If you complain about the TSA, you must be a terrorist

It’s a sad state of affairs that every time I read something about the TSA they become more of a joke.

From the UK’s MailOnline:

Waiting in a long line to be scanned – with the prospect of being frisked at the end – is never the most pleasant way to start a holiday.

But you’d be advised not to show your impatience as you go through U.S. airport security, because you could end up being singled out for extra scrutiny and searches.

‘Arrogant complaining’ is one of 70 behavioural indicators used by the TSA to identify criminals, terrorists and high risk passengers.

Now I don’t know a great deal about security procedures, but I’m pretty sure that arrogant complaining would actually be pretty low on the list of behaviors terrorists would exhibit. One would think that, you know, drawing undue attention to themselves would be something they’d want to avoid.

Turns out National Security Analyst Peter Bergen agrees with me, saying:

I think the idea that they would try to draw attention to themselves by being arrogant at airport security, it fails the common sense test. And it also fails what we know about their behaviours in the past.

So if that’s the case, why would the TSA be using this criteria? Because “A TSA agent told investigators part of the reason he he refused to let the alleged ’20th hijacker’ into America in 2001 was his arrogant behaviour.” Really? So one guy accidentally stops a terrorist and now that’s part of the criteria for determining all other terrorists too? That’s like saying because one time I got sick after eating a piece of pizza all pizza must therefore make me sick – not the most logical assumption.

So how well does this screening work? Well, “For every person correctly identified as a a high-risk passenger, a further 86 were misidentified.” Great job guys.

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %