TSA Full-Body Scanners: Protecting Passengers or Padding Pockets? [Security]

Pilots hate them . Passengers who avoid them get a groping . They’re the TSA full body scanners presently deployed at airports near you. Their effectiveness is unclear. What is obvious is that lobbying for them makes you a ton of money.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m thinking about airport security and stopping the terrorists before they may be able to cause a horrific mid-air explosion with their shoe bombs or dog bombs, or whatever it truly is they’re going to attempt to use to create terror within the airways. But how about a bit of rationality and good judgment?

Take effectiveness as an example. These scanners, for all their naked human goodness, cannot see through skin. It’s a gory thought, yes, but as it has been documented in movies and more importantly reality through the years, a dedicated bad guy doesn’t really mind hiding slightly PETN in his or his dog’s body cavity for a number of hours, since it’s going to be a one-way trip.

But safety, writes Washington Examiner Senior Examiner Columnist Timothy Carney , may well be a secondary concern of the so-called ” naked scanner” movement.

You see, there are basically three big players in terms of the entire body scanners you will note in a U.S. airport: l-3 Communications, Rapiscan and the yank Science and Engineering company. All three have made hundreds of millons of bucks since terror-related events like 9/11 and the ” Christmas Bomber” Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s failed try and blow up a passneger plane in 2009 (an attack, in the event you’ll remember, that the govt. Accountability office said would probably have not been prevented by full body scanners).

All three firms have cozy ties to sitting U.S. Representatives and lobbyists, from either side of the aisle. Writes Carney:

L-3 employs three different lobbying firms including Park Strategies, where former Sen. Al D’Amato, R-N.Y., plumps on the company’s behalf. Back in 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed D’Amato to the President’s Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Also on Park’s L-3 account is former Appropriations staffer Kraig Siracuse [...] Rapiscan’s lobbyists include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee [...] AS&E’s lobbying team is impressive, including Tom Blank, a former deputy administrator for the TSA. Fellow AS&E lobbyist Chad Wolf was an assistant administrator at TSA and an aide to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who sits on the Transportation and Defense subcommittees of Appropriations. Finally, Democratic former Rep. Bud Cramer could also be an AS&E lobbyist – he sat on the Defense and Transportation subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee.

Then needless to say there’s the ridicule and teasing many of us will never know is occurring, because it’s being done behind closed doors by TSA officials when the airport’s closed down for the night.

During training on the scanners, a gaggle of TSA workers noted and mocked the genitalia of the guinea-pig employee sent throughout the scanner. The man soon beat down one of his mockers and was arrested for assault. After assurances by contractors and the TSA that the nude images of the scanners’ subjects weren’t being stored and saved, the U.S. Marshals Service admitted that it had stored thousands of such images.

Oops! Ah, hell, as we’ve spoke of here before, sometimes it’s being done in broad daylight too!

Lastly, there’s something to be said of Britain’s ol’ axiom (and current Internet meme) ” Keep Calm and Keep it up.”

[H]ow far are we willing to head to forestall weapons or bombs from getting on airplanes? Before decade, terrorists on airplanes have killed basically 3,000 people – all on sooner or later. Besides the fact that the Christmas Day bomber had succeeded, the number can be under 3,500. Those are horrible deaths. But in that same period, more than 150,000 people had been murdered within the Country. We haven’t put the full U.S. on lockdown – or maybe murder capitals like Detroit, New Orleans and Baltimore

Indeed! Can you imagine the shitstorm that will descend upon us all if america government locked down the country due to several murders? Pandemonium!

Sorry pro-naked scanner people, but I’m with the pilots, the flight attendants, disgruntled passengers and Ben Franklin on this one. We want to position things into perspective.

If we’re going to spend hundreds of millions on something, I’d rather or not it’s something effective that’s truly benefitting my fellow passenger, not some lobbyist and their current client. [ The Washington Examiner via Daring Fireball ]

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This post is tagged: accountability office, airport security, engineering company, l 3 communications, president george h w bush, secondary concern, washington examiner