Fidgeting, whistling, sweaty palms. Add one point each. Arrogance, a cold penetrating stare, and rigid posture, two points.
These are just a few of the suspicious signs that the Transportation Security Administration directs its officers to look out for — and score — in airport travelers, according to a confidential TSA document obtained exclusively by The Intercept.
The checklist is part of TSA’s controversial program to identify potential terrorists based on behaviors that it thinks indicate stress or deception — known as the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. The program employs specially trained officers, known as Behavior Detection Officers, to watch and interact with passengers going through screening.
The document listing the criteria, known as the “Spot Referral Report,” is not classified, but it has been closely held by TSA and has not been previously released. A copy was provided to The Intercept by a source concerned about the quality of the program.
The checklist ranges from the mind-numbingly obvious, like “appears to be in disguise,” which is worth three points, to the downright dubious, like a bobbing Adam’s apple. Many indicators, like “trembling” and “arriving late for flight,” appear to confirm allegations that the program picks out signs and emotions that are common to many people who fly.
A TSA spokesperson declined to comment on the criteria obtained by The Intercept. “Behavior detection, which is just one element of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) efforts to mitigate threats against the traveling public, is vital to TSA’s layered approach to deter, detect and disrupt individuals who pose a threat to aviation,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
Since its introduction in 2007, the SPOT program has attracted controversy for the lack of science supporting it. In 2013, the Government Accountability Office found that there was no evidence to back up the idea that “behavioral indicators … can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security.” After analyzing hundreds of scientific studies, the GAO concluded that “the human ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance.”
The inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security found in 2013 that TSA had failed to evaluate SPOT, and “cannot ensure that passengers at United States airports are screened objectively, show that the program is cost-effective, or reasonably justify the program’s expansion.”
Despite those concerns, TSA has trained and deployed thousands of Behavior Detection Officers, and the program has cost more than $900 million since it began in 2007, according to the GAO.
The 92-point checklist listed in the “Spot Referral Report” is divided into various categories with a point score for each. Those categories include a preliminary “observation and behavior analysis,” and then those passengers pulled over for additional inspection are scored based on two more categories: whether they have “unusual items,” like almanacs and “numerous prepaid calling cards or cell phones,” and a final category for “signs of deception,” which include “covers mouth with hand when speaking” and “fast eye blink rate.
Points can also be deducted from someone’s score based on observations about the traveler that make him or her less likely, in TSA’s eyes, to be a terrorist. For example, “apparent” married couples, if both people are over 55, have two points deducted off their score. Women over the age of 55 have one pointed deducted; for men, the point deduction doesn’t come until they reach 65.
Last week, the ACLU sued TSA to obtain records related to its behavior detection programs, alleging that they lead to racial profiling. The lawsuit is based on a Freedom of Information Act request the ACLU filed last November asking for numerous documents related to the program, including the scientific justification for the program, changes to the list of behavior indicators, materials used to train officers and screen passengers, and what happens to the information collected on travelers.
“The TSA has insisted on keeping documents about SPOT secret, but the agency can’t hide the fact that there’s no evidence the program works,” said Hugh Handeyside, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.
Being on the lookout for suspicious behavior is a “common sense approach” that is used by law enforcement, according to TSA. “No single behavior alone will cause a traveler to be referred to additional screening or will result in a call to a law enforcement officer (LEO),” the agency said in its emailed statement. “Officers are trained and audited to ensure referrals for additional screening are based only on observable behaviors and not race or ethnicity.”
One former Behavior Detection Officer manager, who asked not to be identified, said that SPOT indicators are used by law enforcement to justify pulling aside anyone officers find suspicious, rather than acting as an actual checklist for specific indicators. “The SPOT sheet was designed in such a way that virtually every passenger will exhibit multiple ‘behaviors’ that can be assigned a SPOT sheet value,” the former manager said.
The signs of deception and fear “are ridiculous,” the source continued. “These are just ‘catch all’ behaviors to justify BDO interaction with a passenger. A license to harass.”
The observations of a TSA screener or a Behavior Detection Officer shouldn’t be the basis for referring someone to law enforcement. “The program is flawed and unnecessarily delays and harasses travelers. Taxpayer dollars would be better spent funding real police at TSA checkpoints,” the former manager said.
A second former Behavior Detection Officer manager, who also asked not to be identified, told The Intercept that the program suffers from lack of science and simple inconsistency, with every airport training its officers differently. “The SPOT program is bullshit,” the manager told The Intercept. “Complete bullshit.”
Photo: Mark Lennihan/AP
I know that they use the SPOT program in Atlanta and they used it on me. But don’t worry you didn’t let the cat out of the bag, I’ve known that the FBI and other government agencies have been after me since 2000.
so, the consequence of America’s continued clueless interference in other countries politics is that the very people they trained, encouraged and then abandoned become embittered and use that training to build organizations to attack the US.
the result… security theater, freedom massages and a culture of fear.
read the casualties here -https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War#Casualty_estimates, and the costs – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War#Financial_cost … allegedly searching for WMDs but in reality a reaction to the 9-11 terror attack on the US (by people arguably funded and trained via CIA resources – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA%E2%80%93al-Qaeda_controversy)
the TSA are great about blogging how many guns and knives they have found in carry-on luggage… mostly forgetful right-to-bear-arms proponents or harmless old ladies (my 60+ year old mother lost a rusted shut 1″ knife that had a lot of sentimental value)… how many real threats has this resolved? None that I can point to (and you have to assume if they did foil a real plot it would be shouted from the roof-tops).
As the Boston bombing or the Germanwings pilot have proven … we don’t know where the next attack will come, and realistically we can’t prevent it. Bolting the stable door have the horse has gone doesn’t help.
every time I travel in the US (and compare it to traveling in many other countries – in the fairly typical last 30 days I travelled just under 20k miles domestically and internationally) I realize that the culture of fear that America has allowed to prevail since 9-11, the erosion of freedom and the move to a police surveillance state is a sign that the terrorists have achieved their aim… they have spread terror and we now waste millions (billions) of dollars every month that could be funding education, science or health research on agencies like the TSA and “doubling down” on Military spending (which, as history has shown, will simply perpetuate this cycle… huge respect for those that serve and what they do on the ground, but no faith in those directing their actions)
no Politician will ever want to dismantle this system though because all it takes is one successful terrorist getting on a plane to have the press crucify them (rather than look rationally at the statistics) so the TSA will get more and more authority and everyone will be guilty until proven innocent. The only way we can fight back is to stand strong, ask our elected officials to reverse this process (or elect ones who will) and when the statistically unlikely events do occur honor and support those impacted but don’t let the media and those standing to gain financially (Rapiscan and the like) drive a knee jerk over-reaction that far outweighs the costs.
the US also needs to stop trying to police the world, and focus on domestic security… spending billions “liberating” a country you don’t understand the people or culture (simply to ensure access to oil) will create a backlash of those radicalized by the very act of invasion or interference in a sovereign territory … the world was outraged when Hitler invaded Poland, so why should America think it has a charter to send troops to the Middle East?
Mind our own business and the TSA won’t be needed…
Offbeatmammal, thank you, thank you, thank you. But your words of logic and common sense won’t make a dent. Too many Americans love their fear and love to lick the authoritarian boot. I invite you to take a look at TSA News Blog, where we’ve been documenting the abuses of the National Security State for years:
http://tsanewsblog.com
Well you had me, but then you lost me when I saw Wikipedia links, to bad rest of that writing went to waste.
Hey you guys keep up the good work. I know that they use the same SPOT program in the Atlanta International Airport. They used the same tactics on me that were in the report, but don’t worry, I’ve known that the FBI amongst other government agencies have been trying hard to make me look like a terrorist since around 2000.
I had to fly to a funeral. It was too far to drive, so I had to fly. I flew up for the day and came back the same day. As I sat waiting for the plane, 2 agents came and asked why I had no luggage. I expained that I was going to a funeral and coming back the same day, so I didn’t need luggage. Before the agents even got there I had been in the waiting line, and there was nothing being done with shoes. I thought, oh, I guess they don’t do the taking off of shoes anymore.
On the return flight, a TSA person stated screamimg at me and pointing down. I looked down and around, and said ‘What? He was screaming, ‘Your shoes, your shoes! ” Well, I had not done the shoe thing flying up to the city, so it never occured to me that the TSA wouldn’t have the same rules every where. I just stood there and watched him scream, and wondered why the screaming man liked my shoes. He finally said” Take off your shoes. ” Oh…o.k. I guess I’m lucky he didn’t shoot me. It would be nice if airports were consistent so a person would know what to expect.
Next time I fly, I will start spinning while waiting in the line, in view of TSA agents. When they ask what I’m doing, I’ll say “this isn’t in your secret behavior checklist, I’m trying to be non-descript.” :)
Quick straw poll: How many here will actually voice their postilion on this to their elected representative? Please post your reply below. And yes – I have.
Sillyputty, I have. Countless times. I’ve also gone to Capitol Hill with other concerned citizens to make a presentation to Senators and Reps, and then visited their colleagues’ offices personally, to tell them we’re sick of being bullied, harassed, robbed, and assaulted at the airport. Doesn’t matter. Though they ALL said they’ve heard loads from their constituents about the TSA, they’re too gutless to do anything about it.
That’s why I dear, dearly wish, from the bottom of my being, for every single one of them and their family members to be abused at a checkpoint. Because only then will things change.
What utter and total bullsh*t. This makes no sense on any level and cannot possibly identify a would-be terrorist. A nervous flyer would exhibit all of the above symptoms and quite possibly any foreigner whose grasp of English was limited.
I love how they are watching us but No one keeps an eye on them. I can tell you how many thousands of dollars of personal things are stolen by them every day. I know military people who have even had there gear stolen.. I’m glad they are trying to keep us safe but someone needs to be keeping on eye on their sticky fingers.
They need to add: breathing, standing upright, walking and carrying a bag to the list.
LLEH, this is profiling!! Sure enough. Innocent, naïve, nervous, young, anti government, pro conservative, anti Hillary, pro gay, pro Christian, pro abortion, pro book burning, don’t shoot hands up, under educated victims. Sure enough.
The politically correct set up the TSA so that profiling would not happen . Now it seems that the TSA is profiling . Typical hypocrisy of the politically correct !
In the same spirit of scientific integrity, and with the same purpose of protecting the homeland, the germans in the 1930s produced excellent guides to identifying jews.
The only difference is that there are no little drawings showing the shape of the lips or the angle of the nose.
How do they spot a pilot who seems depressed?
they search thru the wreckage…………
WOW!!!! How dumb are people?? It doesn’t matter what the debate over it is, the simple fact that you published this is crazy! Thank you for kindly thinking about the safety of America/ Americans! I swear people are idiots!!!…..TSA is doing their job, so what’s it matter who they stop? Don’t you feel better knowing that they are stopping suspicious ppl?? Or I guess you’d rather them not stop anyone??? Idiots!!!
Gee now that the Taliban sent this to all the terrorists what will the TSA look for now? Idiots, I swear I’m moving to a deserted island.
Please explain how this is in any way useful? This is a straw man designed to divert our attention from the REAL threat to our freedom and of the creeping fascism. Proof of THESE threats can be found in the Snowden documents, which are the exclusive property of Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. Seen any serious leaks from them since the $250 million Intercept PayPal deal? No, me neither, and you won’t. The Deep State found a way to put an end to that.
For more on this infamous sellout, go to Sibel Edmonds Boiling Frog blog.
Thanks for including it, but the actual document is unreadable by any means.
<a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1697887/spot-referral.pdfClick this link and then click + as many times as you need to. I click it up to 180, at which time the document is quite readable. The way to reach that link from here is to click the four arrows at bottom left of the document on this page, and then when that opens click ‘original document (pdf)’ which is on the top right.
Why can’t I actually see any of the text on the document, tried going into the document and zoom, didn’t work, and I can’t save it to look at later.. it would be nice if I could actually read a single word.
It is the classic tactic of a police state, fully formed, to have an excuse to arrest and detain anyone and everyone. Having things like TSA checklists or behavior indicators is just window dressing. No “secrets” are revealed if the public learns the details. These are mere laundry lists used to justify arbitrary behavior.
Stalin’s NKVD made a point of arresting the innocent regularly and sending them to the gulag. That way everyone lived in fear. For good reason.
Terrorists aren’t stupid. They don’t need lists to know how (not) to behave. And if suspicions become too prevalent, they change tactics. We now learn of IS using small children, women and infants for cover in bombings. Cold blooded, yes.
Filling quotas and justifying misbehavior by TSA is what the lists are for.
Locking the cockpit door has resulted in more airline tragedies than it’s prevented. After the last 9/11 plane where passengers overpowered the hijackers, that mode of attack could never succeed again, due to we, the traveling public. But once again, a locked door prevented anyone from stopping the loss of 150 innocent lives in the latest Germanwings mass death, even the locked out copilot or flight support staff outside.
A number of comments express dismay that the checklist contains universally shared behaviors and therefore isn’t very useful for detecting terrorists, except in the trivial sense that everyone is a terrorist. But as the article explains, the list was never intended to identify terrorists. The relevant quote is:
As a writer who has contributed to TSA Newsblog, mentioned by Lisa Simeone above, I just wanted to chime in and thank The Intercept for this post, and add my request that everyone, including authors Jana Winter and Cora Currier, check out our years of reporting on this abusive, wasteful government agency. The writers represent most of the political spectrum, by the way; I am a socialist, and my colleagues range from staunch conservative to libertarian to liberal. This is not a partisan issue. It is a civil liberties issue.
Anyway, if you go to TSANewsBlog dot com and click on the black Master List link (upper right hand corner), you’ll get an idea of how pervasive the abuses are. Be prepared to be horrified–sure, you may only travel a few times a year, and your experiences with TSA may well have been benign ones, but consider that a) just because abuse hasn’t happened to you doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen and b) the very notion of such far-reaching, intrusive, and unwarranted search and seizure should be regarded as legally suspect on its face, and probably would be if America had not allowed herself to be so thoroughly and uncompromisingly terrified, in every sense of the word.
As you’ll see in the Master List, innocent passengers who want nothing more than to get from Point A to Point B in their own country have routinely been subjected to: intrusive “naked scans”, formerly via backscatter x-ray technology that does indeed expose people to radiation, depositing it not just on the skin but on one’s organs (and is banned in many countries for all but medical use); intrusive and often sexually abusive groping of adults and children, including breasts and genitalia; forced removal of adult incontinence garments; humiliation via having a prosthetic body part (i.e. prosthetic breast) pawed and held up in front of all present; forced consumption of breast milk to “prove” it wasn’t explosive; confiscation of crutches and leg braces, forcing passengers (even children) to crawl through a magnetometer; manhandling of delicate medical equipment such as feeding tubes and insulin pumps, often breaking them; theft of electronics, cash, and jewelry from *carry-on* luggage while passenger was detained for “additional scrutiny” and denied the right to keep his eye on his belongings; detainment/imprisonment in a room or glass cubicle and denied access to counsel, causing passenger to miss his or her flight; and so much more.
Please, everyone: get on board (so to speak). WE are the government. The government is US. We are doing this to each other. And we have the power to stop it, if we so demand; if we are educated as to the unconstitutional, abusive nature of the TSA. It is security theater; worse, it is conditioning people to accept ever-greater levels of intrusion into our privacy. And that’s as un-American as it gets.
Thank you, former TSA managers! But hey, ACLU, the behavior observation program not only leads to racial profiling, it is presumption of “guilt” in violation of the U.S. and state constitutions. Does even the ACLU accept presumption of guilt now? I never hear them speak against presumption of guilt. Do they give up on the issue because they don’t feel they would get anywhere with it in court? Are, according to them, some principles of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and their counterparts in the state constitutions, considered not to be important enough to fight for?
It seems to me that presumption of guilt is one of the most serious offenses listed in the Bill of Rights, or added to its interpretation by U.S. Supreme Court case law precedent(s), and that allowing some presumption of guilt to slide, opens the door to more and more presumption of guilt, which is exactly what has occurred over the years, and continues to occur. It also opens the door for increasing government “law enforcement” agency abuse(s), which is also what has occurred, and is continuing to occur, to a larger and larger extent as a result of opening the “Pandora’s Box” of presumption of guilt.
This is EXTREMELY serious, and we need to not only take presumption of guilt much more seriously, we need to stand up and fight against it much more, because it leads to the erosion of more and more of our human rights and civil liberties at the hands of the state and federal governments.
The entire screening process, even simply walking through a metal detector, is a presumption of guilt. We have to prove that we are innocent of carrying a weapon before we can board a plane.
Certainly the data mining of information about prospective ticket buyers is a presumption of guilt and there is no way that we can defend against, as is the TSA’s desire to constantly track trusted travelers through their buying habits, their social media usage, etc., etc., etc.
Michael Springmann, he worked for the commerce dept in the consulate in Jeddah, this was a place where so many of the terrorisamists got their fast track visas to go to US and learn and do shit.
He is a whistleblower who has written a book, ‘Visas for al-Qaeda: CIA Handouts that rocked the world’, and by crikey, if the interview is anything to go by, reading it would put a new squint on things…
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1019-michael-springmann-on-visas-for-terrorists/
What’s the big deal if it works?? It DOES work. Police have been using the same techniques for years, with positive results.
Please cite the instances when this has worked, when a would-be terrorist attempt was foiled.
Amy Goodman’s going to talk with Cora Currier shortly on Democracy NOW!
http://www.democracynow.org/
Gnarly.
‘Festivus Wishes’ do come true..!!
`donger
[redux-dec20]
Donger’s ‘Festivus’ Wish List:
THE // INTERCEPT – Mr. Bill Owen to remedy this archaic commentating functionality as of now.
Ms. Poitras – A job.
Mr. Greenwald – A link to your archive in its entirety.
Mr. Scahill – An article.
Ms. Weinberger – Coffee?!
Ms. Winter – A pulitzer. (ht`bah)
Mr. Thompson – Soothing chap-stick for your ‘wasabi-encrusted’ lips.
Ms. Vargas Cooper – Apricot-danish from el Belwood Bakery Cafe. (summa cum laude #bruins)
Ms. Cora Currier & Mr. Morgan Marquis-Boire – *More please..
..
Safe Travels to all..
*Leaked Files: German Spy Company Helped Bahrain Hack Arab Spring Protestors – 08/07/2014
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/07/leaked-files-german-spy-company-helped-bahrain-track-arab-spring-protesters/
‘Excessive complaints about the screening process..’
*Exactamongo!! Nothing betters ones attempts to produce mayhem like attracting attention to ones self prior to said mayhem.. I’m coining it, *Reverse Cosmo`logy..
A Tom Cruise On An Oprah Couch Production
ht` Blazing Saddles/Seinfeld
I have to compliment the tag fusion, it created visual of normally nervous Kramer chewing gum in the TSA queue – without enough for everybody…
So why hasn’t the behavior detection program ended yet?
having a chart like this always helps… https://i.imgur.com/WYwgGDB.png
They are doing way more than simply harassing people carelessly. They are also targeting their harassment in order to create problems and then accuse you of creating them …
https://ipsoscustodes.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/tsa_spirit_airlines_bs04.pdf
probably to jail up even more people? to kill or harm them? to include you in the no-fly list?
Satyagraha,
RCL
Over 40 years ago there was a profile for possible hi-jackers. Single person, one way ticket, cash ticket, between the ages of 18-65, male. By the time the Chicago Tribune printed the profile the local Sky Marshals had already realized that the military, even including Admirals in full uniform, truckers and college students fit that profile. The Japanese members of the Red Army, dressed as a group of business men would have made it to Chicago except for a surprise weapons check in Rome at the boarding gate. Their attache cases with submachine guns and hand grenades were left behind and they diverted to other countries. A story that didn’t make the local papers.
i’m feeling rather fidgety right now…
I
I agree. Not planning on flying anywhere, but these ‘criteria’ are almost spooky.
It is sad that a journal has to sink so low as to publish a document that holds information which is actionable and useful to people with the intent to harm the travelling public. The document could have been alluded to, and certain items obliquely mentioned or described, and still hammer home the message intended. For this is not a news story: it is a highly opinionated editorial. To actually present the actual document is simply irresponsible.
TSA is not perfect; far from it. And so is the case of most other public safety and security agencies, in the USA and other parts of the world. There are reasons why you would want to screen a person after arriving to a destination, if somehow was able to circumvent screening previous to boarding. One of them is that the person may be carrying a device or parts of a device to other parties, to harm people on other flights or locations. Besides, screening is a mandatory process for boarding; it is not optional. Boarding a passenger flight after evading screening has not yet been turned into a felony because, among other issues, turns out that most of those that do it do so as a form of protest, no real harm intended.
I, for one, cannot believe that undergoing screening can be such a horrible, violating, harrowing experience, that it can be deemed as harassment, a violation of human rights, etcetera ad nausea, that it has to be eliminated as a process to be conducted on a venue specifically targeted by people with the intent to commit mass murder. I mean, nobody cares when Joe Frisko does the very same thing, much less politely, before been allowed to enter certain clubs and discoteques. Oh, I forgot: you are not going to dance, party and have a great time on your flight: you are going to board a flying petrol tank, full of people that might probably not be as cool as you are, seated uncomfortably for several hours. You know, one of them decides this is the time to do something really intense and different, no one ever gets to find out what lovely things he may have brought with him to the plane, and poof! You just became another statistic. Perhaps you need to see firsthand a bus full of children blow up in front of you, like I did in the ’80s, or have a young man known to you shot and thrown down to the tarmac from a plane, like I had…or have a family member smashed against a building while still wearing the airliner he was seated in, like the families of those travelling in the aircraft that were lost on 9/11… When one watches the security videos from the airports involved in that tragedy, you can see many of the behaviours listed in the document published in the article… perhaps, had there been somebody who noticed, and could put 2 and 2 together…
Any person really interested in eliminating screening from air travel should devote itself to develop a movement against that process, pressure its Congressmen to write legislation banning it… and be able to face the consequences: Be there on live TV when a successful terrorist attack against an airliner occurs in the USA, and say on camera “Yes, I helped make screening banned” . For it will happen. Not that your cup of tea? Well… Grow up, Man up, and Shut up. Work on ways to make it more effective, yet less intrusive. Don’t do the people you claim to inform and serve such a disservice as this article. Get the facts: the whole facts. Find out why is your source providing you the information he/she gives you. Be a real journalist.
Undoubtedly I don’t know what it feels like to see people killed by terrorists. I can’t say people don’t have a right to be concerned. But we should also be concerned about the amount of human life spent on “security theater”, and weigh it against the potential benefit. According to http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/press_releases/bts016_13 roughly 800 million times a year people start a flight that goes to or from the U.S. If security takes them an extra 15 minutes, that is 200 million hours, 8.333333 million days, 22815 years, or 316 72-year lifespans of time that people spend getting groped by security, each year. But that’s not all of it – the TSA has a $7.6 billion dollar budget annually, which for people making something like $35,000 yearly median income means 216,000 years’ worth of income is spent every year on TSA security, which is to say, more than a third of over 3000 72-year lifetimes spent doing work solely to pay for TSA security theater. Together, that means that we throw away over 1300 lifetimes of continual boredom or enforced drudgery to pay for it, in order to get… what? There was one September 11 after a great many years, and that only happened because all the “responsible” people drummed it into passengers’ heads that they should just sit down and shut up and not cause any fuss when fanatics hijack their planes. No way bozo with his cardboard box would get into a cockpit with a cabin full of angry/panicked passengers nowadays. So I don’t believe that all this TSA security prevents even one ordinary plane crash from a bomb yearly, which is to say, much less life destroyed than the TSA itself destroys.
For this reason, I shall not blame The Intercept if they spoil the TSA’s “security through obscurity” and cause trouble for their least technically defensible approach. Even if I believed that al-Qaida never turned a TSA agent and never got a full download of their procedures in all this time.
When I get on an airplane, do I know whether it’s going to crash? With or without the TSA, the answer is the same: Shrug your shoulders and say “Inshallah”…
@Wnt – Thanks for that great breakdown and reminder of the cost/benefit analysis of our US national centers for “safety theater.”
What does any of that even mean? And what’s the deal with your obsession with being “served?” You even think that the authors of The Intercept are duty bound to “serve” your childish mentality? And that bit earlier about how enamored you are about being strip searched and having your bags emptied *After you’ve arrived at your destination, so that you don’t blow someone up at the house or restaurant or wherever it is that you’re heading, (and of course “children” are your most likely target) was quite a laugher. So in your world ,TSA is not only your mommy and daddy figures when you board your plane, but they are also your “Keep You Safe” mommy and daddy figures wherever and whenever you go in the world immediately following your airline experience?
Was that a serious comment post, HBM, or are you a practicing comedian? If that isn’t your excuse for that post, what government organization are you affiliated with? By the way, here is the result by what might be one of your favorite government organizations, GAO, about the “effectiveness” of the billion dollar SPOT program: Available evidence does not support whether behavioral indicators, which are used in the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program, can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security. GAO reviewed four meta-analyses (reviews that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that included over 400 studies from the past 60 years and found that the human ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance. Further, the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) April 2011 study conducted to validate SPOT’s behavioral indicators did not demonstrate their effectiveness because of study limitations, including the use of unreliable data.
Finally a credible comment! I do not understand people nowadays, the purposes of these screenings are to prevent further action, actions that took the lives of so many Americans! Privacy, they say, what’s their to be private about if you’re not hiding anything?
the purposes of these screenings are to prevent further action, actions that took the lives of so many Americans! — Julio
This TSA agent disagrees with you:
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912.html
I see this same article was linked much closer to the beginning of the comment thread by TallyHoGazehound. Bears repeating though each and every time someone comes in here whinging about how wonderful all this crap is at keeping us safe. :-s
You could help yourself with that if you would bother to make the effort to educate yourself. Right in this very article, and then spread throughout in the comments to the article, there is link after link of information that shows what it is that you don’t understand is due to your decision to remain ignorant about information that is easily obtainable.
read the comments
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/tsa-spent-900-million-behavior-detection-officers-who-detected-0
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/top-20-airports-tsa-theft/story?id=17537887
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/TSA/
http://www.examiner.com/article/chicago-native-top-tsa-official-charged-with-murder
Feel safe now?
Sounds like we’ve gone from the “scientific” methods of the Bertillion identification to fingerprints to DNA and a big backwards step to Bertillion again.
Of course you could always just wear a trench coat a felt hat and have a newspaper with holes cut for the eyes and they’d know straight away you were NSA
Great comment
On 2/27/2015 we were traveling from Chicago Rockford International Airport to St. Pete, Florida. When going through security the security person (female) mentioned that my toothpaste was more than 3 ozs. I was going to put this in my checked bag and discovered it put me overweight, so I put it in my carry on. I forgot about the new tube of Crest toothpaste. I walked on in the security line. All of a sudden a very loud buzzer went off. I almost jumped out of my skin. Then there was someone behind me shoving me to the other side of the room, and then on to a woman who put something on my hands, and questioned me about my toothpaste. I am a 73 year old woman, 5″ tall, about 130 lbs. I am not a slob, I dressed casually but nice, I have nice jewelry and accessories. This woman was so condescending I could not believe it. Yes, I was nervous, after that loud buzzer and being shoved, not being able to access my belongings. I really want to contact the TSA but I do not know how.
I find that the scrutiny I receive from TSA officers is inversely proportional to how busy the airport is at the time I pass through a check point. The more time the officers have on their hands, the more likely they are to do stupid things. As a photographer I travel with a lot of equipment. I am also an amateur radio operator and I always carry a walkie talkie and a police scanner. The radio equipment has never caused any suspicion. The camera equipment seems to get them excited, however. I have had lenses x-rayed and remote release cables wiped down for explosive residue. In one episode I was taken aside and made to remove all my lenses from my backpack. The officer placed them in a tray and admonished me to stay inside a yellow line around the area where I was standing. He also ordered me not to lean on the table on which he placed my backpack. He then left me alone for a few minutes while he went off to x-ray the lenses. The area where I was standing had a rack of radios in chargers. I could have easily bagged one. He’d already seen radios in my case and probably would have not noticed another one. I could have had a digitally encrypted TSA radio. So much for security.
In Belfast Northern Ireland they pre-screen everyone. While you’re standing in line to check in for your flight a couple of men in dark suits pass down the line, look at your passport and pass the time of day with you. The then put a sticker on the back out your passport that says you are pre-screened. The actual screeners are professional and very polite. A much more sensible approach.
Excessive complaints about the screening process? Really? I’m wondering what TSA nut job threw that one in there.
They have basically described an 8th grader at a school dance…
you got it!
Hi lyra —
Couldn’t respond directly, but I’ll do a quick stand alone. I think it’s a GOOD thing that you question everything. More people should. We need to remember how we always used to repeatedly ask ‘Why?’ as children. We shouldn’t give that questioning spirit up.
I will definitely be following any news and other reports about the Germanwings tragedy. I hope that there will be many who probe beyond the surface and give us even a small glimpse beyond “officialdom.”
And thanks for the link. Although maybe I should be moderate in my online time until after I see my eye dr. next month. Wouldn’t want him to yell at me. :-)
Continued thanks for posting such things – this kind of dissemination is a strength of this board.
My pleasure feline16.
I find it interesting that those who have “poor” physical eyesight are able to “see” with such clarity.
The loss of one of the five physical senses often leads to a gain in development of the sixth.
Been wearing “coke bottoms” myself for almost 55 years and find other densities of consciousness to function quite well.
3D is limited in scope.
It will be necessary for me to delete my ISP service ( and other electronic services) in the near future so…I will be limiting participation on this board.
It is nice to know “why” but I have found that lately, it is more useful to examine those explanations offered by the press services for both motive and gain.
Accessibility, plausibility, and common sense are the best guides for assisting in discernment of truth.
Best wishes on all of your endeavors.
Hi lyra –
Hope you get to read this. Sorry to hear you will be deleting your ISP and probably other electronics, too. So best of luck to you also, and check in here if and when you can.
Take care!!!
Thanks kind feline.
ETD = 1-2 months but will diminish input gradually, chiming in only when deemed necessary.
This is personal choice and I could easily resurface if desired.
Not to worry feline.
This ….break in activity….is necessary from time to time.
I wonder how much of this was inspired by El Al screening procedures
http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/u-s-couple-with-jewish-roots-didn-t-expect-el-al-s-inquisition.premium-1.493585
Because I am late for my flight, therefore I am potential terrorist? I am always late for my flight…
It should be obvious to anyone with half a brain that the TSA does not work for the people. Congress is now exempt from the security line prisoner patdowns and invasive machines by the TSA. (see: Congres Sails Past Airport Hell Under Special TSA Program 9/24/14 by Huffington Post) Ordinary citizens can do TSA pre-check but can still be forced by random selection to go though normal screening procedures if the TSA feels like it. (see: Travelers on TSA’s PreCheck program must still undergo screening by Catharine Hamm march 3 2014 by LA Times) Ofcourse most of the Congress is corrupt as well having gutted most of the USA Freedom Act so many of the illegal immoral actions of the NSA would continue against the American public. (see House Passes Watered Down NSA Reform Bill by Stephanie Condon May 22 2014 by CBS News)
If anyone is interested, I was reading some comment boards about the TSA elsewhere on the internet and noticed some trends. There are many evil trolls (and probably some government paid trolls) out there defending the evil TSA actions.
Here are 6 rules the corrupt government TSA and their ‘trolls’ generally follow. The TSA corrupt government and the citizen tools that swallow their BS are hard at work creating a Stasi and destroying the freedoms that the founding fathers and soldiers in WW2 fought and died for:
The rules can be separate or combined:
– Present lies as facts while ignoring real facts and hopefully people don’t have enough time to do their own research. Use the false argument that ‘if you don’t like the TSA, don’t fly’ while ignoring that the TSA also has the evil Viper squads that are active in the public. (see The TSA is Expanding its Reach Far Beyond Airport Security by Paul Szoldra 2013. Business Insider)
– Attack, discredit or blame good people who are supporters of freedom and ignore or downplay the unconstitutional evil corrupt TSA government activities which are above the law including violating peoples privacy and their bodies. Make the government look like the victim if possible. Ignore studies like the Stanford Prison Experiment 1971 and the BBC documentary Experiment 2002 which show the results of hierarchy and corruption of positions of power over others when morals and ethics are absent.
– Promote the message of fear and that the government corruption is for the people’s own protection while ignoring the fourth amendment. Promote the wrong attitude of guilty until proven innocent which only justifies an evil police state. If people object to the TSA evil actions call them paranoid or resort to name calling and call freedom outdated, while ignoring the troll’s own extreme paranoia considering the chances of dying in a terrorist attack is 1 in 1.7 million. (See: How Scared of Terrorism Should You Be? Not very. You are four times more likely to be killed by a lightning bolt than by a terror attack. Ronald Baily September 6, 2011 Reason Magazine).
– Ignore that technology is just a tool and it depends on how ethical, moral, and respectful a society is for how it is used. Ignore potential alternatives like the use of bomb sniffing dogs or ignore the possibility of contracting with companies that could come up with less invasive more respectful methods
– Arrogantly assume to know that the framers of the constitution would go against everything they fought for and embrace a corrupt military industrial complex due to terrorist attacks while forgetting they had their own terrorist attack by the redcoats during the boston massacre of 1770. In reality the attack only made the desire for freedom and limited government stronger with the American people at that time not weaker.
– Create distractions by attacking and blaming people who had bad experiences from the TSA or give thumbs down to people exposing their corruption. Evil trolls generally act in unethical abusive comments with no real arguments and display behaviors of lack of remorse or empathy aka psychopathy. (see Erin Buckels of the University of Manitoba See: New study: Internet trolls are often Machiavellian sadists by By Chris Mooney 2014) These trolls are tools for the corrupt governments because corrupt governments need an immoral, unethical, naïve populace to continue their corruption.
Corrupt governments tend to hope for a demoralized immoral populace constantly arguing with each other so they stay weak and divided. Divide and conquer is another of their tactics. (Remember the FBI’s COINTELPRO and the CIA’s Project MERRIMAC.) An immoral, unethical society usually degenerates into a paranoid police state.
What is our weapon against the immorality and evil of the TSA and corrupt governments?
We have our will power, ethics and morality.
To counter the actions of the corrupt governments try promoting values of freedom, morals, honesty and friendliness. If you have to fly one thing to do is relax and breathe to clean your body and mind of the stress so you can stay calm, move on from the stress and later increase your resilience against their evil even more by supporting attitudes and groups that are attempting to stop their corrupt existence. Try to give thumbs up to others comments supporting freedom and maybe support by donating some money (of what you can afford ) to organizations like EPIC, Jonathan Corbett (TSA Out Of Our Pants), and Freedom to Travel USA who have lawsuits against the evil TSA and corrupt government. Also TSA Watch dot org is a new potential site. A populace with high morale with strong values of freedom, morals, and friendliness by supporting each other in comments and in our own personal lives and families makes it very hard for corrupt governments to win over the populace with their lies and it makes it harder for them to create their ‘sheeple‘. (their evil ‘fearful slaves’ who lost the ability to critically think)
You’ve been reading the TSA Blog, haven’t you? It seems to be filled with supporters of the TSA and even TSA employees posting as “Anonymous.”
Of course no terrorist would ever see this list and get tipped off….
Shouldn’t this be kept w/in TSA?
Maybe if this list was in place on the morning of 9/11/2001 and one of the terrorists yawned, we could have caught them. Umm…..
I think locking the cabin door and putting an undercover federal air marshall with a gun on every plane made a far bigger difference than harassing people who yawn and complain about ass-backwards TSA policies.
The fact that this list is public is not tipping off the terrorists because this list is so completely stupid that maybe by being publicly exposed, it will force the TSA to spend the next 900 million they get on something that actually works.
At the same time : “The Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) today released its detailed Fiscal Year 2016 budget request. The agency, which oversees civilian international news and information programs for people in more than 100 countries, is seeking $751.5 million to increase global engagement, move more aggressively into television and digital media, and support high priority audiences.
“Our goal is to help U.S. international media nimbly respond at a time of pressing national security challenges as well as dramatic shifts in the way people around the world engage with media,” said BBG Chairman Jeff Shell. “As authoritarian governments tighten their grip on media and extremist groups exploit it to sow hatred and fear, our role is to engage audiences and bring a trusted voice to those who need it most.”
The budget request prioritizes expanding avenues to reach Russian-speaking audiences. The proposed investment of $15.4 million would increase Russian-language TV programming, as well as grow multi-platform digital engagement efforts toward the region.
In addition, supporting a free and open Internet is included in the request, with $12.5 million in funds proposed in FY 2016 for the BBG’s Internet anti-censorship programs.
http://www.bbg.gov/blog/2015/03/10/bbg-2016-budget-request-calls-for-expansion-in-key-markets-and-technologies/
Israel has the “profiling” figured out. While it’s not PC, it works. Try flying El Al sometime.
It beats pat downs on infants, old ladies and the handicapped while a group of ten Suadi’s walk through un opposed (9/11 was 95% Saudi’s).
Also, be careful if you are the typical blonde haired blue eyed person from the midwest. My mom gets pulled for an extended search EVERY TIME she flies.
More than half of these could be explained away as a person who is TERRIFIED of flying. Not wearing proper attire? So if I am leaving from the northwest where it is freezing, does that mean I need to be wearing shorts and a tank top when I arrive for my flight to AZ next week? Will we be flagged as terrorists because my husband has shaved his beard ahead of our flight to warmer weather? Or better yet, my 5-year-old just learned to whistle, will she get pulled out by TSA for whistling Let it Go? I am thinking we might be in trouble.
Did you notice how it is ok for tsa to judge passengers as potential terrorists by the color of their skin? I f your face is red from a sunburn, a skin condition, etc., you might be a terrorist ! If your skin is pale, from sun avoidance, a medical problem, or your nationality, you might be a terrorist! As long as they are being racist, why don’t they add dark skin with a beard and a middle eastern accent, that might be more helpful. And remember, tsa has never caught a single terrorist.
I just self-scored myself, I got 46 for my normal behavior! Looks like this list is targeting Aspergers.
Everyone who has complained about the TSA screening process in this comment section might be a terrorist according to the document. Under “Signs You Might Be A Terrorist” they have listed “Excessive complaints about the screening process.” The writers of the article, Jana Winter and Cora Currier, might be terrorists also since they appear to be criticizing the TSA in this article. There might be some terrorists in Congress too since they dragged the head of the TSA in to testify about people’s gonads showing up on the new scanners. Members of congress were able to halt the TSA from using those scanners, that would have been searching people right before they go into a security zone are apparently too intrusive, but searching through all my email and phone calls without a warrant is OK and completely constitutional. Go congress!?!
They forgot “Suspiciously calm”
What bs, some people get anxious while traveling, some are tired and yawn, some people are afraid of planes. You can’t judge people like that it’s ridiculous honestly. I hate flying and the whole process, I also suffer from panic attacks and get nervous before traveling, so that makes me look suspicious? Unbelievable the day and age we live in
Still flying, adding CO2 to the upper atmosphere? Put up with the TSA’s BS! That’s a tiny thing to what you’re doing to your grandchildren by your contribution to climate change.
I haven’t flown in 10 years and have no need to do it in the foreseeable future as I haven’t lost anything in an area I’d have to fly to. Exactly what are all you flyers looking for? Are you mimicking my friend who is flying to Spain to go hiking when she lives 25 miles from the AT and hasn’t hiked a foot of it? Don’t expect my sympathy. TSA could be harassing you about your lack of knowledge of climate change or your attitude of privilege. Just think how painful that could be.
Exactly what are all you flyers looking for?….Don’t expect my sympathy. TSA could be harassing you about your lack of knowledge of climate change or your attitude of privilege.
Family and loved ones? It must be nice to have been born in the holler and never had anyone you loved move far away to search for a new/better life or to have never met anyone of value who lives far away that you yearn to speak to face to face or to never engage in ones curiosity about other places and cultures.
Not everyone who flies is doing so for the reasons you spew with such disdain.
Arrogance is a sign of a terrorist.
Sorry if I have aggravated anyone with my “disdain” though that doesn’t accurately describe my view now. It is mainly with sadness that I look up almost any day and see the skies of central VA streaked with polluting machinery that will affect the climate my grandchildren (and other family and loved ones) will have to live in. And it also is aggravation with myself for all the years I rode those same polluting machines for whatever reason I did so.
I hear what you’re saying and think there’s a lot of truth to it as well. My husband left his home and family in the Czech Republic at a very young age and lived away from them for a long time due to political circumstances. His trips to visit his parents during the late part of their lives was bittersweet due to this, but neither he nor I would have traded the ability to be with them a few times before they both died. So my vision wasn’t exactly clear when I made my comment.
In addition, as someone who has participated in worldwide research into the treatment of HIV, which necessitated travel to places in the world where such diseases are still a death sentence that my colleagues are attempting to forestall, I just couldn’t wrap my head around your reference to your lack of sympathy.
The people who traveled to west Africa to help stymie the spread of Ebola may have saved millions of lives. Were those also trips that you have no sympathy for?
I just didn’t see it as quite so black and white as your portrayal, but I apologize for my abrupt challenge. You are absolutely correct that flying contributes to climate issues.
It’s not surprising that an organization as incompetent as the TSA would pick the typical behavior of any bored traveler as evidence that he’s up to no good.
I found this amusing, because I’ve been patted down and wanded almost every single time I flew, but it was usually the machines that set it off. Once I had recently had radioactive contrast dye for a heart stress test and the residue in the filters on my CPAP machine set off their detector. Much excitement! The people behind me weren’t even mad about the delay, they were so intrigued by a fat middleaged white woman making the alarms whoop. Then I was going through a body scanner once and it beeped. They sent me through again, same thing. The scanner showed something just above my knee, but I didn’t have anything there. Once again, full pat down and luggage search. I’m so used to it I routinely leave on the earliest flight possible and get there several hours early. TSA has always been extremely nice to me. Once they even asked politely if they could search me just before I got on the plane because they needed to fill their quota search and I looked pretty unlikely to have anything on me.
I am amazed how you allow so many anonymous profiles/false profiles to comment on this article – I stand by my comment with my name. I think TSA is trying to to point out people WHO maybe should be of further interest – perhaps inspired på Israeli TSA equivalent and their intense Work through the years. I agree it certainly isnt fullproof – but I am gratefull that someone tries to protect me as a passenger. I also agree that the steps mentioned should of course not result in any grave consequenses – but just an extra attention. Best Niels
Many of those are symptoms I get out of fear that the TSA will sexually assault me AGAIN. They are why I no longer travel by air.
This an absurd waste. Everyone, whether up to mischief or not, knows not to act nervously or oddly at airports – I’m sure that some of those susceptible to panic attacks are so distressed under these circumstances (worried they ‘might’ be deemed suspicious, thus subject to invasive examination) that they become too hysterical to fly at all, and lesser degrees of this paranoia affect most of the rest of us when stressed or exhausted by travel.
But this is the point: to create an unchallenged climate of fear of potential violation for everyone, ostensibly so that actual criminals are deterred. This is of course an aspect of fascism, and from what I’ve read was largely the cunning way Nazi agendas were advanced inside German-occupied territories. The establishment, and the hapless clerks entrusted with this garbage, don’t see it as oppression, however. It’s just more convenient than being decent or sensible, and evidently in the post-modern establishment convenience trumps ethics all the way.
There are incredibly skilled people in various agencies and universities who could give way better pointers than these for identifying truly suspicious individuals. That they have obviously not been consulted in this boondoggle is a giveaway that this is all more about the convenient climate of increasing fear and customer-intimidation than any genuine public service.
Given the quality and content of not only this article but other articles on the site, I would not take this with even a grain of salt. With simple research you can find that they redact or omit any information that does not support their theory. This is truly junk journalism at its best.
Now the government can go after the writers and publishers. Exposing a program that terrorists will now be able to study. So if another attack does happen it will be all blame put on the writers for any loss of life.
Maybe I’m blind or something, but does anybody see the link to the original report here? It would be truly sad if the legacy of Greenwald, who under the Guardian’s wing once had the nerve to publish classified documents in Britain, is a site too timid to copy or link an unclassified document.
Anyway, putting the question to Google I found https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1695316-spot-referral-report.html – but of course, I have no way to verify that document’s authenticity.
Incidentally, reading over that document, I notice that 8+ points is “refer for selectee screening and notify LEO”, contrary to some comments made earlier.
Also, I’m amused that the “FEAR” factors (2 points) include things like “bag appears heavier than expected…” and unrelated persons with the same dress or luggage. Apparently the “fear” they’re talking about doesn’t refer to the person flying, but to the TSA agent! (Then again, that seal in the photo with “Team Spirit, Innovation, Integrity” is obviously missing certain components of the FBI Logo. :) )
Wnt and Kitt –
My eyesight isn’t the best (I’ve had several eye surgeries :-) ) but I couldn’t read that document. I hit that four arrow button at bottom left, then even zoomed it as much as I could, but still couldn’t make anything out. Can we get a better doc viewer or something?
after clicking the four arrow button click ‘original document PDF’ off to the right… then click + several times. Use arrow to shift from side to side/
Thanks! :-)
OK — apparently you have to enable not only scripting by The Intercept, but then amazonaws and then documentcloud, in order to get anything to appear; until then it’s just a blank. I hope I didn’t miss anything else that way before…
Unfortunately, the original document is not super high-quality, so that’s why it’s hard to read in any form. Here’s a link to a pdf, which you can zoom more than Document Cloud allows: https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1695316/spot-referral-report.pdf
If you click the expand button on the left bottom corner of any Document Cloud embed, it opens in a new window and there’s a link to download the original PDF.
Many thanks. There was one I really love; displays arrogance and verbal contempt of the screening process – something like that. Sounds pretty rational to me :-)
And I totally agree with everyone who has said this STOP program is a gigantic waste of our tax money.
Well done, Cora and Jana.
Back in the Bush days, some federal agency warned people to be on the lookout for people on the DC Metro system who were sweating and carrying backpacks. This was in August. In Washington DC. I was sweating because I’d just walked a mile to the Metro station in August in DC. My backpack held my lunch and a dry shirt. Even worse, I have a beard. Good thing I look thoroughly Caucasian.
I flew to Hawaii and I don’t plan on flying back.
Even though I don’t agree with racial profiling for law enforcement in general, sometimes for specific activities you have to just go with the statistics. The “driving while black” is over the top, but looking a bit harder at men (and possibly women, the criteria needs to match current intelligence), 18-50, having passport stamps from specific countries, should be given extra scrutiny. In the balance is potentially thousands of lives and billions of dollars. The current system is a failure in actual detection; it may be having success on a psychological level by keeping terrorists from trying this but we don’t ACTUALLY know that. What we have now is “security theater”. If we were serious about this, we would have FBI and CIA specialists working on-site at major airports doing TSA hands-on training and transferring the real skills needed to spot terrorist not just some list. Just 20 agents from both agencies would go a long way to making the system more efficient, credible, and would help society over all.
“…having passport stamps from specific countries,…”
Any well-supported terrorist is going to have a fraudulent passport without stamps from countries that would arouse the suspicion of the TSA or CPB.
Invasive police state style tactics are unfortunately necessary in an age of widespread easy travel, when the nation’s elites’ foreign policy is financial and military domination and control of foreign peoples’ lands, because some of those people resist, some with violence. The path we are on is not one that is designed to reduce conflict, just contain its consequences to manageable levels. It really is too bad that war must abolish civil rights for its duration, and worse that perpetual war progressively abolishes the liberties of peacetime forever.
Well, thanks a pant load for publishing the list. Now terrorists will know what to work on, you bunch of retards.
Exactly. How will they ever be caught now if they avoid exaggerated yawning, whistling, and wild-eyed staring? I can’t emphasize enough how much impact this will have on TSA’s success rate of zero percent.
It’s not security theatre. At least 10 or more of these behaviors are directly related to a transnational organization that actively harasses innocent targets and routinely smuggles Directed Energy Weapons onto airplanes, which is why I believe the laptops are now separately screened. DEWs should be banned period (after the government admits they exist), but they should never be allowed onto airplanes, since they can not only be directed at passengers, but also the pilots.
Following:
“Pale face from recent shaving of beard”
I would add:
1.Disheveled hair from recent wearing of turban.
2.Dark complexion as a result of high sun exposure in desert like regions.
3.Bloodshot eyes from insufficient knowledge of how to operate smartphone alarm features.
4. Bow legged stance as a result of primary mode of transportation, the goat.
5.Broad shoulders, resulting from many years of terrorist training carrying wmds.
Keep on the lookout for any individuals matching these criteria. If all else fails, if they carry legs,arms, a torso and a head they’re probably a terrorist!
Also, the worst that can happen if you reach high enough points is they silently select you for additional screening, where you get a full pat-down and full bag search by an officer, will a BDO asks you some open-ended questions. Unless you interfere with the screening process, I. E. Causing a scene or refusing screening OR if you actually have an “asterick” item, I. E. gun, butterfly knife, taser, incinderaries, ect. TSA will not and cannot get the police involved.
So no, just cause you hit high on their point system, does not mean they’re calling the police. That would annoy the hell out of the police. Lol
One solution might be to require each traveler to recite the pledge of allegiance while be scanned by Voice Stress Analysis.
You can’t do that. You might offended someone and then they’ll ban you from public.
I’m a former TSA officer of six and a half years and I can validate the above article. It’s funny, the officers when I worked the floor always had inside jokes and made fun of the behavioral detection officers (BDO’s) for their pointlessness. Next time you see an officer working the checkpoint who is just standing around out front and NOT doing a town-crier announcements to remove things from your pockets, engage them in constant conversation, it screws with their focus and point system on behavioral observation. Lol (little secret)
Love it!
To all my American brothers that are unable or unwilling to shed blood… time to move before it is impossible to get out. I really don’t see it getting better and your children and grandchildren are being exposed to horrendous amounts of conditioning and propaganda. Maybe things will settle down but with the way the economy is going and all the crap that governments are pulling around the world I honestly think some kind of reset is coming, everything feels wrong and is worse by the day. And no, I am not speaking of some kind of religious event.
Governments around the world are trying to control their population and they are only causing a bigger problem. I can’t see people putting up with all of this meddling for much longer. Petitions fall on deaf ears, protests are put down violently how much longer before everything just explodes?
Since excessive farting isn’t on the list, I will be bringing a whoopee cushion on my next flight.
Our tax dollars at work. The next time I go thru IAD, I’m gonna wink, belch, yawn, and flatulate. I’ll wear camo and desert boots, too.
This is what the TSA devised, as a stripped-down version of what Israel does. In Israel, a passenger must interact with security personnel, explaining their travel plans and so forth. I’ve seen several Israeli security people say that the U.S. program is poorly design. It relies on behavior and body language, when it’s conversation that is the key.
Gee…
The whole “body language” thing really does have some merit.
I raise my “middle finger” in the ultimate salute of honor.
“Face pale from recent shaving of beard.”
– Brilliant!
It has to do with the cleansing ritual of a Suicide Bomber.
All the better to show off your “obvious Adam’s apple jump”!
There is no limit to the US government’s depravity.
Jesus. And I thought blondes were dumb. Our tax dollars at waste, once again. I want a refund.
They missed out ‘looking Muslim’.
that goes under “clothing inappropriate for location”. That can mean anything
‘Face pale from recent shaving of beard.’
In a way, that’s profiling of Muslims, since it means ‘look out for Muslims trying not to appear Muslim.’
So, have they caught one yet?!?!
How much of that money, goes to
George Bush an his corrupt gangsters?
Follow the money, an you will see!!!
I’m glad the Intercept is finally getting around to doing this, but at TSA News we’ve been writing about the risible SPOT program and BDO voodoo for years. Maybe you obtained a “confidential” document, but this information has been out there for a long time, and those of us fighting about the TSA have been publicizing it for a long time. Unfortuntely, most Americans don’t care. “Just get me to my flight on time!”
I wasn’t aware of “TSA News” before so I’ve just begun checking out the stories there. Very interesting. I haven’t seen any about SPOT so far but, as I said, I’ve only just started scanning the blog. I did notice, though, that you or they didn’t link to this article. Is there a reason for that? Also why did you choose not to leave a link to the TSA News blog in your comment?
TSA News Blog
Kit, I have found in the past that leaving links sometimes gets comments booted to spam. TSA News Blog dot com is our URL. I just wrote up a new post this morning linking to this article. I’m the only one writing over there anymore, it’s all volunteer work, I’m still trying to make a living (as paltry as that may be after NPR blacklisted me for my involvement in the Occupy movement), and I just don’t have time to keep up with everything. I do what I can.
Top 10 sign that you might be a terrorist!
Being a depressed pilot wasn’t one of them! ?#?germanwings?
The MSM never reports the unstated facts.
Consider this information:
“Hacked: Did You Really Think Cockpit Door Was Locked?”
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/03/27/350535/
Snip: [“In order to add to the explosion of information about the recent air event over France, we have done some simple research on the operation of the cockpit door of an A320. We have published, below, the operations manual. We also have the following language, taken from the flight crew manual used by Royal Jordanian Airlines, an organization kind enough to have passed this on:
Ident.: DSC-25-11-10-00001006.0001001 / 09 OCT 12
Applicable to: MSN 2649-3685, 4670-5367
A forward-opening hinge door separates the cockpit from the passenger compartment. It has three electric locking strikes, controlled by the flight crew. In normal conditions, when the door is closed, they remain locked. When there is a request to enter the cockpit, the flight crew can authorize entry by unlocking the door, that remains closed until it is pushed open.
When the flight crew does not respond to requests for entry, the door can also be unlocked by the cabin crew, by entering a two to seven-digit code (programmed by the airline) on the keypad, installed on the lateral side of the Forward Attendant Panel (FAP).”]
Food for thought.
I don’t know anything about this stuff, but according to the reports on Al-Jazeera, a person in the cockpit can lock it so that that keypad unlocking doesn’t work.
This explains it
http://www.wired.com/2015/03/remarkably-easy-lock-pilot-cockpit/
I don’t know either Umm Abdullah but I certainly don’t trust MSM or “official” reports.
There have been too many “mysterious” downed or missing aircraft belonging to nation states that are “bucking the system” in the past year.
In the examination of the “locked cockpit door”. One scenario affords a security contingency plan for cockpit access. The other does not. I find it difficult to believe that there was no consideration of contingency access to the cockpit. That would be stupid and would equate to clear negligence on the part of an Airline passenger carrier to provide for adequate cockpit access in the event of an emergency. Blaming a dead co-pilot puts “human error” as the probable major cause which would serve to expedite the final results(findings) of the accident investigation and mask the possible involvement of certain nation state intelligence services.
In any case, we are left with yet another “tragic” outcome for innocent people.
hi Umm Abdullah and lyra –
Of course it’s good to be skeptical of msm reports, but I do believe the thing about the cockpit door. Remember that U.S. requires 2 people in cockpit so maybe this contingency has just not come up. Remember also this new cockpit security came about after 9/11 so they may not have been considering all angles.
I do think there is more to the story than is coming out. Or maybe will come out, I don’t know. The one thing that makes me go ‘huh?’ is that they are reporting the fact that the co-pilot was breathing normally as the plane made its decent. That strikes me as very strange as I would expect someone intent on suicide or murder to exhibit some abnormal body rhythms.
You are 100% correct in that we have more tragedy for innocents. The victims and families are so much in my heart and prayers.
I also found the reported lack of unchanged vital signs to be an anomaly feline16.
As you know….I question everything.
Frankly…I am tired of the mass charade that I seem to uncover regarding most issues and topics with the exception of metaphysical ones.
Truth is always paramount to me.
Check out this recent article feline16…It rings true when you follow the links and couple it with years of extensive research. It also makes sense of the mostly nonsensical situation in which human beings are presently residing on Earth.
“City of London’s Ownership of American Colonies”
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/03/24/city-of-londons-ownership-of-american-colonies/
I also pray that all who can see; will unite to oppose and overthrow the oppressor forces on Earth so that freedom, justice, and peace can rule.
Why are our tax dollars being wasted on TSA tomfoolery?
Because the citizenry of this country are too cowed by the thoughts of terrorism to stand up against the government and “just say no.”
Agree OnlyOne.
For that money we could have given Israel another complete Iron Dome system …
GAO listed the majority of the $900mil as salary, which doesn’t surprise me. Gov waste like the F35 which is $135 billion over budget.
If you spot a passenger fumbling with their bomb, ask them to stand to one side so other passengers can pass.
After reading the document, it is quite clear that this assessment is based on subjective data or that which is strictly dependent on the opinion of TSA agent(s) completing the assessment. The assessment itself has no scientific value e.g; “Bag appears to be heavier than expected or bag does not suit the individual’s appearance”. What is that???? Exactly what is expected? How does a bag “suit” individual appearance?.
In other words….the whole assessment is an unscientific crock of bullshit apparently designed to allow for blanket harassment of the Transportation Security Agency of innocent citizens of the United States. In my opinion, the agency itself is a larger crock of bullshit created specifically to promote illegal search (see: Amendment IV of the Constitution of the United States of America) and insert yet one more element of “terror” into the “War on Terror.”
I hope that the ACLU is successful with their attempt to obtain the documents that they have requested however; I think there is a larger case in ultimate focus that involves the legality of mass blanket search without obtaining a warrant IAW Amendment IV of the Constitution.
If the agencies which fall under the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence want to find terror they need look no further than themselves.
“2015 REPORT: War on Terror Body Count Exceeds 1.3 million”
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2015/03/26/2015-report-war-on-terror-body-count-exceeds-1-3-million/
The thing speaks for itself.
Correction: Change “blanket harassment of the Transportation Security….” to; blanket harassment by the Transportation Security…)
I’m sure there’s more to the indicators then listed. This is only a form used after the TSA agent “referral” from other reports.
No doubt…”other reports” that are equally as subjective and “scientific.”
Face pale from shaving is a sign of a suicide bomber after a cleansing ritual which has been taught to the military posted in FOBs. Same goes for some other things listed.
We are being led by the 4th grade student government.
I think we are being lead by the fourth grade student government electorate
Just as long as a hand placed Al Bundy style in the crotch isnt on the list, im not worried.
I exhibit most of these “signs,” but I don’t believe in Terrorism. I make snide comments and snarky asides so that people eventually realize that the Evil isn’t something they can fight or drone attack, it is something inside Them.
So it isn’t Terrorism, it’s Horrorism. Kind of like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lnXOxsUvA4
How much government money is being wasted on this pseudo-science? http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2013/06/05/tsa-behavior-screening/2392255/
http://reason.org/news/show/1013650.html The dollars wasted on this failed program is tremendous. Its just another way to expand the government’s budget and payoff lobbyists and grab power.
Who really benefits from this article, why don’t you translate it into Arabic, and give it to some mentally unstable extremists.
Tanx for making it easier for terrorists to avoid detection.
For those who may not have seen it….
**http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912.html
We can imagine what some future TSA agent will afford us about the implementation of SPOT.
TSA = National “security” technological advancement in voyeurism.
“Fat ass” = +2
“Big Breasts” = -2
“Small Penis” = -1
All quite scientific.
Why don’t you guys just publish “How to Hi-jack an Airplane for Dummies.”?
Remind us all about how many times this behavioral screening has stopped a hijacking or other terrorist attack.
Um, if the book instructs would-be hijackers to use a feather to overpower the pilot, then it would be just as effective as the SPOT program.
I would rather see a manual entitled “Voluntary Relinquishment of Rights by American Citizens—–for Dummies”.
The dummies may be working for TSA. Who else would need this kind of paint-by-numbers lesson?
The shock and surprise at the lack of science backing this program is misplaced. The Federal Government has a very long history of comfort with pseudo-scientific technology/methodology for detecting bad guys, at levels that dwarf this program.
Exhibit A is the ubiquitous use of polygraphs for loyalty screening (as opposed to suspect interrogation). Securocrats swear by its efficacy, despite the fact that (a) polygraph screening has never ever caught a spy, which is to say, every spy ever caught passed all regularly-scheduled polygraph screenings, and (b) in 2002 the National Academy of Science performed the first ever(!) scientific evaluation of government polygraph screening practices, and concluded that they are about as effective as ouija boards. The government spends vast amounts of resources on equipment procurement, personnel training, and screening, for this demonstrably bogus method of detecting disloyalty.
The Feds are suckers for snake oil — any “sciency” security gizmo or technique is like catnip to them. Contractors and vendors know this, and have been making a comfortable living off that fact for many decades. Makes me think I’m in the wrong racket.
I feel much of this is disinformation too. Just because the TSA hands over some list doesn’t mean it’s the “actual policy”. It gets any “terrorist” reading this a fake sense of security.
There are a lot of medical causes that will set off these alarms. Parkinsons in addition to a bunch of other possible medical problems will cause trembling. Certain medical problems will also cause excessive sweating. Frankly, just lugging bags around the airport can cause sweating. The problem often with keeping these procedures from public visibility is that when the public gets to see them they realize that they are completely ridiculous.
Yet we got rid of body scanners (that probably would work) because people felt that they were too invasive. From my perspective, as long as the images are deleted and only the TSA agent gets to look at the images, I am okay with the body scanners. That can be scientifically shown to work.
The other issue with these procedures is that they are completely subjective. The TSA agent can just say to a muslim or black passenger that they look nervous and flag them for extra screening.
I also like that excessive yawning is on there. So if the only affordable flight available by the airline is a red-eye flight and you stay up all night and yawn, you will be flagged as a terrorist. What a great system?!?
I wonder if the document said anything about making a book or documentary bad mouthing the government qualifies as a reason to be screened? Nah, I think Laura Poitras is just a habitual yawner. Now it is all clear.
One last comment. All this is targeted at the passengers who no longer have access to the cabin. After this week’s crash in France, one has to wonder what is being done to ascertain the behavior or the pilots?
The TSA definitely believes they are capable of judging pilot’s behavior.
I loved (sarcasm) when they took my 4″ pliers away and yet leave me access to an 18-24″ fire ax that could be truly deadly.
The body scanners didn’t work, that’s why they removed them.
Also, actual Law Enforcement Officers were incensed when the TSA Agents got badges. These TSA Agents were flipping burgers (not that there’s anything wrong with that) prior to becoming “the final link in the terrorist prevention process.”
The ex-head of Mossad walked through a body scanner with several pounds of C4 strapped to his body to demonstrate exactly how badly body scanners don’t work. Excessive screening procedures only create bottlenecks of people which is exactly the kind of thing terrorists would target. Why bother trying to clear security to bring down a plane when you can just blow up several hundred people waiting in line at security? It’s the complete failure of imagination and inability of bureaucrahttp://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop-phriday/antivaccination-ads-mccarthy/1/cy to think like terrorists (ie. Identify weaknesses in systems and procedures rather than expending more effort in overcoming heightened security) that will result in the next attack.
Those scanners may not be perfect, but if they are better than what we are doing now I personally think it is worth installing them. It would do a lot more to protect the public than interviewing people who sweat. What they do now is just BS as the article points out: “The signs of deception and fear “are ridiculous,” the source continued. “These are just ‘catch all’ behaviors to justify BDO interaction with a passenger. A license to harass.”
Also, there are separate scanners that sniff for chemicals. The two scanners should be used in tandem. That is a good point about the testing done in Israel though. In our country, those tests aren’t published. I suspect it is because they make it through with a disturbingly high frequency. I bet though if they did scientific studies examining the different scanners, it could be shown that the newer scanners catch things more often. To me that isn’t as obtrusive as a lot of the other government surveillance that is occurring. If the scanners are in place, the TSA is letting people know up front that they are there. To me it is the same as going through a metal detector. And these things would be used on everyone – which is fair. They wouldn’t just be used on the people that the brilliant TSA agents decide to harass for no good reason.
If you fly a lot you should just buy a private airplane. If you split the costs and ownership among 5 or 6 people, a light airplane is affordable.
This is silly. I would much rather go through extra screening because I looked yawned suspiciously than sit next to a bomber. Screen away, TSA!
What if the bomber was behind you in the security line and decides that it would be easier to blow up the security line than try to get past TSA? Wouldn’t it accomplish the same thing: kill hundreds and ground air transportation? Perhaps even more dead than one could kill on the plane? It would be much easier. Happy flying!
Wonderful! I sincerely hope that you give evidence of such and have the pleasure of your wish fulfilled. And, have the decidedly fortuitous experience of missing your flight, your connection, and the delights of rebooking your trip. May all your dreams come true!
If you miss your flight because security took a little longer than expected, you need to do a better job managing your time and arrive at the airport earlier. Even when I’ve gone through extra screening I’ve never come close to missing a flight.
Clerk Laura, so your solution to the slovenliness and laziness of yourself and your fellow TSA clerks is for passengers to show up earlier so they can spend more time in the checkpoint? Here’s a better solution. Either quit, or do your job properly. Focus on screening for WEIs rather than harassing passengers. The delays in screening caused by your laziness and slovenliness cause a vulnerable concentration of passengers at the checkpoint, presenting the only threat affected by the TSA in any way.
So, lads and lasses… Being a clerk is a sign of…what? Being a second-class citizen? How about the lad that picks up the rubbish? Mr. Toreno, for example, appears to be so bright, that he may be the one that unlocks the secrets of anti-gravity, or develops the comprehensive plan that will solve once and for all the Israeli/Palestinian issue, or develop the universal cure for cancer. TallyHo is so important to mankind as a whole, that his/her own timetables are above any other issue in the whole wide world, his/her time so precious that the future of the cosmos depends on TallyHo arriving on…whatever time he/she fancies to. Perhaps TallyHo will become the next American President, or Secretary General of the UN. Rubbish. The truth of the matter is that the list has been published, but you don’t know how it is applied, or what is behind it. Most TSA officers are not privy to that process, either, so they don’t know. And from your comments, it seems that your highly enlightened intellects have neither discerned how it is supposed to work and be used…nor that you have not been able to discern it, either. How do you know that the actions of TSA and other agencies have not caught terrorists or foiled terrorist attacks? Are you privy to such matters, and briefed on them in the morning? No. You should read back to yourselves what you write…hear how bigotry and class-discrimination, elitecism drench your comments.
Clerk K, as you must know, the problem posed by having you and your fellow TSA clerks look for these factors is that it takes focus away from your mission, which is looking for weapons, explosives, and incendiaries. The TSA clerks I’ve encountered don’t have enough intellectual capacity to safely overload them like that.
oh K,
If you understood the article you would know the STOP boondoggle does nothing to prevent that “bomber” from getting on a plane.
Security theater.
Citizens are rubes.
Wouldn’t these be signs of someone who is afraid to fly?
Fidgeting, whistling, sweaty palms>>> that’s 98% of the flying public!..LOL
…all I know is that a cat must count as ‘unusual’ and somehow vaguely threatening bc I will never forget flying out of the columbus airport at 5 am trying to get home to my fiance in tucson. as I went through the metal detector with my poor scared cat in my arms, as I couldn’t obviously send him in his carrying bag through the xray machine, they selected me to swab for bomb residue. me. Tired-ass, flip-flop wearing cat-clutching suburban girl- and they wouldn’t even let me put the poor cat back in his carrier first. I secretly hoped he would swipe at the agent who swabbed the hands I cold barely extend due to holding him to my chest, bc *really*?? Needless to say, I was not trying to blow anything up. Bah.
i think they swab any animals for bomb residue. our dog had us swabbed too. i think it in case you have fed the animal the bomb? (obviously 99.9999% of people traveling with pets would not do this but if you are a terrorist who is trying to kill a lot of PEOPLE you aren’t going to care about a cat or dog)
we probably spent millions and millions to develop these 2 pages of crap… what a sad state of affairs
Yeah. This is just a form not the whole program.
“Face pale from recent shaving of beard”. Eh, that’s not racist or anything. This sort of thing gives authoritarian thugs just the excuse they need to act out their wet dreams.
Interestingly, I didn’t see anything about actually HAVING a beard.
It has to do with a suicide bombers cleansing ritual. If you ever served overseas, you’d get it.
It has to do with the suicide bomber cleansing ritual. It was part of the training in Iraq at FOBs.
At some point, people need to recognize the actual facts and statistics aren’t racist. It’s not our fault that the vast majority of people who want to crash the airplanes fall under this. Even with the recent Germanwings crash, those poor souls do little to modify the dataset of airplane-based terrorism. These deaths are only 4% of the toll of 9/11. The truth of the profiling for Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists is still a necessity.
And this list needs to be kept very current, modified weekly if not hourly in some cases. If there is specific, credible intel for certain people it needs to be acted on ASAP, not just added into some general list.
Now that the list has been published, terrorists will modify their behaviors. So not showing any of the signs on the checklist should be cause for special concern. I would now add a category – ‘None of the above – 10 points’.
Your lying. You’d torture them.
My personal preferences are irrelevant, since I don’t work for TSA. However, most TSA personnel are not evil – just people who need a job. As with most bureaucrats, simply harassing people provides sufficient job satisfaction.
No, no, a complete lack of suspicious traits could be, itself, an indicator of suspicious behavior. A culture of total security means that everybody would be a suspect. Orwell understood this.
” … Arrogance, a cold penetrating stare, and rigid posture …”
Wouldn’t some combination of these three traits fit most members of Congress? Not to mention the one-percenters? Of course, if they tend to go by private jet anyway, it’s moot, but even so …
I was thinking of a corpse. They tend to be too snooty to respond to questions, are cold, have an unblinking stare, with some degree of rigor mortis.
I wonder how many points are applied for spitting in their face.
None according to the Spot form. However, most organizations have unwritten rules, so it might be better to ask first.
On the “Citizen’s Spot List of Terrorist TSA Agents”:
“Spitting in Face” = -10
These values are established by scientific studies published in the 2015 “Manual of Terror Recognition” by the American Psychological Association of Disgruntled Victims of Advanced Government Perversion”.
Bruce Schneier, I believe, has called this “dance” at airports security theatre. And, he’s right. It might have some merit at its inception to give the impression of safety for the traveling public, and – maybe – dissuaded a 9.11-wannabe from trying something similar. But, this SPOT program moves the whole deal into new territory. They’ve now added an element that is not controlled by some traveler who doesn’t want to be harassed (adhering to 3 oz containers, etc) into a harass-at-will-license by TSA agents. It is bullshit. The whole program is 90% bullshit to begin with… this SPOT element moves it into 99% bullshit. And, if one needed a better example of the intersection of preventative measures sadly intersecting with the utter randomness of attacks, one wouldn’t have to look much further than the recent crash of Germanwings Flight 9525. What seemed sensible given the events of 9.11 (securing the cockpit from the cabin) may have been a decidedly deadly circumstance for the people on board that flight.
My friends and family, especially those who travelled with me, always laughed at me when I insisted on opting out of the scanners. They couldn’t understand why I would prefer to be “felt up”. I had two reasons and shared them every time I was asked:
1. The machines had not been independently tested and, in addition to not having proof of effectiveness (something we now know was never a factor) there wasn’t any record that they were safe. I knew physicians who refused them on the safety basis alone.
2. They were, as Schneier said, security theatre designed to make us complacent to real acts of unnecessarily invasive actions/demands by our government. They were manipulating security to turn us into cows in the chutes.
The only people I convinced with those arguments were my husband and sister. All others – including some people who are remarkably bright in their fields of science – just laughed and shook their heads at me.
Ironically, now that they have the ‘pre-approved’ lanes, I seem to end up in that chute about half the time I fly, and I have no idea how that happens since I thought that was something you had to apply for and I’ll be damned if I’ll jump through that hoop either.
This is an informative article and if the ACLU has any influence at all the “bullshit” SPOT program will be eliminated and maybe even a few heads will roll for being responsible for the years of harrassment and for bilking taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars. But why the hell would tax payer dollars be better spent funding real police? I would like an explanation and elaboration about that from “the former manager” or from anyone else who might like to take on that challenge. Would that be the same “real police” who do shit like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPtUNX6nGQ0
But why the hell would tax payer dollars be better spent funding real police?
Because the TSA cannot currently officially arrest and/or detain anyone. They have to call a LEO if they want to go beyond their own petty harassment. If they have one there already, it streamlines their already offensive tactics when someone understandably objects to them having a bad day at a passenger’s expense.
Here’s an incredible example of that. The TSA people surrounded this guy wanting to search his bag and screen his body *After he had already landed at his destination because they had supposedly forgotten to do so pre-flight. The guy tried to rationalize with them but when that failed to put a dent in their authoritarian drunken stupor he told them, “I;m leaving.” To which they said, “We are now going to alert Denver police and they will have you arrested.” He said, as he was leaving, “Callem’.” I choose not to use the word ‘moronic’ very often at all, but this was moronic on the part of these clowns *demanding a search on the arrival end of a flight.
TSA Harassing & Trying To Search Man AFTER Flight
Yes, I remember that specific incident – it was what I had in mind when I wrote my comment above but I couldn’t remember where it happened. It was really ridiculous since the guy/plane had already safely reached its destination. Instead of just letting it go, the TSA, in their messianic fervor to subject each and every person within reach to their authoritarianism preferred that everyone find out about their failure to properly do their job. They punished him for their own failure.
Sweaty palms, strong body odor, exaggerated yawning, rubbing or wringing of hands, excessive touching of face, avoids eye contact, arrives late, excessive clock watching…. sounds like a graduate student after a coffee fueled all nighter. Enough to get you 8 points and a visit with law enforcement. I guess the lesson is: don’t study and fly.
no, the lesson is don’t fly
Exactly!! Enough said.
Or someone who suffers from generalized anxiety disorder….. Calling BS again.