How to talk to TSA screeners
Following up on the story on behavioral profiling at TSA that I mentioned in this post, Brian Dickerson at the Detroit Free-Press has a helpful guide on “How to talk to a TSA screener”. Some highlights:
SCREENER: Where you headed today, young fella?
RIGHT: I’m visiting my grandparents in Des Moines.
WRONG: I have a one-way ticket to Paradise!
And:
By contrast, the passenger who answers a screener’s questions in a forthright, self-confident manner is unlikely to arouse suspicion, regardless of her answers.
SCREENER: What a lovely pair of earrings! Where did you get them?
PASSENGER B, smiling brightly as she makes eye contact with her interrogator: I obtained them in exchange for sexual favors at a Taliban trading post outside Kabul. I got a pair just like them for my sister, but the CIA had her killed before our mutual friend in Frankfurt could deliver them.
SCREENER: What a pity. She would have loved them! Have a safe trip, ma’am.