[Via the Independent Institute. Another reason to
get your own pilot's
license for shorter flights. It's not that
expensive. See
http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/ and, for a $59
introductory flight:
http://www.beapilot.com/ --Declan]
---
AIRPORT SCREENING TO BECOME MORE INTRUSIVE, BUT NOT
MORE EFFECTIVE
This year the U.S. Transportation Security Agency
will begin behavior
monitoring of airplane passengers at 40 major
American airport, reports
Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's
Center on Peace &
Liberty. "The screeners," writes Eland in his latest
op-ed, "will look
for 'suspicious' signs that might indicate a
passenger could be a
terrorist: having dry lips or a throbbing carotid
artery (I'm not
kidding), failure to make eye contact with or say
hello to the
screener,
or evasive or slow answers to casual questions asked
by the screener."
Eland notes several flaws with this approach: It
hasn't been
field-tested for real-world effectiveness. It could
easily transform
into racial profiling. It fails to reduce the
underlying causes of
anti-U.S. terrorism. Terrorists who have practiced
looking innocent
could circumvent it easily. What, then, is the
program good for?
"Since the behavior detection program is unlikely to
catch many
professional terrorists, perhaps its real goal is to
improve the morale
of the unloved screeners by giving the public some
incentive to be nice
to them," writes Eland. "So next time you travel by
air, don't forget
your fake smile and ChapStick."
Will it last? Independent Institute Senior Fellow
Robert Higgs suggests
that the public probably will tolerate greater
intrusions by TSA
airport
screeners. "Strange as it might seem, most people
get used to being
treated as criminals or inmates in a concentration
camp," Higgs wrote
last month. "Americans are no exception. Keep
beating them down, and
eventually you will produce a thoroughly cowed and
compliant herd, a
mass of pliant raw material in the hands of their
political masters,
perfectly willing to sacrifice their dignity rather
than irritate an
airport-security thug and be made to miss a flight.
And heaven forbid
that they write their congressional representative
to complain. Such
impudence might get them placed on some black list
at the TSA or even
at
the FBI. Best to keep quiet, stay in line, act as
they are ordered to
act."
See "Chatting Up the TSA," by Ivan Eland (12/30/05)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1644
SPANISH TRANSLATION:
"Adulando a la AdministraciŪn de la Seguridad del
Transporte"
http://www.elindependent.org/articulos/article.asp?id=1644
Also see "Traveling Sheep," by Robert Higgs
(12/14/05)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1636
"Oveja Viajera"
http://www.elindependent.org/articulos/article.asp?id=1636
To purchase THE EMPIRE HAS NO CLOTHES: U.S. Foreign
Policy Exposed, by
Ivan Eland, see
http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=54
To purchase PUTTING "DEFENSE" BACK IN U.S. DEFENSE
POLICY, by Ivan
Eland, see
http://www.independent.org/store/book_detail.asp?bookID=19
Center on Peace & Liberty (Ivan Eland, director)
http://www.independent.org/research/copal/
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