J.D. Tuccille Talks Bogus TSA Spidey Senses and Security Theater on RT

There’s no evidence that the Transportation Security
Administration’s Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques
program actually works, the Government Accountability Office
reported last week—for the third time. The GAO asked, given the
lack of scientific support for the approach, why the TSA is
deploying thousands of behavior detection officers, at a cost of
$200 million dollars per year, to exercise their spidey senses in
airport terminals.

Just days later, independent security researcher Evan Booth, of
Terminal Cornucopia, demonstrated that
you can build a grenade with materials purchased at the airport
after you pass through the TSA checkpoint. In the past,
he’s built incendiaries, crossbows, and other weapons on the same
principle.

As you can imagine, this provided the basis for an interesting
conversation about airport security with RT’s Ameera David.