TSA chief: We can spot terrorists' tics

[BushOut06]

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/08/tsa-chief-we-ca.html

<snip>
Airport security teams trained to look for subtle facial clues have led to the arrests of more than 150 people, according to the latest installment of a Security guru Bruce Schneier's long interview of Transportation Security Administration head Kip Hawley.

...

Our Behavior Detection teams routinely -- and quietly -- identify problem people just through observable behavior cues. More than 150 people have been identified by our teams, turned over to law enforcement, and subsequently arrested. This layer is invisible to the public, but don't discount it, because it may be the most effective.
<snip>

Are you fucking kidding me? We're arresting people simply based on facial tics?

[CJCRANE]

1. Anyone with Tourette's Syndrome better hide n/t

[shance]

2. They are and will continue to get away with what we allow them to.

Bada bing bada bang.

[Richard Steele]

3. And how many of those 150 people actually turned out to be terrorists, hmmmm?

I hardly think B*shCabal would be keeping quiet
if they had caught 150 terrorists attempting to
board planes.

I'm guessing these arrests were all bullshit and no charges
were ever filed.

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. That was my first thought too.

Don't tell me how many arrests were made. Tell me how convictions and how many actual plots disrupted. They arrest Quakers and people carrying signs or wearing T-shirts all the time. I feel much safer knowing that pacifist Quakers won't ever get away with nuking me. :sarcasm:

[MrScorpio]

4. We've gone to the dogs

This is insane.

What other police forces use that standard to make an arrest? I'd be surprised to see any of them outside of police state.

[shain from kane]

5. Phrenology is next.

Phrenology is a theory which claims to be able to determine character, personality traits and criminality on the basis of the shape of the head (i.e., by reading "bumps" and "fissures").

[ThomCat]

7. I didn't realize that being brown and having a beard was "a tic."

Is this a polite way of innoculating the public with the idea that profiling is a wonderful thing?

[JDPriestly]

8. I wonder what the average educational level is for these TSA

employees. If they have college degrees, what did the study and how did it prepare them for their TSA work?

Sometimes I wonder if the TSA program is a full employment program for undereducated right-wingers. Do you suppose? Hitler made sure his faithful got jobs in the SS. To what extent is the Homeland Security Department a refuge and assembly point for these characters? I really don't know. The standards may be much higher than I think.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

14. well seeing as I had the "get a brain morans" guy at Love Field recently

I am going to assume a diploma mill GED would be on the higher end.

It certainly seems unlikely to me that these TSA losers are employable in any other capacity, the bullshit I see every week wouldn't be tollerated on the grave yard shift at Burger King.

I especially love the screaming, I have never understood the need for multiple TSA thugs to be going up and down the line SCREAMING about the stupid baggie rule. Just incase someone in line is both deaf and has been living under a rock for the past year.

[JDPriestly]

16. Don't get me wrong. They seem to be sweet, simple people for the most part.

I wonder how much they are paid to look at the x-rayed luggage, etc. Do they work for private contractors or are they government employees with health insurance, retirement plans, the works?

[I_Will]

9. 150 versus how many "false positives"...

..."false negatives" or overall "identifications" that were made and fell through?

Were the arrests *at all* related to what the invisible program was seeking, or was it simply coincidence? I can imagine that if some little general at the airport happened to grab the wrong elbow to lead away someone with a mysteriously "suspicious" face, there might be a few disorderly conduct arrests involved :grin:

Heck, is the 150 even as bogus as the clay/gel icepacks a couple of weeks ago, given that the program is "invisible", quiet and secret, with no apparent oversight or course for remedy?

[warren pease]

10. Easy. Those are the ones that carry Lymes Disease. n/t

[MiniMe]

11. They always talk about arresting people, but never convicting people

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

12. so their fucktards can't recognize that Diet Coke isn't an explosive

but they can identify a terrorist with just a glance,

[deadmessengers]

13. Arrests do not mean convictions

So twitching is enough to get arrested now? What did they get arrested for? Excessive concentration of caffeine in their bloodstream?

[suffragette]

15. So, if you're a nervous flier with a sippy cup

and you've packed some cheese in the suitcase as a gift for a relative, you're busted.
:crazy:

Would love an animated gif of the robot from "Lost in Space" at this point.

Danger, Danger. Warning, Warning.

I'm with others in this thread who note the final tally from this in convictions and in actual results is likely zero.