Body Scanners – Page 2 – Infinite Unknown

Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Use Body-Scanners On Pedestrians, Train Passengers

March 5, 2011 by Infinite

Now the TSA denies what the DHS proposed before:

– Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Proposes Full-Body Scanners For Trains, Boats, Metro (The Hill)

– US: Full-Body Scanners Popping Up At Courthouses (AP)

Body-scanners are so ‘safe’:

– Inside TSA Body Scanners: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart Human DNA

– Review of the TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife

– Dr. Russell Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit

– TSA: Top US Government Officials Exempt From Screenings

– Airport Body Scanners: Why You should REJECT ‘Routine’ NON-Diagnostic X-ray

Full documents obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act request

Epic Body Scan Foia Docs Feb 2011[1]

Updated with the TSA’s response below, which denies implementing airport-style scans in mass transit.

(Forbes) — Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as “a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points of interest” to “covert inspection of moving subjects” employing the same backscatter imaging technology currently used in American airports.

The 173-page collection of contracts and reports, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, includes contracts with Siemens Corporations, Northeastern University, and Rapiscan Systems. The study was expected to cost more than $3.5 million.

One project allocated to Northeastern University and Siemens would mount backscatter x-ray scanners and video cameras on roving vans, along with other cameras on buildings and utility poles, to monitor groups of pedestrians, assess what they carried, and even track their eye movements. In another program, the researchers were asked to develop a system of long range x-ray scanning to determine what metal objects an individual might have on his or her body at distances up to thirty feet.

“This would allow them to take these technologies out of the airport and into other contexts like public streets, special events and ground transit,” says Ginger McCall, an attorney with EPIC. “It’s a clear violation of the fourth amendment that’s very invasive, not necessarily effective, and poses all the same radiation risks as the airport scans.”

TSA Source: Undercover TSA Agent Successfully Smuggled A Gun Past Full-Body Scanners

February 22, 2011 by Infinite

– Former Governor Jesse Ventura Sues Homeland Security And TSA For Sexual Assault Over Unconstitutional Body Scans And Pat-Downs

– Homeland Security’s Offensive Comments At The We Won’t Fly Blog – Here Is One Of Them: “Fuck you, Fuck all you cocksuckers, you wont change anything. ride the bus, TSA is here to stay there doing a great job keeping americia safe.”

An undercover TSA agent was able to get through security at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport with a handgun during testing of the enhanced-imaging body scanners, according to a high-ranking, inside source at the Transportation Security Administration.

The source said the undercover agent carried a pistol in her undergarments when she put the body scanners to the test. The officer successfully made it through the airport’s body scanners every time she tried, the source said.

“In this case, where they had a test, and it was just a dismal failure as I’m told,” said Larry Wansley, former head of security at American Airlines. “As I’ve heard (it), you got a problem, especially with a fire arm.”

Wansley said covert testing by the TSA is commonplace — although failing should be rare.

The TSA insider who blew the whistle on the test also said that none of the TSA agents who failed to spot the gun on the scanned image were disciplined. The source said the agents continue to work the body scanners today.

(FOX NEWS) Inside Job: ‘The US Government Escorted The Underwear Bomber Through Security Without A Passport To Board The Plane’, Say Two Attorneys, Eyewitnesses Who Were On Site

February 2, 2011 by Infinite

“It was intentional then. It went this far to further the war on terror, to get body scanners in the airports, to increase the TSA’s budget, to renew the Patriot Act and whatever other reasons you wanna list.”
– Lawyer Kurt Haskell

Added: 26. Januar 2011

I contend that this story is just the tip of the iceberg into the US government’s black operations to further the Patriot Act, funding for Homeland Security and the TSA, and to keep intensity up for the so called War on Terror.

Respected lawyer and community leader, Kurt Haskell, has nothing to gain from pointing his finger at the federal government.

He witnessed the underwear bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, being whisked past security and led onto NorthWest Airlines flight 253, by a well-dressed man with an American accent- all without the passenger’s proper visa and passport documentation.

What the news piece doesn’t mention is that the State Dept did indeed put Mutallab on the plane, at the behest of “an unnamed US intelligence agency.”

Undersecretary Patrick F. Kennedy (Detroit news article was removed from web!).

THIS is why we are being groped, molested, and body scanned at the airport by the TSA! Because the government claims the underwear bomber is a real threat! Stand up America- the politicians say our rhetoric is dangerous. Maybe the government itself is terribly dangerous….

28/01/2011 – 13:34 by cybe

Source: 100777

The US government is Al-Qaeda or better Al-CIAda:

– Al Qaeda Doesn’t Exist or How The US Created Al Qaeda (Documentary)

“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaeda. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US.”
– Robin Cook, Former British Foreign Secretary

Inside TSA Body Scanners: How Terahertz Waves Tear Apart Human DNA

December 18, 2010December 18, 2010 by Infinite

Don’t miss:

– Review of the TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife

– Dr. Russell Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit

– Airport Body Scanners: Why You should REJECT ‘Routine’ NON-Diagnostic X-ray

– How Body Scanner Terahertz Waves Can Tear Apart DNA

– Full-Body Scanners Emitting ‘High-Energy’ Radiation Increase Cancer Risk

While the application of scientific knowledge creates technology, sometimes the technology is later redefined by science. Such is the case with terahertz (THz) radiation, the energy waves that drive the technology of the TSA: back scatter airport scanners.

Emerging THz technological applications

THz waves are found between microwaves and infrared on the electromagnetic spectrum. This type of radiation was chosen for security devices because it can penetrate matter such as clothing, wood, paper and other porous material that’s non-conducting.

This type of radiation seems less threatening because it doesn’t penetrate deeply into the body and is believed to be harmless to both people and animals.

THz waves may have applications beyond security devices. Research has been done to determine the feasibility of using the radiation to detect tumors underneath the skin and for analyzing the chemical properties of various materials and compounds. The potential marketplace for THz driven technological applications may generate many billions of dollars in revenue.

Because of the potential profits, intense research on THz waves and applications has mushroomed over the last decade.

Health risks

The past several years the possible health risks from cumulative exposure to THz waves was mostly dismissed. Experts pointed to THz photons and explained that they are not strong enough to ionize atoms or molecules; nor are they able to break the chains of chemical bonds. They assert—and it is true—that while higher energy photons like ultraviolet rays and X-rays are harmful, the lower energy ones like terahertz waves are basically harmless. [Softpedia.com]

While that is true, there are other biophysics at work. Some studies have shown that THZ can cause great genetic harm, while other similar studies have shown no such evidence of deleterious affects.

Boian Alexandrov at the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico recently published an abstract with colleagues, “DNA Breathing Dynamics in the Presence of a Terahertz Field” that reveals very disturbing—even shocking—evidence that the THz waves generated by TSA scanners is significantly damaging the DNA of the people being directed through the machines, and the TSA workers that are in close proximity to the scanners throughout their workday.

From the abstracts own synopsis:

“We consider the influence of a terahertz field on the breathing dynamics of double-stranded DNA. We model the spontaneous formation of spatially localized openings of a damped and driven DNA chain, and find that linear instabilities lead to dynamic dimerization, while true local strand separations require a threshold amplitude mechanism. Based on our results we argue that a specific terahertz radiation exposure may significantly affect the natural dynamics of DNA, and thereby influence intricate molecular processes involved in gene expression and DNA replication.”

In layman’s terms what Alexandrov and his team discovered is that the resonant effects of the THz waves bombarding humans unzips the double-stranded DNA molecule. This ripping apart of the twisted chain of DNA creates bubbles between the genes that can interfere with the processes of life itself: normal DNA replication and critical gene expression.

Other studies have not discovered this deadly effect on the DNA because the research only investigated ordinary resonant effects.

Review of the TSA X-ray backscatter body scanner safety report: hide your kids, hide your wife

November 29, 2010November 29, 2010 by Infinite

I am a biochemist working in the field of biophysics. Specifically, the lab I work in (as well as many others) has spent the better part of the last decade working on the molecular mechanism of how mutations in the breast cancer susceptibility gene, BRCA2, result in cancer. The result of that work is that we now better understand that people who have a deficient BRCA2 gene are hypersensitive to DNA damage, which can be caused by a number of factors including: UV exposure, oxidative stress, improper chromosomal replication and segregation, and radiation exposure. The image below shows what happens to a chromosome of a normal cell when it is exposed to radiation. It most cases, this damage is repaired; however, at high doses or when there is a genetic defect, the cells either die or become cancerous.

Quite some time ago, I posted a short educational video that describes how BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations cause cancer. In short, when a person who has a mutation in one of these genes is exposed to environmental factors that cause DNA damage, they simply don’t repair the damage with the same efficiency as the general population. Over the course of their lifetime, the incremental exposures to relative small and seemingly safe doses of ionizing radiation (which is everything from UV light to X-rays to gamma radiation) statistically accumulate damage (or the effects of damage and improper repair) until the probability of developing cancer becomes almost certain. This is because BRCA1 and BRCA2 are both part of a molecular process that is very similar to the spell-check on your word processor (in oncology parlance, these genes are known as caretakers of the genome for this specific reason). When these genes don’t work, mutations accumulate faster and eventually results in cancer.

Its because of my interest in this aspect of cancer biology that I felt compelled to review the safety reports released on the TSA website here. However, my interest is not only professional, but also personal. My grandmother died of breast cancer in 2005 after being in remission for 20+ years. While she was never tested for either BRCA1 or BRCA2, her family history indicates that there is a strong probability of one of these mutations running in my family. Including my grandmother, at least four of her siblings developed cancer: two died of breast cancer, one developed a rare form of leukemia and another died of skin cancer. All of her female siblings had cancer, and its noteworthy that her mother died of a very young age (maybe 30’s or early 40’s) of an unknown (to me) cause. For these reasons, I fear that inadequate safety evaluation of these machines could unduly expose my family (and myself) to levels of radiation that might be harmful should this high familial cancer rate in fact be hereditary.

Last spring, a group of scientists at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) including John Sedat Ph.D., David Agard Ph.D., Robert Stroud, Ph.D. and Marc Shuman, M.D. sent a letter of concern to the TSA regarding the implementation of their ‘Advanced Imaging Technology’, or body scanners as a routine method of security screening in US airports. Of specific concern is the scanner that uses X-ray back-scattering. In the letter they raise some interesting points, which I’ve quoted below:

“Our overriding concern is the extent to which the safety of this scanning device has been adequately demonstrated. This can only be determined by a meeting of an impartial panel of experts that would include medical physicists and radiation biologists at which all of the available relevant data is reviewed.”
“The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest X-rays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude, the real dose to the skin is now high.”
“In addition, it appears that real independent safety data do not exist.”
“There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations. We are unanimous in believing that the potential health consequences need to be rigorously studied before these scanners are adopted.”

Dr. Russell Blaylock: Body Scanners More Dangerous Than Feds Admit

November 28, 2010 by Infinite

Dr. Russell Blaylock is a nationally recognized board-certified neurosurgeon, health practitioner, author, lecturer, and editor of The Blaylock Wellness Report.

The growing outrage over the Transportation Security Administration’s new policy of backscatter scanning of airline passengers and “enhanced pat-downs” brings to mind these wise words from President Ronald Reagan: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.’”

So, what is all the concern really about — will these radiation scanners increase your risk of cancer or other diseases? A group of scientists and professors from the University of California at San Francisco voiced their concern to Obama’s science and technology adviser John Holdren in a well-stated letter back in April.

The group included experts in radiation biology, biophysics, and imaging, who expressed “serious concerns” about the “dangerously high” dose of radiation to the skin.

Radiation increases cancer risk by damaging the DNA and various components within the cells. Much of the damage is caused by high concentrations of free radicals generated by the radiation. Most scientists think that the most damaging radiation types are those that have high penetration, such as gamma-rays, but in fact, some of the most damaging radiation barely penetrates the skin.

One of the main concerns is that most of the energy from the airport scanners is concentrated on the surface of the skin and a few millimeters into the skin. Some very radiation-sensitive tissues are close to the skin — such as the testes, eyes, and circulating blood cells in the skin.

This is why defenders using such analogies as the dose being “1,000-times less than a chest X-ray” and “far less than what passengers are exposed to in-flight” are deceptive. Radiation damage depends on the volume of tissue exposed. Chest X-rays and gamma-radiation from outer space is diffused over the entire body so that the dose to the skin is extremely small. Of note, outer space radiation does increase cancer rates in passengers, pilots, and flight attendants.

TSA: Top US Government Officials Exempt From Screenings

November 26, 2010 by Infinite

WASHINGTON – Cabinet secretaries, top congressional leaders and an exclusive group of senior U.S. officials are exempt from toughened new airport screening procedures when they fly commercially with government-approved federal security details.

Aviation security officials would not name those who can skip the controversial screening, but other officials said those VIPs range from top officials like Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and FBI Director Robert Mueller to congressional leaders like incoming House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who avoided security before a recent flight from Washington’s Reagan National Airport.

The heightened new security procedures by the Transportation Security Administration, which involve either a scan by a full-body detector or an intimate personal pat-down, have spurred passenger outrage in the lead-up to the Thanksgiving holiday airport crush.

On Friday, the TSA exempted pilots from the new procedures; flight attendants received the same privilege on Tuesday, TSA spokesman Nicholas Kimball confirmed. Both groups must show photo ID and go through metal detectors. If that sets off an alarm, they may still get a pat-down in some cases, he said. The rules apply to pilots and flight attendants in uniform when they’re traveling.

While passengers have no choice but to submit to either the detector or what some complain is an intrusive pat-down, some senior government officials can opt out if they fly accompanied by government security guards approved by the TSA.

“Government officials traveling with federal law enforcement security details are screened at airports under a specialized screening protocol, which includes identity verification,” Kimball said. This allows the officials to skip the airport security checkpoints.

Airport Body Scanners: Why You should REJECT ‘Routine’ NON-Diagnostic X-ray

November 26, 2010November 26, 2010 by Infinite

Recent “News” and media misinformation touting airport x-ray scanners “safety” is misleading!

Policies that allow the traveling population to be subject to greater exposure of ionizing, non-diagnostic x-ray will lead to greater incidence of thyroid disease, and greater burden on the health care system of this country. Ultimately it also means more money out of your hands, and into the hands of the pharmaceutical giants, the insurance companies who will raise their rates again with the excuse of greater disease rates, and the manufacturers of these airport x-ray scanners. None of these entities care that your long-term health is at risk, proportionately with greater x-ray exposure.

Do you remember the last time you got x-rays at the dentist? They used a “thyroid shield” as an addition to the lead apron, in an attempt to block any scatter radiation from reaching your thyroid gland in your neck. Scatter radiation is often labeled as “harmless,” yet they use a shield for this at the dentist’s office. Why? The thyroid is one of the most vulnerable tissues in your body.

Have you also noticed that any time a person takes your x-ray, they leave the room? Guess why. It is to reduce their exposure to scatter radiation. Cumulative scatter radiation is unhealthful. This is a fact. It is not at all comparable to ultraviolet radiation, that you experience every time you go out into the sun, or fly in a plane. X-radiation is classified as ionizing radiation, while ultraviolet radiation is NOT. When they tell you your exposure from scatter radiation from each scan (classified as ionizing radiation) is less than your exposure to “background” radiation (including aspects from ultraviolet radiation that are NOT a type of ionizing radiation), they are comparing x-ray to daylight. It is not an intellectually honest comparison. Sunlight is not ionizing radiation. “Cumulative scatter radiation is unhealthful. This is a fact.”

The effects of x-ray exposure are not immediately measurable. The wrong question to ask is if one scan has been shown to be “harmful.” There is no short-term way to measure the long-term effects. This common question only considers the short term consequences, which cannot be measured, and is therefore a foolish, misleading question. Every time this obnoxious question is asked, the wrong issue is addressed and the confused public continues to line up at the airport for a dose of ionizing scatter radiation.

The real issue is the long term effects of large populations being exposed to non-diagnostic ionizing radiation, and the disaster it poses for our own health and our healthcare system. We are commencing this disaster right now, by this short-sighted and dangerous policy.

Rep. Ron Paul on CNN: ‘We Don’t Solve Our Problems By Abusing The Rights Of American Citizens!’

November 25, 2010 by Infinite

Added: November 19, 2010

– Rep. Ron Paul to TSA: Stop Irradiating Our Bodies and Fondling Our Children!

– US: The TSA Is Totally Out Of Control

US: Full-Body Scanners Popping Up At Courthouses

November 25, 2010November 25, 2010 by Infinite

CASTLE ROCK, Colo. – Taking a trip during the holidays isn’t the only time that people might get a full-body scan to pass through security. People heading to court to testify, get a restraining order, pay a ticket or answer criminal charges could also face a full-body scan at courthouses.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which is in charge of protecting federal judges nationwide, is exploring their use at federal courthouses. And two state courthouses in Douglas and El Paso counties in Colorado have already deployed full-body scanners that use radio waves to detect all objects on a person, including paper.

A guard in a separate room monitors the gray images with pixelated faces and genital areas, and the images aren’t stored on a computer. officials said. All visitors to the Douglas County Courthouse in Castle Rock, Colo., undergo full-body scans, while guards at the El Paso County Judicial Center in Colorado Springs use the scanners during peak hours.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano Proposes Full-Body Scanners For Trains, Boats, Metro

November 24, 2010November 24, 2010 by Infinite

The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.

“[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on “Charlie Rose.”

“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”

Napolitano’s comments, made a day before one of the nation’s busiest travel days, come in the wake of a public outcry over newly implemented airport screening measures that have been criticized for being too invasive.

The secretary has defended the new screening methods, which include advanced imaging systems and pat-downs, as necessary to stopping terrorists. During the interview with Rose, Napolitano said her agency is now looking into ways to make other popular means of travel safer for passengers and commuters.

Napolitano isn’t the only one who’s suggested that advanced scanning machines could be used in places beyond airports.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation this past September that would authorize testing of body scanners at some federal buildings.

Napolitano’s comments were in response to the question: “What will they [terrorists] be thinking in the future?” She gave no details about how soon the public could see changes in security or about what additional safety measures the DHS was entertaining.

Head of TSA: No Change in Airport Screening Policy

November 22, 2010November 22, 2010 by Infinite

WASHINGTON – The head of the Transportation Security Administration says that while new airport screening procedures are more invasive, threats against air travelers rule out policy changes.

John Pistole (PIH’-stohl) tells CNN’s “State of the Union” that the agency has no plans to change its policy of requiring travelers at many major airports to undergo either enhanced body scans or thorough pat-downs.

Pistole says screeners are “really the last line of defense” in the effort to keep the traveling public safe against a “determined enemy” that has proved adept in coming up with new ways to conceal explosive devices.

He says he understands the objections of some passengers.

TSA pat-down leaves traveler covered in urine

November 22, 2010November 22, 2010 by Infinite

‘I was absolutely humiliated,’ said bladder cancer survivor

Thomas Sawyer, 61, said he was left “humiliated” and covered in urine after undergoing a TSA pat-down.

A retired special education teacher on his way to a wedding in Orlando, Fla., said he was left humiliated, crying and covered with his own urine after an enhanced pat-down by TSA officers recently at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

“I was absolutely humiliated, I couldn’t even speak,” said Thomas D. “Tom” Sawyer, 61, of Lansing, Mich.

Sawyer is a bladder cancer survivor who now wears a urostomy bag, which collects his urine from a stoma, or opening in his abdomen. “I have to wear special clothes and in order to mount the bag I have to seal a wafer to my stomach and then attach the bag. If the seal is broken, urine can leak all over my body and clothes.”

On Nov. 7, Sawyer said he went through the security scanner at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “Evidently the scanner picked up on my urostomy bag, because I was chosen for a pat-down procedure.”

Due to his medical condition, Sawyer asked to be screened in private. “One officer looked at another, rolled his eyes and said that they really didn’t have any place to take me,” said Sawyer. “After I said again that I’d like privacy, they took me to an office.”

Sawyer wears pants two sizes too large in order to accommodate the medical equipment he wears. He’d taken off his belt to go through the scanner and once in the office with security personnel, his pants fell down around his ankles. “I had to ask twice if it was OK to pull up my shorts,” said Sawyer, “And every time I tried to tell them about my medical condition, they said they didn’t need to know about that.”

Before starting the enhanced pat-down procedure, a security officer did tell him what they were going to do and how they were going to it, but Sawyer said it wasn’t until they asked him to remove his sweatshirt and saw his urostomy bag that they asked any questions about his medical condition.

“One agent watched as the other used his flat hand to go slowly down my chest. I tried to warn him that he would hit the bag and break the seal on my bag, but he ignored me. Sure enough, the seal was broken and urine started dribbling down my shirt and my leg and into my pants.”

The security officer finished the pat-down, tested the gloves for any trace of explosives and then, Sawyer said, “He told me I could go. They never apologized. They never offered to help. They acted like they hadn’t seen what happened. But I know they saw it because I had a wet mark.”

US may soon announce security deal with pilots

November 22, 2010November 22, 2010 by Infinite

A police officers patrols inside the main terminal of Frankfurt’s airport, November 18, 2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration could soon announce new airport security screening measures for airline pilots, who have complained about full-body scans and invasive pat downs, a top U.S. official said on Friday.

Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole acknowledged in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America” that scans and pat downs intended to find explosives and other weapons would offer little protection against any pilot determined to bring down an aircraft. 🙂

“We’ve had a number of very good discussions with pilots and hope to be announcing something very soon in terms of a good way forward for the pilots for that very reason, using a risk-based intelligence driven process,” he said.

Rep. Ron Paul to TSA: Stop Irradiating Our Bodies and Fondling Our Children!

November 20, 2010 by Infinite

Ron Paul introduced legislation to protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees conducting screenings at the nation’s airports:

A BILL – HR 6416

To ensure that certain Federal employees cannot hide behind immunity.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. NO IMMUNITY FOR CERTAIN AIRPORT SCREENING METHODS.

No law of the United States shall be construed to confer any immunity for a Federal employee or agency or any individual or entity that receives Federal funds, who subjects an individual to any physical contact (including contact with any clothing the individual is wearing), x-rays, or millimeter waves, or aids in the creation of or views a representation of any part of a individual’s body covered by clothing as a condition for such individual to be in an airport or to fly in an aircraft. The preceding sentence shall apply even if the individual or the individual’s parent, guardian, or any other individual gives consent.

Ron Paul introduced the “American Traveler Dignity Act” (HR 6416) with the following words. (This is a transcript of his actual speech.)

Ron Paul: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise this evening to announce that I introduced some legislation today dealing with the calamity that we have found at our airports with TSA. Something has to be done. Everybody is fed up. The people are fed up, the pilots are fed up, I’m fed up.

Read moreRep. Ron Paul to TSA: Stop Irradiating Our Bodies and Fondling Our Children!

Ron Paul Introduces The American Traveler Dignity Act

November 20, 2010 by Infinite

Don’t miss:

– US: The TSA Is Totally Out Of Control

Introducing the American Traveler Dignity Act

Mr. Speaker, today I introduce legislation to protect Americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal Transportation Security Administration employees conducting screenings at the nation’s airports. We have seen the videos of terrified children being grabbed and probed by airport screeners. We have read the stories of Americans being subjected to humiliating body imaging machines and/or forced to have the most intimate parts of their bodies poked and fondled. We do not know the potentially harmful effects of the radiation emitted by the new millimeter wave machines.

In one recent well-publicized case, a TSA official is recorded during an attempted body search saying, “By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights.” I strongly disagree and am sure I am not alone in believing that we Americans should never give up our rights in order to travel. As our Declaration of Independence states, our rights are inalienable. This TSA version of our rights looks more like the “rights” granted in the old Soviet Constitutions, where freedoms were granted to Soviet citizens — right up to the moment the state decided to remove those freedoms.

The incident of the so-called “underwear bomber” last Christmas is given as justification for the billions of dollars the federal government is spending on the new full-body imaging machines, but a Government Accountability Office study earlier this year concluded that had these scanners been in use they may not have detected the explosive material that was allegedly brought onto the airplane. Additionally, there have been recent press reports calling into question the accuracy and adequacy of these potentially dangerous machines.

My legislation is simple. It establishes that airport security screeners are not immune from any US law regarding physical contact with another person, making images of another person, or causing physical harm through the use of radiation-emitting machinery on another person. It means they are subject to the same laws as the rest of us.

Michael Chertoff And TSA Scanners Exposed

November 20, 2010November 20, 2010 by Infinite

– US: The TSA Is Totally Out Of Control

Added: 17. November 2010

If it looks like a Nazi and acts like a Nazi…

The US news media protects Michael Chertoff.

Why?

He has done more damage to the US than any person I can think of, living or dead.

His record speaks for itself.

Somehow, he was working on the PATRIOT Act before 9/11, he had a hand in “normalizing” torture, he sat on his hands and let New Orleaneans die, and now he’s engineered a mass irradiation and humiliation program that effects millions of Americans.

The new growth industry in the US is criminalizing, harassing, robbing and imprisoning American citizens.

Call it the “Chertoff Century.”

Source: Brasscheck TV

Related information:

– Passenger Becomes Internet Sensation For Telling US Airport Security ‘Don’t Touch My Junk’

– Wednesday, November 24, 2010 is NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY!

– New Jersey Lawmakers Seek to Stop Airport Security Scans

– German Protesters Strip Down In Airport To Protest Full-Body Scanners

– World’s largest pilot union shuns full-body scanners, warning cites radiation risk

– TSA: 500 Full Body Scanners By The End of the Year, 2,000 Planned

– Pilot to TSA: ‘No Groping Me and No Naked Photos’

– The Full Body Scanner Invasion; New Scanners Break Child Porn Laws

– US prisoners forced to submit to radiation experiments for private foreign companies

– Full-Body Scanners Emitting ‘High-Energy’ Radiation Increase Cancer Risk

– TSA lies exposed: Full-body scanners do save and transmit images, secret documents reveal

– Israeli Airport Security Expert: Full-Body Scanners Are Waste of Money

US: The TSA Is Totally Out Of Control

November 20, 2010November 19, 2010 by Infinite

Must-see!

Added: 15. November 2010

– Wednesday, November 24, 2010 is NATIONAL OPT-OUT DAY!

– New Jersey Lawmakers Seek to Stop Airport Security Scans

– German Protesters Strip Down In Airport To Protest Full-Body Scanners

– World’s largest pilot union shuns full-body scanners, warning cites radiation risk

– TSA: 500 Full Body Scanners By The End of the Year, 2,000 Planned

– Pilot to TSA: ‘No Groping Me and No Naked Photos’

– The Full Body Scanner Invasion; New Scanners Break Child Porn Laws

– US prisoners forced to submit to radiation experiments for private foreign companies

– Full-Body Scanners Emitting ‘High-Energy’ Radiation Increase Cancer Risk

– TSA lies exposed: Full-body scanners do save and transmit images, secret documents reveal

– Israeli Airport Security Expert: Full-Body Scanners Are Waste of Money

Passenger Becomes Internet Sensation For Telling US Airport Security ‘Don’t Touch My Junk’

November 18, 2010 by Infinite

US airport security is facing growing anger from the public at new anti-terrorism screening procedures considered invasive and harmful.

A software engineer has gained national notoriety after posting an internet blog item saying he had been ejected and threatened with a fine for refusing a groin check after turning down a full-body scan at San Diego airport.

The passenger, John Tyner, said he told a Transportation Security Administration agent: “If you touch my junk, I’m going to have you arrested.”

Tyner’s individual protest quickly became an internet sensation, but questions also came from travel business groups, civil liberties activists and pilots, raising concerns both about the procedures themselves and about the possibility of delays caused by passengers reluctant to accept the new procedures.

Thanksgiving Day, a harvest festival, is the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, and marks one of the busiest travel weeks of the year.

Across the country passengers are simmering over being forced to choose scans by full-body image detectors or probing pat-downs. Top federal security officials said that the procedures were safe and necessary sacrifices to ward off terror attacks.

“It’s all about security,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said. “It’s all about everybody recognising their role.”

How Billionaire George Soros Profits From New TSA Full-Body Scanners

November 18, 2010November 18, 2010 by Infinite

And so does Former head of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff:

– Full Body Scanner Lobby: Michael Chertoff & Rapiscan

Be sure and read Tim Carney’s Examiner column today on the politically-connected lobby for the controversial new TSA scanners that are upsetting airline employees and travelers everywhere. Carney notes that a company called Rapiscan got a $165 million contract for the new body image scanners four days after the underwear-bomber incident this past Christmas. Not surprisingly, Rapiscan is politically connected, observes Carney:

Rapiscan got the other naked-scanner contract from the TSA, worth $173 million. Rapiscan’s lobbyists include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price, D-N.C., chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee. When Defense Daily reported on Price’s appropriations bill last winter, the publication noted “Price likes the budget for its emphasis on filling gaps in aviation security, in particular the whole body imaging systems.”

Then this morning Carney also noted that former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff was flacking for Rapiscan.

As for the company’s other political connections, it also appears that none other than George Soros, the billionaire funder of the country’s liberal political infrastructure, owns 11,300 shares of OSI Systems Inc., the company that owns Rapiscan. Not surprisingly, OSI’s stock has appreciated considerably over the course of the year. Soros certainly is a savvy investor.

New Jersey Lawmakers Seek to Stop Airport Security Scans

November 17, 2010 by Infinite

TRENTON, N.J. – The use of full-body scanners at airports should be reconsidered because the machines are ineffective, are overly intrusive and open the door to further invasions of privacy depending on how the images are retained, state lawmakers said Monday as they announced a resolution urging Congress to review the program.

“We’re not talking about eliminating security; we’re talking about using security wisely,” said Assemblywoman Valerie Vanieri Huttle, a Democrat from Bergen County.

The effort brought together members of both political parties and both houses of the state Legislature as well as the American Civil Liberties Union. The resolution calls the scans a “gross violation” of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure and says the machines’ effectiveness has not been sufficiently proven.

More than 300 of the machines are in use at dozens of airports around the country. Newark began operating its first machine last month. The scanner creates a detailed computerized image of a person’s body and gives screeners the ability to check for weapons or other prohibited items.

Travelers who decline to go through the scanner are subjected to a pat-down that the lawmakers said involves the touching of genital areas.

“If it occurred in another setting, somebody would be going to jail,” Sen. Michael Doherty, a Republican from Hunterdon County, said.

German Protesters Strip Down In Airport To Protest Full-Body Scanners

November 16, 2010November 16, 2010 by Infinite

German protesters have demonstrated against the planned introduction of body scanners at airports by stripping down to their underwear and, in some cases, beyond.

The group of protesters, calling itself a ‘Fleshmob’, converged on Germany’s Berlin-Tegel airport this week, writing messages on their bodies and handing out leaflets voicing their concerns about the new scanners’ invasion of privacy.

World’s largest pilot union shuns full-body scanners, warning cites radiation risk

November 10, 2010November 10, 2010 by Infinite

Those scanners tear apart DNA and cause cancer!

The world’s largest independent airline pilot association is warning its members to avoid security screening by full-body scanners out of concern the machines emit dangerous levels of radiation.

The American Pilots Association, which represents about 12,000 pilots, is recommending members instead submit to new pat-down searches, even though critics have described them as “horribly invasive” and likened them to foreplay. The recommendation is based on concerns that, contrary to claims by the US Transportation Security Administration, the types of X-rays emitted by the machines could pose serious risks that still aren’t well understood.

“We are already subjected to larger amounts of radiation by flying long distances at high altitudes,” Captain Sam Mayer, who is the APA’s communications committee chairman, told The Register. “While the TSA is telling us it’s completely safe, that may be true for the occasional user, but we haven’t seen any data yet talking about the long term cumulative effects of this over time.”

The pilots are by no means alone in voicing concern over the safety of the backscatter X-ray scanners, which are also known as advanced imaging technology. In April, radiation experts from the University of California, San Francisco, warned President Obama’s science assistant that the machines pose potentially serious health risks.

Although the machines operate at relatively low beam energies of about 28keV, the radiation is delivered only to passengers’ skin and underlying tissue, the scientists argued in an April 6 memorandum (PDF) to John P. Holdren, assistant to the President for science and technology. While the dose might be safe if absorbed by the entire body, directing all of it to the skin only may be dangerous.

They continued:

The X-ray dose from these devices has often been compared in the media to the cosmic ray exposure inherent to airplane travel or that of a chest X-ray. However, this comparison is very misleading: both the air travel cosmic ray exposure and chest X- rays have much higher X-ray energies and the health consequences are appropriately understood in terms of the whole body volume dose. In contrast, these new airport scanners are largely depositing their energy into the skin and immediately adjacent tissue, and since this is such a small fraction of body weight/vol, possibly by one to two orders of magnitude, the real dose to the skin is now high.

The scientists also warned that travelers might face health risks from malfunctioning machines or from overzealous screeners who raise the dose in an attempt to improve a scanner’s resolution.

America – The End of Liberty (Documentary)

November 6, 2010November 6, 2010 by Infinite

How the U.S. is headed for a complete societal collapse! The most important film of all time!

Source: National Inflation Association

TSA: 500 Full Body Scanners By The End of the Year, 2,000 Planned

November 5, 2010November 5, 2010 by Infinite

– Opt Out of a Body Scan? Then Brace Yourself (New York Times):

The T.S.A.’s position is that anyone can “opt out” of a body scan for reasons of privacy or whatever, but will then be subjected to a thorough physical pat-down and careful search of belongings.

In my case, I had been routinely using a normal metal detector checkpoint, when I was ordered to switch lanes and instead go to one of the new machines. I said I would prefer not to, given that my carry-on bag, laptop and shoes were already trundling along the regular machine’s conveyor belt, out of sight. That’s when the shouting started.

As of Monday afternoon, the agency had not responded to several requests for comment on this. Last week, the agency did tell me that there were 317 of the advanced imaging technology machines now in use at 65 airports around the country.

About 500 should be online by the end of the year, the agency said, and another 500 are expected to be installed next year. Ultimately, the agency plans to have the new machines replace metal detectors at all of the roughly 2,000 airport checkpoints.

– The Full Body Scanner Invasion; New Scanners Break Child Porn Laws

– US prisoners forced to submit to radiation experiments for private foreign companies

– Full-Body Scanners Emitting ‘High-Energy’ Radiation Increase Cancer Risk

– TSA lies exposed: Full-body scanners do save and transmit images, secret documents reveal

– Israeli Airport Security Expert: Full-Body Scanners Are Waste of Money

Full documents obtained by EPIC through a Freedom of Information Act request

“It was intentional then. It went this far to further the war on terror, to get body scanners in the airports, to increase the TSA’s budget, to renew the Patriot Act and whatever other reasons you wanna list.” – Lawyer Kurt Haskell

‘I was absolutely humiliated,’ said bladder cancer survivor

Introducing the American Traveler Dignity Act

US airport security is facing growing anger from the public at new anti-terrorism screening procedures considered invasive and harmful.

“It was intentional then. It went this far to further the war on terror, to get body scanners in the airports, to increase the TSA’s budget, to renew the Patriot Act and whatever other reasons you wanna list.”
– Lawyer Kurt Haskell