Originally Posted by Bart
Dovster,
I'm wondering how practical it would be to apply the same methodology here in the US. Most people can't tell the difference between a 22 year old Palestinian male and a Mexican-American one or even someone of Native American, French and African-American descent who was born and raised in Des Moines. My point here is that we Americans are not very good at assessing people's ethnicity based on physical appearances. We think we are, but we're usually guessing wrong more than being right.
I think this is a matter of screening and training of TSA personnel. I can't believe that Americans are inherently unable to learn to make the kind of judgements that European screeners are trained to make.
I think the people who advocate the type of screening you describe (not referring to you but others who would join the bandwagon), do so because they believe this is going to be applied to someone else. The moment they're asked these detailed questions, the first thing they're going to do is lament, "why aren't you doing this to him (or her)?"
I've been wanded, patted down, had my shoulder bag, carryon and checked luggage search (not all on the same trip). I've never felt indignant because I could always understand the reason (even if I felt the reasons- bulky sweater, toothpaste tube in suitcase, etc.- might be a bit silly). I think completely random, rather than targetted, searches and questioning are just a waste of time and resources. This is one of the reasons that I always feel safer flying from Europe to the US than the reverse.