goalie

And yet again, our tax dollars have been wasted well spent by the TSA

Boggie Dog

Again backscatters are not going away, just being replaced with a different brand.

Peter T.

Here's a link to an NBC News article about the body scanners. Basically, the "backscatter" body scanners made by Rapiscan Systems will be gone by June 1, to be replaced at some (but not all) airports with "millimeter wave" body scanners that won't be so revealing:

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/tsa-re...ners-1B8038882

chollie

I would really like to know the true back story behind this (not that we ever will).

TSA isn't getting rid of these willingly - in fact, it looks like they are just getting shifted to other government offices where the people subjected to them won't be in any real position to complain. I'd be curious to know if Rapiscan is actually going to stop manufacturing them.

Somebody somewhere with clout brought pressure to bear. Pistole doesn't listen to Congress, doesn't even show up when they ask him to appear before a committee. TSA has managed to avoid all FOIA requests about these machines and all calls, including from the AFGE, for an independent review of their safety (or even to allow AFGE to supply badges to its union members at no charge to TSA).

Just a few months ago, TSA was moving them from 'high-profile' (ie, higher usage, more likely to be filmed) airports to smaller airports. Now suddenly that's all off? Because after all the delays TSA has ignored before, Rapiscan suddenly discovers it can't fix the software? And TSA 'suddenly' decides it won't extend any more time to Rapiscan?

It all smells to high heaven. Nevertheless, I'm glad to see them go. I hope TSA isn't going to try to foist them off on non-USA airports to be used on US-bound pax.

Boggie Dog

Rapiscan Backscatter Whole Body Scanners will be removed, to be replaced by MMW and new Backscatter units.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...-airports.html

spyvsspy

Is the removal an admission of unsafe, ineffective or illegal use of these machines?

Himeno

Oh dear. Who will Chertoff lobby for now?

They can still see the body image. The ATR system simply uses software to view the image instead of a human. The raw nude image is still created and can still be accessed.

InkUnderNails

Actually, it is not necessary for an image to be produced to accomplish the task that the ATR does. The image was only necessary for a human to do the task. It is entirely conceivable that no image is ever produced except for the Gumby that one sees as they pass though.

Himeno

Data is created by the scan. That data can be resolved into an image of the person being scanned. Period.

RussianTexan

Hmmmmm. Guess no one noticed Deepak Chopra after all.

jkhuggins

I just read the statement from TSA on the TSA Blog. Note carefully that the only reason TSA gives for the change is "congressional mandate", omitting any discussion of the controversy which led to the mandate. Indeed, there's no discussion of the types images produced at all --- and certainly no mention of the word "naked".

I still maintain that TSA's official position is that the images produced before ATR weren't "naked", and that TSA hasn't made an on-the-record quote to that effect. Plenty of people are paraphrasing TSA to that effect, noting the reasoning behind the congressional mandate ... but that's not the same as TSA admitting it.

WillCAD

Hey, comma, you're both correct, exclamation point!

ATR software has been explained on the boards here as software which examines the raw scan returns, not a raster image, and so on ATR-equipped machines the image is not even produced by the scan returns as it is for the perv box. I don't know if this is true, but it has a ring of truth to it that I can't ignore.

However, Himeno is absolutely correct - the software needed to convert raw scan returns into a raster image was originally installed on all of the MMW scanners, and my bet is that the ATR is an add-on, not a replacement, so the capability to produce a perv image is still built into each machine.

There is no need for it, however. The ultimate aim of these scanners is to give TSA full authority to conduct a law enforcement (actually, more like correctional institution)-style invasive search on pax. The perv image is unnecessary to accomplish that; they now have something better - a panel of Idiot Lights.

What's an Idiot Light, you may ask? Idiot Lights is a nickname for the various binary indicators in a car or dash board. They are so named because they were installed on the assumption that the general public who operate cars are basically idiots who are too stupid to understand gauges, warning messages, or specific codes; but they are capable of a simple Pavlovian response of "Red light mean car bad. Take to fixer-person."

ATR readouts on the NoS have a similar purpose. TSOs are not known as the brightest bulbs in the box, so instead of the complexities of actual human judgement being used in the perv box, any average front-line TSO can now be trusted (by the agency, we're more skeptical) to respond to one of the Idiot Lights with a simple Pavlovian response: "Red light on Gumby mean bad thing in person. Search person now."

ATR has other advantages, not only for the agency, but for the traveler, and for the manufacturers.

1) Most airports don't resolve ATR anomolies with the full-body rubdown with genital contact that is laughingly called an "Enhanced Pat-down" by TSA; rather, a pat-down targeting only the alarmed area is used, and while it's still disgusting, it's a lot less disgusting and violative than the EPD. It also takes a lot less time and can be done by just about any TSO, which moves the lines along because you don't have to wait for the Male and Female Assistants to arrive from the airport coffee shop.

2) ATR is quite buggy at the moment, resulting in staggeringly high false-positive rates, far more so than the perv box did. This is a godsend to Director Pistole, because as a former law enforcement officer, his management of TSA has always had the aim of turning airport security screening into the largest warrantless fishing expedition search in American history. More searches means more drugs and other non-threat illegal items found, which means the agency will get more lauds from those who seem to think that TSA exists to find drug smugglers and fugitives rather than provide security screening, which means a larger budget for the agency in the future.

3) Since ATR is entirely software based, it provides the manufacturers with an almost guaranteed revenue stream in the future. See, a NoS is a machine that can remain in place for years; it could conceivably last a decade or more. Which means that, once every airport has them, TSA won't be buying very many of them any more. But once every airport has them, then TSA WILL be buying maintenance contracts on them, and paying for software upgrades, add-ons, and bug fixes, in perpetuity. It's a win-win for both the agency, who gets to spew a line of cowflop about how they "continuously update their scanners to the most cutting-edge detection technology", and for the manufacturer, who gets carloads of money to install these upgrades and fix scanners that someone leaned on and broke the Gumby panel.

So, like most things in life, ATR is a trade-off. I'm generally for it, because it reduces the possibility of someone actually peering at my naked body without my permission to near-zero (as opposed to the perv box method, which was a 100% guarantee). But you have to take the good with the bad, I guess.

KM123

... or keep asking for pat downs and disrupt their cattle drive.

AirShuttle6162

This made my day as PHX was using the NoS as their primary screening method for a while now.

javabytes

Or worse, now that privacy concerns are "alleviated", the potential for the road we're on to lead to a no-opt-out policy a la UK is higher.