Behavior Detection Officers

Mark, You forget that we now live in a global community. What happens in one part of the world effects other parts. Those that are intent to do harm do not care how they do it or who they use. All reasonableness is overridden by the desire to strike out to make their point.

You forget that on the world scene, terrorists have used the elderly, disabled, mentally challenged (whether they now it or not) to carry out their aims. There are now grandmothers who carry out terrorist attacks. They will even use their own children for such heinous purposes. Since TSA exists in a global community there is no way that one knows who is coming through security. It is a shame that so many Americans are whiners when it comes to this. Would they like to sacrifice their security for their life. Unfortunately shortsided and stupid comments like yours telling us that the 9/11 attacks were done by ‘men of middleastern descent’ show how much of a bubble you live in. Today terrorists are found in every country of all descents.

It is a daunting task to keep ahead of those wanting to do harm. To guess what they will do next, to think like them to prevent something from happening. I am sure that if such security was in place and stopped 9/11 you would not be whining about the inconvenience now.

Condoleeza Rice said something very astute during the 9/11 hearings. She said, “We have to be right 100% of the time, they only have to right once.”

Whatever refinements have to be worked out with TSA, fine. Do not forget that work is constantly being done behind the scene for your security.

I’m sorry, this “micro-expression” theory is total bullshit and a hilarious waste of time, perhaps almost as bad as racial profiling itself. People’s facial expressions vary infinitely at any given time for an infinite number of reasons, and people have many different reactions and expressions to any given situation. I usually end up forcing some sort of grimace-smile while passing through airport security because it’s stressful, irritating, and nerve-wracking. You’re surrounded by masses of rushing people, occasionally dealing with impatient douchebag security workers yelling loudly at you because they themselves are stressed out and irritated, all based on the premise that you’re under perpetual suspicion and may well be hiding a gun in your underwear (so, actually, yes, sort of like _1984_). Yeah, what an excellent setting for trying to ferret out someone’s “true” emotions and intentions simply by looking at their face for a few seconds. What a joke.

And the fool above who thinks it’s a travesty to scan white mothers and the elderly obviously has no historical knowledge of how terrorist groups take advantage of social stereotypes. One need only study the Algerian civil war, where black freedom fighters recruited women to carry weapons under their burkas and went out disguised as women themselves to take advantage of societal stereotypes of the modest, innocent, helpless woman. Assumptions and stereotypes, including racial profiling, regularly fail.

As much as I think full-body scanners are a crock of shit, they’d be less retarded and less random than having some pseudo-psychologist claiming he can read a person’s “true intentions” from a mere few seconds of observation. This facial-expression analysis, like too much of the field of psychology, is a pseudo-science that’s about equivalent to palm-reading.