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Comment by u23KDd23 | Hacker News Reader

I've observed the horrible nature of this program in person while traveling. During the practice, the TSA staff talked loudly to threaten passengers and then also made "jokes" to passengers about finding chemicals on them. Essentially they try to escalate the fear among all the passengers and then single out someone who responds the most poorly. Not to mention the fact that anyone who has protested or complained about any of these controversial programs are being targeted without any basis. Psychological warfare is being conducted on American soil against innocent Americans.

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A few months ago I was traveling from SEATAC. I always use the TSA-Pre line, where I don't have to remove my laptop from my computer bag. This particular trip, I placed my bag down like usual and my keys/cellphone in the dish and walked toward the metal detector just as the agent behind the x-ray machine picks up and throws my computer back the length of the conveyor belt and demands I remove my computer from my bag. I was shocked and strongly but firmly told her that what she did was completely inappropriate. Once through the line, as I was collecting my things, another agent came up and then started asking me bizarre questions like "how are you feeling?" "is something upsetting you?" (...of course something's upsetting me...and your underling just threw my computer!) I immediately hopped on airport wifi at my gate and wrote a detailed complaint and submitted. Never heard back. Wrote a second one. Nothing. Now I'm wondering if that whole experience was this program.

Then again, the simplest explanation would be that this was just another instance of TSA incompetence.

I was singled out once for carrying two laptops. I answered the same two or three questions over and over.

They had trouble understanding my work allows no personal use of laptops so if I wanted one for development or gaming I had to carry two.

I guess they thought asking the same questions repeatedly would be stressful. They haven't met my wife. :eyewaggle:

Consider this counterpoint experience posted on Slashdot...

"I recall going through security at the Charlotte, NC airport once, a few years ago, and noticed TSA agents out in the queue making smalltalk with all of the passengers. "Hey, how are y'all doin' today?", "Goin' someplace warm?", "Be sure to take off that belt buckle sir.", "Were are y'all headed?", "Y'all fly much?", and so forth. At first I thought that this was a misguided effort at public relations. But then it occurred to me that those agents were probably pre-screeners looking for nervous and evasive passengers who would then be subjected to additional traditional screening. I don't know what SPOT is and have no opinion of its effectiveness. But it seems to me that chatting up passengers in order to spot potential trouble-makers is probably the single most effective part of the whole TSA process."

I'd like to see some statistics that corroborate the effectiveness of this technique.

I've observed this as well by the TSA which is probably a good implementation. What we should be worried about however are the poor implementations and exploitations of these concepts and ideas. I'm concerned about the occurrences that probably generate misguided animosity towards people who are genuinely concerned about the safety of passengers. When you have events like what unfolded in New Orleans and LA we should wondering what motivated such actions.

>it seems to me that chatting up passengers in order to spot potential trouble-makers is probably the single most effective part of the whole TSA process

I don't understand this. I assume that its meant from an intuitive 'I feel like this would be effective' standpoint. Because as far as actual effectiveness is concerned, we know that it has stopped 0 attacks. The only way we could know it to be effective is if there were people actually trying to carry out attacks and being caught. Neither of those things are happening, though, so we really can't tell. Thus far, it's just a massive waste of resources.

Really, 9/11 guaranteed that there will never be another airline hijacking for a very, very long time. No passenger will fight with anything less than every fiber of their being to stop any hijacker now. It doesn't matter what kind of weapon you've got, the instant you stand up and say 'I'm taking over this place', you immediately have the entire crew and passengers willing to die to stop you. Before the idea of planes as weapons was tried, everyone presumed a hijacked plane would just fly to Cuba and everyone would be OK. But now that they know the possibility everyone is going to die in an intentional crash, hijackers have no chance.

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