How Three-Stooges Dumb Is Our New Aviation "Security" Measure?
There's a new TSA "security" program called "Quiet Skies," reports Jana Winter at the Boston Globe:
Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.The previously undisclosed program, called "Quiet Skies," specifically targets travelers who "are not under investigation by any agency and are not in the Terrorist Screening Data Base," according to a Transportation Security Administration bulletin in March.
The internal bulletin describes the program's goal as thwarting threats to commercial aircraft "posed by unknown or partially known terrorists," and gives the agency broad discretion over which air travelers to focus on and how closely they are tracked.
But some air marshals, in interviews and internal communications shared with the Globe, say the program has them tasked with shadowing travelers who appear to pose no real threat -- a businesswoman who happened to have traveled through a Mideast hot spot, in one case; a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, in another; a fellow federal law enforcement officer, in a third.
And what, you might ask, would lead them to look at you squinty, as a potential source of terroristic plots? A few examples:
More examples:
A few more examples:
This is stuff is just laughably bad -- like a multiple choice test for slow-witted behavioral profilers looking to ferret out people doing normal human things in airports and on planes.
For example...
Were you observed "changing directions" in the terminal?
If so, is it likely that you plan to blow something up -- or that you decided the line at McDonald's is too long and you'd go back to that other restaurant you spotted near the shoeshine dude?
"Attempting to change appearance by changing" is another good one.
I flew to San Francisco from LA, and I had to wake up at some insane hour to make it through the gropenfrau station (aka the TSA) at LAX. I attempted to "change appearance" at the airport -- from haggard, exhausted, and inelegant to something a little more me, so I wouldn't frighten or disappoint the very nice man picking me up.
"Subject's appearance was different from information provided."
For example: "Lost weight." For sure, the first explanation for that is "FUCK, the man's a terrorist!" not "Dude, I'm guessing you've gone paleo!"
And then there's: "Balding." Yes, you men of Rogaine, we know that you only use that stuff so you can go claim your ISIS bride.
I love the notion that sleep is some sort of indicator.
I sleep on flights -- because I have motion sickness issues, and it keeps me from throwing up on the person next to me. I think that's a polite thing to do. (Apparently, I should be considered an extremely couth terrorist.)
This is great: "In possession of a cell/smartphone."
Homeless people have smartphones, for fuck's sake!
"Used phone to text."
Every 14-year-old in America who's sent the poop emoji will heretofore be considered an enemy of the state.
And let's not forget: "Used lavatory." "Traveled with others."
I'm guessing every fucking one of you reading this is the second coming of Osama bin Laden.
Finally, beyond the Three Stooges-like humor of this, there are civil liberties concerns:
In late May, an air marshal complained to colleagues about having just surveilled a working Southwest Airlines flight attendant as part of a Quiet Skies mission. "Cannot make this up," the air marshal wrote in a message.One colleague replied: "jeez we need to have an easy way to document this nonsense. Congress needs to know that it's gone from bad to worse."
Experts on civil liberties called the Quiet Skies program worrisome and potentially illegal.
"These revelations raise profound concerns about whether TSA is conducting pervasive surveillance of travelers without any suspicion of actual wrongdoing," said Hugh Handeyside, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project.
This commenter at The Boston Globe gets it:
praguejeff
If you see something, say something. I see something. I see a police state.
via @CathyYoung63
Every 14-year-old in America who's sent the poop emoji will heretofore be considered an enemy of the state.
Well, that's not unreasonable...
I R A Darth Aggie at July 29, 2018 5:34 AM
So, the call went out from this blog (and others) for a security procedure more like the Israeli airport security procedures, which use behavioral analysis to identify subjects for surveillance. However, once we adopt such procedures, the hue and cry is "police state!"
Yes, terrorists about to commit a terrorist act are abnormally aware of their surroundings and do things to identify and shake off surveillance, like sudden direction changes or clothing and appearance changes.
Sometimes, such actions are the actions of an innocent person simply deciding the line was too long or that he forgot to buy a magazine; or that he was traveling from Cleveland to Miami in the winter and his heavy socks, jacket and full beard no longer made sense once he was at the airport. However, other times, it can be indicative of something nefarious.
And since people don't come with identity tags that say "terrorist" or "innocent person," police sometimes end up following the innocent person while in search of the terrorist.
Quiet Skies sounds like the kind of airport security we wanted in the first place, professionally trained police agents patrolling the airport and not up-badged convenience store clerks patting down Grandma.
Conan the Grammarian at July 29, 2018 7:34 AM
“So, the call went out from this blog (and others) for a security procedure more like the Israeli airport security procedures, which use behavioral analysis to identify subjects for surveillance. However, once we adopt such procedures, the hue and cry is "police state!"”
Exactly what I was thinking. Two bits this list was compiled by consulting with Israel and all those behavioral psych professionals Amy is so fond of.
Isab at July 29, 2018 8:48 AM
This would be a useful protocol if it were actually trained, experienced intelligence officers deciding who should receive a second look.
The fly in the ointment is that the TSA will not use "trained police agents patrolling the airport." It will still be "up-badged convenience store clerks" with no psychological or surviellence knowledge or skills.
Jay at July 29, 2018 9:02 AM
How about, "used clipboard while studying passenger movements"?
Come on, Mike Hunter, Jeff Guinn, etc.! Explain how we all all safer nationwide because of this!
Meanwhile, the relative carnage inflicted on the American public by illegal immigrants must remain suppressed.
You do NOT have a right to fly somewhere, according to many, but however you get into the USA, no matter who you are or where you came from, that's OK.
Radwaste at July 29, 2018 9:12 AM
Jay gets the problem with this:
"This would be a useful protocol if it were actually trained, experienced intelligence officers deciding who should receive a second look."
Israelis ask you pointed questions, like (I'm making this up) "What's the afikomen?" if you say you're Jewish. (The part of the matzah that gets hidden on Passover.)
Behaviors can signal many things. Even "trained" blah blah blah (Ekman, for example!) misjudge.
This is a money-wasting example of loss of civil liberties creep.
Amy Alkon at July 29, 2018 9:13 AM
“This would be a useful protocol if it were actually trained, experienced intelligence officers deciding who should receive a second look."
Trust me, you dont want to pay for this, and neither do I. We have already explained that the Israeli proceedures dont scale up to the vastly greater amount of Air traffic and travelers in the US.
In my opinion, any kind of profiling ( and that is what this is) is vaatly superior to shaking down grandmas in wheelchairs, and four year old children.
I would prefer that security be privatized, but am still pretty happy that I can get from Denver to Tokyo and back with a minimum of fuss in the security lines. Customs and passport control is now routinely a bigger hassle.
Isab at July 29, 2018 9:26 AM
According to the write-up, it will be "Federal air marshals" doing the evaluating and following. As such, it will be trained law enforcement and won't be the up-badged convenience store clerks.
Israeli security asks pointed questions and re-asks them later of the same passengers. Every single passenger is scrutinized, either visually or interrogated multiple times. However, all of Israel handles less than half the passenger load that a single busy US airport handles.
As Isab and I have demonstrated in past threads, their system does not scale to US air traffic passenger loads - at least not without a massive increase in personnel. And we simply don't have that many trained intelligence operatives available and willing to do airport duty. As a result, we made do with a band-aid system using up-badged convenience store clerks.
From the Jerusalem Post: "According to the statistics, more than 17 million travelers passed through Ben Gurion over the year for more than 110,000 incoming and outgoing international flights. More than 600,000 flew through the airport on domestic flights."
17 million passengers passed through Israel's biggest and busiest airport in 2016? Wow. Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson handled over 104 million passengers in that same year. LAX handled over 80 million and Chicago's O'Hare over 78 million.
In fact, on a list of the world's busiest airports, Ben Gurion does not even make the Top 50.
Nor does the Israeli system face the Constitutional challenges a repeated and intrusive questioning regimen done in the US will face.
You'll never see it. Too much liability if the security team fails to stop a terrorist attack and too many Constitutional challenges if it probes too hard.
Conan the Grammarian at July 29, 2018 9:58 AM
Since I haven't haunted an airport in ages, I wonder, do any of these TSA guys say things like "Gwarsh" and "A-Hyuk?"
After all, Goofy DID procreate.
mpetrie98 at July 29, 2018 10:23 AM
So, the call went out from this blog (and others) for a security procedure more like the Israeli airport security procedures, which use behavioral analysis to identify subjects for surveillance. However, once we adopt such procedures, the hue and cry is "police state!"
Umm, no
They are tagging random people and watching them to the exclusion of everyone else rather than watching for suspicious behavior and then watching the people acting suspiciously
lujlp at July 29, 2018 2:18 PM
What is "abnormally aware"? is that defined? I like to be aware of my surroundings, as they say, "situationally aware".
One never knows when a terrorist, or just some whack job throws a spanner in the works. I also like to sit in the "gun fighter" position: back to a wall, good sight lines at all doors.
Is that also suspicious?
I R A Darth Aggie at July 29, 2018 3:23 PM
Too much liability if the security team fails to stop a terrorist attack and too many Constitutional challenges if it probes too hard.
The first, yes, and that's what will kill it. The second? no. As a matter of practice, a private company can ask you to surrender any and all Constitutional rights. It happens a bit with one's right to keep and bear arms.
I R A Darth Aggie at July 29, 2018 3:59 PM
Damn, I better not forget my anti-perspirant!
NicoleK at July 29, 2018 7:40 PM
According to this, the last time I flew home from a deployment, I was a terrorist.
PavePusher at July 29, 2018 8:09 PM
I got a laugh out of the spokesdroid trying to offer an apologia on one of the morning news shows: "Conducting surveillance on Americans is incidental to the program." No, conducting surveillance on Americans is the entire point of the program. The really bad part is that they are keeping files of all this crap, which apparently identify suspects by name.
Nearly all terrorist attacks conducted in North America in the past ten years have been the work of "known wolves", people who had already been identified by the intel services as having terrorist connections. Random surveillance is likely to be no more productive than random searches.
Cousin Dave at July 30, 2018 6:55 AM
Hey! There's something missing from the checklist!
Is the man dressed as the PILOT carrying a knife OFF OF a plane?
Radwaste at July 30, 2018 7:17 AM
So if you sleep at all this is a bad sign? They got me on the fidgeting, especially if I have too much coffee.
got me also on checked baggage, carryon bags, talked to others, use lavatory.....
you can profile everyone into this. What idiocy.
cc at July 30, 2018 9:06 AM
Leave a comment