Boston is first U.S. airport to test new security technique

Along with luggage scans and removing shoes, getting through the security line in Boston's Logan International Airport may now include a brief conversation with a specially trained agent.

Beginning this week, all passengers in Logan's Terminal A will be peppered with questions by a Behavior Detection Officer just after they have their identification verified at the security checkpoint.

Officers will chat with passengers in what the Transportation Security Administration has dubbed a "casual greeting" conversation.

Based on physical cues or answers to questions during the dialogue, specially trained officers may detect suspicious behavior, said TSA spokesman Greg Soule.

This analysis will help determine if a passenger should go through additional screening at the security checkpoint and identify "potentially high-risk travelers," according to the

TSA.

Soule declined to elaborate on any of the questions or responses that would warrant further action.

Looking nervous and averting eye contact, however, are not the tell-tale signs of deception, said Richard Bloom, an aviation security expert and professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

He, too, declined to give away the cues he believed detection officers will analyze.

Experts often credit Israeli security specialists with doing much of the initial work on behavioral detection, said Bloom.

The expanded behavior detection program now underway at Logan is based on other international and domestic programs, said Soule, and will be tested over the next 60 days.

The TSA will consider the pilot program's results and wait times at security check points in order to determine if and how to expand the program more broadly, Soule said.

In Boston, Terminal A is home to Continental and Delta airlines. It's one of about a half dozen terminals at the airport, said Logan spokesman Phil Orlandella. Logan serves up to 50,000 passengers daily, he said.

Critics have said screening methods like this one could promote discriminatory profiling, but TSA's Soule said it would actually be prevented by having conversations with every single passenger in Terminal A and taking action based solely on reactions and answers.

"This program in no way is profiling passengers by race or ethnicity," he said.

Logan was the first airport to implement an observational screening technique in 2003. In those cases, a trained officer would look for passenger behavior that was suspicious. Then, based on a quick conversation, the officer might administer further security checks.

That program has rolled out to more than 160 airports and resulted in more than 2,000 arrests nationwide, Soule said.

Italy calls for NATO investigation

Italian officials are asking why NATO allegedly refused to help rescue passengers on a boat stranded in Libyan waters with numerous dead people aboard.

Italy asked NATO to investigate itself over claims it ignored calls Thursday to help rescue the ship's nearly 400 passengers. Dozens of the people on the overcrowded boat had died, reports said.

Among those rescued, 50 were immediately treated for dehydration and hypothermia; five others were hospitalized for more serious conditions.

The ship had been floating for six days after its engine broke down, ANSA, Italy's news agency, said.

Italian officials said they asked a NATO ship less than 30 miles away for help but NATO reportedly refused. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for NATO to investigate the allegations.

"NATO always responds and intervenes in emergency situations, in compliance with international law," said NATO spokesman David Taylor. "NATO ship commanders are well aware of these laws and act in accordance with the norms of SOLAS [Safety Of Life At Sea], which regulate the procedures to follow for rescues at sea."

ANSA said it is the second time in a week the Italian coast guard rescued boats fleeing Libya with dead bodies on board.

Italy's coast guard found 25 dead bodies on a ship crammed with 271 refugees fleeing Libya Monday. They were rescued off the Italian island of Lampedusa.

In another incident, two NATO jets reportedly passed over a vessel stranded off the Libyan coast in March. Of the 72 refugees on board, 61 eventually died after more than two weeks at sea. It was unclear what assistance pilots of the jets provided.