msimons

It's the last gasp for bomb-sensing 'puffers' at airports
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/fligh...-puffers_N.htm

Problems emerged after the TSA bought 207 puffers for $30 million starting in 2004. Ninety-four were installed in 37 airports. The other 113 machines stayed in storage.The puffers, costing $160,000 each.

As a replacement, the TSA is installing body scanners that create images of passengers through their clothing. The TSA plans to have 250 scanners next year, costing $170,000 each, its 2010 budget shows.

Yeah, its not their money buying it, it's ours.

doober

$18,000,000 wasted on puffers and another $42,500,000 planned to be thrown away on scanners.

Way to go, TSA. Just think of how many people could received health care for $60,000,000.

LessO2

Let's not go OMNI here.

How many x-ray machines with updated technology could that have bought?

Mr. Gel-pack

Why is it OMNI?

How much of a budget does TSA need to do its admittedly imperfect, alleged improvements to security? If we don't worry about the total budget, which may be better spent on telephone sanitizing, and just concern ourselves with TSA's unknowable internals, we'll never get anywhere.

The same process that TSA should be using to show that MMW is marginally better for security than CT-X-rays should also show the security tradeoffs between 1 more TSO versus 1 more traffic cop or 1 more counterterrorism agent.

Maybe we'll find that $60,000,000 worth of terrorist-repellent wooden nickels would be as effective in deterring terrorism as the TSA genital imagers.

LessO2

Health care.

Boggie Dog

So if my math is near correct thats $145,000.00 each and they never deployed 113 of these new machines.

Seems to me that someone needs to be investigating TSA for its abuse and waste of tax monies. This is the same as crimminal in my opinon. Who authorized this purchase?

Wiirachay

I hope the MMW / FBS machines fail either due to protest from the public or mechanical failure. This sounds like an absolute waste of money and a 1984'ish agency. I thought TSA was going in the right direction with the non-invasive puffer machines.

AngryMiller

Might have been either Kippie or Chertoff, but suspect Chertoff. Also suspect that these devices were difficult to maintain properly in the conditions they were being used in. Lots of sensor clogging lint, dander, and whatever getting into airways. Also suspect that the training of the TSA types to both maintain and operate the machines was minimal at best.

Boggie Dog

Perhaps, but a sensible person would investigate these types of issues before plunking down the money or force the contractor to make the machines do what they claimed.

Seems the government is certainly at fault and perhaps the supplier of the machines for either defective equipment or defective support.

Heads need to roll and TSA should have its purse strings tied until a complete investigation of their purchase procedures are reviewed.

I would be looking for kick backs to now ex-TSA leadership.

onlyairfare

It wouldn't surprise me if Kip and Skeletor are now highly-paid consultants or members of the boards of the companies which supply these devices.

The traditional revolving door process.

AngryMiller

What? You dare to question a minor line item in the security at any cost budget? JN will has all of us who dare question one of her minions down as a subversive, warranting a full strip search before flying.

What's that? They're doing it already? Huh? She's fast on her feet.

/sarcasm

Boggie Dog

She already has me down as a subversive.

I'm retired military.

I lean towards the Republican point of view on most things.

I am against abortion.

I am a Christian.

I'm just waiting for the front door to be breached!

Flaflyer

Hey, don't knock that important profession. Those who don't remember history are doomed to repeat it.

Remember what happened last time? "after all the telephone sanitizers were sent away with the rest of the "useless" Golgafrinchans, the rest of the society died off from an infectious disease contracted from an unsanitized telephone." DHS is obviously keeping us safe from this threat as well as H1N1.

TSORon

Fact is folks, that this was a valid purchase of a technology that tested very well but failed in actual use. Not an unheard of circumstance. Think about it, steam powered motorcycles, The Edsel, Jarts (aka Lawn Darts), the XB-70, the YF-23, all failed ideas that worked just fine. Its not anyone’s fault, it just is.

At the time these devices were deployed they were state of the art. The best method to detect what they were designed to detect without causing major disruption to passenger flow. Now we know that they just don’t work very well in that environment and are very costly to maintain because of it. Not a major deal, stop putting the money out on them and move to a technology that should work just as well and survive the environment.

BubbaLoop

Puffers are non-invasive and detect explosives, no matter where they are. Full body scanners are horribly invasive and do not detect explosives. Someone making these decisions is either VERY dumb or really likes to see pictures of naked people.