Nearly 100,000 passengers were pulled aside by TSA behavior watchers last year, and it remains to be proven whether you can spot terrorists by the looks on their faces.

Here’s a question to ponder the next time you’re taking off your shoes at airport security: Can you spot terrorists by the look on their faces?

For the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the answer is yes. For the past few years, airports across the country have been using what many call “behavioral surveillance” to weed out potential hijackers among us, by covertly examining travelers’ facial expressions and body language as they go through security. Unlike those airport employees who herd us along as we remove our shoes and relinquish all liquids over three ounces (with dubious results), this new program, named “Screening Passengers by Observational Techniques,” or “SPOT,” is carried out by TSA employees who have been trained to monitor travelers’ faces and movements. As Americans head out of town this holiday season, more than 3,000 “Behavior Detection Officers” will be at 161 airports nationwide, watching our every move.

Story at AlterNet

Related posts:

1. Senate bill would make airport body scanners mandatory A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate requiring all airports...
2. Big Brother Is Actually Not Watching You At All Another great blog post from my favorite author, Max Barry...
3. The Untold History of Thanksgiving ...
4. Federal Government Nation’s Largest Employer With more than 1.8 million civilian employees, the Federal...
5. What Does It Take to Clean Fresh Food? Have you ever wondered whether those expensive veggie washes are...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This entry was posted on November 25, 2009 at 3:00 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

Posted in Government Life In General The News by Stephen No Comments Yet