Apparently the new reality being created by our friends in the Bush Administration includes mind readers:
As the man approached the airport security checkpoint here on Wednesday, he kept picking up and putting down his backpack, touching his fingers to his chin, rubbing some object in his hands and finally reaching for his pack of cigarettes, even though smoking was not allowed.
Two Transportation Security Administration officers stood nearby, nearly motionless and silent, gazing straight at him. Then, with a nod, they moved in, chatting briefly with the man, and then swiftly pulled him aside for an intense search.
Another airline passenger had just made the acquaintance of the transportation agency’s “behavior detection officers.”
Taking a page from Israeli airport security, the transportation agency has been experimenting with this new squad, whose members do not look for bombs, guns or knives. Instead, the assignment is to find anyone with evil intent.
The article doesn’t say if they are led to an Ordeal by Water if one of these magicians detects any “evil intent”.
Don’t worry, though … this isn’t MAGIC or anything. Nope, it’s scientific, sorta like a polygraph:
Agency officials said they recognize that the program, which they call Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, or SPOT, may not yet be perfect. But they added that they were constantly making adjustments and that they were convinced that it was a valuable addition to their security tool chest.
“There are infinite ways to find things to use as a weapon and infinite ways to hide them,” said the director of the T.S.A., Kip Hawley, in an interview this week. “But if you can identify the individual, it is by far the better way to find the threat.”
The American version of the airport behavior observation program got its start in Boston, said Thomas G. Robbins, former commander of the Logan International Airport police.
After the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, he said, state police officers there wondered whether a technique they had long used to try to identify drug couriers at the airport might also work for terrorists. The officers observed travelers’ facial expressions, body and eye movements, changes in vocal pitch and other indicators of stress or disorientation. If the officers’ suspicions were aroused, they began a casual conversation with the person, asking questions like “What did you see in Boston?” followed perhaps by “Oh, you’ve been sightseeing. What did you like best?”
The questions themselves are not significant, Mr. Robbins said. It is the way the person answers, particularly whether the person shows any sign of trying to conceal the truth.
So, don’t fly if you’re conducting an affair with a coworker. It’s liable to get you a follow-up interogation, if not more.
What spineless wimps Americans are. We let these hucksters piss away government funds on these silly schemes, these Potemkin procedures … we let them bully us into worthless and ineffectual crap like this BECAUSE WE’RE AFRAID. A nation that was settled by people who crossed oceans in steerage, or chained up in cargo holds, a nation descended from people who set out across unmapped wildernesses, a people who built a nation with other people who had strange ways, often spoke strange languages … we descendents of people like that are little more than frightened sheep submitting to shepherd’s crooks built out of lies and empty promises. Not only that, far too many of us lash out at people who question, people who refuse to shut up and go along. Many of us who would like to protest don’t, either because we’re afraid of the backlash or because we have people depending on us — friends, family or co-workers who would be hurt if we were locked up or missed an important flight to a business meeting.
Answer their meaningless questions. Pack away that deodorant. Let the wingnut in the next cubicle rant and spew. It’s a scary world out there. Just be careful not to think about how much it sucks, because someone might read it on your face, and then it’s time for the cavity search.
