This Is How TSA Decides if You’re Acting Like a Terrorist

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Do not enterBy Dustin Volz. Next time you go through airport security, do your best to avoid yawning, whistling, or complaining too much: Any of those behaviors could make you look like a terrorist in the eyes of a Transportation Security Administration screening agent, according to newly disclosed government documents.

A secret 92-point checklist, obtained and published Friday by The Intercept, reveals for the first time what kind of passenger behavior can merit a red flag for TSA agents responsible for pulling possible terrorists and criminals out of airport security lines.

The checklist reveals a step-by-step process for assessing whether passengers deserve additional scrutiny. Those deemed suspicious under “observation and behavior analysis” are pulled aside and searched for “unusual items” such as almanacs and prepaid calling cards. During the inspection, TSA agents are also instructed to look for “signs of deception,” which can include a fast rate of eye-blinking.

Other suspicious signs listed include exaggerated yawning, gazing down, a pale face due to a recent beard shaving, widely open staring eyes, wearing of “improper attire,” and arriving late for a flight.

The program, known as Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT, has been in use nationwide since 2007 and has cost taxpayers upwards of $1 billion dollars. (Read more from “This Is How TSA Decides If You Might Be Acting Like a Terrorist” HERE)

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TSA Terror Checklist Includes Body Odor, ‘Exaggerated Yawning’

By Nick Gass. You might want to clear your throat before going through the airport security line. And avoid “exaggerated yawning” and “repetitive grooming gestures.” And mind your body odor.

Those are just a few of the signals that you could be a terrorist, according to Transportation Safety Administration documents obtained and published by The Intercept on Friday.

The program, which began in 2007 and has cost the TSA $1 billion, is called Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT. The checklist tasks “behavioral detection officers” with assigning varying levels points based on stress factors (one point), fear factors (two points) and what it calls deception factors (three points).

Stress factors include: avoiding eye contact with security personnel, a pale face “from recent shaving of beard,” an “obvious ‘Adam’s Apple’ jump” when asked to go through screening procedures, among others. Fear factors include: a “cold penetrating stare,” “bulges in clothing,” “individuals who are seemingly unrelated but display identical dress or luggage,” and showing an “unusual interest” in security officers and their routine. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Where is this in the Constitution?! Feds Spend over $100,000 to Autodetect Cyberbullying

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BLD140591The National Science Foundation (NSF) is financing the creation of a system for the “automatic detection” of cyberbullying.

The project was awarded this month to Rutgers University, which has received $117,102 so far. The real-time, automatic detection of hurtful online speech is necessary, according to the NSF grant, because cyberbullying is a “critical social problem.” The grant said 40 percent of American teenagers have reported being cyberbullied.

“This project aims to define new approaches for automatic detection of cyberbullying by integrating the relevant research in social sciences and computer science,” the grant said.

The project will involve searching for keywords and studying the relationships between teenagers who send and receive mean online messages.

“Specifically, this research will advance the state of the art in cyberbullying detection beyond textual analysis by also giving due attention to the social relationships in which these bullying messages are exchanged,” the grant said. (Read more from “Feds Spend over $100,000 to Autodetect Cyberbullying” HERE)

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You’ll Never Guess Why This Boy’s ‘Military Haircut’ Got Him a Suspension Threat

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milA young boy’s high and tight haircut meant to honor his soldier-stepbrother earned him the threat of suspension from an elementary school named for a Medal of Honor recipient, and the fallout from the incident has led a Tennessee school district to increase security measures.

Adam Stinnett went to Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, about a 90-minute drive southeast from Nashville, on March 9 sporting the new hairdo. His mother, Amy Stinnett, said he’d requested the high and tight to be more like Spc. Justin Bloodworth, his active-duty stepbrother.

Adam was written up by the principal, who thought the haircut was against school policy banning “mohawk haircuts or other extreme cuts.”

haircut

Amy Stinnett disagreed. Adam went back Tuesday with the same haircut.

After his mother received an email from the principal and stopped by for a face-to-face chat, it was made clear that Adam’s hairstyle would have to change before he returned to school. (Read more from “You’ll Never Guess Why This Boy’s ‘Military Haircut’ Got Him a Suspension Threat” HERE)

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Senate Adopts Worthless Iran Sanctions Amendment

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somethingAnyone following the headlines from Washington’s semi-annual marathon “vote-a-rama” on the budget resolution might come away thinking that the Senate voted unanimously to re-impose sanctions on Iran. Here is a smattering of headlines with regard to the Kirk amendment on Iran, which passed the Senate 100-0 yesterday:

Reuters: “US Senate votes unanimously for amendment to send message on Iran”

Yahoo News: “US Senate threatens Iran with new sanctions”

The Hill: “Senators endorse Iran sanctions in budget vote”

In reality, last night’s vote has demonstrated to Iran that neither party is serious about standing up to their fomentation of terror and pursuit of nuclear weapons.

To begin with, any vote on an amendment to the budget resolution is non-binding because the budget resolutions are never signed by the president or become law. They merely serve as the blueprint from which Congress crafts the annual appropriations bills that are sent to the president’s desk. The purpose of these amendments is purely for messaging – to draw a sharp contrast with the opposing party.

Instead of putting Democrats in a rough spot and ratcheting up much needed pressure on so-called pro-Israel Democrats for their support of Obama’s dangerous Iran policy, Republicans let them off the hook and gave them an escape hatch.

Originally, the Kirk amendment would have re-imposed sanctions on Iran immediately following any violations of the agreement they accepted in return for negotiations in 2013. They could have easily passed this amendment with a simple majority and forced Democrats to choose between Obama and doing the right thing.

But Democrats begged them to change the language. Republicans obliged and rewrote the language to call for sanctions only “if the President cannot make a determination and certify that Iran is complying with” the agreement.

Talk about the fox guarding the hen house. Obama has sold out Israel and even his relationship with European and Arab countries in order to give Iran whatever it wants. He is now agreeing to allow Iran to maintain nuclear centrifuges in fortified bunkers! There is no way Obama will ever certify that Iran is not complying with the deal. That would be an anathema to his broader agenda.

Now Democrats get to send out press releases evincing a faux tough stance against Iran, while protecting Obama’s simultaneous war on Israel and embrace of Iran. It completely takes the pressure off of them to join meaningful efforts to rein in Obama’s dastardly foreign policy.

When will Republicans stop worshiping bipartisanship and stand on a morally clear position? (See “Senate Adopts Worthless Iran Sanctions Amendment”, originally posted HERE)

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Germanwings Captain Tried to Break into Locked Cockpit Door ‘with an Axe’ as Plane Was Descending

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German WingsBy Heather Saul. The captain of the doomed Germanwings plane reportedly used an axe to break down the cockpit door in the final moments before his co-pilot “intentionally” descended the plane, German media has suggested.

Evidence from the cockpit voice recorder suggested the captain of the Airbus A320, who The Independent understands is named Patrick Sondenheimer, left the flightdeck mid-journey, presumably to go to the toilet. Prosecutors say he returned to find his co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had barricaded himself inside and had sent the plane into descent over the French Alps.

French investigators said the captain can be heard asking “several times” for access after identifying himself, but received no response. He then banged on the door before trying to forcefully gain entry, with one investigator telling The New York Times: “You can hear he is trying to smash the door down.” (Read more from “Germanwings Captain Tried to Break into Locked Cockpit Door ‘with an Axe’ as Plane Was Descending” HERE)

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Germanwings Crash Co-Pilot Hid Illness from Airline

By Celine Jankowiak with Deborah Cole in Berlin. The Germanwings co-pilot who crashed his Airbus into the French Alps, killing all 150 aboard, hid a serious illness from the airline, prosecutors said Friday amid reports he was severely depressed. [Problem with this story line: depressed individuals generally don’t commit mass murder]

The black box voice recorder indicates that Andreas Lubitz, 27, locked his captain out of the cockpit on Tuesday and deliberately flew Flight 4U 9525 into a mountainside, French officials say, in what appears to have been a case of suicide and mass murder.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that all the signs were “pointing towards an act that we can’t describe: criminal, crazy, suicidal”.

German prosecutors revealed that searches of Lubitz’s homes netted “medical documents that suggest an existing illness and appropriate medical treatment”, including “torn-up and current sick leave notes, among them one covering the day of the crash”.

They did not specify the illness. (Read more from this story HERE)

[For reports in the German press that the co-pilot was a recent Muslim convert, click HERE]

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American Idol Contestant Kimberly Henderson Tells Touching Story of Abortion and How God Changed Her Mind at the Last Minute [+video]

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kimberly-hendersonAmerican Idol contestant Kimberly Henderson hasn’t let three rejections from the show’s auditions break her spirit, but a recent story she shared on her Facebook page has gained her more respect from Christians than a win on the show ever could.

“Two years ago today I was sitting in an abortion clinic thinking not having Vaida was best for me,” Henderson wrote about her now-two-year-old daughter. “Well this date is forever burned in my brain. … I think that is God’s way of showing me that HIS plan is and will always be greater and bigger than anything and everything I’ve ever known”. . .

In the post, Kimberly shares another message she originally wrote on the day that she decided not to have the abortion. She describes being upset at her boyfriend at the time for cheating on her, and she made up her mind that she wouldn’t have his child.

But a string of events happened on her way to the abortion clinic that worked toward convincing Kimberly that God was trying to speak to her. Her other daughter was sick so she had to find a sitter last-minute, she got lost, and then her car broke down for 15 minutes, making her late for her appointment. But ultimately, it was a card that fell out of her purse as she searched for her driver’s license that changed her mind once and for all.

The card was given to her by a Christian couple and on the back was a powerful Bible verse: “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.” – Isaiah 41:10. (Read more from “American Idol Contestant Kimberly Henderson Tells Touching Story of Abortion and How God Changed Her Mind at the Last Minute [+video]” HERE)

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Senior Air Force Official Views Alaska’s Eielson to be Top Pick for F-35 Pacific Squadron

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Air ForceBy Military News. Eielson Air Force Base has “phenomenal assets” that make it attractive for basing new F-35 fighter jets, an Air Force official said Wednesday at a public scoping meeting.

“One of the reasons the Air Force is looking at Eielson is there used to be more squadrons assigned at Eielson Air Force Base than we currently have,” said Col. Michael Winkler. “We do have some decent capacity.”

Eielson’s 14,500-foot runway is long enough to land any aircraft in the Air Force, Winkler said. Ramp space can accommodate more than 130 aircraft. The base has good access to energy resources and a large munitions storage facility, he said.

“All of this current capacity has the Air Force thinking that Eielson is the preferred alternative in the Pacific,” Winkler said.

The Air Force considered eight other locations for the first Pacific squadron of high-tech F-35s, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported. The Air Force in August announced Eielson as the preferred alternative for the 48 aircraft. (Read more from “Air Force Official Touts Eielson as Best Pick for F-35 Pacific Squadron” HERE)

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Budget Cut Would Hit ‘Every Part’ of Air Force

By Barrie Barber. The return of sequestration would impact “every part” of the Air Force while the service branch has called for an end to downsizing the number of airmen in ranks and pushes to restore readiness and modernize an aging fleet, the service branch’s top civilian leader said.

In an exclusive interview Thursday with the Dayton Daily News, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said sequester-imposed spending caps may cut $10 billion from the budget the Air Force wants.

The secretary toured Wright-Patterson on Thursday and addressed more than 200 Air Force Institute of Technology master’s degree and doctoral graduates and more than 1,000 others gathered at a ceremony at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

“Ten billion is a big chunk of money and it would mean every part of our Air Force would be touched in some way,” she said in an interview. “It’s impossible to predict what that means for Wright-Patterson,” but it could strike programs like advanced engine research and raise the potential for a return of furloughs, she said.

In 2013, thousands of civil service workers were sent home for days at Wright-Patterson because of furloughs officials blamed on sequestration. Without action from Washington, sequestration is due to return in October, the start of the 2016 fiscal year. (Read more from this story HERE)

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The NSA Doesn’t Need to Spy on Your Calls to Learn Your Secrets; Facebook in Cahoots with US Surveillance Agencies

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NSAABy Bruce Schneier. Governments and coporations gather, store, and analyze the tremendous amount of data we chuff out as we move through our digitized lives. Often this is without our knowledge, and typically without our consent. Based on this data, they draw conclusions about us that we might disagree with or object to, and that can impact our lives in profound ways. We may not like to admit it, but we are under mass surveillance.

Much of what we know about the NSA’s surveillance comes from Edward Snowden, although people both before and after him also leaked agency secrets. As an NSA contractor, Snowden collected tens of thousands of documents describing many of the NSA’s surveillance activities. Then in 2013 he fled to Hong Kong and gave them to select reporters.

The first news story to break based on the Snowden documents described how the NSA collects the cell phone call records of every American. One government defense, and a sound bite repeated ever since, is that the data they collected is “only metadata.” The intended point was that the NSA wasn’t collecting the words we said during our phone conversations, only the phone numbers of the two parties, and the date, time, and duration of the call. This seemed to mollify many people, but it shouldn’t have. Collecting metadata on people means putting them under surveillance.

An easy thought experiment demonstrates this. Imagine that you hired a private detective to eavesdrop on someone. The detective would plant bugs in that person’s home, office, and car. He would eavesdrop on that person’s phone and computer. And you would get a report detailing that person’s conversations.

Now imagine that you asked the detective to put that person under surveillance. You would get a different but nevertheless comprehensive report: where he went, what he did, who he spoke to and for how long, who he wrote to, what he read, and what he purchased. That’s metadata. (Read more from “The NSA Doesn’t Need to Spy on Your Calls to Learn Your Secrets” HERE)

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Leave Facebook If You Don’t Want to Be Spied on, Warns EU

By Samuel Gibbs. The European Commission has warned EU citizens that they should close their Facebook accounts if they want to keep information private from US security services, finding that current Safe Harbour legislation does not protect citizen’s data.

The comments were made by EC attorney Bernhard Schima in a case brought by privacy campaigner Maximilian Schrems, looking at whether the data of EU citizens should be considered safe if sent to the US in a post-Snowden revelation landscape.

“You might consider closing your Facebook account, if you have one,” Schima told attorney general Yves Bot in a hearing of the case at the European court of justice in Luxembourg.

When asked directly, the commission could not confirm to the court that the Safe Harbour rules provide adequate protection of EU citizens’ data as it currently stands. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Feds: National Guardsman Plotted Attack for ISIS

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CousinsBy CBS News. A National Guardsman arrested for supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, had allegedly planned an attack on a military post in Illinois, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Army National Guard Spc. Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at Chicago Midway International Airport Wednesday night while he was attempting to fly to Cairo to allegedly join ISIS, the department said in a statement.

Members of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Chicago also arrested Edmonds’ cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, at his home in Aurora, Illinois . . .

The cousins allegedly told an FBI undercover employee their plan for an armed attack on the U.S. military facility in northern Illinois where Hasan Edmonds had been training.

According to court documents, an undercover FBI agent sent Edmonds a friend request on Facebook in late 2014, and in January, Edmonds and the agent exchanged a series of messages on Facebook, and Hasan allegedly discussed plans to travel overseas with his cousin to fight with ISIS extremists, CBS Chicago reported. (Read more from “Feds: National Guardsman Plotted Attack for ISIS” HERE)

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Aurora Cousins Charged in Plot to Join Islamic State, Attack Illinois Military Facility

By CBS Chicago. A national guardsman from Aurora and his cousin were arrested Wednesday night, for allegedly conspiring to join the Islamic State terrorist group and attack a Joliet military facility.

Federal prosecutors said 22-year-old Army National Guard Spc. Hasan Edmonds, 22, was arrested at Midway International Airport, while trying to fly to Cairo, Egypt. His cousin, 29-year-old Jonas Edmonds, was arrested at his home in Aurora. Each has been charged with conspiring to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization.

A lengthy affidavit filed in federal court outlines the investigation that resulted in this week’s charges. Both suspects made appearances in federal court Thursday.

Prosecutors said the two planned for Hasan Edmonds to travel overseas, to use his military training to fight with the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, while Jonas Edmonds would launch an attack on the National Guard facility where Hasan had been training. That facility is the Joliet headquarters for the 2nd Battalion, 129th Infantry.

According to court documents, an undercover FBI agent sent Hasan Edmonds a friend request on Facebook in late 2014, and in January, Hasan and the agent exchanged a series of messages on Facebook, and Hasan allegedly discussed plans to travel overseas with his cousin to fight with Islamic State extremists. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Stock Market Rigging Is No Longer a ‘Conspiracy Theory’

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FILES-US-FINANCE-ECONOMY-NYSEBy John Crudele. The stock market is rigged.

When I started making that claim years ago — and provided solid evidence — people scoffed. Some called it a conspiracy theory, tinfoil hats and that sort of stuff. Most people just ignored me . . .

With stock prices rushing far ahead of economic reality over the last six or so years, more experts in the financial markets are coming to the same conclusion — even if they don’t fully understand how it’s being rigged or the consequences.

Ed Yardeni, a longtime Wall Street guru who isn’t one of the clowns of the bunch, said flat out last week that the market was being propped up. “These markets are all rigged, and I don’t say that critically. I just say that factually,” he asserted on CNBC.

Yardeni’s claim is the most basic one: that the Federal Reserve won’t do anything that will upset Wall Street and, in fact, is doing all it can to help the stock market. (Read more from “Stock Market Rigging Is No Longer a ‘Conspiracy Theory'” HERE)

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Fed Market Gurus Prep Rate Hike amid Last-Minute Anxieties

By Jonathan Spicer. The New York Federal Reserve officials tasked with prying interest rates off the floor have been meeting with bankers and traders to plot how best to do it, amid deep uncertainty over how much control they will really have over short-term lending markets.

With the U.S. central bank expected to raise rates later this year, Simon Potter and his team of market technicians have the tricky job of implementing higher rates using some new and lightly tested tools as well as some that may not work as well as in the past. They’ll be operating under intense global scrutiny that’s centered on the prospects for the world’s biggest economy.

Even while testing new methods meant to sweep up trillions of dollars of reserves from financial markets, Potter’s team is preparing for volatility and to make on-the-fly adjustments when the time comes, according to interviews with Fed officials and market participants.

The trouble is that the federal funds market, the intra-bank trading pool traditionally used by the Fed to meet its policy goals, has shrunk to about a quarter of its pre-crisis size after more than six years of unprecedented monetary stimulus.

“There is a lot more uncertainty in the mechanical features of the outlook than people admit to,” said Joseph Abate, a money-market strategist at Barclays Capital. (Read more from this story HERE)

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