DHS Tries To Hide Mobile Scanner Details

OverTheGeicoE writes "The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act request last year (PDF) with the US Department of Homeland Security, whose Transportation Security Administration has been investigating the use of x-ray scanning technology for covert use in more public places, like train stations and even ordinary city streets. TSA has tested interesting devices like the Z Backscatter Vans both privately and on members of the general public. EPIC recently received new documents from DHS. Some of the documents are almost completely black from redactions."

Comments

Re:Doing a good job, too

[cultiv8]

Here 'tis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iABPKd0vFxQ

Re:Take a look at the FOIA doc

[Trepidity]

Responding to myself: from the full version of the release, it looks like (b)(5) was an annotation added on top of some blacked-out sections to cite which section of the FOIA justifies blanking out. Some other more limited redactions on later pages have a box saying (b)(6) next to them. So it's not that they blacked out a whole page except for a section heading; they blacked out the entire page and cited (b)(5) as the reason.

Re:I don't condone this

[psyclone]

This looks like it scans cars, containers, and even buildings if they chose:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iABPKd0vFxQ

Re:So what if

[jcr]

Hear, hear!

He's the only anti-war candidate in the race, and he's the only one who doesn't equivocate about the fact that the PATRIOT act is unconstitutional.

-jcr

Time to wear tin-foil outfits.

[ad454]

As a cancer survivor, it appears that I will need to start to wear tin-foil outfits from head-to-toe for health reasons whenever I use public transit or visit government buildings and other "risky" place. Thank you Obama, this will really encourage me to reduce my car usage and carbon footprint.

Doctor Oz does not consider these scanners to be safe for the following 4 groups: cancer survivors, pregnant women, children, and elderly, and he recommends that they should avoid being scanned at airports.

  http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/dangers-radiation-exposure-pt-4

Check around 4:10, also at 1:30 as well.

Re:the reason

[inviolet]

your safety comes second and the governments ability to detect terrorists comes first, is because the death of US citizens is well known to be uncontroversial and tolerable, even on large scales such as katrina.

What is absolutely intolerable is terrorism, because terrorism undermines the governments control of the populous. its one thing if an earthquake kills three thousand people, but its entirely different when a single terrorist accomplishes it...

Not quite. The real death toll from Katrina, for example, is still classified. Were it published, it would significantly undermine public confidence in their government.

The published death toll involved a great deal of 'creative' counting. Oh yeah, lots died from electrocution, and from falling objects, and from heart attacks, and from lawless violence... but those aren't Katrina deaths, you see.

Re:How to tell?

[orangesquid]

See http://www.techlib.com/area_50/xraydefender.htm -- tho techlib.com isn't resolving right now (server down, I'll bet), so you'll just have to try an alternate source:

http://www.techlib.com.nyud.net:8090/area_50/xraydefender.htm coral cache says gateway timed out...
http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/www.techlib.com/area_50/xraydefender.htm wayback machine doesn't have it archived...
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:SErH8Fhj52cJ:www.techlib.com/area_50/xraydefender.htm+site:techlib.com+backscatter&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&ie=UTF-8&source=www.google.com -- you can at least read the text on google, and get thumbnails of the images on the page:
http://www.google.com/search?oe=UTF-8&q=site:techlib.com+backscatter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
Too bad the schematic isn't readable at thumbnail-size, but maybe techlib.com will be back up soon?