LA Times:TSA ends contract with Rapiscan, maker of full-body scanners
Jan 18, 2013, 2:28 pm
#32
Join Date: Sep 2004
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I would seriously doubt this has a thing to do with privacy. Congress doesn't care about your privacy. Obama doesn't care about your privacy. The TSA doesn't care about your privacy. What I suspect is the radiation levels emitted by these machines is much higher than they originally expected/told the public. So instead of waiting for a whistle-blower to expose this, they will simply rotate them out. "Privacy" is a convenient excuse.
Jan 18, 2013, 2:39 pm
#33
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I would seriously doubt this has a thing to do with privacy. Congress doesn't care about your privacy. Obama doesn't care about your privacy. The TSA doesn't care about your privacy. What I suspect is the radiation levels emitted by these machines is much higher than they originally expected/told the public. So instead of waiting for a whistle-blower to expose this, they will simply rotate them out. "Privacy" is a convenient excuse.
Jan 18, 2013, 2:46 pm
#34
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Jan 18, 2013, 3:28 pm
#35
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In a detail provided by a similar story in Bloomberg we have:
Congress has access to the actual images. They know. They insisted on the changes. The denials of TSA, if there still are any on this topic, are no more plausible than the assertions of innocence from a convicted criminal who was caught in the act.
The benefit of this whole farce is that it will not be politically possible, IMO, for a generation if not longer, to use machines of similar or even better technology on the public. The electronic strip search idea just won't fly. Since the think tanks studying this issue for the FAA knew the likely response of the American public as far back as the 1990's, it is unforgivable for TSA to have pulled this stunt in the face of every indication that it was not acceptable to the people. They tried to ram it down our throats by force because of the power they had.
Congress has access to the actual images. They know. They insisted on the changes. The denials of TSA, if there still are any on this topic, are no more plausible than the assertions of innocence from a convicted criminal who was caught in the act.
The benefit of this whole farce is that it will not be politically possible, IMO, for a generation if not longer, to use machines of similar or even better technology on the public. The electronic strip search idea just won't fly. Since the think tanks studying this issue for the FAA knew the likely response of the American public as far back as the 1990's, it is unforgivable for TSA to have pulled this stunt in the face of every indication that it was not acceptable to the people. They tried to ram it down our throats by force because of the power they had.
As to the electronic strip search, it is continuing, they just can't see the body now. The L3 machine has a screen with an outline and the detected object shows up on the area of the body.
Jan 18, 2013, 3:51 pm
#36
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Here is the CNN Breaking News article:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/travel...ers/index.html
Hooray--no more backscatter machines! The health issue is a much bigger one for me than privacy. I feel so bad for those TSA workers who are exposed to so much radiation standing near those machines all day, especially pregnant officers.
I hope the government will demand (and receive) its money back from Rapiscan, the manufacturer.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/18/travel...ers/index.html
Hooray--no more backscatter machines! The health issue is a much bigger one for me than privacy. I feel so bad for those TSA workers who are exposed to so much radiation standing near those machines all day, especially pregnant officers.
I hope the government will demand (and receive) its money back from Rapiscan, the manufacturer.
Jan 18, 2013, 4:28 pm
#37
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 57
Interesting
The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines it is keeping, plus options for 60 more, TSA spokesman David Castelveter said.
Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That's what most airports used before scanners were introduced.
Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That's what most airports used before scanners were introduced.
Jan 18, 2013, 4:41 pm
#40
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I would seriously doubt this has a thing to do with privacy. Congress doesn't care about your privacy. Obama doesn't care about your privacy. The TSA doesn't care about your privacy. What I suspect is the radiation levels emitted by these machines is much higher than they originally expected/told the public. So instead of waiting for a whistle-blower to expose this, they will simply rotate them out. "Privacy" is a convenient excuse.
Jan 18, 2013, 4:42 pm
#41
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 187
I know... I know... SSI... layers... got it....
Jan 18, 2013, 5:33 pm
#42
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 471
I'm curious what will happen at the all-backscatter sites. ORD use to be all backscatter, did they switch over to the MMW? What about LAX? I also wonder about airports that just got the backscatters recently, like all of the bigger airports in North Dakota. These were so heralded as the latest and greatest things when they were installed in Grand Forks and Bismarck. I told some of the locals of the dangers and inadequacies of the machines, I was looked at as if I was a terrorist. Some people are so naive that it is dangerous.
Last edited by VelvetJones; Jan 18, 2013 at 5:54 pm
Jan 18, 2013, 5:48 pm
#43
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B.. b.. b.. but... from the very beginning, Blogdad Bob and his friends insisted that it was a "chalky outline", a "fuzzy negative", "safe for a kindergarten", and that the passengers' privacy was absolutely, 100% protected already. "It's not a naked image", they chanted in unison, again and again.
Do you think he was.................
lying?
Do you think he was.................
lying? 
Jan 18, 2013, 7:03 pm
#44
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Hmmm. Once the backscatter x-ray scanners are removed, maybe the DCCA will revisit the EFF's FOIA request. The Supreme Court has already partially debunked the myth of "high 2", and the SSI argument is diminished.
Jan 18, 2013, 7:10 pm
#45
Moderator: Manufactured Spending
Join Date: Jul 2011
Posts: 6,580
Unfortunately, this may help the TSA suppress dissent. Some people, for whatever reasons, would opt out of the backscatter but not the MMW, so opt outs will now go down and public acceptance of body scanners as a whole will increase.