{"id":25104,"date":"2015-03-27T09:30:30","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=25104"},"modified":"2015-03-27T09:30:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:30:30","slug":"tsa-confirms-my-terrorist-tendencies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/27\/tsa-confirms-my-terrorist-tendencies\/","title":{"rendered":"TSA Confirms My Terrorist Tendencies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Intercept<\/a> has a great story this morning with confidential documents revealing the official TSA warning signs.\u00a0 My favorite terrorist giveaway is \u201cexcessive complaints about\u00a0 the screening process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ya, that was the first trick my Al Qaeda buddies told me about how to finesse airport security prior to wreaking havoc aboard a flight.<\/p>\n

\"TSA-spotcheck-540x411\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have whacked TSA\u2019s behavior detection program plenty of times in recent years. Here\u2019s an outtake from a 2013 Washington Times op-ed<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Other TSA programs have also pointlessly harassed or subjugated Americans. Gerardo Hernandez, the TSA agent slain on Friday, was part of the agency\u2019s \u201cbehavior-detection\u201d program involving thousands of TSA agents who \u201cchat down\u201d passengers at airports and watch for \u201cmicro-expressions\u201d that signal potential trouble. Though Mr. Hernandez may have been a model employee \u2014 competent, courteous and fair-minded \u2014 that program has failed to detect a single terrorist and has spurred the arrests of thousands of travelers.<\/p>\n

More than 30 TSA agents complained in 2012 that the behavior-detection program at Boston\u2019s Logan International Airport had become a \u201ca magnet for racial profiling, targeting not only Middle Easterners, but also blacks, Hispanics and other minorities,\u201d The New York Times reported. The agents relied on \u201cterrorist profiles\u201d such as black guys wearing baseball caps backward or Hispanics traveling to Miami. In Honolulu, some behavior-detection agents were nicknamed \u201cMexicutioners\u201d for their proclivity for harassing Mexican travelers.<\/p>\n

The behavior-detection squad at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey engaged in such blatant stereotyping that it was derided as \u201cMexican hunters\u201d by other TSA agents. Some behavior-detection officers complained that their supervisors pressured them to fabricate false charges against illegal aliens to justify reporting them to law enforcement. Last June, an inspector general slammed the behavior-detection program as a perennial flop, deriding the TSA for failing to develop \u201cperformance measures\u201d or to \u201caccurately assess\u201d its effectiveness.<\/p>\n

******<\/p>\n

I have clashed with TSA screeners plenty of times over the years.\u00a0 I was cross-examined by a TSA \u201cbehavior detection\u201d officer <\/a>last year when returning from\u00a0 the Free State Project Liberty Forum in New Hampshire:<\/p>\n

As I was going through the TSA checkpoint last Sunday at the Manchester, NH airport, I was cross-examined by a TSA Behavior Detection Officer (BDO). The BDO engages in \u201cchat-downs\u201d of travelers to select which passengers are pulled aside for special searches or third-degree interrogation.<\/p>\n

This BDO guy was a colicky,\u00a0low-watt, middle-aged white guy who\u00a0looked like he signed on with TSA after receiving a pension for spending 30 years writing parking tickets\u00a0in some one-horse New England town.<\/p>\n

He\u00a0 asked if I was traveling on business or pleasure.<\/p>\n

\u201cBusiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat were doing in New Hampshire?\u201d he grumbled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was giving a speech on the TSA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuh.\u00a0 How did it go?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a great\u00a0audience. They seemed to really enjoy the speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay\u201d \u2013\u00a0 and he shrugged and signaled I could move along.<\/p>\n

I was waiting for his followup question \u2013 and I would have told him folks liked the speech because every person there\u00a0despised his agency and would like to see him thrown\u00a0out of his uniform and into the street.<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a vignette of a 2011 encounter at Baltimore-Washington Airport<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

I was traveling out to a conference in Las Vegas\u00a0 when I got accosted at Baltimore Washington International Airport. The culprit had epaulets and more swagger than a second-term Arkansas congressman. All the women who had warned me for years that cigars would be my downfall were finally vindicated.<\/p>\n

I was passing through a Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. I was trying my damndest to be a good citizen. I had skipped going to the shooting range that morning so that my hands and shirt would not reek of cordite. I had double-checked to confirm I had not left any ammo clips in my carry-on bag. And I was not even wearing my favorite \u201cGovernment Sux!\u201d t-shirt. And I even took off my boots and send them down through the carry-on scanner.<\/p>\n

I slipped through the magnetometer with nary a beep. But this tall prematurely balding TSA agent with bulging eyes stepped towards me, pointed, and bellowed: \u201cWHAT\u2019S THAT IN YOUR POCKET?!!?\u201d<\/p>\n

I glanced down at my shirt pocket. \u201cIt\u2019s a cigar.\u201d<\/p>\n

He glared like he\u2019d caught me smuggling a pipe bomb in my underwear.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me see!!!\u201d he barked as everyone with a 75-foot radius turned to look.<\/p>\n

I handed it to him and explained: \u201cIt\u2019s a brand called \u2018Factory Throwouts.\u2019 First time I tried \u2018em \u2013 20 bucks for 20 cigars, and free shipping. I like cheap cigars, but they\u2019re too cheap even for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He snorted and thrust it back at me. Perhaps he was suspicious because the cigar didn\u2019t have a band wrapper. If it had been a Macanudo, he might have changed his attitude.<\/p>\n

\u201cWHAT ELSE YOU GOT IN THAT POCKET!?!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA business card.\u201d<\/p>\n

I retrieved it and showed it to him. He glanced at it the way an illiterate person looks at a map you hand him when you\u2019re lost and seeking directions in some woebegone backwoods crossroads.<\/p>\n

He eventually snorted that I could pass, but probably only because he couldn\u2019t figure out whether my Cheshire Cat grin was moronic or seditious. After I passed, I turned and watched this guy for a few minutes. He was acting like a prison guard browbeating a bunch of convicts lined up to take a shower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Intercept has a great story this morning with confidential documents revealing the official TSA warning signs.\u00a0 My favorite terrorist giveaway is \u201cexcessive complaints about\u00a0 the screening process.\u201d Ya, that was the first trick my Al Qaeda buddies told me about how to finesse airport security prior to wreaking havoc aboard a flight. I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-25104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25105,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25104\/revisions\/25105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25104"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=25104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}