Originally Posted by
nachtnebel
From their perspective, perhaps. From the perspective of passengers, some of these questions are not mundane, but are sensitive information (where are you staying, how long will you be gone, etc) and the implied threat is that if you don't answer our questions, something will happen to you. And there apparently have been retaliations for some folks who decline to answer the more intrusive questions. All this quite apart from the unfounded pseudo science behind it (the GAO said this in their report) and practiced by unqualified personnel to boot.
The spectacle of of US citizen being shaken down like this traveling their own country is a sad sight.
Of course you have every right to not answer the questions. Its not going to land you in jail for not answering the questions. It might make you seem a little uncooperative, and maybe youll get a little more screening. But thats about as far as it would go...
I know where i work, weve had cases of people who just dont like the screening process getting loud and angry. The supervisors call the BDO's and tell them the person is showing unusual behavior. THe BDO's usually can tell in about 2 seconds that the person isnt a threat...
Theres a big difference between someone who is pissed off because they are inconvinienced and just dont like screening, and someone who is truley angry to the extent that hes going to inflict harm on others. Most of us who have been around a while, have learned to tell the difference. Others assume that because someone's swearing and yelling, they are automatically a bad guy. No, theyre just pissed.
The behaviors they are looking for arent your everyday guy who is pissed off because he doesnt like to take his shoes off, or someone who is a little nervous because theyve never flown before. There are very specific behaviorial traits that would be an indication that someone is in the mindset of doing physical harm to others. Afterall, if a bad guy is smuggling something in his shoes, the last thing hes going to do is throw a fit over taking his shoes off. Or if he is asked questions, the last thing hes going to do is not answer them at all. Hes going to answer them pretty plainly as if rehearsed. Heck, getting a little annoyed when being asked questions by the guvment IS normal behavior.