My response to expansion of TSA bodyscanners

[jmdrake]

Hello all. It's becoming increasingly more difficult to fly without being subjected to scanners. I know someone is reading this and thinking "What planet is he on? Everybody gets scanned". Well up until this year there was a pretty decent loophole. You see within reasonable driving distance (1 to 2 hours) of most airports with scanners there have been airports without scanners. For instance I live in Nashville. Chattanooga didn't have scanners.....until last month. I've just been checking and found that quite a few airports like this have recently had scanners added. I thought we were broke? :rolleyes: And sorry Rand. I love you, but a "trusted traveler program" is not the answer. I shouldn't have to be fingerprinted, answer a bunch of questions and be put in a database just so I can't get the possibility of not being scanned. (That's right. If you read the fine print of the trusted traveler program it's still possible for them to scan you.) Anyway, while reading about how scanners were being added to yet another airport near me, I ran across this comment.

http://www.lex18.com/news/tsa-full-body-scanners-coming-to-lexington-airport
I'm sure their are mixed feelings and I don't fly much at all..but I do like knowing that the new scanner is a GENERIC image (not like the earlier versions) and that it eliminates hands of strangers patting me down!!! Let's face it..Since our terrorist attacks, it's more obvious that no one is safe! I am not going to completely appose something that could save us!

I'm sure this person was well meaning. I'm sure she believes what she wrote. But sadly it's misinformation. So I posted this response in as diplomatic a fashion as possible. I'm reposting it here because I believe the "infowar" we have to fight about this is imperative. We have to be nice about it. But we have to give people as much of the facts as necessary to shake up their worldview. Feel free to cut, paste and or edit my response when posting on other message boards, blog posts, news comment sections etc.


The new "generic" scanners still record images. As late as Feb. 2012 (this year) there have been a complaint of TSA workers oogling images of a woman through the scanner and making her go through again because she had a "cute figure". (See: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/15/tsa-says-woman-has-cute-figure-asks-for-three-body-scans/)

Just because software can be set to show a "cookie cutter" image to the general public doesn't mean it can't be reset.

And these scanners do not protect you from terrorism. The government's own GAO report concluded that these scanners would not have stopped the underwear bomber.
(See: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/scanners-part3/)

Nor was it needed to stop him. The Obama administration admitted to congress that the underwear bomber was let on the plane on purpose.
(See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN_33ojupTc)

More recent tests show that the scanners can be fooled into even letting metal object through. TSA workers who have complained about this have been fired.
(See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111417/TSA-nude-body-scanners-Jonathan-Corbett-video-exposes-loophole.html

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CV_tJv7P2o)

And also there is the cancer risk to consider. Sure our government CLAIMS they are safe. They also told the 9/11 first responders that the air at ground zero was fit to breathe even though it wasn't and many have died or are dying of lung diseases. The European Union has decided to ban these scanners to to cancer concerns. Is stopping a potential terrorist worth increased deaths from cancer?

(See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2062608/Naked-airport-scanners-banned-fears-cause-cancer.html)

Thankfully there is a better alternative. A few airports use sniffer technology. It does NOT look at your body. Instead it blows air on you and sniffs for bomb residue. This combined with already available metal detection technology gives better much security than the naked body scanners without nearly as much of a privacy invasion or any possible cancer risk.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqb0-fgGJU8
http://www.securityinfowatch.com/press_release/10558928/tsa-purchases-147-ge-entryscan-explosives-detection-portals

Why has the TSA been pushing the scanners instead? Could it be because former Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff benefits financially from them?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/23/fear_pays_chertoff_n_787711.html

Whatever the reason, it's time for Americans to get the facts and stand up and be counted. The naked body scanners are an unwelcome and unnecessary intrusion on our most basic freedoms.

[KCIndy]

That's a very well written response!

And since you've given permission, I'm going to bookmark this for reference. You're absolutely correct when you say that we need to present people with the facts, and it needs to be done gently and persuasively. Yelling, ranting, and name calling are antithetical to our efforts. Your post presents the facts in an extremely well reasoned manner.

[Anti Federalist]

OPT OUT!!!

If just 10 - 15 percent of the flying public did this, as I do on a regular basis, the whole thing would grind to halt and TSA would be forced to remove them or stop using them.

But, that's a pipe dream.

You can't get .00015 percent of people to do anything to stand up for their rights.

As so many sheep, literally, just placidly complying and holding their hands up.

I see it all the time.

[Lucille]

http://www.lex18.com/news/tsa-full-b...ington-airport
I'm sure their are mixed feelings and I don't fly much at all..but I do like knowing that the new scanner is a GENERIC image (not like the earlier versions) and that it eliminates hands of strangers patting me down!!! Let's face it..Since our terrorist attacks, it's more obvious that no one is safe! I am not going to completely appose something that could save us!

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
--H. L. Mencken

It's important to note that the USA escorted the underwear bomber onto that plane (http://haskellfamily.blogspot.com/2012/02/victim-impact-statement.html) and after that, porno-scanning was implemented.


On Christmas Day 2009, my wife and I were returning from an African safari and had a connecting flight through Amsterdam. As we waited for our flight, we sat on the floor next to the boarding gate. What I witnessed while sitting there and subsequent events have changed my life forever. While I sat there, I witnessed Umar dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, being escorted around security by a man in a tan suit who spoke perfect American English and who aided Umar in boarding without a passport. The airline gate worker initially refused Umar boarding until the man in the tan suit intervened. [...]

Umar was a known terrorist, was being followed, and the U.S. allowed him into the U.S. so that it could catch Umar's accomplices. I was once again shocked and saddened when Michael Leiter of the National Counter terrorism Center admitted during these same hearings that intentionally letting terrorists into the U.S. was a frequent practice of the U.S. Government. I cannot fully explain my sadness, disappointment and fear when I realized that my government allowed an attack on me intentionally.
[...]
In closing I will just say that regardless of how the media and government try to shape the public perception of this case, I am convinced that Umar was given an intentionally defective bomb by a U.S. Government agent and placed on our flight without showing a passport or going through security, to stage a false terrorist attack to be used to implement various government policies.

We don't fly. We won't be porno-scanned and irradiated, or molested by those blue-gloved goons.

How the US Uses Sexual Humiliation as a Political Tool To Control the Masses (http://lewrockwell.com/orig11/wolf-n4.1.1.html)

[HOLLYWOOD]

You forgot the DHS profiteers, which is a huge reason for scanners...

http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee332/McLieberman/Chertoff.png

[Anti Federalist]

We don't fly. We won't be porno-scanned and irradiated, or molested by those blue-gloved goons.

How the US Uses Sexual Humiliation as a Political Tool To Control the Masses (http://lewrockwell.com/orig11/wolf-n4.1.1.html)

I wish it was that easy, just not flying.

TSA is expanding to buses, trains and roadways as we speak.

[azxd]

Former TSA head says knives should be allowed on planes (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=tsa knives on planes&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnow.msn.com%2Fnow%2F0414-tsa-knives-liquids.aspx&ei=MuOOT5r_Mqm02gXe09H6Cw&usg=AFQjCNEuf2VVIHaPuX0NITmFDlyP4JuwXg) ... Listen to Paul and we'll be carrying soon enough.

[Lucille]

I wish it was that easy, just not flying.

TSA is expanding to buses, trains and roadways as we speak.

;P I've heard that, but I think I'm in denial.


“If people think they can avoid the TSA by staying away from airports, they’re going to be in for a rude awakening,” Watson noted. “TSA is clearly engaged in a total takeover of society and plans to have its agents searching, patting down, scanning and harassing Americans at all levels of society, not just at transport hubs but at public events, in the street and on highways and roads across the country (http://www.infowars.com/more-states-accept-tsa-vipr-teams-at-transportation-hubs/).”

On a related note, DH has been working in the Constitution-free zone, and has to pass through a checkpoint every time he leaves it. The goons set the dogs on his vehicle now every time, tapping on the truck saying things to the dog like, "Go ahead, boy. Here, boy." An AZ fed court ruled it was A-OK to go snooping like that, and the police state goons took full advantage of it as soon as the ruling was handed down.

U.S. Court Gives Thumbs-Up to Snoopy Checkpoints Near-ish the Border (http://reason.com/blog/2012/04/05/federal-court-gives-another-thumbs-up-to)


A recent federal ruling in Arizona reinforces the growing use of border stops conducted far from the border, and intended for border security purposes in general, and immigration control in particular, to enforce pretty much any law of interest to the federal government. This, points out theNewspaper.com, despite a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that such roadblocks aren't supposed to turn into criminal fishing expeditions.

[Anti Federalist]

Former TSA head says knives should be allowed on planes (http://www.ronpaulforums.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=tsa knives on planes&source=web&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CCwQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnow.msn.com%2Fnow%2F0414-tsa-knives-liquids.aspx&ei=MuOOT5r_Mqm02gXe09H6Cw&usg=AFQjCNEuf2VVIHaPuX0NITmFDlyP4JuwXg) ... Listen to Paul and we'll be carrying soon enough.

I'm old enough to remember when you could carry (unloaded) firearms in your carry on bags.

[jmdrake]

OPT OUT!!!

If just 10 - 15 percent of the flying public did this, as I do on a regular basis, the whole thing would grind to halt and TSA would be forced to remove them or stop using them.

But, that's a pipe dream.

You can't get .00015 percent of people to do anything to stand up for their rights.

As so many sheep, literally, just placidly complying and holding their hands up.

I see it all the time.

Opt at and gum up the works from too many patdowns? Okay if I'm not flying with my kids. Not okay otherwise. The key though is educating the public. Sadly more and more people are falling for the "They need to do this to keep us safe" routine. The TSA abuse was brought up in our prayer group recently. One well meaning lady said "I don't like it, but I don't want a bomb on the plane. And don't the new machines not show a true image"? I told here about the recent story of the lady being forced to go through multiple times and being told by TSA agents that she had a "cute figure" and that those machine setting can be changes. She acknowledged that that was abuse. I didn't go into my whole dissertation on the TSA because I didn't want to take over the discussion. But I need to boil this down to a well put together flier that I can put into people's hands.

[jmdrake]

I didn't miss that part, but thanks for re-emphasizing it. ;)

Why has the TSA been pushing the scanners instead? Could it be because former Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff benefits financially from them?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/1..._n_787711.html

Good picture by the way.


You forgot the DHS profiteers, which is a huge reason for scanners...

http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/ee332/McLieberman/Chertoff.png

[drummergirl]

All the radiation safety professionals I know opt out. Just saying...

[Anti Federalist]

Opt at and gum up the works from too many patdowns? Okay if I'm not flying with my kids. Not okay otherwise.

Not passing judgement, you understand, but nobody should be flying with minor children, ever, period.

Whether it's a porno scan or full pat down, it's child abuse, I think, and you're going to get one or the other or both.