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$1B TSA Behavioral Screening Program Slammed As "Junk Science"
schwit1 writes The Transportation Security Administration has been accused of spending a billion dollars on a passenger-screening program that's based on junk science. The claim arose in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which has tried unsuccessfully to get the TSA to release documents on its SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Techniques) program through the Freedom of Information Act. SPOT, whose techniques were first used in 2003 and formalized in 2007, uses "highly questionable" screening techniques, according to the ACLU complaint, while being "discriminatory, ineffective, pseudo-scientific, and wasteful of taxpayer money." TSA has spent at least $1 billion on SPOT. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2010 that "TSA deployed SPOT nationwide before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for using behavior detection and appearance indicators as a means for reliably identifying passengers as potential threats in airports," according to the ACLU. And in 2013, GAO recommended that the agency spend less money on the program, which uses 3,000 "behavior detection officers" whose jobs is to identify terrorists before they board jetliners.
TSA policies are security theater. Film at 11.
This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
A billion dollar program to tell screeners that the Arab guy or black guy who is shaking like a leaf, mumbling "allah-ackbar" over-and-over under his breath, and wants to check a huge bag should maybe be singled out for additional screening.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Thank you Captain Obvious.
For the libertarian-leaning members of the audience, there was a nice article in Cato "Regulation" journal awhile back looking at this issue:
"Screening Tests for Terrorists"
http://object.cato.org/sites/cato.org/files/serials/files/regulation/2013/1/v35n4-4.pdf
Another subject for the southern states schools curricula!
Before SPOT do you think the average TSA agent could readily identify and discriminate against very dark or very light skinned Arabic people? Well, after spending a billion dollars teaching them to do just that I'm sure they're slightly more consistent (maybe).
TSA is a place where money goes to be spent on the premise that spending money on things which do nothing is better than doing nothing, even if the outcomes are the same.
They have a blank check to spend money on stuff with no proof it has any value.
Other than harassing everybody, the TSA has accomplished very little. It's become a money pit which pretends to be keeping us safe.
The TSA can point to very few incidents where they've actually stopped anything related to terrorism. Mostly they just serve to annoy everybody else.
Meanwhile, the baggage handlers are the ones who keep getting caught smuggling stuff.
The TSA is a pathetic joke, beefed up by reactionary politicians, and which utterly has failed to make anybody "safer" by any objective measure. In fact, everything they do seems to be devoid of "objective measure".
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
A vehicle to get money into the correct pockets.
Who ever said that India and China could ever beat the USA at anything - even corruption.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/house-member-questions-900-million-tsa-spot-screening-program/2013/11/14/ad194cfe-4d5c-11e3-be6b-d3d28122e6d4_story.html
They've been trying to get rid of this program for years. GAO recommended it be cut. It hasn't been cut, what more do you need.
Most terrorists are middle eastern. Unfortunately that goes over about as well as saying men are taller than women. It may be true, but you're not allowed to say it. I suggest they switch to the much, much cheaper system of "if they're brown, pat them down" but nooo, they have to make up some overly-complicated, fake science framework to hide behind.
Let's see, Medicaid, SNAP, some other welfare programs, those can be cut and the only people who will be hurt are those who deserve it.
That way there will be more money to give to the important people. The ones who are worth giving money, because they're already rich, and thus would not be wasteful with it.
Heck, some of those poor people are probably ugly. That reflects the content of their character. Ugly people should be scorned and despised. Especially when they're poor.
Only the rich and beautiful deserve our support. They're already successes, so let's give them more!
I recall going through security at the Charlotte, NC airport once, a few years ago, and noticed TSA agents out in the queue making smalltalk with all of the passengers. "Hey, how are y'all doin' today?", "Goin' someplace warm?", "Be sure to take off that belt buckle sir.", "Were are y'all headed?", "Y'all fly much?", and so forth. At first I thought that this was a misguided effort at public relations. But then it occurred to me that those agents were probably pre-screeners looking for nervous and evasive passengers who would then be subjected to additional traditional screening. I don't know what SPOT is and have no opinion of its effectiveness. But it seems to me that chatting up passengers in order to spot potential trouble-makers is probably the single most effective part of the whole TSA process.
Well. At least they tried.
I guess it's time to go back to the previous method, reading of auras.
The fact that no one has bombed the security lines yet just baffles me. If you're going for fear, that's even better than a plane. Sure, don't get the big airborne "boom" but you're getting people where they think they're safe and thats far more effective terrorism.
Or hell, drive through any major airport and you'll find numerous places where if you had a bomb in the truck, you'd kill dozens and injure hundreds easily in the traffic outside the terminal.
We need to realize terrorists aren't common and they mostly aren't very smart and ditch all this security nonsense. You can go to any home improvement store and walk out with everything you need to make a bomb and no one would know until you used it.
Stop.
Living.
In.
Fear.
Because of the heavy cockpit doors, the only thing screeners need to do is have a metal detector and an explosives sniffer.
Even if they got on a plane with clubs or whatever, they could cause some mayhem on that plane until they get their asses kicked (except for maybe on a flight to Florida) but they couldn't commit another 9/11.
Just like all the other science that they explored. Remember the devices that emitted such harmful radiation that they were relegated to scanning at prisons?
Look, I'll give the TSA props for trying. But I draw the line when they go immediately from "hey, I got an idea" to "here's $1B to implement it before we know if it even works!"/
The SPOT program is going exactly what it was created to do
Funnel money from the government (my pocket), into the pocket of the consultants, companies, and employees of whoever built it.
Expensive junk science project for an expensive junk agency.
Deep neural nets are fashionable again, so the next step is to hook up the learning material gatherers and observe the passenger behaviour without interfering it. Self-organizing airports, with the passengers watching over each other and the walk-ways optimized for flow. When the public wants TSA back to perform the monitoring, the automatic system is ready to deploy. Brilliant!
First time on bath salts, eh?
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2010 that "TSA deployed SPOT nationwide before first determining whether there was a scientifically valid basis for using behavior detection and appearance indicators as a means for reliably identifying passengers as potential threats in airports," according to the ACLU.
What?
Double you tea eff
Indeed, that is why we need to stop coddling people and enforce a more Spartan methodology to our society.
Don't perform, don't succeed, culled.
Given the facts that it does work, Israel has been using it for years, the ACLU obviously does not want to concede that behavior/profiling does indeed work and work quite effectively at that.
Funny how the ACLU selectively chooses which liberties it defends, which it doesn't defend and what alleged liberties it decides to yank out their ass when their agenda suits them.
The entire TSA scam organization is one giant waste of money and a blight on the Constitution.
It's not junk science! The radiation is REALLY working! Q
'Junk Science is us' is the motto of the TSA, so why so surprised?
Come on guys, all this B.S. is for one thing only, for profit of those who own the M.I.C.
There are whole TV shows written around this very idea. One can simply observe mannerisms and jump to fully detailed truths about people. These writers must have something to base these plots lines on - they couldn't publish a TV show if it weren't true ...right?!
So why shouldn't a TSA executive use the idea, sort out the details, get the best scientists/consultants to provide the truthiness, and create the real thing. I mean - isn't this what the Lone Gunmen proposed in X-Files? Secret science that was all true but hidden from us normal folks via conspiracy theories?!
Junk Science is labeled by people who refuse to think outside the box. Go talk to the Creationists - they know what's going on.
Let's just call it like it is. People are dumb. The monumental stupid that is around me just boggles the mind. I'll relate an example. My local HOA over the last two weeks had a Facebook board post frenzy about a guy who is wandering through the neighborhood rifling through people's unlocked cars. He (or they) leave the unlocked cars alone. Yet the people refuse to lock their car doors. Last Friday, one person's car was stolen, a BMW SUV with the keys in the car, doors open, left unattended and started to warm up on a 45 degree F day. (no warming required, really, for those who can't picture this) There's even a state law against doing just that. There's someone wandering around pillaging unlocked cars, and you leave your car started in front of your house? These people are allowed to vote and participate in society.
Anyway, this level of stupid is one thing. The levels of stupid I see a couple towns over where people get their drugs are...stunning. Imagine CL ads where they list their phone numbers and "420 friendly" or "I'm holding" in the ad?
Politicians know this is their constituency and they play to it. How do you think that dumb hopey changey shit worked? Very stupid people voting.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Rather than treating *everyone* as a terrorist (which they currently do by putting everyone in line ... e.g. "TSA = Thousands Standing Around") they are doing what other countries do ... detective work.
That little old lady is not a terrorist. Don't waste my tax dollars giving her a shake down.
Meanwhile, HOORAY! we're spending less than a quarter of that on real science education. I don't think people parse the numbers in news reports, when they get this big.
"Thousands, Standing Around" -- Thomas P. M. Barnett
I've always wondered if he meant the obese clone army of Blue Shirts, or Security Checkpoints being a target-rich bottleneck.
Think of it from the TSA's perspective. They can now detain people because "I thought it looked like your hands were sweaty" or "you blinked way too often". From their side, it doesn't have to work. It's awesome just the way it is.
Only if you're utterly ignorant or a complete coward. The TSA hasn't actually stopped any terrorist attempts. They haven't even stopped people from making terrorist attempts - there have been a few (leading to the reasons we now have to take off our shoes, for example) - but the TSA missed those.
If you know how, it's utterly trivial to get shit past the TSA. I routinely opt out and go with the pat-down (which is significantly better security than the scanners, though only about half the time does the agent do a decent job of it) and still get prohibited items through the X-ray in my carry-on bags all the time. It's easy. For example, you're allowed to leave tablets in your bag (apparently, the dangerous part of a laptop is its keyboard? That's all that distinguishes it from a tablet these days) and the ones with metal cases do a pretty great job of blocking X-ray. You can get bottles full of liquids and gels through that way, no problem. I haven't actually tried it with anything that could plausibly be considered a weapon, but that's only subset of prohibited stuff anyhow...
If security theater makes you "feel nicer", you're a weak-minded idiot and part of the problem.
Note that I have no problem with the security practices of a lot of the rest of the world. Unlike the USA, India actually has a terrorist problem, and they are way, *way* better about screening people... but it still takes less time than the USA's checkpoints! (At least, that was my experience the two times I've flown through Delhi.)
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
Ever notice the more money they get the more they try to do with it? If they have enough money for new programs then they had too much to begin with. Soon they will start posting Nazi checkpoints on your highways.
Imagine if the true patriots out there found a way to cut off their money without repurcussions on the public. Imagine if they found a way to prevent the federal reserve from providing more. Imagine if they found a way to prevent the IRS from collecting any taxes. Imagine, if they were forced to use the money they already had.
I think our freedoms would come back to us in a hurry.
Felis catus is your taxonomic nomenclature,
An endothermic quadruped, carnivorous by nature;
Your visual, olfactory, and auditory senses
Contribute to your hunting skills and natural defenses.
I find myself intrigued by your subvocal oscillations,
A singular development of cat communications
That obviates your basic hedonistic predilection
For a rhythmic stroking of your fur to demonstrate affection.
A tail is quite essential for your acrobatic talents;
You would not be so agile if you lacked its counterbalance.
And when not being utilized to aid in locomotion,
It often serves to illustrate the state of your emotion.
O Spot, the complex levels of behavior you display
Connote a fairly well-developed cognitive array.
And though you are not sentient, Spot, and do not comprehend,
I nonetheless consider you a true and valued friend.
It is called "Internet Science" you old fart.
The phrase "identify terrorists before they board jetliners" is amusing for several reasons.
A better use of money and greater chance of success would be to just monitor the NSA to see when the next false flag operation is going to be launched.
I run my own very successful business for a decade now. How about you, anonymous wageslave?
APK
P.S.=> It's such "noble work" you're doing making others RICH dumbass while you make peanuts for your labors, lol... I used to be stupid like you, but unlike you? I got smart... apk