Which Travelers Have 'Hostile Intent'? Biometric Device May Have the Answer

The Wall Street Journal ^ | 8-14-06 | JONATHAN KARP and LAURA MECKLER

[The Lumster]

At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones.

With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses -- blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels -- that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions.

The trial of the Israeli-developed system represents an effort by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to determine whether technology can spot passengers who have "hostile intent." In effect, the screening system attempts to mechanize Israel's vaunted airport-security process by using algorithms, artificial-intelligence software and polygraph principles.

[The Lumster]

who mistakenly assume that people who have actually killed Americans by the thousands are the real problem.

I'm not sure why you refuse to see the problem here. I am not against defending this nation.

I think we should have closed the borders and revoked ALL visa's after 911
I think we should be searching out and removing all non citizens from this country while we are at war
I think we should not allow Muslims in the U.S. Armed Forces
I think we should profile Middle Eastern men and women in airports
I do not think that a government that refuses to take the most sensible steps to protect us can be trusted to defend and protect the constitution
I think using a machine to determine 'intent' is a danger to your freedom and mine

[Ancesthntr]

...only The Shadow knows.

People - even the suicidal/homocidal Moslem variant of questionable intelligence - can be trained to outwit any machine.

[Publius6961]

How do you prove that you don't have 'hostile intent' when the machine says you do?

The same way it has always been done; lack of means and opportunity.

Every killer is guilty of "only" hostile intent, until he pulls the trigger or plunges the knife.