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Yes, a lot of people don't understand that. To make it concrete: Do you skip screening of the young pregnant Irish woman? I hope not. That was Anne-Marie Murph

by nonce42 13y ago

Yes, a lot of people don't understand that. To make it concrete: Do you skip screening of the young pregnant Irish woman? I hope not. That was Anne-Marie Murphy, whose boyfriend put Semtex and a timer in her bag. [1] Do you skip screening of the attractive blonde woman? Sorry, that was hijacker Leila Khaled with a blonde wig and hidden grenades. [2] (These are both very interesting stories and I recommend reading the links below.) [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindawi_affair http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindawi_affair [2] http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-09-28/news/0109280226_1_hijacking-lev-el-al http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2001-09-28/news/0109280226_...

ivanca 13y ago
Screener or not screener is just as useless; so what are you hoping for exactly? (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912.html#.UvSAWfldX7p http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-...)
thaumasiotes 13y ago
Well, you have to skip screening some people (in fact, most of them). Given the presence of holes in your net, positioning them over young pregnant women is going to give you much better results than just about any other policy imaginable. The Anne-Marie Murphy example is interesting; as you point out, she was sabotaged and didn't know she was carrying explosives. So -- she would pass demographic profiling with flying colors, as she should. She didn't want to do anything. The very commonly suggested approach of behavioral profiling is also useless here. People who believe they're not carrying explosives act exactly the same as people who really aren't carrying explosives. Network analysis ("passenger's boyfriend is Arab") could flag her. Would you support that?
Zigurd 13y ago
If you really believe that then you have to think that TSA Pre makes a complete farce of the system. Or that it always was a complete farce.

by nonce42 13y ago

ivanca 13y ago

Screener or not screener is just as useless; so what are you hoping for exactly? (http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912.html#.UvSAWfldX7p http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-...)

thaumasiotes 13y ago

Well, you have to skip screening some people (in fact, most of them). Given the presence of holes in your net, positioning them over young pregnant women is going to give you much better results than just about any other policy imaginable. The Anne-Marie Murphy example is interesting; as you point out, she was sabotaged and didn't know she was carrying explosives. So -- she would pass demographic profiling with flying colors, as she should. She didn't want to do anything. The very commonly suggested approach of behavioral profiling is also useless here. People who believe they're not carrying explosives act exactly the same as people who really aren't carrying explosives. Network analysis ("passenger's boyfriend is Arab") could flag her. Would you support that?

Zigurd 13y ago

If you really believe that then you have to think that TSA Pre makes a complete farce of the system. Or that it always was a complete farce.