Behavior Detection

by emptywheel

There are two things that "always" happen to me when I fly to DC. I "always" (often, rather) sit next to MI's Republican Congressmen in First Class. And I "always" (almost always, probably) get pulled into secondary when I'm flying out of Reagan National Airport. I know why the latter occurs: my driver's license says, "Margaret" while my Northwest frequent flier number is under the name "Marcy," so they have to pull me into secondary to quiz me about my family's weird nicknaming habits.

But the day after the Libby sentencing, I got the full-fledged treatment, including what I believe to be behavior detection.

Specially trained security personnel are watching body language and facial cues of passengers for signs of bad intentions. The watcher could be the attendant who hands you the tray for your laptop or the one standing behind the ticket-checker. Or the one next to the curbside baggage attendant.

They're called Behavior Detection Officers, and they're part of several recent security upgrades, Transportation Security Administrator Kip Hawley told an aviation industry group in Washington last month. He described them as "a wonderful tool to be able to identify and do risk management prior to somebody coming into the airport or approaching the crowded checkpoint."

[snip]

At the heart of the new screening system is a theory that when people try to conceal their emotions, they reveal their feelings in flashes that Ekman, a pioneer in the field, calls "micro-expressions." Fear and disgust are the key ones, he said, because they're associated with deception.

Behavior detection officers work in pairs. Typically, one officer sizes up passengers openly while the other seems to be performing a routine security duty. A passenger who arouses suspicion, whether by micro-expressions, social interaction or body language gets subtle but more serious scrutiny.

A behavior specialist may decide to move in to help the suspicious passenger recover belongings that have passed through the baggage X-ray. Or he may ask where the traveler's going. If more alarms go off, officers will "refer" the person to law enforcement officials for further questioning.

It worked like this: rather than mark my boarding pass for the "quiz about family's weird nicknaming habits" treatment, they put a big red X on it. A fellow who was clearly either supervising or waiting for some liberal schmo like me then met me after the metal detector and asked to search my bags. Which he did. So thoroughly that he read every single business card in my knapsack. Every single one.

Meanwhile, a female TSA employee made like she was making small talk with me, asking why I was in DC, whether Libby was really guilty, what it was like to cover the trial, and so on. I could tell her job was, at least partly, to see whether my story accorded with the contents the male TSA guy was finding in my bag--but she was also, clearly, giving me some kind of psychological profile.

I must have passed with flying (punny!) colors, because after about 15 minutes they let me go on my way. They almost got me though. Somehow, the male TSA guy identified that my AnatomyofDeceit business cards were for a book (this is the part I find most suspicious, since I didn't actually have any copies of the book on me--how did he know the card was for a book and not, say, a movie?). So he asked me how well the book was selling. "Heck if I know," I responded, answering the same way I always have. Which didn't sound too credible to the TSA guy, pretty clearly.

Will, if I get arrested because I don't know how many books have sold, I'll be cross!!!!

Comments

[JEP]

Sheesh, my mother in law would never be allowed on a plane, if a friendly attitude was THE deciding factor!

Terrorism has many faces...

Some more familiar than others.

[casual observer]

This pisses me off. Attempted intimidation.

[janinsanfran]

My sympathies. They are getting more subtle at this sort of thing. It used to be a big read "S".

[Davis X. Machina]

It's the new phrenology.

[Pete]

Pretty soon the technology will be such that they will be able to read your mind and automatically ship you to Gitmo. Air Force 1 and Air Force 2 will be exempt.

[landreau]

Will who?

[Phoenix Woman]

I'm surprised it wasn't stamped with a yellow star or some suchness. Progressiven sind nicht erwunscht!

Speaking of snooping, check this out: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003927.php (Kinda blows the BushCo claims of 'executive privilege' out of the water, eh?)

[bmaz]

Well, thats about par for the course for the Bushies and their manufactured frankenstein, the TSA. They can't deploy enough resources to fight their wars, rebuild from Katrina, repair our infrastructure, etc.; but they are going to deploy a specially trained team of behavioral detectors to figure out that I am pissed off, belligerent, seriously annoyed at the hassle of traveling by plane these days and one straw away from going aberrantly postal. Brilliant. If they just asked, I would be happy to tell them all about it for free. Or they could just read about it here.....

[stagemom]

disarm, margaret, disarm! first rule of charm: self-deprecating humor.
response to how's the book selling: "i can't give 'em away. ya want one?"
you also need a biz card for an attorney specializing in TSA harassment, with a funny motto.

[Freetomoveaboutthecountry]

Sad to say, but if Kennedy has wound up on a no fly list once (out of funsies, he thinks), it would not come as a surprise that you were already in a dB as who you are, thusly deserving of a red X.
The almighty dB doesn't like nom de plumes, much less plumes...

[joanneleon]

Fear and disgust trip off the behavior detection alarms? When you're anticipating treatment like that in the security lines, who wouldn't feel fear and disgust? I'm afraid you're going to get "pulled over" every single time, Marcy. This kind of thing is disgusting. So much for not being worried about our government unless you're a terrorist.

[JEP]

You used the wrong framing, Marcy, all you need to say is "I don't recall ever knowing that."

That should work for you, it works for all those liars testifying before Congreff.

[profmarcus]

one year ago this past june as i went through u.s. customs in sfo upon returning from the balkans, following the thorough physical inspection and "mutt and jeff" questioning, i was ushered to the next phase of the "behavior detection" process... my laptop, my digital camera, my cd's and dvd's, and my flash memory sticks were taken without warrant and not returned to me until three weeks later... i have since passed through u.s. customs five more times - thankfully not at sfo - without incident, but, i can tell you, NOT without trepidation... i am certain that my laptop's hard drive was imaged and that, very likely, surrepitious and undetectable tracking and reporting software was added... fortunately, i had already purchased a replacement and now only use that particular laptop for back-up... it's an ugly world out there, marcy...

http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

[William Ockham]

I get this treatment occasionally, but never when I'm travelling with my family. I've always assumed that I initially get tagged either because my hyphenated (real) name doesn't match my ticket (airlines still don't do hyphens) or my visible discomfort with standing in line, but it's the thought police that drive me crazy. My solo trips are typically to/from Microsoft-sponsored geek conferences and I think that my choice of reading materials sometimes doesn't match their profile. I will often, but not always, take a controversial political or theological book to read on the plane. When I have one of those with me, I get peppered with a bunch of questions about specific details about the conference I'm attending (how many people are going to be there, etc.). The questions follow this strange arc from innocous to bizarre. the questions are things that they can't possible know the answers to, but certain answers do seem to invite real suspicion.

[QuickSilver]

You're on the list, too—welcome to the club. It's a big tent. If 'Jodi' has driven home any point, it's that some of your most avid readers are critics...

I don't think they miss any of your e-mails or telephone calls, which is why your business cards might have been of specific interest (they sometimes have interesting alternative numbers written on the back; business cards, particularly the ones we carry with us, tend to carry addition personal information). Who might you be talking to off the record?

[JEP]

"Every single one."

That is creepy... was he looking for hand-written phone numbers or something?

Who picks that list to be "Red-xed' (Like an Orwellian version of Fed-exed), and can we find out if, and why we might be on that list. via the FOIA?

Might be interesting to see how many notable bloggers and left-wing pundits get searched as a matter of Bush's extended domestic policies?

Whne was the last time Rush got a good-old cavity search?

Surely someone in the TSA might consider the possibility he's hiding some "extras" somewhere?

No Red-X for Rush!?!?

[Ishmael]

EW - I would not have related the following story on the blog were it not for your experience, but here goes. At the end of July I took a weekend trip to Seattle from the Great White North, where I bought a t-shirt in the Pike Place Market, black with white lettering on the front: "B U * * S H * *" . The seller told me that he all kinds of trouble keeping them in stock - as an aside, I don't know where the alleged silent minority of 25% is hanging out, but I saw no evidence of them in Seattle. Anyway, I was foolish enough to wear said T-shirt (under a jacket, but likely visible were one to look hard enough) to the airport on the way home. I had booked through Air Canada, but they operate by United in the US, and when I checked my bags an "S" was written on my boarding pass in red ink by the clerk. As soon as I entered the security area, I was motioned aside to enter a special line and searched and interviewed by different TSA people (even before they saw that my boarding pass had been marked with the dreaded scarlet "S". So I must have been tagged some other way from the moment I left the baggage check. Perhaps I was being followed, perhaps I was being watched on CCTV, like a Vegas casino. Perhaps it was the copy of David Talbot's book "Brothers" on JFK and RFK that I was carrying in my hand to read for the flight - not kidding). I was then given the full "can we see your papers? why were you in Seattle? where did you stay?" treatment. I chose not to get snarky, because at this point, I was becoming a little alarmed at being subjected to surveillance in the airport, and tried to be as pleasant as possible. I am now concerned that I have an asterisk the size of Barry Bonds next to my name every time I enter the United States. I hope everyone feels more secure as a result.

[JEP]

Seriously, they need to keep the record of who made upthose lists, and why, because someone will answer for it eventually.

I'm not trying to get a blog-mob going here, but it just burns me up that they can make these lists and intimidate American citizens without being held responsible for thier violation of our rights.

Whoever made these lists up or was responsible for those who did, had better move to Dubai with Kenny(The Ghost)Lay, because if we ever uncover what they did, and why they did it, those people will have some serious 'splainin to do.

They willtry to bury their misdeeds with the passage of time, but I hope the records remain, and those who intentionally inhibited their fellow Americans' freedoms should have to pay for what they did, no matter how much time has elapsed before we know the truth.

[Forrest R. Prince]

All this "no-fly" list and "behavior detection" crap is designed for one thing: to intimidate Progressives from flying, thus rendering them less effective as opponents to Regressives (so-called Conservatives).

What's perhaps more worrying is that the TSA apparently believes behavior detection works. Behavior detection, as described in the McClatchy link, smacks of psychic mind-reading, i.e. magic. But hey, that's Regressives for you: they'll believe anything their priests and diviners tell them, no matter how ludicrous.

[emptywheel]

PW:

I posted on that ... three weeks ago now. As I also posted on the Appropriations committee briefings.

But then, it's not the first time this has happened, not at all. The pity, in this case, is that Ackerman doesn't look at the larger chronology.

[MayBee]

Does the name on your ticket match the name on your drivers license? It is a problem anywhere you fly if your ticket name doesn't match your id.

[bmaz]

Stagemom, is this what you have in mind?

DEWEY, FUKUM & HOWE
Personal Injury Attorneys
Specializing in Plaintiff's Litigation Against the TSA

I. Will Fukum, Esq.
Senior Partner

1(800) 727-9872 1(800) SCREW TSA

"Our Recoveries Are So Large They Are Classified!"

[JEP]

In the military,(got this second-hand, I've never personally served) that "red-xed" order that was waiting for those who were designated, would have initials and signitures on it going all the way up to the General who gave the orders in the first place, right down to the individual who does the profiling.

Would it be reasonable for an American Citizen to expect a similar document should be provided to them after they are profiled, as a "receipt" of their profiling?

And shouldn't those same American citizens have the right to depose anyone who laid their initials or signature on that list, to inhibit their individual rights, if only to be profiled?

Because, in essence, these people all bcome "accusers" when they perform these profiles, and according to our most basic laws back to the magna charta, and included in numerous references in our own constitution, WE HAVE THE RIGHT TO FACE OUR ACCUSERS!!!"

If those red S's and X's don't represent an accusation, I must have misubderstood the meaning of the word when I learned it as a child.

Like I said, to anyone who might be responsible for putting those lists together, please sign all those documents legibly, so we know who you are.

We will have some questions for you when the COnstitution is once again something more than a GD piece of paper.

This is not a threat, it is just an observation, a look into the ebb and flow of political pendulum inevitability.

If YOU put the names of your fellow Americans on any kind of check-list, and you signed that order or document as an agent of the government that represents those very people, you better have a very good explanation ready.

Because you WILL be required to provide one.

[William Ockham]

Maybee,

I avoid paper tickets because the name on my ticket never matches the one on my driver's license. The dorks that wrote the software for the airlines apparently didn't realize that certain non-alphabetic characters can appear in people's names (I wonder what they do in Ireland?). Fortunately, the rise of eticketing has helped. The web-based software generally has addressed that issue.

[Rayne]

What ever happened to the Fourth Amendment? How is any of this reasonable?

I frankly don't know how I haven't been through secondary, since I have a dreaded hyphenated name with even weirder spelling of first, middle and last names and a known identity as a party member. Believe me, I counted my blessings when they hassled the old white lady in front of me this last trip; she'd packed a cooler with all sorts of liquids, gels and creams, not having checked the regulations for carry-on contents. She was given the full search of her bags, all the while whining about to her middle-aged son: "They're taking my foot cream!!" I tried not to mutter under my breath about stupid Republicans while witnessing this shakedown. Hey, she asked for it and still she's not happy; what's up with that? Doesn't she feel safer like the rest of us, knowing that she's been disarmed of her foot cream?