow over and security would be downsized appropriately. We pay quite a lot for the ever present paranoia of committees charged only with pissing themselves at every shadow.
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You forgot an important thing. If the airfair covered ghe cost of security, i would only be paying for it when i used it. I would also have the option of not paying which would also decrease the costs by not molesting me and grandma.
Let me guess (Score:5, Funny)
A billion dollar program to tell screeners that the Arab guy or black guy who is shaking like a leaf, mumbling "allah-ackbar" over-and-over under his breath, and wants to check a huge bag should maybe be singled out for additional screening.
Re:Let me guess (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, except terrorists dress as average tourists. They aren't completely brain-dead. They are trained.
The 'Arab guy or black guy who is shaking like a leaf, mumbling "allah-ackbar" over-and-over under his breath' probably just has fear of flying.
Re:Let me guess (Score:5, Insightful)
"They aren't completely brain-dead."
I'm pretty sure that somebody willing to blow himself up on the premise that he'll receive 72 non-existing virgins in a place that doesn't exists ruled by a made-up deity fits of the definition of brain-dead pretty well.
Re:Let me guess (Score:5, Insightful)
You're confusing brain-washed with brain-dead. Different things.
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You're confusing brain-washed with brain-dead. Different things.
They're the same in that neither person is really thinking. They're different in that brain-dead people don't bother anyone else. They just lie there and beep occasionally, or lie there and rot.
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Re:Let me guess (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Let me guess (Score:4, Insightful)
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Was that the motivation of Tim McVeigh? Didn't blow himself up but he's very high up in the terrorist with the most body count list.
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Suicide bombers are typically well educated. Two-thirds of the hijackers responsible for 9/11 had attended college. Many had degrees.
Don't underestimate the intelligence of these psychopaths.
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Whew....
General Ackbar and "its a trap" is ok then in the security line....
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It's "Allahu Akbar". Allah Ackbar was the deity that Admiral Ackbar worshiped.
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Except that would be racist and profiling, so while the black dude is checking in his ticking bomb bag, TSA would be forced to feel up some 4 yr old that their random algorithms chose from the line to ensure they don't unfairly target a black dude.
Honestly, Israel uses profiling and interrogation on all their passengers and it's very effective. They hire intelligent people who don't give a fuck about you getting on that plane if you look suspicious. TSA is just to dumb to do this effectively.
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Re:Let me guess (Score:5, Insightful)
Effective implies effect. Effect implies change, what is it you are looking to change? Currently we have an average of 0 terrorist attacks a day, adding up to 0 per year....a number which has, aside from a statistically insignificant number of anomalies, has been the case for well....more than my entire lifetime, which is a bit more than 3 and a half times the lifespan so far of the TSA.
Implementing the invasive and expensive program of questioning everyone with trained staff seems excessive given the magnitude of the problem.
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the logic is appealing, bit it's a bit like saying i don't need my pest control service anymore because i don't have insects in my home. until you cancel it and all the insects find out your home is available for rent, you don't know the base state of things.
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I wouldn't want to live in a home so unhospitable to life that it didn't have some insects.
You may feel the need for constant pest control but, I have never had such a service nor felt the need. Most pest issues that have rarely cropped up have been quite easy to control without professional help, much less retaining a service.
This is more like, retaining a pest service because you read in a book that insects exist and it made you shit yourself.
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A billion dollar program to tell screeners that the Arab guy or black guy who is shaking like a leaf, mumbling "allah-ackbar" over-and-over under his breath, and wants to check a huge bag should maybe be singled out for additional screening.
This is why the ACLU is involved. To imply Arab guys mumbling "allah-ackbar" with one way tickets might need extra screening is clearly just racism.
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That's because there's never once been a white or east asian terrorist. Actual terrorists aren't going to be shaking like a leaf, they're going to blend in, they'll know the travel routine, no one's going to look at them twice. Some of these guys may be geniuses, like Kaczinski.
Re: Let me guess (Score:5, Informative)
No, no. You've got it all wrong again.
$900 million for the company running the screening program. Peanuts for the peons.
Shyah, as if (Score:2)
Modern-day phrenology (Score:4, Informative)
For the libertarian-leaning members of the audience, there was a nice article in Cato "Regulation" journal awhile back looking at this issue:
"Screening Tests for Terrorists"
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2013/1/v35n4-4.pdf
The cost of learning (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The cost of learning (Score:4, Funny)
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Well, half the TSA agents were seeing the same people as black people wearing gold chains, the other half were seeing white people with blue chains.
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Oh come on, how has this not been modded Funny yet? My points have expired. :-(
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Of course it is ... (Score:5, Interesting)
TSA is a place where money goes to be spent on the premise that spending money on things which do nothing is better than doing nothing, even if the outcomes are the same.
They have a blank check to spend money on stuff with no proof it has any value.
Other than harassing everybody, the TSA has accomplished very little. It's become a money pit which pretends to be keeping us safe.
The TSA can point to very few incidents where they've actually stopped anything related to terrorism. Mostly they just serve to annoy everybody else.
Meanwhile, the baggage handlers are the ones who keep getting caught smuggling stuff.
The TSA is a pathetic joke, beefed up by reactionary politicians, and which utterly has failed to make anybody "safer" by any objective measure. In fact, everything they do seems to be devoid of "objective measure".
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The TSA is a pathetic joke, beefed up by reactionary politicians,
Having the state (in the form of the TSA) solve our real or perceived issues is a the opposite of a reactionary approach, It is actually a progressive one :-p
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TSA is a place where money goes to be spent on the premise that spending money on things which do nothing is better than doing nothing, even if the outcomes are the same.
It that were only the case it wouldn't be so much of an issue.
One billion dollars of pork is just one billion dollars of pork: payouts to the friends of the king, business as usual.
But what they are in fact doing is spending that one billion in order to make the entire rest of the economy less efficient. They are spending one billion so they can make sure another 100 billion is lost or never produced that otherwise would have been.
The one billion isn't the problem, the one hundred is.
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I love this statement.
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TSA is a place where money goes to be spent on the premise that spending money on things which do nothing is better than doing nothing, even if the outcomes are the same.
They have a blank check to spend money on stuff with no proof it has any value.
Other than harassing everybody, the TSA has accomplished very little. It's become a money pit which pretends to be keeping us safe.
The TSA can point to very few incidents where they've actually stopped anything related to terrorism. Mostly they just serve to annoy everybody else.
Meanwhile, the baggage handlers are the ones who keep getting caught smuggling stuff.
The TSA is a pathetic joke, beefed up by reactionary politicians, and which utterly has failed to make anybody "safer" by any objective measure. In fact, everything they do seems to be devoid of "objective measure".
I submit to TSA screening because it is the only kind of stimulus money one can get out of Republicans.
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"Very few incidents"... I'm not actually aware of *any* scenarios where they stopped something terrorist-related. It feels like there probably ought to be at least one by now - surely some wannabe terrorist somewhere was too stupid to not get caught - but you'd think they would have made a big deal out of it and I don't remember any such thing. The only terror attempts on American flights that I can remember since Sep 11 made it past the TSA and then were stopped by the passengers.
Meanwhile, the TSA generat
Working as designed (Score:5, Insightful)
Who ever said that India and China could ever beat the USA at anything - even corruption.
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I think we've got a long way to go to catch up to India [hindustantimes.com] or China [washingtonpost.com].
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Chatting with passengers (Score:5, Interesting)
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This is a lot like what the Israeli screeners ask of you when you are being checked out.
However, the real difference is the Israelis actually have highly educated and trained people doing this checking and investigation.
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However, the real difference is the Israelis actually have highly educated and trained people doing this checking and investigation.
I've obviously never run into those, then.
Back in the real world, a nutter who's expecting to be shagging his seventy-two virgins in two hours is unlikely to be nervous, whereas people faced with the thought of being dragged off for an interrogation if they look nervous.... probably will be.
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I'm sure the greater part of the Israeli training program is "active duty"
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SPOT doesn't work? (Score:2)
Well. At least they tried.
I guess it's time to go back to the previous method, reading of auras.
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Well. At least they tried.
It works spectacularly well - for funnelling taxpayer money to politically-connected corporations and government-employee unions.
This was all it was ever designed to do. The ACLU needs to stop pretending there was ever some noble purpose - the most minimal an edifice that was required to get the program implemented was erected to placate the easily-fooled. Acknowledging any good intentions where there are none just encourages this kind of behavior going forward - ACLU might sink
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Not surprised (Score:2)
Just like all the other science that they explored. Remember the devices that emitted such harmful radiation that they were relegated to scanning at prisons?
Look, I'll give the TSA props for trying. But I draw the line when they go immediately from "hey, I got an idea" to "here's $1B to implement it before we know if it even works!"/
It is NOT 'Junk Science' (Score:5, Insightful)
Funnel money from the government (my pocket), into the pocket of the consultants, companies, and employees of whoever built it.
Frankly (Score:2)
The entire TSA scam organization is one giant waste of money and a blight on the Constitution.
Why is that a problem? (Score:2)
'Junk Science is us' is the motto of the TSA, so why so surprised?
I saw it on TV - must be true (Score:2)
There are whole TV shows written around this very idea. One can simply observe mannerisms and jump to fully detailed truths about people. These writers must have something to base these plots lines on - they couldn't publish a TV show if it weren't true ...right?!
So why shouldn't a TSA executive use the idea, sort out the details, get the best scientists/consultants to provide the truthiness, and create the real thing. I mean - isn't this what the Lone Gunmen proposed in X-Files? Secret science that w
TSA (Score:2)
I've always wondered if he meant the obese clone army of Blue Shirts, or Security Checkpoints being a target-rich bottleneck.
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So you start pulling over who you think conforms to the stereotypical look of a terrorist, and the terrorists will stop using people who look like that (if they ever did in the first place). Now you've just wasted all that money, and the terrorists will still get through.
It's not political correctness causing problems, but ridiculous knee-jerk reactions like yours. I seriously hope you are joking :)
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"Most terrorists are middle eastern."
Well that narrows it down to 205 million people. To catch the, what, 15 or so people from the middle east who have actually attempted or succeeded in committing terrorism in the US?
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Maybe, but often for a questionable definition of "deserve". Do you include:
Steal from tax payers? Join the local Mafia?