TSA Puts Off Safety Study of X-ray Body Scanners

Pro Publica

The head of the Transportation Security Administration has backed off a public commitment to conduct a new independent study of X-ray body scanners used at airport security lanes around the country.

Earlier this month, a ProPublica/PBS NewsHour investigation found that the TSA had glossed over research that the X-ray scanners could lead to a small number of cancer cases. The scanners emit low levels of ionizing radiation, which has been shown to damage DNA. In addition, several safety reviewers who initially advised the government on the scanners said they had concerns about the machines being used, as they are today, on millions of airline passengers.

At a Senate hearing after the story ran, TSA Administrator John Pistole agreed to a request by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, to conduct a new independent study of the health effects of the X-ray scanners, also known as backscatters.

But at a Senate hearing of a different committee last week, Pistole said he had since received a draft report on the machines by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general, or IG, that might render the independent study unnecessary.

“My strong belief is those types of machines are still completely safe,” Pistole said. “If the determination is that this IG study is not sufficient, then I will look at still yet another additional study.”...[Full Article]

Europe Bans X-Ray Body Scanners Used at U.S. Airports

Pro Publica

The European Union on Monday prohibited the use of X-ray body scanners in European airports, parting ways with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, which has deployed hundreds of the scanners as a way to screen millions of airline passengers for explosives hidden under clothing.

The European Commission, which enforces common policies of the 27 member countries, adopted the rule “in order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.”...[Full Article]

Lockheed Martin Wins $72 Million Contract To Install Body Scanners

TSA to continue using radiation-firing devices despite availability of safe alternative

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Friday, July 29, 2011

Even as the US economy teeters on the brink of default, the federal government has handed a $72 million dollar contract to defense contractor Lockheed Martin to install radiation-firing body scanners at 300 more airports across the east and central United States, despite the availability of devices that do not rely on radiation to function.

“Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) has been awarded two regional task orders totalling $72 million to help TSA integrate and deploy new passenger screening and security equipment at airports across the east and central United States,” states the press release.

The defense contractor is virtually tied at the hip with the U.S. government, receiving tens of billions of dollars in contracts every year, and has a substantial lobbying budget which is used to support Congress members and Senators who “advocate national defense and relevant business issues.”

Despite the TSA’s recent announcement that it plans to install a “privacy friendly” software update that will dispense with images that show intricate details of a person’s naked body, the devices will continue to use radiation in order to function.

This is a completely unnecessary health risk given the fact that Sony Corporation is already using scanners that don’t rely on any form of energy being fired into the body to work, instead using “passive energy” to produce an image that also shows a generic outline of a person’s body.

In addition, Australian airports have begun trialing body scanning technology that neither emits any form of radiation, nor produces a naked image of the person passing through it.

The $72 million Lockheed Martin contract only mentions software upgrades to existing Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) devices, the company will not be developing body scanners that protect travelers from health threats that have been identified by numerous prestigious scientific bodies.

Numerous highly respected universities and health bodies, including Johns Hopkins, Columbia University, the University of California, and the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, have all warned that the health threat posed by the scanners has not been properly studied and could lead to increased cancer rates.

Despite the TSA lying in claiming that Johns Hopkins had verified the safety of the scanners, Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins school of medicine, has publicly warned that “statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays”.

A study conducted last year by Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s center for radiological research, also found that the body scanners are likely to lead to an increase in a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma, which affects the head and neck.

As we reported earlier this month, leaked documents published by the Electronic Privacy Information Center revealed how TSA workers became concerned over a “cancer cluster” amongst screening agents at Boston Logan International Airport, and how the federal agency tried to cover-up the complaints.

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Federal Court Rules That TSA ‘Naked Scans’ Are Constitutional

Forbes

Last weekend, a Tennessee woman was arrested at the Nashville airport for disorderly conduct after she refused TSA security measures for her children. The woman didn’t want her two children to have to go through a whole-body-imaging scanner. When a Transportation Security Administration officer told her the machines were safe, she said, “I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.”

She won’t be pleased with a ruling then out of the D.C. Circuit today. This morning, the federal court ruled that the “naked scans” of air travelers do not violate Americans’ constitutional rights. Privacy rights group EPIC had sued the Department of Homeland Security, alleging violations of innocent passengers’ Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches. The court says that argument doesn’t fly...[Full Article]

Exposed documents reveal Napolitano, TSA lied about safety of cancer-causing naked body scanners

(NaturalNews) Remember when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano claimed back in 2010 that the US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) naked body scanners had been proven safe by research conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) (http://epic.org/privacy/backscatter...)? A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request recently brought to light internal emails that were sent by NIST to DHS that basically decry Napolitano's false assertion that NIST had verified the safety of the naked body scanners.

Amid the string of emails discussing the matter, an undisclosed sender explains that NIST was "a little concerned" over Napolitano's public reassurances that TSA's naked body scanners are safe. After all, NIST does not test products, and it never tested the naked body scanners in the first place. Napolitano apparently took the individual machine dose measurements that NIST had gathered and twisted them to say what she wanted them to say, which was that the machines are safe...[Full Article]

New airport scanner which will take just five seconds

Passengers could clear airport security in as little as five seconds under plans for a sophisticated new screening system which would not require them to remove their personal belongings.

UK Telegraph

The 21 feet long smart tunnel combines all existing and imminent security technology in one place and would slash the time passengers wait at airports. Passengers would simply walk the length of the tunnel while they are scanned.

It would prevent the frustration many passengers feel when they have to partially undress at a security gate.

A version is expected to be trialled within 18 months and could be rolled out at major airports within five years. British authorities are known to be keen to use the next generation of airport security scanners as soon as possible...[Full Article]

Disney Star Wars Ride Gets Its Own TSA Checkpoint

Complete with naked body scanners and abusive TSA agent droids

Steve Watson & Paul Joseph Watson
Prisonplanet.com
May 23, 2011

A Star Wars ride at Disneyworld in Orlando has been equipped with a TSA style checkpoint complete with naked body scanners and authoritarian security agents.

Of course, it’s a “joke”, the scanners are not real. However, critics contend that the move represents a normalization of grossly invasive security theater.

Thrill seekers entering the newly re-opened Star Tours Star Wars simulator ride will now find themselves in a security line similar to that of any airport across the country.

A Disney update states:

The second room of the queue is now a security check area, similar to a TSA checkpoint. The two G-series droids are still there, G2-9T scanning luggage and G2-4T scanning passengers. While we won’t tell you why, you’ll enjoy paying a lot of attention to what the scans of the luggage show is inside.

It gets better, Disney wants your experience to be as close to a real trip to the airport as it can be:

When it’s your turn to go through the passenger scan (a thermal body scan), you may be verbally accosted by a security droid. Also, keep an eye out in the queue for an earlier version of RX-24 (“Captain Rex”) from the original Star Tours; he’s labeled “defective” and has some familiar dialogue.

Perhaps Disney should consider full body grope downs for six year old children and inspections inside baby’s diapers, just to boost the reality level.

Perhaps such procedures could be carried out by imperial stormtroopers?

Perhaps Disney should also fake reports on how secure their systems are and routinely allow bombs and guns through the checkpoint.

Given that this is Disney we are talking about, we can hardly expect the level of satire to be that scathing. Lets be clear, this is not a critique of the erosion of fundamental freedoms in modern society – it’s Walt Disney. In which case, this serves as little more than at best a normalization of TSA tyranny, and at worst a full on indoctrination exercise.

Clearly, with all the rebels around the Empire had to initiate a security crack down.

As we have documented, airport security style checkpoints and inspection procedures are already in place at bus terminals, train stations, and are rapidly being expanded to the streets of America.

The TSA has also announced its intention to expand the VIPR program to include roadside inspections of commercial vehicles, setting up a network of internal checkpoints and rolling out security procedures already active in airports, bus terminals and subway stations to roads and highways across the United States.

These internal checkpoints, run by Homeland Security, the Department of Transportation, and the TSA, involve trucks being scanned with backscatter x-ray devices in the name of “safety” and “counter terrorism”.

Since the launch of the Department of Homeland Security’s “See Something, Say Something” program, the DHS has also released promotional material which depicts would-be TSA agents conducting searches at public events, including a Buccaneers football game.

Homeland Security is also developing technology to be used at “security events” which purports to monitor “malintent” on behalf of an individual who passes through a checkpoint.

If people think they can avoid the TSA by staying away from airports, they’re going to be in for a rude awakening. TSA is clearly engaged in a total takeover of society and plans to have its agents searching, patting down, scanning and harassing Americans at all levels of society, not just at transport hubs but at public events, in the street and on highways and roads across the country.

The implementation of ‘Checkpoint USA’, where citizens are routinely stopped, searched and radiated by federal VIPER teams is further evidence of how America is crumbling into a Soviet-style police state where the presumption of innocent until proven guilty is abolished and the 4th amendment eviscerated.

*********************

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show.

Medical doctors speak out about why they avoid naked body scanners at airports

(NaturalNews) For those still contemplating whether or not the radiation emitted from airport naked body scanners is serious enough to avoid, you may be interested to know that many doctors routinely "opt out" and choose the full-body pat down instead because they recognize the inherent dangers associated with any level of radiation exposure. A recent CNN piece explains that for many doctors, avoiding all sources of radiation whenever possible is just the smart thing to do.

Throughout the past year, NaturalNews has covered many stories related to the US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) controversial naked body scanners, which are now installed and in use at nearly 80 US airports (http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ai...). Besides representing an unconstitutional invasion of privacy (http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/ai...), the scanners blast passengers with full-body doses of health-destroying radiation (http://www.naturalnews.com/naked_bo...)...[Full Article]

TSA to retest airport body scanners for radiation

USA Today

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected...[Full Article]

Homeland Security Blows Millions On Un-Constitutional Mobile Scanners: Courtesy Of Michael Chertoff

The Daily Bail

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.

Texas lawmakers look to limit TSA scans, pat-downs at airports

Miami Herald

A bipartisan group of more than 20 state lawmakers have signed on in support of measures to ban the TSA from using controversial screening procedures in Texas airports.

State Reps. David Simpson, R-Longview, and Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, have gotten about 20 fellow legislators to co-author bills the pair filed last week banning the use of full-body scanners and invasive pat-down searches on fliers.

The supporters include lawmakers on opposite ends of the political spectrum, including Fort Worth Democrat Lon Burnam, one of the most liberal members of the Legislature, and Tyler Republican Leo Berman, a staunch social conservative.

"You've got civil libertarians. You've got conservative Christians," Simpson said. "One fellow legislator told me, 'If this doesn't fly out of committee, I don't know what will.'"

One of the bills would ban "body imaging scanning equipment" from being installed or operated in any airport in Texas.

The other bill would add any TSA-style pat-down used "to grant access to a publicly accessible building or form of transportation" to the description of "sexual assault" in the state's penal code...[Full Article]

Homeland Security looked into covert body scans

USA Today

The Homeland Security Department paid contractors millions of dollars to develop and study surveillance systems that could covertly track pedestrians and check under people's clothing with airport-style body scanners as they enter train stations, bus depots or major events, newly released documents show.

Two contracts the department signed in 2005 and 2006 were part of its effort to acquire technology to find suicide bombers in a crowd of moving people, according to documents given to the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a privacy-rights group that is suing Homeland Security.

The department dropped the projects in a "very early" phase after testing showed flaws, Homeland Security spokesman Bobby Whithorne says.

EPIC lawyer Ginger McCall says the project is disturbing nonetheless because it shows the department "obviously believed that this level of surveillance is acceptable when in fact it is not at all acceptable."...[Full Article]

Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers

Forbes

Updated with the TSA’s response below, which denies implementing airport-style scans in mass transit.

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets.

The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of of new anti-terrorism technologies that EPIC believes raise serious privacy concerns. The projects range from what the DHS describes as “a walk through x-ray screening system that could be deployed at entrances to special events or other points of interest” to “covert inspection of moving subjects” employing the same backscatter imaging technology currently used in American airports.

The 173-page collection of contracts and reports, acquired through a Freedom of Information Act request, includes contracts with Siemens Corporations, Northeastern University, and Rapiscan Systems. The study was expected to cost more than $3.5 million...[Full Article]

Epic Body Scan Foia Docs Feb 2011[1]


Download...
Body Scan Freedom of Information Act Documents (February 2011)

Security Theatre Creep: Full Strength X-Ray Body Scanners Touted For Airports

Trials begin for devices that can scan your insides, deep penetrating radiation scans cause 15,000 deaths per year

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
March 1, 2011

The next generation of body scanners to be rolled out in airports will literally be able to see inside the human body, as security personnel gear up to trial machines that use deep penetrating radiation, the same kind hospitals use to examine internal organs and bones.

Australian airports are set to begin using the devices should legislation before Federal Parliament be passed, enabling customs officers to use technology previously only operated by doctors in controlled conditions.

The justification for the technology is to crack down on suspected drug smugglers who swallow illegal substances to evade airport security. However, the notion of placing the technology along airport security lines paves the way for its general use, particularly in light of the recent security theatre explosion we have seen in airports over the last eighteen months.

The current crop of naked body scanners being used by the TSA and other transport security personnel around the globe use either Millimeter-wave or BackScatter radiation. These devices render clothing and organic materials translucent, providing an image of what is concealed underneath, which is why they have caused such controversy.

The radiation fired from those scanners does not penetrate beyond the tissue under the skin, nevertheless there have been significant and legitimate fears expressed by experts and scientists over the safety of such devices, as far as both the operator and the traveler are concerned.

The force generated from tetrahertz waves used by the millimeter-wave scanners is small but, according to scientists, the waves can ‘unzip’ or tear apart double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the DNA that could interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.

Despite further warnings from scientists that the scanners will cause cancer in some travelers, it seems our governments are ready to push even further and use even more potentially lethal technology, under the guise of security.

Of course, there is a very good reason why internal X-ray scans are only legally permitted to be carried out by a doctor at a hospital or surgery – because they are extremely hazardous and can cause detrimental health effects to those exposed to them.

Radiography and Tomography scanners fire deep penetrating ionizing x-rays. The most recent studies estimated that CT scanners cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans every year. Imagine how that number would balloon if such technology were installed in airports and used everyday on millions of healthy people, as if they were routine metal detectors.

Yet, there is every indication that this will be the case. In January 2010, following the failed underpants bombing, former European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom & Security, Franco Frattini, told the media that governments should consider scanning the insides of all travelers to make sure they are not concealing explosives or weapons. It now seems that what at the time seemed a stretch beyond the realms of sanity is actually happening before our eyes.

Recent security failures concerning the current crop of naked body scanners, many of which stem from human error, and the fact that the scanners are simply incapable of identifying some materials, will no doubt also be used as justification should the US and the UK follow the actions of the Australian authorities in attempting to beef security theatre in airports even further.

Of course, none of this matters to the scores of security contractors making fat profits from government contracts. The military industrial complex cares little if a few million people drop dead from cancer or pass on genetic defects. The only health worries they have concern their profit margins.

At the end of the day, however, the buck stops with the public on this. Overall apathy toward the rollout of highly invasive and potentially dangerous naked body scanning machines in airports, has only paved the way for more excessive violations of our rights and our liberties.

As we have consistently highlighted, there are even more frightening scenarios down the road if we continue to ignore the open tyranny being implemented all around us. If the public willingly accepts naked imaging x-ray machines that will cause cancer and death, all in the name of security, what comes next?

The TSA is considering taser bracelets that can deliver electric shocks to anyone who steps out of line inside an airport or on a plane.

Passport control officers at airports are to be phased out as new biometric face scanning cameras are replacing them under UK border control measures that came into force last year. A global biometric facial scan database is the end goal of security authorities the world over.

Other proposals include placing the cameras in every seat on aircraft and installing software to try and automatically detect terrorists or other dangers caused by passengers.

Passive brain scanners that pick up brain waves in order to sense the behaviour of travelers have already been trialed in airports. The technology known as “MALINTENT” has been developed by the Department of Homeland Security under a project lovingly called “Project Hostile Intent”. The following image is a DHS Impression of the mindreader technology in action.

We are also being incrementally taught that what goes on in the airports will be transferred to the streets, schools, shopping malls, rail stations and bus terminals.

The very body scanners we see being implemented within airports now have already been extensively trialed and are now being in railway stations in major cities.

The same technology is being considered by governments for general use in cameras on the street. Once accepted as part of everyday life in airports, it becomes much easier to sell for use in all public places.

The development of all of this nightmare technology only emphasizes the need for immediate outright rejection of the mass implementation of all forms of body screeners. If we continue to allow such gross attacks on our liberties to succeed the onslaught will never end.

Senate Votes on Misuse of Naked Body Scanners: Felony with $100,000 Fine

Senate Votes to Make Misuse of TSA Scanner Images a Felony

CBS News

When you walk through one of those new hi-tech full body scanners at TSA checkpoints at the airport, screeners can still see your private parts, but the Senate wants to make sure no one else does.

The Senate voted 98-0 to make it a felony for anyone to misuse those images, by copying them, collecting them or distributing them in any way. Violators would be subject to up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine...

[Full Article]


Senate: Punish misusers of body scanner images

AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Misusing body scanner images would become a federal crime punishable by up to a year in prison under a proposal approved by the Senate.

The amendment to an aviation bill pending in the Senate was approved Tuesday by a vote of 98-to-0. It would prohibit anyone with access to the scanned body images, whether security personnel or members of the public, from photographing or disseminating those images.

Besides a prison term, violators could be fined up to $100,000 per violation...

[Full Article]

Increase For DHS, Naked Body Scanners

No austerity measures to deal with for the bloated security theatre overlords

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Feb 14, 2011

The Obama administration is to propose a $37 billion increase in federal spending for the Department of Homeland Security, earmarking funds for more radiation firing naked body scanners in airports around the country.

The DHS’ budget will grow by almost 3 percent over the 2011 budget level, as Reuters reports, while the overall national security budget will increase by almost 2 percent.

The 2012 budget proposal requests $43.8 billion for homeland security across the entire federal government, excluding the Defense Department, up $800 million from 2011.

The DHS plans to add an additional 275 naked body scanners to the 500 already installed and operated by the TSA at 78 airports nationwide.

The administration has proposed deploying 1,275 body scanners in airports by the end of 2012.

“The U.S. Transportation Security Administration hopes to buy more full-body scanners to detect explosives and other weapons potential attackers may hide on their bodies that cannot be detected by traditional metal detectors.” the Reuters reports suggests, failing to highlight the fact that the body scanners do not even have such capabilities according to their manufacturers.

Experts have dismissed the devices as “useless”, have repeatedly warned that the machines cannot detect explosive material effectively and would not have prevented the Christmas Day bomber from boarding Flight 253.

Add to this the ongoing safety concerns of respected scientists, and one is left asking why is the government ploughing billions into technology that is ineffective and potentially dangerous?

The answer is security theatre.

A largely manufactured and over hyped threat is being met with a manufactured response, the net effect of which is an overwhelming stripping away of the basic freedoms of Americans while lining the pockets of security contractors.

The DHS is instituting a complete takeover of society, with it’s Walmart telescreens, its active citizen spy programs, its armies of agents frisking crowds at sports events, and even extending it’s tentacles into parking restrictions and the like.

In addition, at the same time as the announcement that a further $3 billion will be pumped into the DHS for protection against a chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological attack, a strange story has emerged of a port official in San Diego suggesting that such weapons have been found inside the U.S. by federal authorities.

Related: “See Something, Say Something” Exposed As Hoax

Story of a TSA 'Opt Out'

Stay Classy, TSA

Swampland / Time

Ever since the TSA started putting back-scatter devices into use at selected airports last fall, I've been waiting to have the chance to opt out and register a one-woman protest against the machines. (Jeff Goldberg doesn't get to have all the fun.) However, most of my recent air travel has been with a tiny traveling companion, and I've been pleasantly surprised that at six different airports, TSA agents have directed us away from the back-scatter devices and through metal detectors, simply because I had a three-month-old baby in my arms.

(I also learned that the Irish-Catholic TSA agents in Boston will eagerly carry your luggage and reassemble your stroller when they learn your daughter's name is Finoula. I warned her not to expect such special treatment everywhere.)

So I was awfully pleased when I arrived at a security checkpoint in Miami International Airport this morning and discovered that my line fed into a back-scatter device, even though metal detectors were in use for the other lines. When it was my turn, I politely said that I would like to opt out. "Seriously?" the first TSA worker asked me with a raised eyebrow. Yes, seriously...

[Full Article]

“Inexcusable”: TSA STILL Refusing To Release Naked Scanner Safety Reports

– Senate amendment introduced to make misuse of images a federal crime punishable by prison
- Further amendment introduced to force all scanners to use “privacy enhancing” software
- TSA once again lies, tells media machines are not capable of storing images

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Feb 9, 2011

The chairman of a House oversight committee on homeland defense has labeled “inexcusable” the TSA’s continued refusal to release it’s internal reports on the safety of radiation firing airport body scanners.

“The public has a right to know, and there isn’t something so sensitive that requires holding it back,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah. tells USA Today.

The newspaper filed Freedom of information requests for the reports over two months ago, prompting members of congress to get involved, with a group led by Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, demanding that the TSA release the documents.

Two months on, the TSA says it is still reviewing the documents to ensure they do not contain any sensitive information that could be a threat to national security.

TSA spokeswoman Giselle Barry told USA Today that the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general is investigating the adequacy of the TSA’s X-ray inspection program at the request of Markey, yet still refused to confirm when the safety reports would be made available.

The safety of new body scanners has been particularly questioned in light of an independent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried out in 2004, found that some baggage scanners, which emit the same type of X-rays, were in violation of federal radiation standards, and were emitting two or three times beyond the agreed safe limit.

A further 2008 CDC report noted that some X-ray machines were missing protective lead curtains or had had safety features disabled by TSA employees with duct tape, paper towels and other materials.

TSA employees themselves have also voiced concern over the safety of the scanners. Workers are reportedly unhappy with the fact that they are being kept in the dark by their employers, despite repeated requests for information.

“We don’t think the agency is sharing enough information,” said Milly Rodriguez, occupational health and safety specialist at the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents TSA workers.

“Radiation just invokes a lot of fear.” she added.

According to the USA Today report, several TSA employees have expressed their concerns to the CDC:

…a TSA employee at an unidentified airport asked CDC in June to examine concerns about radiation exposures from standing near the new full-body X-ray scanners for hours a day. The CDC said it didn’t have authority to do a hazard assessment unless three or more current employees at one location made a joint request, according to a September letter from the CDC to the unnamed worker. The CDC provided the letter to USA TODAY.

The TSA is responsible for inspecting the scanners and producing safety reports itself, rather than the FDA, because they are not classed as medical devices.

“It should send some flashing red lights when they won’t allow the public to review that data,” Rep. Chaffetz has noted. Chaffetz oversaw the passage in the House last year of an amendment to ban “strip-search” imaging at airports altogether.

“You don’t have to look at my wife and 8-year-old daughter naked to secure an airplane,” Chaffetz said at the time.

“You can actually see the sweat on somebody’s back. You can tell the difference between a dime and a nickel. If they can do that, they can see things that quite frankly I don’t think they should be looking at in order to secure a plane,” Chaffetz told the House.

Considering scores of warnings from scientists, more TSA workers should be concerned over the levels of radiation they are being exposed to and are being asked to expose the public to.

Dr Michael Love, who runs an X-ray lab at the department of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins school of medicine recently told AFP that “statistically someone is going to get skin cancer from these X-rays”.

“…we have a situation at the airports where people are so eager to fly that they will risk their lives in this manner,” he added.

John Sedat, a University of California at San Francisco professor of biochemistry and biophysics and member of the National Academy of Sciences tells CNet that the machines have “mutagenic effects” and will increase the risk of cancer. Sedat previously sent a letter to the White House science Czar John P. Holdren, identifying the specific risk the machines pose to children and the elderly.

The letter stated:

“it appears that real independent safety data do not exist… There has not been sufficient review of the intermediate and long-term effects of radiation exposure associated with airport scanners. There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations.”

The TSA has repeatedly stated that going through the machines is equal to the radiation encountered during just two minutes of a flight. However, this does not take into account that the scanning machines specifically target only the skin and the muscle tissue immediately beneath.

The scanners are similar to C-Scans and fire ionizing radiation at those inside which penetrates a few centimeters into the flesh and reflects off the skin to form a naked body image.

The firing of ionizing radiation at the body effectively “unzips” DNA, according to scientific research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The research shows that even very low doses of X-ray can delay or prevent cellular repair of damaged DNA, yet pregnant women and children will be subjected to the process as new guidelines including scanners are adopted.

The Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report on the matter that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.

Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”

“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,”reported Bloomberg.

Scientists at Columbia University also entered the debate recently, warning that the dose emitted by the naked x-ray devices could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated, likely contributing to an increase in a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma which affects the head and neck.

“If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk. The population risk has the potential to be significant,” said Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research.

Despite all these warnings, The Department of Homeland Security claims that the scanners are completely safe, pointing to “independent” verification from the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, both federal government bodies.

Meanwhile, the TSA has once again repeated the same lie that the machines cannot record the naked images that are produced as air travelers pass through them.

In response to the proposal of an amendment to make the misuse of scanner images a federal crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine, a spokesman for the DHS told the AP that “the body scanners used by Transportation Security Administration workers at airports are not capable of storing, copying or transmitting images.”

“Each time a passenger is scanned, he said, the image of the previously scanned passenger is deleted.” said the DHS’ Nicholas Kimball.

Yet, as we have previously detailed, the images that show in detail the naked genitals of men, women and children that have passed through the scanners can indeed be transmitted and printed.

As reported by Declan McCullagh of CNET earlier this year, “The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.”

The proof comes in the form of a letter (PDF), obtained by The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), in which William Bordley, an associate general counsel with the Marshals Service, admits that “approximately 35,314 images…have been stored on the Brijot Gen2 machine” used in the Orlando, Fla. federal courthouse.

EPIC says it has also obtained more than 100 images of electronically stripped individuals from the scanning devices used at federal courthouses. The disclosures come as part of a settlement of an EPIC Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the U.S. Marshals Service.

Brijot, the manufacturer of the body scanning equipment in question, also admits that its machine can store up to 40,000 images and records.

EPIC, has filed two further lawsuits against the Department of Homeland Security over the scanners, claiming that the DHS has refused to release at least 2,000 images it has stored from scanners currently in use in U.S. airports.

EPIC’s lawsuit argues that the body scanners violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits “unreasonable” searches, as well as the Privacy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, referencing religious laws about modesty.

The group points to a further document (PDF) it has obtained from DHS showing that the machines used by the department’s TSA are not only able to record and store naked body images, but that they are mandated to do so.

The TSA has admitted that this is the case, but claims that it is for training and testing purposes only, maintaining that the body scanners used at airports cannot “store, print or transmit images”.

This was confirmed in a letter sent to Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, at approximately the same time the government initially claimed the machines are safe and cannot save images. In fact, this ability is a government requirement.

“TSA requires AIT machines to have the capability to retain and export imagines (sic) only for testing, training, and evaluation purposes,” states a Homeland Security letter dated February 24, 2010 and signed by Gale D. Rossides, Acting Administrator.

The machines indeed store and transmit images. According to Rossides, however, this ability is limited to engineers, training contractors, and “Z” level users. “Z” level users are described as select lab personnel from the TSA’s Office of Security Technology.

The images are apparently also sent to the TSA’s Threat Mitigation Lab.

“In complying with our Freedom of Information Act request, the Marshals Service has helped the public more fully understand the capabilities of these devices,” EPIC President Marc Rotenberg has said in a statement. “But the DHS continues to conceal the truth from American air travelers who could be subject to similar intrusive recorded searches in U.S. airports.”

As if it was needed, further evidence also points to the fact that the images are actively being transmitted and printed in airports.

Furthermore, if there is no capability for the devices to save, distribute and print images, then how on earth have news organizations obtained print outs of such images like the one above?

The TSA and the DHS have repeatedly told the media and the public the same lie, that the scanners cannot store images. If they are willing to promulgate outright lies regarding the performance of the machines in this respect why should anyone take their word for it when they say the machines are 100% safe?

Another Senate Amendment has been introduced this week by Senator Udall (D-NM) that would require the TSA to install “Automatic Target Recognition” software, in all body scanners by January 1, 2012.

The software ensures that the images produced by the machines are generic human outlines, rather than graphic naked images.

However, as we have previously highlighted, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the software merely place a mask over the naked image, which the machine is still capable of storing.

“…keep in mind that filters can be enabled and disabled by the operator.” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC has noted.

——————————————————————

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor at Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and regular contributor to Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

Related article...

'Inexcusable' delay on TSA body-scanner safety reports

USA Today

The Transportation Security Administration has told members of Congress that more than 15 million passengers received full-body scans at airports without any malfunctions that put travelers at risk of an excessive radiation dose.

Despite the reassurance, however, the TSA has yet to release radiation inspection reports for its X-ray equipment — two months after lawmakers called for them to be made public following USA TODAY's requests to review the reports...

[Full Article]

Naked Body Scanner Blamed For Woman’s Death

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Jan 25, 2011

A radiation firing body scanner has been identified as the possible cause of death in the case of a 57 year old Palestinian woman who died over the weekend at a border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

Haaretz reports that Palestinian sources are blaming the use of a “U.S.-made advanced portal using millimeter wave holographic technology to screen passengers for weapons and explosives” for the woman’s death.

It is believed that the woman did not mention to security officials that she had a pacemaker.

The machine is said to have interfered with the woman’s pacemaker. Around half an hour after passing through the machine at the Rafah crossing, she is said to have suddenly collapsed.

She was pronounced dead at an Egyptian hospital shortly afterwards.

The same crossing was closed last week by Palestinian authorities in protest of the installation of the scanning technology which they believe to be unsafe, according to the report.

The millimeter wave scanners emit a wavelength of ten to one millimeter called a millimeter wave, these waves are considered Extremely High Frequency (EHF), the highest radio frequency wave produced. EHF runs a range of frequencies from 30 to 300 gigahertz, they are also abbreviated mmW. These waves are also known as tetrahertz (THz) radiation.

Experts have previously warned that people with medical implants such as pace-makers should avoid electromagnetic pulse generating body scanners as they can significantly alter the waveform of the pacemaker pulse.

As we have previously highlighted, there are other dangers associated with such scanning devices.

The force generated from tetrahertz waves is small but, according to scientists, the waves can ‘unzip’ or tear apart double-stranded DNA, creating bubbles in the DNA that could interfere with processes such as gene expression and DNA replication.

Those who pass through the scanners will be at risk of long term health effects, such as cancers, according to some scientists.

The reason millimeter-wave bands are used by the scanners is that they render clothing and organic materials translucent. However, while this allows the observer to see metal objects concealed beneath clothing, it does not necessarily reveal low-density materials such as plastic, chemicals or liquid, precisely the materials used by the so called underwear bomber.

This was the main reason that the manufacturers of the technology had to admit that it probably would not have prevented the incident form taking place (if you discount the fact that the bomber was aided through security by unidentified accomplices).

This is the first reported case of someone actually dying as a result of going through one of the scanners. Unfortunately, it is almost certain not to be the last.

Meanwhile Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano, or big sis as she has been nicknamed, recently announce that hundreds more of the body scanners would be installed into American airports, with the long term goal to make their use mandatory for all air travelers.

Jesse Ventura Sues DHS & TSA

Ventura Sues DHS, TSA Over Body Scans, Pat-Downs

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is suing the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, saying full-body scans and pat-downs at airport checkpoints are violating his rights.

Ventura filed his lawsuit Monday in federal court in Minnesota. He says the new security measures violate his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures...

[Full Article]


Ventura Strikes Back with Lawsuit Against TSA

The Inside Story from Alex Jones About the Former Governor’s Humiliating Pat-Down Experiences that Included ‘Touching, Gripping & Rubbing of the Genitals’ at the Hands of TSA

Alex Jones & Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
January 25, 2011

	Former Governor Jesse Ventura has taken steps to sue the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security in a lawsuit that will take on invasive airport pat-downs. [READ LAWSUIT]

Former Governor Jesse Ventura has taken steps to sue the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security, naming their chiefs John Pistole and ‘Big Sis’ Janet Napolitano in a lawsuit that will take on invasive airport pat-downs [READ LAWSUIT]. Ventura first told Alex Jones of his intent to sue the TSA privately back in September while traveling for the making of TruTV’s “Conspiracy Theory,” expressing grave concern about what he viewed as his country’s transformation into East Germany.

Jones recalls Ventura’s outrage at the TSA’s harassing old people in wheelchairs with the invasive new pat-down procedures. The former governor himself is routinely sent to secondary screening due to a hip replacement in 2008, and Jones witnessed him undergo repeated humiliating searches during pat-downs at the hands of TSA. Worse, at airports across the country, even those presenting medical cards describing special needs or equipment from a doctor are routinely ignored as TSA agents demand that medical patients remove urostomy bags, prosthetic breasts or that TSA be allowed to grope a pacemaker patients’ breasts.

“That’s why I want to leave the United States,” Ventura had told Jones at the time. “This is why I go down to Mexico– this is wrong.” Ventura indicated that he was most concerned about the destruction of the 4th Amendment and passing of the America he once knew.

Ventura filed his lawsuit Monday, January 24, 2011 in Minnesota and news reports have named David Olsen as his lawyer. The former governor has indicated that his suit will include violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 4th Amendment, arguing that he and others with disabilities have been discriminated against and unduly singled out by TSA despite presenting no threat and warranting no reason for lawful search. Further, Ventura has argued that his ability to travel freely has been infringed, hampering his ability to work.

In November 2010, Ventura vowed on the Alex Jones Show that he would never again fly on commercial aircraft so long as current TSA policies remain in place. “It probably means an end to my career,” Ventura lamented on Jones’ program. As The Drudge Report exposed months ago, Ventura has been groped during TSA pat-downs and is uncomfortable with the invasion of privacy, as well as the abuse of government power.

Now, KSTP in Minnesota is reporting that:

“Ventura accuses the agencies of violating his ‘basic rights to privacy and dignity, and his right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures’.” [...]

“Ventura.. alleges the pat-down included ‘warrantless, non-suspicion-based offensive touching, gripping and rubbing of the genital and other sensitive areas of his body,’ which, the lawsuit contends, met ‘the definition for an unlawful sexual assault’.”

Jesse Ventura is reportedly working with the press from Mexico and should be appearing on the Alex Jones Show in the near future.

Homeland Security, in the ever-echoing siren song of “public safety,” is attempting to bar our right of free passage across the country. Those who refuse to cooperate with body scanners or pat-downs are told they will be arrested, detained or fined. Just as in Nazi Germany, we’re increasingly gearing towards internal passports, where we must satisfy on the spot inspection or be refused the ability to travel. Tourism is down by billions of dollars; angry travel and vacation industry representatives tried to get TSA to back down, citing some 41 million potential fliers who ‘avoided’ travel due to anxiety over airport security. But airports are only the leading phase. TSA, VIPR squads and mobile x-ray scanners are rolling out onto the streets of America at train and bus stations. Sports stadiums and shopping malls will be next. Homeland Security is unveiling 9,000 tele-screens at locations across America, including Wal-Mart, to encourage people to spy on their neighbors.

If anyone can stop the police state, it is the people of the United States. The bigger picture is looking more and more like 1984. It is vital that we resist these police state measures and make our voices heard. We commend former Gov. Jesse Ventura for standing up to TSA and using his prominent name to fight back against clear bullying and intimidation by a government agency trying to expand its mandate for power. Others have fought the TSA, including a man in Seattle who recently won his suit over the right to use a camera. Moreover, the TSA had to settle with an Amarillo, Texas woman after their agents shockingly exposed her breasts and then laughed about it.

The Alex Jones Show – November 19, 2010:

JESSE VENTURA ABUSED BY TSA WILL NO LONGER FLY.