{"id":49947,"date":"2015-03-28T12:47:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-28T18:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/28\/learning-how-one-can-act-like-a-terrorist.html"},"modified":"2015-05-10T13:54:08","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T19:54:08","slug":"learning-how-one-can-act-like-a-terrorist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/03\/28\/learning-how-one-can-act-like-a-terrorist.html","title":{"rendered":"Learning how one can act like a terrorist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clearing your throat? Looking nervous? Recently shaved your beard? Wearing inappropriate clothing to the airport?<\/p>\n

Just step over this way, sir.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, looking for people displaying "suspicious behavior" seems common sense. On the other hand …<\/p>\n

… a lot of the behaviors are pretty common at an airport, especially with people who don't like to fly, who find the TSA checkpoints intimidating or irksome or frightening, who are late for their flight, or who are just having a bad day. <\/p>\n

… there's no evidence that the SPOT program, or others like it, actually spot actually dangerous people. Because the numbers of actually dangerous people are so freaking small.<\/i><\/p>\n

This explanation for the program seems much more plausible:<\/p>\n

'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.'<\/i><\/p>\n

In other words, it's the "loitering" or "being rude to a police officer" or "you were weaving a bit" or "your tail light is out" justification for either a gut hunch that someone's a suspicious individual, or else to apply more subjective and less justifiable reasons for further investigation or harassment (e.g., swarthy skin).<\/p>\n

(h\/t +<\/span>Steve S<\/a><\/span>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nExclusive: TSA’s Secret Behavior Checklist to Spot Terrorists – The Intercept<\/a><\/span>
\nFidgeting, whistling, sweaty palms. These are just a few of the suspicious signs that the Transportation Security Administration directs its officers to look out for in airport travelers, according to a confidential document obtained exclusively by The Intercept.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clearing your throat? Looking nervous? Recently shaved your beard? Wearing inappropriate clothing to the airport? Just step over this way, sir. On the one hand, looking for people displaying "suspicious behavior" seems common sense. On the other hand … … a lot of the behaviors are pretty common at an airport, especially with people who … Continue reading “Learning how one can act like a terrorist”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,720],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-travel-security-tsa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13547,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/18\/show_your_id_but_no_fear.html","url_meta":{"origin":49947,"position":0},"title":"Show your ID, but no fear","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 18-Nov-08 6:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Lady on plane: Nervous? Striker: Yes. Lady on plane: First time? Striker: No, I've been nervous lots of times. -- Abrahams\/Zucker\/Zucker,\u00a0Airplane! (1980) \u00a0 The TSA has touted its behavioral observation...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/tsa-plastic-bag.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":133953,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/26\/making-flying-less-convenient-but-ostensibly-marginally-safer.html","url_meta":{"origin":49947,"position":1},"title":"Making flying less convenient (but, ostensibly, marginally safer)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 26-Jul-17 1:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Tablets, e-readers, basically anything electronic bigger than a smart phone, will soon have to be pulled out of your bag at the security check. Because that won't slow things down, lead to increased theft, or anything like that.On the bright side, if you are TSA Pre-check, you won't have to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":137042,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/09\/05\/the-germiest-place-in-the-airport-the-security-line.html","url_meta":{"origin":49947,"position":2},"title":"The germiest place in the airport? The security line","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 5-Sep-18 11:53pm","format":false,"excerpt":"All those hands and germs and sighs and growls and stuff make those buckets of x-ray baggage pretty viral, and not in a popular way. And how often do you think those touched-by-everyone buckets get cleaned? I might keep my eyes open for a Purell station after going through my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/tsa-security-line.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":128503,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/04\/another-day-another-deserved-lambasting-of-the-tsa.html","url_meta":{"origin":49947,"position":3},"title":"Another day, another deserved lambasting of the TSA","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 4-Nov-15 7:16am","format":false,"excerpt":"That said, a couple of thoughts:1. If we deem weapon detection (to choose a metric) to be vital, then what is the magic target that we want airport security (of whatever sort) to find? 10%? 25%? 50%? 95%? 100% ? What level of intrusiveness and delay are we willing to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130883,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/16\/time-for-your-monthly-analysis-of-the-tsa-and-its-many-problems.html","url_meta":{"origin":49947,"position":4},"title":"Time for your monthly analysis of the TSA and its many problems","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 16-Jun-16 8:51am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, it's something I circle back to on a regular basis. This particular article does a good job looking at some of the reasons why the TSA has so many problems. (Hint: it's not just because of the TSA.) The TSA Is Bad Because We Demand That It Be Bad\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128776,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/12\/is-it-time-to-close-the-tsa.html","url_meta":{"origin":49947,"position":5},"title":"Is it time to close the TSA?","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 12-Nov-15 9:19am","format":false,"excerpt":"The answer, to my mind, is \"No.\" But that comes with an observation and an alternative.The article states:'Fearmongers might howl, but abolishing the agency wouldn\u2019t make air travel less secure. Given the TSA\u2019s 95 percent failure rate, it would likely make it more secure. The airlines themselves should bear the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50809,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49947\/revisions\/50809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}