US Marshals Saved 35,000 Full Body Scans

PatPending writes "A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter-wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a FOIA request after it was recently revealed that US Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly — perhaps illegally — saved [35,000] images [low resolution] of the scans of public servants and private citizens."

Comments

Here is a fact to help you with your education:

[GungaDan]

Bush's Fatherland Security czar, Michael Chertoff, profits from the sale of the nudie-scanners.

http://gawker.com/5437499/why-is-michael-chertoff-so-excited-about-full+body-scanners

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/full-body-scanner-lobby-michael-chertoff-rapiscan-2552674.html

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2627190/posts

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/airport-scanner-scam

Re:Abuse of power is never new

[wickerprints]

You're absolutely correct, but at the same time, let's not forget that such abuses occur because those in power deliberately lie to the people. That is what the Gizmodo article proves--that the public is intentionally told falsehoods so that the government can continue their abuse. It isn't the individual screener or machine that is the root of corruption. Rather, the corruption is systematic, in the form of a security agency that tells people that their privacy is assured when it is not. They do this because it makes their task more expedient, and gives the impression of effectiveness. Much the same can be said of the deliberate provocation of fear as a means of gaining more power and control.

I repeat: the corruption is systematic. Yes, you can remove the opportunity to exploit weaknesses and the lack of accountability, but this is a piecemeal approach to fixing the larger underlying problem, which is that we have a system that is accountable to no one, that is fundamentally disinterested in serving its stated purpose, and exists for the sole purpose of allowing those in power to concentrate their influence through the use of scare tactics and lies. In other words, we wouldn't need to stop individual enforcement officers from violating people's privacy, and we wouldn't need the regulations to do so, if we didn't need to subject people to these scans in the first place. This technology didn't always exist, yet people weren't being blown out of the skies every day for the lack of it. There's an unspoken, and therefore largely unchallenged, assumption that this kind of screening is necessary--which on the face of it is an absurd claim, for if it were, the only rational way to use it would be to apply it to everybody. And I need not state the myriad ways in which someone with half a brain would still find it trivial to circumvent it.

What is needed is a drastic change, one in which the people reassert their control over the government that purports to serve them. I doubt this will happen, but nevertheless it is the only viable solution.

Re:Good. Hope this keeps up

[mark72005]

The government used funds from the 2009 stimulus bill to buy these "backscatter" scanners.

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/05/technology/full_body_scanner/

And say what you will, but it wasn't until this crop of scanners came around that this administration created the existing policies on opt-outs.

I flew many times post 9/11, and the worst I ever got was my bags opened or run over with the wand.

Re:Good. Hope this keeps up

[mcgrew]

There is no greater threat now than has existed in the past.

Oh, yes there is -- the threat is from our own government, and the threat is to our freedom. When they say "they hate us for our freedom" they must be talking about themselves, because ever since 911 gave them an excuse our freedoms have been rapidly vanishing.

Remember National Opt Out Day

[Colonel Korn]

Next Wednesday: http://www.optoutday.com/

Re:Good. Hope this keeps up

[GungaDan]

Is that all? Here ya go:

http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/tsa-screener-terrorizes-3-year-old-girl

Re:That's nothing

[Remus Shepherd]

They are charging and fining anyone who submits to examination and then backs out. This is to keep terrorists from exploring the limits of the system by bringing contraband to the examination and then backing away at the last minute so they're not caught. It is an extremely ham-fisted way of preventing a social engineering attack, but it should suffice.

In the US, once you enter in an agreement with any corporation you lose some rights. What the TSA is doing now is no worse than what many software companies do with their EULAs, it's just more obvious because it's physical.

I'm just waiting for a website to collect body scan pictures and post them with the travellers' names. Is the domain tsa-leaks.com taken? Aunt Mildred might put up with having one official in the airport look through her blouse, but put those pictures up on the internet and there will be fury.

Re:That's nothing

[sycorob]

The video was taken down from YouTube, but this guy has it for now:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1258192/pg1

That was the most heart-wrenching thing I've seen in a long time. The girl wasn't being bad or anything, she was just freaking out that this strange woman was poking her all over.

I'm driving for Christmas this year (12 hours) rather than fly. I want to visit an old friend of the family that lives in Alabama, and I'm in Chicago. I really hope they stop this BS before then. I'm just glad I don't have kids yet, I would probably assault a TSA agent if they did this to my child. You guys would write me in prison, right?

this shit wasn't invented in two years

[SethJohnson]

Perhaps you're too young to remember or just trying to bash Obama, but I seem to recall during the Bush administration that the telcos were all coerced to enable illegal blanket wiretaps on US citizens without warrants. These airport x-ray devices weren't invented, developed, and deployed in just two years. The rollout was initiated during the Bush administration. It was he who authorized the creation of an entire additional government department, the Department of Homeland Security. Talk about increasing government spending unnecessarily by duplicating efforts... Why won't the tea-partiers call it like it is?

Seth