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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.
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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.
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
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.
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.
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.
All of the planes flying can handle going from 1g to -1g. Up / down / up / down / up / down until anyone who isn't strapped in has been beaten senseless (or to death) by the plane's floor and ceiling. Passengers need to do very little.
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.
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...