Though not the subject of this story, read about 4th Amendment underwear.
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3.2 million dollars is a drop in the bucket compared to the trillions used to subsidize Lloyd Blankfein's house in the Hamptons, but Homeland Security spent at least that much in developing naked body scanners that can track moving targets such as unsuspecting pedestrians. Michael Chertoff's buddies at Rapiscan were paid $1.9 M and Northeastern University was given a contract worth $1.3 M to develop the technology -- and those are just the contracts we know about.
The kicker in all this is that scanning innocent people (i.e. giving them a virtual strip search) is obviously against the law (4th amendment anyone?), and yet it wasn't until after DHS had spent millions on this failed technology that, according to USA Today, they were going to put it through their "privacy assessment phase." In 2006, DHS was casually discussing how they would just randomly "collect" naked images of "individual commuters" -- without their knowledge or consent. See here.
It should also come as no surprise that DHS's own Inspector General recently found that their private contracts do not "contain[] sufficient evidence of justification and approval, market research, and acquisition planning." That's how they spent $1.3B in non-competetive contracts like the one with Rapiscan. See here.
Equally unsurprising, the scanner manufacturers, including Rapiscan and L-3 Technologies, have doubled the money they spend on government bribes lobbying. See here.
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See More Here...
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Roxi Copeland - I'll be groped for Christmas
Roxi Copeland Song - I flew to San Francisco a week ago and found myself having a disconcertingly intimate experience with the good folks at TSA. Since I'm anticipating the same overly exuberant greeting at Christmas, I thought I'd write this little ditty about it.
- "Groped? Or irradiated and naked? Tough decision."
- "I'll be groped for Christmas and stripped by prying eyes..."
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A slideshow of TSA cartoons...
I hand-picked the best 25 from a few hundred. They are in no particular order.
I spent a few hours putting this together, so your clicking is appreciated.
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Poll: Majority oppose body scans, nearly half seek alternative to flying
The use of backscatter x-ray machines to scan travelers' bodies and new pat down procedures at airports will cause 48% of Americans to seek an alternative means of transportation, according to a Zogby International poll.
Of the 2,032 likely voters polled between November 19 and November 22, 61 percent said they oppose the use of body scanners and pat downs.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/poll-majority-oppose-body-scans-seek-alternative-flying/