Wired News: Nun Terrorized by Terror Watch
This is a liitle bit scary... The terrorist watch list has an AFGHANI MAN using an alias of McPhee on it... and they start stopping an AMERICAN WOMAN because her surname is McPhee.....
I actually think I can see why something like this might happen. I reckon that the culture in this environment is one where everyone is really scared of making a mistake that leads to a successful terrorist attack so they follow instructions to the letter, no matter how stupid..
The only problem is that that approach ignores the opportunity cost and allows people to avoid your checks
- if you spend loads of time with people who are not really suspects, there's less time to look for people who are...
- if you rely on stupid basic measures like surnames, then it's really easy for someone who needs to (and doesn't mind breaking the law), to avoid them...
