
 The men who stare at airline passengers - wglb
http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2010/06/does_airport_security_deception_detection_work
======
ajju
_He says he now avoids peer-reviewed journals because they're read closely by
scientists in countries that America considers to be threats._

Wow. Terror as an excuse for draconian policy, I have come to expect. This is
the first time I am seeing terror as an excuse for flawed and unscientific
'research'.

~~~
lotharbot
The military has its own classified, peer-reviewed journals to provide an
outlet for people with legitimate analysis that they'd like to keep out of the
hands of foreign agents.

His excuse is remarkably thin.

------
goatforce5
A few years ago when I was about to board a flight to London from Boston, I
was grabbed by the arm by a plains-clothed security type immediately before
the airline scanned my boarding pass at the jetway.

He flashed his badge and I was pulled to one side, and he asked if his partner
could look through my carry on. As she did this, he asked me about where I had
been eating in Boston. He asked many, many questions about Santarpio's, saying
he'd never heard of it, asking what they sold, etc.

Given that Santarpio's is immediately next to the airport and sells amazing
pizza, it's extremely unlikely that someone who worked at Logan was unfamiliar
with it.

At this point, the lady looking at my bag said "he's clean" or similar, the
first guy lost all interest in Santarpio's, and they put me back in to the
front of the queue.

~~~
lanstein
That's that joint in Eastie, right?

~~~
goatforce5
It's basically the last non-airport thing you see before you get to the
airport (erm, depending on which of the 4 or so approaches you use to get to
the airport, I suppose).

EDIT: it's really good and worth a visit. Get there early and/or be prepared
to queue.

~~~
lanstein
Cool, thanks! Will do :) When I'm in Boston, I stay in Southie, so I'll have
to get over there.

------
matrix
Kudos to the person who came up with that title. Those of you who haven't seen
the similarly titled movie or read the book are probably baffled, but I assure
you, it very nicely sums up the ridiculousness of this particular program of
the TSA (a cynic might even go so far as to say it describes the TSA as a
whole, but none of us here are cynics, right? Right? Guys...?)

~~~
mixmax
The economist has always had a good eye for titles and frontpages. Some of
them are just amazing.

~~~
eru
Also their image captions are nicely done.

As a student of English as a second language, I find it rewarding whenever I
spot the references.

------
bbg
This reminds me of part of Stephen Jay Gould's _The Mismeasure of Man_ , which
talks about "trained" employees at Staten Island (or other points of entry for
immigrants) in the nineteenth century, who could spot mental deficiency by
looking at the shape of the head (craniometry, but without measurement, just
eyeballing). I'm writing this from memory, so I can't go into detail, and I
don't have a link to this particular passage. But a significant number of
immigrants were put on boats back to Europe just because of the snap judgment
of these spotters.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man>

------
edkennedy
Paul Ekman's METT and SETT Microexpression Training Tool and Subtle Expression
Training Tool, have been in use by many government agencies not just the TSA.
<http://www.humintell.com/about-us/>

From a washington post article: _"But the day I spent at Logan confirmed for
me that SPOT violates no one's civil rights. Few people were identified.
Nearly always, the answers to initial questions made further investigation
unnecessary. No record was made, and the passenger lost no time.

Observational techniques are not a substitute for all the other techniques we
now use to catch would-be terrorists. But they add another layer to
transportation security. They are now being used at fewer than one in 10 major
U.S. airports. We need to use them everywhere."_ How to Spot a Terrorist on
the Fly [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/10...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/10/27/AR2006102701478.html)

~~~
lutorm
"But they add another layer to transportation security."

That's not the point. The question is whether the efficiency of that layer in
any way justifies the cost and hassle.

------
_mattb
Kind of like the 'divining rod for explosives' used in Iraq:
[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors...](http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/world/middleeast/04sensors.html)

~~~
drenei
To figure this out all you have to do is follow the money. :) I love the last
part of the story:

 _During an interview on Tuesday, General Jabiri challenged a Times reporter
to test the ADE 651, placing a grenade and a machine pistol in plain view in
his office. Despite two attempts, the wand did not detect the weapons when
used by the reporter but did so each time it was used by a policeman.

“You need more training,” the general said._

------
edw519
_...would achieve similar hit rates if they flipped a coin..._

 _...No scientific evidence exists to support..._

 _...the TSA is "unsure" whether SPOT has ever led to the arrest of an actual,
real-life terrorist._

Which probably makes this program fit in perfectly with everything else that
TSA is doing.

~~~
oldgregg
Israel puts heavy emphasis on human behavioral screening and it's
fantastically successful. It seems SPOT is a heavily watered down version. I'm
sure all the expensive technology vendors will love to point out SPOT is a
failure.

<http://www.forward.com/articles/122781/>

Thankfully we have very few attempted attacks in America so we don't have the
will to implement racial profiling.

If it gets ever gets bad enough we will and it will probably work.

~~~
idoh
I wouldn't equate the Israeli security with racial profiling. That's a part of
it but it mainly involves asking passengers questions and looking for things
that are out of the ordinary.

I got stopped leaving Israel once and it wasn't because of racial profiling. I
gave them my family's phone number and they called around and it all got
resolved.

------
r0s
I'd like to know how much money is invested in this.

Since inception the DHS has been a huge money pit of questionable efficacy.
This level of incompetence smells like corruption to me.

40 Billion dollars in funding for 2010.
<http://www.wallstats.com/deathandtaxes/>

Realizing the costs associated with TSA security theater are frustrating. We
all fund it.

------
RyanMcGreal
I have a vision of a bunch of officials in ill-fitting uniforms giving
passengers the Larry David Stare.

------
strebler
It reminds me of China, where they have armed guards at train stations
"randomly" questioning anyone they "think" might not have the necessary
documents to be moving to (living in) that particular city.

------
hugh3
The interesting thing about this technique is that unlike most security
techniques it actually might work _better_ the more the enemy knows about it.

Imagine the expression on the face of the terrorist as he's thinking "Must not
make suspicious-looking micro-facial movements... must not make suspicious-
looking micro-facial movements..."

