TSA Screeners Begin Chatting Up Logan Travelers

If you're traveling through Logan anytime soon, be prepared for chatty TSA screeners. It's in the name of security, not politeness. As part of the agency's expanding strategy to try to weed out terrorists, all passengers in one of the Boston airport's terminals will have to answer questions from a TSA officer upon providing their boarding pass and ID, reports the Los Angeles Times. The pilot program began this week and will likely be expanded to airports around the country eventually.

"If all you're doing is watching people standing in line, that's better than doing nothing, and they've had quite a bit of success," says a UC professor who's an expert in the field. "But I would expect that by asking a few fairly innocent questions—'What's the purpose of your trip?'—that will increase accuracy." Screeners will be trained to look for telltale signs of lying. (More TSA stories.)