Dear America, I Saw You Naked - And yes, we were laughing. Confessions of an ex-TSA agent.

[swag]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912.html#ixzz2rweFX9b5

By JASON EDWARD HARRINGTON
January 30, 2014

. . .

We knew the full-body scanners didn’t work before they were even installed. Not long after the Underwear Bomber incident, all TSA officers at O’Hare were informed that training for the Rapiscan Systems full-body scanners would soon begin. The machines cost about $150,000 a pop.

Our instructor was a balding middle-aged man who shrugged his shoulders after everything he said, as though in apology. At the conclusion of our crash course, one of the officers in our class asked him to tell us, off the record, what he really thought about the machines.

“They’re shit,” he said, shrugging. He said we wouldn’t be able to distinguish plastic explosives from body fat and that guns were practically invisible if they were turned sideways in a pocket.

We quickly found out the trainer was not kidding: Officers discovered that the machines were good at detecting just about everything besides cleverly hidden explosives and guns. The only thing more absurd than how poorly the full-body scanners performed was the incredible amount of time the machines wasted for everyone.

. . . more

Read more: http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/01/tsa-screener-confession-102912_Page2.html#ixzz2rwetV8j3

[SoapBox]

1. Uhhhhhh...

yup.

[ReRe]

2. And you know who made a mint off of those machines....

... Chernoff... GWB's Director of Homeland Security. He got out of it a couple years ago and got into something else... probably something else just as nefarious. I think he's the Lawyer for someone in the Christie mess. Maybe Sampson?

[bananas]

4. Physicist Rush Holt (D-NJ) warned us: "misguided, counterproductive, and potentially dangerous"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x73632

edit to add: that post links to another post which is still in google's webcache:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.democraticunderground.com%2Fdiscuss%2Fduboard.php%3Faz%3Dshow_mesg%26forum%3D389%26topic_id%3D9614464%26mesg_id%3D9614464

20x the scanner x-ray radiation reported by TSA [View All]
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Richard D Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Nov-23-10 12:37 AM
Original message
20x the scanner x-ray radiation reported by TSA

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Edited on Tue Nov-23-10 12:41 AM by Richard D
In August, Holt Urged Congressional Leaders to Freeze Funding for Scanners Until End of Investigation
(Washington, D.C.) – U.S. Rep. Rush Holt, a scientist and the Chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, Friday wrote the Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), reiterating his concerns about the use of body imaging technology, notably about potential health effects and the effectiveness of the screening to detect the full range of explosive threats known or anticipated to be used by potential terrorists.

Earlier this year, the Congressional Biomedical Caucus - of which Holt is a co-chair – hosted a briefing by Dr. David Brenner of Columbia University on the potential health effects of “back scatter” x-ray devices. According to Dr. Brenner, the devices currently in use and proposed for wider deployment deliver to the scalp “20 times the average dose that is typically quoted by TSA and throughout the industry.” Dr. Brenner has pointed out that the majority of the radiation from X-ray backscatter machines strikes the top of the head, which is where 85 percent of the 800,000 cases of basal cell carcinoma diagnosed in the United States each year develop.

According to Dr. Brenner, excessive x-ray exposure can act as a cancer rate multiplier, which is why Holt has urged the government to investigate thoroughly the potential health risks associated with this technology. In August, Holt wrote to the House Committee on Appropriations calling for a freeze in funding for any further full-body scanning devices employing “back scatter” technology until the GAO completes its examination of the technology.
“I appreciate the challenges we face in trying to prevent terrorists from boarding American airliners. That same background also gives me an understanding of why TSA’s current obsession with fielding body imaging technology is misguided, counterproductive, and potentially dangerous,” Holt writes.

http://holt.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=651&Itemid=18

[ReRe]

7. Thanks for adding that, bananas

Are those X-ray machines still in use at airports? (I don't fly.) It's like this country can't do anything right anymore. Instead of keeping passengers safe from "terrorists," the machines are emitting dangerous levels of X-rays directly in their brains. It's dangerous to be alive, and no one's exempt.

[brett_jv]

3. Good read, indeed ...

Rec'd ...

[Trillo]

5. Guilty until proven innocent. NT

[bemildred]

6. It's all about the money. nt

[yurbud]

8. the performed their true function perfectly: giving taxpayer money to company that makes them

every new government program must be about giving money to the already wealthy.

Existing programs that don't do that will be "reformed" to do it.