Watch your expression when you travel through Houston airports!

[Catherine Vincent]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4125337.html

Aug. 18, 2006, 7:50AM

Airports here will search faces, too
Workers to start scanning travelers' facial expressions; critics fear it will lead to profiling

By ZEKE MINAYA and MICHAEL HEDGES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A controversial method of screening airport passengers by observing their behavior and facial expressions will be coming to Houston, local authorities said Thursday. Based on a federal program, local security personnel at George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports will be trained to look for a telltale sign in, for example, a traveler's scowl or when a passenger fidgets with luggage.

"A facial tic, the quickening of the pulse in the jugular vein, a change of complexion," are some of the kind of discrete indicators airport staff will be looking for, according to Mark Mancuso, the Houston Airport System's deputy director for public safety and technology.

But critics of the behavorial-based method of screening said it can all too easily become another form of profiling and could result in unconstitutional searches and detention of passengers.
"It will lead to more problems and not any more security," said Randall Kallinen, president of the Houston Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The screening method, pioneered in Israeli airports, is based on a federal program that may already be in place in Houston. The Transportation Security Administration, part of the Department of Homeland Security and the agency responsible for the screeners at airport security checkpoints, began experimenting with behavioral detection teams in December in about 12 airports. Andrea McCauley, a TSA spokeswoman based in Dallas, declined to say whether either of the major airports in Houston was part of the program, called Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, or SPOT.

more....

[annabanana]

1. OMG

If my (husband,friend,partner,coworker) finds out about the (vibrator, birthday surprise, hooker) I'll just DIE..

How's the old heartrate? Facial tic?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

2. Easy solution: get stoned before flying.

No stoned person I've ever witnessed looks nervous.

[seabeyond]

10. we were all worried about me going thru dallas international

last spring. i was 8 days on wellbutrin to help me quit smoking. had just kicked in. happy pill. got me thru, lol

[Laughing Mirror]

16. Just don't forget and pack any in your bag ...

Or that high will become very unpleasant when the search teams finds that little hidden packet.

[porphyrian]

3. Make silly faces the whole time.

That'll fuck 'em up.

[onethatcares]

30. combine that with

the ministry of silly walks.

[eleny]

4. "A change of complexion" could be a rosacea condition

This is looney tunes.

[InkAddict]

5. Well, don't really know how to play that one

Seems "flat affect" could also land one in the suspect lineup. Not revelant here anyway cause we're too permanently screwed and broke to fly anywhere, ever again.

[MindPilot]

6. So if I don't go enjoy having my rights pulled out though my ass

with a happy-happy-joy-joy look on my face, I'm a terraist?

Look, I'm a fidgety guy. That's just my nature; I have to be doing something with my hands all the time. If I'm in line, I'll be playing with my keys, cell phone, belt buckle, buttons, the little hooks on the end of the velvet rope, anything. Usually I don't even know I'm doing it until somebody points out that it's annoying them.

I must be an evildoer.


Edit because I can't type.

[Whoa_Nelly]

7. I blush easily

Does that make me a possible terrorist? :blush:


Guess it's time for one and all Americans to start dressing alike and taking SOMA. Enter Aldous Huxley and BushCo/PNAC's version of Brave New World.


Be Patriotic! Fly Naked!

The New Look for Air Travel


Disclaimer: Due to the exisiting Ashcroft Rule all female models for this product will have their offending body parts covered.

[seabeyond]

8. my son has tics period. are they gonna take down 8 yr olds now.

this is bullshit. such cowards we are as a nation. they are basically saying eyes down, no eye contact...... tail between leg, keep mouth shut.....

pisses me off

pisses me off more the cowards we have become that we allow this

[MadHound]

9. So in other words,

After standing for hours in line, just so we can be poked, prodded and searched, have our luggage ripped open, strewn about, and some probably thrown away, toss our liquids into the trash, apparently along with our civil liberties, if we dare to act human and get a bit pissed and impatient, their going to drag us out back and give us the third degree. Lovely, absolutely lovely. Just another reason why I will never be flying a commercial plane ever again unless I absolutely have to. I suggest the rest of my fellow citizens do the same. We still have at least one effective method of protesting such outrageous behavior, and that is with our wallets. Perhaps when this shit starts biting them in the wallet they will wake up and realize they've gone too far.

[seabeyond]

11. then we dare not get pissed when they drag us back.

i am not flying either. that is an easy choice for me but hubby loves going to other countries so i was worried about him. even my easy going husband has said last couple weeks when i bring this shit up, doesnt matter, i am a non flyer. he has had enough too. so, i dont have to worry about family conflict. we are on same side. i am relieved

[MindPilot]

14. unfortunately there is not much alternative for many

Amtrak has cut so many routes and who can take the extra three or four days on either side of a visit to the grandparents to ride the train or drive? If they are trying to discourage travel that's exactly what they're doing.

[cool user name]

12. I have three things to say.

Nineteen Eighty Four

[Scurrilous]

15. It gets better...

Cogito1002 Terrorist Detection System: The Future of Airport Security?

<snip>

"The U.S. Transportation Security Agency (TSA) is currently testing an on-site biometric-response-based lie-detector system called the Cogito device (Cogito1002) at an airport in Knoxville, Tennessee. If adopted, the Cogito1002, made by Israeli company Suspect Detection Systems Ltd. (SDS), will augment a human-based screening system called SPOT (Screening Passengers by Observation Technique), which first began testing at Logan Airport (Boston) after 9/11 and is now operational in approx. a dozen U.S. airports.

Here's how the Cogito1002 tech works:...

A passenger goes into an oval booth, swipes their passport, dons a set of headphones, and sticks their hand inside a sensor that monitors biometric responses (blood pressure, heart rate/pulse, and sweat levels) while they answer 15-20 questions in their language of choice on a touch screen about their travel plans. The person’s sex, age, and nationality, as well as their location, determine what questions get asked, and the whole process takes approx. 5 minutes.

According to an article in the The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Shabtai Shoval, CEO of Suspect Detection Systems developed the Cogito1002 with the assistance of “leading former Israeli intelligence officials, polygraph experts and computer-science academics.” The device goes beyond the scope of a standard lie detector machine by analyzing a person’s answers not only in relation to the rest of his/her answers, but also those of his/her peer group that’s been previously determined by security experts. "We can recognize patterns for people with hostile agendas based on research with Palestinians, Israelis, Americans and other nationalities in Israel," Mr. Shoval says. "We haven't tried it with Chinese or Iraqis yet." The Cogito 1002 can be customized for specific cultures and specific threats based on the intelligence that’s been gleaned.

In tests conducted inside Israel, the Cogito1002 is showing an approx. 85% accuracy rate with control groups role-acting as terrorists. Not bad, however 15% is still too many terrorists getting through, which is why auxilliary terrorist-detection systems, including human/people-based systems like SPOT, are so important. It should be noted that the Cogito1002 also incorrectly identified 8% of innocent passengers as potential threats in the Israeli tests. SDS wants to up the Cogito1002’s accuracy level/rate (i.e. correct terrorist detection level/rate) to 90%, while reducing the false positives (identifying innocent travelers as potential threats) to only 4%. That’s the goal, anyway. Let's all hope they're successful and the system works as advertised. If they are, and it does, chalk another one up for the Israelis."


http://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=909

[Laughing Mirror]

18. Is this more Israeli-made junk we are supposed to buy?

In order to feel secure?

Good heavens when will it end?

[kurth]

23. Is Question No. 1 "Do you love Israel"?

Question No. 2: "Do you REALLY love Israel?"
Question No. 3: "Do you accept George W. Bush as your Lord and Savior?"

Your heart rate goes up? Take a bus. To jail.

[MindPilot]

27. ummm, if machine decided 85% of role-playing "terrorists" were real

wouldn't that make it wrong about 100% of the time?

[Bill McBlueState]

28. yeah, what the hell?

So the machine is good at detecting people who have been told to act like terrorists.

How does it do at detecting terrorists who are trying not to act like terrorists?

[ThomCat]

13. Great, I get a pain spast and get pulled aside for a strip search?

That sounds like it would be a lot of fun. I imagine they'll get a pretty high percentage of people with various disabilities with this method.

[Javaman]

17. You mean like this?

[elehhhhna]

24. Yes. And like these:

[Deb]

19. God forbid I get Hot Flashes!

Why would I want to ever fly again? Really now. It's bad enough that a bra filled with prosthetic gel breasts are banned.

[Beelzebud]

20. It's election season! BE AFRAID!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

[leftofthedial]

21. how will we ever dismantle this phony totalitarian bullshit?

this is way beyond outrageous.

[Zorro]

22. Facecrime

The country continues its tumble into Orwell's world of 1984.

For those of you who haven't read it, I suggest you do.

[Initech]

25. Last time I flew through Houston, I had a disgusted look on my face...

But that was after viewing the giant bronze statue of George HW Bush in the Continental terminal. :puke:

[NoPasaran]

34. Fly through Austin next time

We have Barbara Jordan.

[Xenotime]

26. This new Amerika police state is making the old USSR seem tame.

[Subdivisions]

31. Took the words right out of my mouth..er...fingers .. eom

[treestar]

29. This doesn't sound that bad

At least it is based on something individual rather than something collective, like race. The limitation of it is that each individual has different levels for "looking nervous." A psychopath may not look nervous at all. Probably won't.

Not to mention fear of flying. Sounds like a waste of time.

[Reciprocity]

32. This may be in ALL airports not just Houston.

<Snip>
The screening method, pioneered in Israeli airports, is based on a federal program that may already be in place in Houston.

So you all need to be careful of a gas attack giving your face a grimace in any US airport. So lay of the beans before a flight.

<Snip>
In the places where it is being used, the program has resulted in 95 arrests, McCauley said.
God just the name of the airport makes me sick to my stomach. George Bush Intercontinental.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4125337.html

[Jed Dilligan]

33. I think this is a good thing

I'd trust a trained observer over one of those air-blowing machines any day.

Of course, it could be used as an excuse for profiling based on phenotype.

But the current procedures already are, so I don't see what difference that would make.