Boston's Logan Airport will be the test case for "Israeli-style" security

[Blue_Tires]

Boston’s TSA screeners — part of a security force whose competency has come under fire nationwide — soon will be carrying out sophisticated behavioral inspections under a first-in-the-nation program that’s already raising concerns of racial profiling, harassment of innocent travelers and longer lines.

The training for the Israeli-style screening — a projected $1 billion national program dubbed Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques — kicks off today at Logan International Airport and will be put to use in Terminal A on Aug. 15. It requires screeners to make quick reads of whether passengers pose a danger or a terror threat based on their reactions to a set of routine questions.

But security experts wonder whether Transportation Safety Administration agents are up to the challenge after an embarrassing string of blunders — including patting down a 95-year-old grandmother in Florida and making her remove her adult diaper and frisking a 3-year-old girl who screamed “stop touching me” at a checkpoint in Tennessee.

“I’m not convinced that the TSA has good enough people to make the Israeli approach work on a large scale,” said Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who has followed the TSA at his blog, Instapundit.com.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1355725

[truebrit71]

1. When will this madness end? Wasn't a Democratic president supposed to change things?

Instead they've gone downhill even faster...

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Actually that is going up hill IF THEY DO IT RIGHT

I go through an israelized airport every time I go to Mexico City... and IT WORKS

[a la izquierda]

11. I always feel 100% safer...

flying out of Mexico than I do flying anywhere in the US. Every piece of luggage is hand-searched, including carryons. It's a good, efficient system.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. Me too and they proved it to me

when they asked to check my luggage when I showed up sweating (change of age)... in Mexico City... At Lindberg the luggage when through. Sweating profusely, being familiar with how it should work, is a CHECK MY LUGGAGE NOW marker. I thanked the staff in Mexico City for doing their job. That surprised them.

[Glassunion]

15. Only will work if they do it right.

Sadly, I fear this will be a complete flop and failure as it has always been since that afternoon when they scribbled some crayon outline on a diner place-mat creating the TSA.

I have no hope for this program, and I doubt it will replace the scanners or the fondles, only add to them.

[krabigirl]

21. Yeah, but I don't trust the tsa to do it right. No way.

[DFab420]

16. Yea I mean doesn't the President make ALL policy decisions for EVERY agency?

Why hasn't Obama changed everything with his magic Presidential Powers?!?!!?! :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

[truebrit71]

31. Yea, because making a joke about the gropings in the SOTU speech is just SOOOOOOOOO much...

...more Presidential...:eyes:

He has the absolute authority to suggest to EVERY agency what they did, or don't do...but you knew that right? :eyes:

[Sherman A1]

2. Yet another reason to avoid flying

Keep up the good work! :sarcasm:

[a la izquierda]

12. Some of us don't have other options.

How am I supposed to get home to see my husband when I have a three day weekend and we live 15 hours drive apart? My husband gets 5 days off vacation per year, and we have family on either coast. Do we waste 4 days driving? I don't think so.
Driving to Mexico for my research is dangerous.
And, sorry, but I'd like to get to Europe at some point soon, but I'm pretty sure a steamer isn't going to take me there.

[tammywammy]

3. Isn't this exactly what I've read many on here arguing for?

:shrug:

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. Yep and if they do it right... it will be a far improvement

So I wish them well. I go through one every time I fly to Mexico City... it works. So perhaps TSA would have asked to see my bag at Lindbeg like they did in Mexico City for a valid reason, mind you.

[treestar]

6. So many here were touting that instead of the screeners and pat downs

Yet I am expecting outcry over this too.

[supernova]

7. I'll wait and see

I've heard nary a peep out of travelers to Israeli airports being unhappy with security.

But perhaps I'm not paying enough attention to that subject. From a superficial level, it seems workable, single people out for further scrutiny only if they give answers that seem mincing or uncomfortable. It seems to be behavior related primarily. Am I reading that right?

If that's the case, I wouldn't have a problem with it and would prefer this to endless scannings, pat downs, and dumping my purse and keys out.

[jberryhill]

9. I'm not going to answer a bunch of questions to get on a plane

I'm amazed at how many people value the contents of their pockets over the contents of their minds.

I have a Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions put to me by some government official.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. The questions are not what you think they are

and if they do it right it will be actual security, not theater.

We do need security at airports, the threat is real... but the active word here is security.

If they do it right... you won't even be bothered by it.

Amazing... you prefer the radiation that really is theater, or the pat downs of 91 year old that are really theater?

[jberryhill]

22. bullshit

I don't answer questions.

I'm an attorney. I travel for reasons that are confidential. Where I am going, with whom I've met and who I am going to meet are nobody's business.

[nadinbrzezinski]

26. Actually in an airpiort not really

You should know what exact case I am referring too. But if that is the case you can use Amtrak.

Btw..why you are travelling work is an acceptable answer...it is NOT the answer but behavior that triggers them.

So once again you prefer kabuki?

[jberryhill]

27. Yeah, I prefer kabuki

The fact that Israel runs one major airport and hassles Arabs into not using it is not impressive to me.

I fly at least three times a month, and have been doing so since this latest outrage erupted. Hasn't been a problem, and I have 61,000 miles so far this year.

If someone wants to see me naked, I really don't give a shit. I don't take roll call when I go to nude beaches either.

Where I don't let anyone go is into my mind. But for the "my genitals are more important than my mind" crowd, I can understand why they think it is preferable.

[nadinbrzezinski]

29. Mexico manages more than one airlport

And it works, and it is less bothersome... Asking me if I packed my bags, stabdsrd since a certain plane went down, is no biggie. I have not been asked that in the US in a LOOONG time.

Asking me if I am the one in my passpot and making eye contact is not a bogie either, or is it getting into my head.

Asking to check my luggage BEFORE it goes into the belly of a plane since I was sweating up a storm... A screaming check me now signal is not a biggie either...That is real security actually.

But I guess if they do it right it will expand. So time for you to think driving.

[jberryhill]

41. Israel Bars 85 Pro-Palestinian Activists at Airport En Route to West Bank

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/israel-boosts-airport-security-awaiting-palestinian-protests.html

Israeli authorities denied entry to 85 pro-Palestinian activists at Ben-Gurion International Airport today, while about 200 other passengers from American and European cities were barred from flying to Israel after the government provided foreign airlines with names of suspected activists, police said.

-------

I hope your politics don't get you on the wrong list.

Not "terrorists" or even "suspected terrorists" here... but "suspected activists".

Israel is a surveillance society. Of course they can keep people, usually dark skinned ones, deemed undesirable off of airplanes.

[petronius]

8. I hope they're not using the existing staff - Boston is one of the airports

where I've been least impressed with the behavior of the TSA people I've encountered...

[Shagbark Hickory]

10. FINALLY nm

[KamaAina]

17. "“micro expressions,” such as lack of eye contact, that might hint at nefarious intent"

In other words, no Autistic people will be allowed to fly out of Logan -- or anywhere else, soon enough. :scared:

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. They fly out of Mexico City and Ben Gurion regularly.

[starroute]

19. The problem is there's no system so good Americans can't screw it up

It may work in Israel, it may work in Mexico -- but once you put arrogant, poorly trained, racially biased Americans into the system, you've got a recipe for disaster.

The real problem is that our country is broken. Everything else follows from that.

[blkmusclmachine]

20. Your papers, please.

[nadinbrzezinski]

24. Oh for Fucks sake they have been asking for them even BEFORE

9.11...

[truebrit71]

32. Um, no, they weren't...

...but thanks for playing...

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. They were at Lindberg Field

It was a joke in other ways... But whatever... They did at Honolulu too... But whatever

[truebrit71]

35. I flew all over the country before 9.11 and didn't have to have govt id..

..to get on board...The ONLY time was to fly internationally, but domestically never.

Glad you like the idea of having some McD reject doing an instant psych eval on you based on three questions as to whether you need to be groped or irradiated....:eyes: Me? Not so much.

[nadinbrzezinski]

36. I did from Lindberg to Honolulu and from Maui to honolulu

I guess they are foreign airports.

There were things we could do that were jokes but that is anither matter.

[truebrit71]

37. Those are all domestic airports and you were on domestic flights...

...again, I had never been bothered for any sort of id other than my boarding pass up until 9.11

[nadinbrzezinski]

38. Alas we were

[GoneOffShore]

23. "So where are you going today"

"it's on my boarding pass. Go SPOT somebody else."
"Je ne parle pas cretin."

More security kabuki.

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. If done right, not really

Last time in Mexico city it was more like... Look at passport, look at me, look at passport, look at me..,name?

[GoneOffShore]

28. It's not going to be done correctly. You can count on it.

And asking where you're going or what your name is is pretty useless.

Your name is on your ID and your boarding pass so why are they asking? It's just make work for people who can't hold down jobs as burger flippers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. It is not the question, they could ask you the color of the sky

It is how you answer and pesky body language. This is where doing it right is tricky.

[GoneOffShore]

40. How about no answer at all? Or "Who are you?"

TSA is going to mess this up, because as soon as someone starts sweating or acting nervously - kind of natural for people in a stressful situation and lots of folks find flying to be extremely stressful - then it's going to be the old "Scope and grope" routine.

And the more people who get groped, the bigger the backlash against this sort of mindless security theatre.

I'd be willing to scrap the whole agency (fat chance of that happening) and go back to security as it was in 2000. With the exception of keeping the reinforced cockpit doors and passenger awareness of unusual behavior. Along with the fact that the "terrorists" are probably unlikely to go for the hijacking option again (Bruce Schneier).

[EstimatedProphet]

34. Crap. I have to fly out of there next month.

[saras]

39. Take your last kick now at any regime, smile no smile, see if they see what you mean

"part of a security force whose competency has come under fire nationwide — soon will be carrying out sophisticated behavioral inspections"
I love it. You can't make up lines like that.

And then all the humor runs out on the floor.
"But he noted, 'Almost anything would be an improvement over the clown show we’ve got now.'"

"while looking for 'micro expressions,' such as lack of eye contact, that might hint at nefarious intent."
Do they really have the skill to distinguish these from the micro expressions hinting at lack of respect?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AndwkGYIqng">Private Goes Public - a short ballet