TSA behavior detection program
 

Just noticed this linked on Drudge...

The federal government is planning to introduce new behavior detection techniques at airport checkpoints as soon as next month, Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole said Thursday.

TSA already has "behavior detection officers" at 161 airports nationwide looking for travelers exhibiting physiological or psychological signs that a traveler might be a terrorist. However, Pistole said TSA is preparing to move to an approach that employs more conversation with travelers—a method that has been employed with great success in Israel.

"I'm very much interested in expanding the behavior detection program, upgrading it if you will, in a way that allows us to….have more interaction with a passsenger just from a discussion which may be able to expedite the physical screening aspects," Pistole said during an appearance at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado. "So, we’ve looked at what works around the world, some outstanding examples and we are planning to do some new things in the near future here."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshge...ckpoints.html#

Cue "Traveler annoyed by TSA stupidity and prevented from flying" story in 3 ... 2 ... 1.

Oh, goodie. More money wasted on harassing screeners that we don't have to talk to anyway. :rolleyes:

A thousand times on the blackboard, John Pistole:

TLV-style security is not scalable to what we have in the States

I really wish he would quit pandering by saying things will get better when we do what the Israelis do, because it just can't effectively be done here. http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...m/f07b4621.gif

BDO: How are you today?
Me: Please go SPOT someone else
BDO: Where are you going/flying today?
Me: Please go SPOT someone else
BDO: I've never been to XXX, is it a nice place
Me: Please go SPOT someone else
etc., etc., etc.

I would not be surprised if the behavior detection will be along the lines of answering questions similar to the ones passengers answer when checking in for international flights in Europe. This would be a scaled back version of the Israel model that everyone seems to think would solve all of our problems.

It's difficult for me to act "normal" as I queue up in preparation for being questioned, divesting myself of my shoes, belt, and pocket contents, whle preparing for the possibility of the groping search when I opt out of the X-Ray scanner.

Exactly what is normal behavior in the midst of the chaos and unpleasantness that still pervades the typical TSA checkpoint?

Personally, I would leave out the "please" part...

I would not call those 'international flights' but rather qualify them. I have only been asked those questions when checking in for a flight to the US on a US carrier. They are not asked of me when flying to non-US destinations, or on a non-US carrier to the US.

But the questions they ask in Europe are the same questions they stopped asking here years ago, because they don't accomplish anything.

Any of you techno-geeks will recognize this from RFC 1925:

"Every old idea will be proposed again with a different name and a different presentation, regardless of whether it works."

The biggest difference between Israel and the U.S. is that long-forgotten document called the Constitution. Sorry, I will not be interrogated before I fly on an airplane in the United States of America.

Very odd, because my experience is exactly the opposite. I am never asked those questions by US carriers, anywhere, but have been asked on flights to the US, say on Air New Zealand LHR-LAX. I have also been asked by BA on flights from LHR to European cities.

Link To The Interview
 

And risk goalie-mom's all reaching and all powerful backhand slap upside my head for not being polite? I learned to fear that many moons ago ;)

Have they looked at the behavior of their own employees lately? 'Cause they've got some nutbars in there, and I think it's a bit of a stretch to think they are going to be detecting behavioral subtleties in passengers.

Some changes:

BDO: How are you today?
Me: I decline to answer that question pursuant to my rights under the Fifth Amendment.
BDO: Uh...

I'm surprised no-one has noticed this particular quote:

If chatting up the BDO means that you'd get a chance to skip the AIT/WTMD/X-ray, might that change your willingness to participate in the process?

OTHO what if the chatting-up turns out to be foreplay?

Hmm, a BDO gets to chat up an attractive passenger, and if they respond well, they might get out of AIT/patdown?

No chance for abuse there.

Like the words "opt out"?

BDO "how are you today?"
PAX 'Oh good, porter service. Carry these over there will you?'

It would only change my response to them slightly.

In other words, instead of saying "Go f*** off, a**h***" to the screener, I'd say "As an American citizen schooled in government with an understanding of my Constitutional rights, I respectfully decline to participate any further in your unwarranted interrogation."

I have no desire to bypass the WTMD or not have my bags x-rayed, and I doubt very much that anything I would ever say to a screener would get me a no Nude-O-Scope pass.

Knowing about the 5th amendment alone should be enough to decide you're not a bad guy, but sadly, in DHS-land, that's a tactic the all-clever terrorist would adopt now that they've seen it discussed here.

Are you referring to the 'did you pack your bags yourself' questions or the 'what did you purchase at the airport' and other random questions?

I have been asked the first set very rarely; only at LHR if I recall, and only for a UA flight bound for the US. The second set I was asked at MUC and FRA for UA flights bound for the US.

I fly from many western European countries on a very regular basis, and am asked the first set of questions maybe once or twice a year, if that. And since I recall being asked those in English, it would be at UK airports and most likely LHR.

I've flown quite a bit from Europe to the US the first half of this year, and up until last week at MUC, hadn't been asked those silly questions.

Check out the comments in response to Pistole's plan over here.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshge...eckpoints.html

They make FT vitriol seem tame in comparison.

I even mentioned in the IAH "speak your name" thread that this appeared to be SPOT actions to the TDC. Sounds like they're trying to make everyone SPOT now.

I read those before the comments above.

I applaud the folks who claim to have given up flying in response to the TSA theater.

Drive safely.

You forgot the :rolleyes: emoticon

Yes, but we all know that isn't gonna happen.

Perhaps this has something to do with all of the recent outrage over TSA screening practices? Maybe the TSA brass finally realized that you can have security theater that 1. Is non-invasive. 2. Does equally little as the scanners/gropes. 3. Still leaves 90%+ of the traveling public feeling like the government is "doing something" about security. People can rest easy that there's some magic formula by which the TSO asking you the questions can tell if your answers indicate the likelihood of you being a terrorist.

wow. not a whole lotta love for TSA in *those* comments. :D:D:D:D:D

:D I'll bet goalie-mom could always tell when you were lying. RadioMom could (okay, she couldn't tell when you were lying, but she could tell when I was lying). Maybe they should hire mothers of teenagers as BDOs. @:-) OTOH, they wouldn't last long listening to the lies coming from HQ. :(
Sure, and if chatting up the BDO means that there would be a cure for cancer, or lasting peace in the world, or that TSA would buy me a pony :rolleyes: it would change my willingness to participate in the program. too. And those outcomes are as likely as allowing the passenger to bypass their shiny, silly toys.

You can keep your shoes on and your laptop in your bag, while they're doing the NoS and/or patdown. That's the sort of tradeoff JP offered recently. Big deal. :td:

+1

I fail to see the "benefits" from this. I'll just continue to avoid conversation, as I currently do. Unless I have to opt-out, I don't a word to any clerks that I encounter.

BDC (c=clerk): Let me get my sup :rolleyes:

Great. :rolleyes: Not looking forward to BDOs trying to chat it up with me...


I though this was an interesting quote:

:confused: Like the current screening procedures don't cause any controversy? Give me a break. I think the time-consuming aspect is valid, but saying that a security measure can't be rolled out because it is controversial is stupid. TSA has already done that!

So are they planning on having multilingual SPOTnik's at airports that are major Intl gateways???This just seems to have "trainwreck" written all over it.

They are going to upgrade a program that the worlds most respected scientific journal, Nature, already strongly discredited (in an article the TSA has been very successfully ignoring for over a year). Lovely.

I would change the BDO's response to:

"Your Fifth Amendement rights don't pertain at the airport."

I have heard a version of this before from a supervisor, no less:

"As soon as you cross that line your rights don't matter anymore. If you don't like it, don't come to the airport. I'm trying to keep people safe and won't let you disrupt my checkpoint."

As far as the topic at hand, whereas in Europe they ask a couple of questions and then leave the majority of passengers alone to go through perfunctory minimal WTMD security, I sincerely doubt that this will change anything in the U.S. We'll all still get barked at, we'll still have to go through the pornoscans, and we'll still be presumed to be criminals. Just like any big government program, the TSA racket will not voluntarily reduce itself. Get real.

The purpose of this new announcement is that now they can use a "bad attitude" to justify being hard on people who don't just roll over and acquiesce and justify it as part of "enhanced security procedures" or whatever. It was always informal and kind of scandalous when they retaliated against people who didn't roll over, now they're setting themselves up to be able to retaliate openly and hide behind procedure.

Things aren't always as they seem. This isn't an attempt to make things more efficient, this is just a vehicle to get even more control and less pushback at checkpoints from people like us who are vocal about hating this nonsense.

These questions are still in effect in CDG as of this week.

The distinction to me is that these questions are asked by AIRLINE employees on check-in, not government entities at random.

They're going to loop episodes of Lie To Me in the breakroom. It doesn't get any more scientific than that.