(Seattle P-I:) Airport profilers: They're watching your expressions

[Newsjock]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/344868_airportprofiler26.html

If a pair of Transportation Security Administration officers strolling by a Sea-Tac Airport ticket counter wish you happy holidays and ask where you're traveling, it might be more than just Christmas spirit.

Travelers at Sea-Tac and dozens of other major airports across America are being scrutinized by teams of TSA behavior-detection officers specially trained to discern the subtlest suspicious behaviors.

TSA officials will not reveal specific behaviors identified by the program -- called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique) -- that are considered indicators of possible terrorist intent.

But a central task is to recognize microfacial expressions -- a flash of feelings that in a fraction of a second reflects emotions such as fear, anger, surprise or contempt, said Carl Maccario, who helped start the program for TSA.

"In the SPOT program, we have a conversation with (passengers) and we ask them about their trip," said Maccario from his office in Boston. "When someone lies or tries to be deceptive, ... there are behavior cues that show it. ... A brief flash of fear."

[crim son]

1. I can't believe what I'm reading and I'm wondering

how many people are going to be detained because they happen to show fear, anger, surprise or contempt when approached by strangers asking about their trip. This country has gone crazy.

[orleans]

23. and what about suspicion. if someone struck up a conversation w/me

asking about my trip or where i was going--i'd wonder why they found me so interesting to stop and chat

what about those of us who were taught never to talk to strangers. i guess we'd all be flashing that moment of "stranger danger" fear and then what? tasered or cuffed?

what about those of us going through a bit of a "change" where we tend to flush easily anyway, or "flash"

or people whose mouths get dry in an instant (because of medications they are taking)

or those who tic (facial tics) or who have minor tremors or what appears to be nervous shakes

what to do about all of us?

and now the cat is out of the bag--i suppose all the terrorists will be signing up for psychology classes so they will know what these security folks will be looking for and how NOT to behave that way.

sometimes a moment of surprise is just that when someone is taken off guard

[DavidDvorkin]

2. Pseudoscientific garbage

It would be bad enough if it were valid. It's even worse because it isn't.

[TahitiNut]

15. Next, we'll be hearing about phrenology exams at the gate.

:shrug:

[crim son]

32. LOL!

I know it isn't funny, but you gave me the best laugh of the morning.

[Occam Bandage]

18. This has been proven ineffective? By whom? I've only heard positive things.

[depakid]

26. Wrong- it's well documented and accurate when perceptive people are properly trained

The techniques evolved from a body of research that began some 30 years or so ago by the eminent Paul Ekman, along with Wallace Freisan.

See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ekman

Not sure about what's in this particular program, but the likely methods have been empiracally tested and in fact they work.

[Tesha]

30. Perhaps. But these are basically rent-a-cops.

> it's well documented and accurate when perceptive people are properly trained

Perhaps. But these are basically low-wage rent-a-cops.
They probably have neither the skills nor the training
nor the disposition to do it effectively and without
prejudices slipping into their assessments.

Tesha

[Bright Eyes]

3. There goes Freedom of Expression

Literally.

[Historic NY]

4. Boy that constipation look should throw them for a loop..........

WTF is happening in this country, they scream about profiling but now their trying to read your expressions. I think tea leaves would be a better choice. :wtf:

[orleans]

24. tea leaves are passe. they should be hiring psychics to read our

fucking minds!

[RoyGBiv]

5. Looking for fear ...

... in an airport, where there are TSA people roaming around chatting people up, many of whom have a fear of flying.

Oh good grief.

[orleans]

25. actually--that's pretty funny. you're exactly on it! i have such a fear

of flying (i think it all started with stories of "wind sheer") that i'd be having a shit fit if i knew i had to get on a plane.

i'd probably be thankful as all hell if i was detained or told i couldn't fly or get on a plane. (whew!)

[mediaman007]

6. In Germany they were called the Gestapo.

I think that they worked the train stations and most transportation venues.

[otherlander]

9. You mean...

they're going to summarily execute you for looking at them funny and conscript your family members while hauling your friends off to be murdered if they happen to be of a certain religion or sexual orientation?

Really?

[tom_paine]

16. Jesus Christ, some people are thick

Yes, everything is fine unless and until the Nazis are 100%...not 99% but 100% replicated, with all the death and murder.

After all, it's not like there has ever been totalitarianism in any other form than Nazism, is there? Nope. If it's not wearing swastikas and murdering randomly, it can't be totalitarianism.

It just can't be.

And it's not as if totalitarianism has any history of camouflaging itself to be appropriate for the time and which in which it exists. Nope. Never. Swastikas and millions of deaths or just shut the hell up, conspiracy theorist whiner, right?

You know, as I observe the growth of the New Totalitarianism all around me, it's chains slithering silently around our necks while we watch TV and say confidently, "Why, thee are several clear differences between us and the Nazis, therefore all comparisons are null and void."

And you're right, aren't you? If it isn't festooned in swastikas and murdering, then it CAN'T, it simply CAN'T be totalitarianism and who are these people to make mention of the Nazis when there are still several clear differences, like violence and overt racism, between us and them.

Yes, otherlander, how could some people be so thick as to make historical comparisons like that when clearly there are no swastikas and people aren't dying by the tens of thousands.

Thank you for your visionary and very deep commentary.

After all, what kind of foll could think that any for of totalitarianism could possibly exist if it didn't have swastikas and random murders.

Nope. Not possible.

To further understand how absolutely right you are, and how insane it is to compare any aspect, not a single one, of modern American life to the Nazis is crazy, because if we had anything to worry about, why there'd be swastikas and tens of thousands of random murders, to further understand just how right you are, please click on my YouTube signature link below.

You are so right, so visionary and forward-thinking.

How dare anyone make comparisons when there are no swastikas and mass murders! You told HIM! Now dig up Karl Jaspers from the grave and tell him off. If you read what he has to say, I am sure you will be incensed at his utter lack of knowledge on the subject of totalitarianism, too.

http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/jaspers02.htm

[Occam Bandage]

17. The fact that you are supporting John Edwards for President

is rather proof positive that we are not living under a totalitarian state, isn't it?

[tom_paine]

20. My answer to you: Naomi Wolf's YouTube lecture

I am tired of explaining it. Perhaps she can.

It's in my sigline. Please click on it.

I rather think your comment is a non sequitur and irrelevant to the topic at hand. This kind of glib dismissal reeks of intellectual laziness and ultimately, denial.

Apologies if you are offended, but it is way too late to be concerned with finding the right euphemisms in order to protect your feelings.

Click on the Karl Jaspers link I posted above, too, unless you prefer shoert declarative smears to honest debate. Some do, but I have long ago run out of patience with it, hence my response tothe first poster and my response to you.

[TheWatcher]

29. No need to apologize to that one

He lives in a Matrix like world of Rose-Tinted Denial.

He won't be checking out your link, because he is protected by a suit of armor that nothing you offer can penetrate.

Willful ignorance and the insatiable desire of "I Do Not Want To Know" at any cost.

Save the one's you can, Mr. Paine.

There is no medicine for some conditions.

Especially those as terminal as this patient's seems to be.

[gollygee]

27. There are different points along any given continuum

just because we aren't at "nazi" yet doesn't mean we aren't at or near fascism.

[readmoreoften]

19. I'm thinking we should stop comparing Congress to Congress as well.

If America can't be compared to Nazi Germany because it lacks swastikas, our present Congress should not be compared to our past Congress because there it lacks the U.S. constitution.

New America has at least as many similarities to Nazi Germany as it has to Old America, in my opinion.

(For example: New America is NOT AMERICA. America has labor protections! New America has no labor protections! The comparison is absurd and offensive!)

[tom_paine]

21. Agreed. We need a new flag and a new national anthem.

To use the old ones is a disgrace and offensive to the Old American Republic.

For the new flag, I prefer something tatseful and understated, as befots our new Kinder and Genlter Totalitarianism. Perhaps the same flag design, but replace the field of blue behind the white stars with a field of black behind the white stars.

And for new national anthem, Black Sabbath's "War Pigs".

[Yuugal]

22. are you frowning again?

step out of line please! ughhh

[JohnyCanuck]

28. The best time of their lives

America 2007 is Germany 1930

by Norman D. Livergood (a former department head at the US Army War College)

SNIP

The 2004 election revealed that many American citizens are as intellectually and morally incompetent as the Germans in 1930. Such incompetence and ignorance always lead to tyranny. The United States is exactly at the same point in national degradation as the German nation in the 1930s when Hitler assumed absolute power and began his regime of mass murder and war crimes against the people of the world.

We've been conditioned to see Germany under Hitler as an unquestionably horrible example of dictatorial tyranny and inhuman barbarity--and to see our present American culture as completely opposite to that of Nazi Germany. And we like to think that if a tyranny such as that in Germany under the Nazi regime were present and growing in America we'd unquestionably be able to see it.

So it's a shock when we realize: most people living in Nazi Germany didn't see the tyranny! They thought it was the best time of their lives!

SNIP

How could Germans living under Hitler's National Socialism not have seen what it was? How did their lack of social and personal awareness make them blind to their reality?

How could Americans now possibly be living under a creeping dictatorship and not know it? And how could we not only not see a police state condition but actually think we're living in complete freedom?

Because most of us don't WANT to know what's going on. We've lost the ability to think critically about political, economic, and social dangers confronting us.

If we have a job--as most people did in Nazi Germany--if the political-economic system seems stable--as it does in America--then that's all we want to know.

http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm

[John Q. Citizen]

7. Makes me want to get a button that says;

"I'm fearful, angery, surprised and contemptuos...- ask me about it!"

to wear when I'm flying.

[rsmith6621]

8. It To Bad They Are Not Effective....

....At the security checkpoint.....they wouldn't have to worry about doing this.......

[LibDemAlways]

10. I once had a run-in with some TSA personnel at Sea- Tac and

am quite sure I openly displayed contempt. Metal in my ankle from an old injury set off the alarm and when I explained that to the screener, inviting him to wand the ankle, he called a woman screener over to feel up my bra instead. While this was going on, a very elderly woman in a wheelchair had her shoes yanked off and was hoisted up to be wanded. The poor woman had a look of terror on her face. She had no idea what the hell was happening to her. When I saw that, I couldn't help myself. I told the Nazis what I thought of them - with a tone of more than a little contempt. They finally let me go and apparently convinced themselves that the elderly woman was also not terrorist material - because they let her go as well. She was clutching her shoes last I saw her.

So anger? Yep. Contempt? Hell, yeah. Doesn't make me a terrorist, though. I think it makes me normal.

If merely approached by some strangers and asked about my trip, I'm quite confident I'd give them a look that says "Leave me the "f" alone, and walk away. I'm not in the habit of chatting it up with strangers in airports.

[TransitJohn]

11. At least they're not Law Enforcement

They're just barely above minimum wage yahoos.

[Hekate]

14. That makes them all the scarier: little training, lots of incentive to abuse their power. nt

[Incitatus]

12. I wonder what would happen

if I wore a t-shirt that says 'I am NOT a terrorist" on my next flight.

[Hekate]

13. You would find they have no sense of humor. I think you'd be unhappy with the reaction. nt

[fed-up]

31. the thought police are here-watch what you think ...nt

[Neecy]

33. this is truly frightening

Does this really have anything to do with terrorism? Or is just another way to intimidate and oppress American citizens doing nothing more than flying between domestic cities?

Since January 2006, behavior-detection officers have referred about 70,000 people for secondary screening, Maccario said. Of those, about 600 to 700 were arrested on a variety of charges, including possession of drugs, weapons violations and outstanding warrants.

And this isn't just at Sea-Tac. It's in more than 50 airports and is being expanded. And now your facial expressions are 'probable cause' to search you.

"We don't care where you are from," Maccario said. "It's no longer subjective. If you are acting a certain way, that's what is going to attract our attention."

What in the hell kind of police state have we allowed? Doesn't this shit just chill you to the bone?

[JohnyCanuck]

34. "Doesn't this shit just chill you to the bone?"

Yes.

[ProudDad]

35. I have nothing but contempt for TSA

and what they represent -- the cancerous police state of USAmerika...

That's why I avoid flying...

I AM a pilot. I used to love to fly but --- no more --- not since Osama won the war on terra (tm)...



Lest you think I'm engaging in hyperbole:

My partner's German mother was born into and lived through the 2nd World War under the Nazi regime. She and her husband watched the unnecessary and barbaric "allied" fire bombing and burning of Dresden. She's scared shitless because she's sure the same thing is happening all over again in her adopted country.

Latest news today: giant computer system at the FBI to keep track of everyone's physical traits for international purposed of tracking and ID. There will be no safe haven anymore...