[declan.mccullagh at gmail.com: [Politech] Feds begin "behavior monitoring" of air travelers this year [econ]]

[Tyler Durden]

>Years ago when the new security precautions were put in place,
>security experts had nothing but criticism. The model they said should
>be followed (obviously in the expectation that it was completely
>impractical for America), that they pointed to as successful, was the
>Israeli airline El Al. Despite Israel's place as the principle target
>for terrorist action, El Al has had an astonishingly good record at
>flying safely. What was their secret? Exactly the kind of intensive,
>personalized attention which is now being criticized. El Al
>investigators are trained to observe passengers closely, to ask them
>questions and watch for just the signs of nervousness and evasion
>which this Ivan Eland treats with such mockery.

Yeah, but there's a big difference. The Israelis probably have actual Agents 
doing this work.
We've got minimum-wage, one-step-above-welfare high school dropouts doing 
the work.

Witness the recent "screening" of a 4-year-old whose name was on the Do Not 
Fly list. That's the kind of quality individuals we have deciding who can 
fly and who can't.

-TD