Yesterday a host on KGO radio San Francisco insisted that the TSA was already doing El-Al-style behavioral profiling. This is the tactic where highly trained security people question travelers at length. If the traveler has something to hide or is lying, almost imperceptible facial movements may betray them. Or they might not be able to keep their stories straight.
But the TSA is not doing behavioral profiling. As security expert Bruce Schneier says:
The difference is the experience of the detecting officer and the amount of time they spend with each person. If you read about the programs described above [TSA programs], they’re supposed to “spot terrorists as they walk through a corridor,” or possibly after a few questions. That’s very different from what happens when you check into a flight at Ben Gurion Airport.
In a May USA Today article entitled “Airport Check-in: TSA behavior screening misses suspects,” we see the results of this pathetic excuse for TSA behavioral profiling.
A Transportation Security Administration program to screen passengers at airports based on their behavior missed at least 16 people later linked to terror plots, according to a government report released last week.
Don’t let anyone tell you that the TSA is doing behavioral profiling. They’re not. And they’re probably incapable of actually doing it right. We need to abolish the TSA and get airlines, airports and consumers working together on security solutions that are effective and don’t trample our human dignity. Let people vote with their dollars. Let the best solutions win.
Behavioral profiling is just as Orwellian as the pat-downs and scanners. That is unacceptable. It is none of their damn business what I do for a living or who I am visiting.
Plans to expand this to subways and trains will officially make this a police state
https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-07-16-tsa16_ST_N.htm
If we allow the current procedures to go unchallenged, where will it end. The next logical step down this slippery slope is routine strip/body cavity searches. How can anyone believe this approach can make us safer? Bin Laden must be laughing his a** off!
But El Al has shown it to be effective. When a private organization, that doesn’t rely on corporate privilege, does it, it’s voluntary. You can opt out of that airline and select another one that doesn’t use that tactic. That’s why the TSA must go. It doesn’t allow people to find their own solutions. It forces “solutions” that serve their interests down our throats, and may we be damned if we want something better or different.
Stop this bullshit about how great the security at Israel is. I don’t want the US to be Israel.
I cite El Al security only as proof that other, very viable alternatives to the TSA security theater exist. Because getting past that block is a big issue for a lot of people.