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Wednesday, August 01, 2018

About That TSA Profiling for 'Quiet Skies'

In a scoop over the weekend, the Boston Globe reported, “Federal air marshals have begun following ordinary US citizens not suspected of a crime or on any terrorist watch list and collecting extensive information about their movements and behavior under a new domestic surveillance program that is drawing criticism from within the agency.” The program is called “Quiet Skies.” An internal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) bulletin outlines the objective as decreasing threats by “unknown or partially known terrorists; and to identify and provide enhanced screening to higher risk travelers before they board aircraft based on analysis of terrorist trends, trade-craft and associations.”

Many are raising Fourth Amendment objections over the program. Much like errantly ending up on the terrorist watch list, citizens have little recourse for removal — in fact, most profiling subjects may never even know they were singled out. Moreover, you don’t have to do anything wrong to end up being profiled; certain behaviors that don’t seem all that unusual are enough.

More here

2 comments:

lm said...

But wait.

What about all the people who never do anything wrong?
They get watched, too? Oh NOooooooooo!!!
There is the flaw in the "Why worry? I don't do anything wrong" on-your-knees-all-the-time cheerleader theory of politics and justice.
SOMEONE ELSE decides what is right or wrong.
It doesn't even really have to be wrong.....all you were doing was going to Boston to make funeral arrangements and ended up picking up a Federal tail.
I know, I know...you weren't doing anything wrong. You are STILL in the system now. And forever.
If all they have to say to you is "it's for your own good!!" and you fall to your knees in worship at the flawless logic in that mantra, you should just save "we, the people" some time later --- shoot yourself in the head right now.
You will be stunningly useless later, anyway.
We'll be trying to save ammo, too.
Keep cheering!

Anonymous said...

This works very well in Israel. We should absolutely profile here.