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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."
The YouTube video in the first link is already yanked.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
in trucks running around in the general public, but this might help to alleviate congestion at already borked up Mexican border crossings. I'm in SD, and I regularly hear of 2+ hour border waits during local traffic reports. Maybe this will help to speed up checks for vans and trucks. -- Oh, and Fuck the TSA.
http://epic.org/foia_notes/foia_doc_20_snap.PDF
Apparently "(5)(b)" is the only thing we're allowed to know about this project. What the hell?
I'm walking down the street with a concealed handgun (perfectly legal in 30+ states) and the DHS van shows I'm packing heat. Next thing I know I'm on the ground with a knee in my back and automatic weapons pointed at me. Is this how it's going to work? Because if that's how it's going down, I see no reason not to overthrow this government now before it gets much worse. I'd rather live under anarchic self-rule than this nanny-state bullshit.
The government agency responsible for eroding the Constitution would not be open about what they are doing? Preposterous!
Write your congressional leaders today and demand the TSA be 1) immediately defunded, and 2) disbanded all together. If you really care, expand your note to include the entire DHS.
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Is there a sensor that could detect if one of these technologies is in use? I'd love to outfit my vehicle with a TSA Detector so I can know when my rights are being violated on the go, so I could post a photo of the offending scannervan on the Internet.
All of this has gotten out of hand. This is a major over-reach, not to mention creepy as hell.
Are there any backscatter detectors? Or should I just assume that every black van on the road is there to irradiate me?
How much do I get for participating in these medical experiments. Better yet, how can I opt out?
Are they also planning to have pat-downs in major cities? Pretty soon, everywhere you go you will either have to go through an X-ray or get patted down, all for "security."
Palm trees and 8
Go and look up what KGB stood for, in translation to English. The Department of Homeland Security is it. In Soviet America, jokes tell Yakov Smirnoff. (probably to lie face down in the "party position.")
"The ZBV produces electronically generated xrays that detect substances containing low atomic number elements such as carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen.
These elements are often present in explosives and other contraband..."
not to mention lumber, tofu, soil, cucumbers, coal, ice cream, books, mayonnaise, ham, and blankets...
this is simply unacceptable. I wouldn't be surprised if people started carrying personal x-ray detectors. If you expose my children to x-rays while they're just walking in a public place, I have a serious issue with this. I can't even imagine what's gonna happen if a parent discovers their children have just been exposed.
They're using their grammar skills there.
coat a photo-diode in zinc sulfide. voila! detector
They're using their grammar skills there.
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...the terrorist draws unwanted attention to the united states government, its foreign policy, its structure and its members position in the class system.
this is also incidentally why governments are loathe to negotiate with terrorists, regardless of the validity of their positions; a single person or idea should never be allowed to upset the balance of power as it stands.
Good people go to bed earlier.
so, it's probably information that's irrelevant to the FOIA request.
Could well be. But I can't help but wander what kind of request would be required to be able to check that.
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.
it's from the Tao Te Ching, and it applies to the FOIA.
you dont get what you want, but you get pieces of a puzzle, and slowly, over years, you piece the puzzle together. we are still finding out things about Nixon and the Pentagon Papers, we are still finding things out about war crimes in Vietnam, we are still finding out things about the Nazis, and about Stalin and the soviet Gulags and the NKVD.
the FOIA is a tool. its not perfect, but its one of the best tools we have.
forgive me for paraphrasing Carl Sagan about science in that last sentence.
this is also incidentally why governments are loathe to negotiate with terrorists, regardless of the validity of their positions; a single person or idea should never be allowed to upset the balance of power as it stands.
Exactly how is one supposed to negotiate with a person or group who has no clear or rational motivation or who's goals are something horrible like genocide? There is no one who has been able to clearly articulate why some crazy people flew a pair of planes into the World Trade Center. We know *what* they did. But there is no clear answer to *why* because it was not a rational act by people with rational goals. Furthermore, if the demands of the terrorists are something that plainly cannot be accommodated or condoned (for example kill all non-muslims) then there is no basis for negotiation. For negotiation to occur there has to be a middle ground and with terrorists there almost never is one.
Nation states may be complicated but their behaviors are typically rational or at least comprehensible. Terrorists on the other hand typically have little clear purpose beyond the barbaric acts they commit. They may say they want something but it's almost always something either impossible or psychotic. A suicide bomber pretty much never accomplishes anything productive unless his/her sole goal was to become a murderer.
any day now... any day now.
---
"gee, I feel safer already."
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
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.
Doctor Oz is also on record as promoting homeopathy and other unproven "alternative" treatments. Just because someone says it on TV doesn't mean they know what they are talking about or that it is accurate.
Personally unless I see some studies from extremely reputable journals like Nature, I don't consider them proven safe for any group. They may be reasonably safe but they may not be as well and DHS just saying "trust me" isn't good enough. I'm actually glad I rarely need to fly anywhere these days.
the government is seeking to protect the citizens from the terrorists by killing the citizens first by irradiation, before the terrorists can kill them, thereby dealing a crippling blow to the terrorists' plot.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
They should be easy to find. Just look for an SSID of 'DHS_MOBILE_SCANNING_VAN' to pop up in your wireless access point list.
Have gnu, will travel.
I wonder how many lawyers have already figured out that any suspect that has evidence brought against them, evidence obtained with this technology, already has in hand an admission by the authorities that the suspect was subjected to x-rays against their will? Hell, even a probable cause statement for a warrant would require the admission of use of this technology.
Every prosecution could mean a reciprocal civil lawsuit for damages associated with X-ray exposure. I think it would be justified. If nothing else, it would bring the issue to into the realm of public awareness.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray#Health_risks
There is a huge difference between this tech being in place at an airport, where the person going through it knows the risks, and mobile scanning--there is no consent with mobile, covert scanning.
It should be illegal to even MAKE these things, let alone use them.
and you'll get more of the same. want a change? want your freedoms back, or at least want a start back down the road to freedom? vote for Ron Paul, and every other libertarian candidate running that you are eligible to vote for, otherwise, democrat or republican, you'll get nothing positive.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Are you an undercover cop? No? So your weapon is for "protection" and not merely to make you feel like you have a ten foot long penis - why then don't you have it where it can been seen and let that help with protecting you?
Oh that's right, the tinfoil hat defence of "that's what they expect you to do so I have to hide it to keep them guessing". That's not going to make any sense unless you live in a bad spy movie.
As for part two - the weather in Somalia isn't bad at this time of year if you want to see some anarchy but concealing weapons there is just as insane if not more so.
Yes I know in the USA a gun is a substitute flag and any discussion of guns hits politics and patroitism instantly - but if we could consider it on the level on the tool itself civilians (ie. not law enforcement in addition to military for those with a poor education in English) legally carrying concealed firearms around is fucking stupid.
One important factor here is that I have heard from an unconfirmed source that the TSA personnel isn't permitted to wear radiation badges anymore - but that the body scanners do use radiation to scan, so this is a bit interesting.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
What really blows my mind is how many people actually bought his bullshit and voted for the lying SOB. Yes, he is a lying SOB.
...You think we would've been better off with John McSenility and his crazy Ice Bitch?
Gods above and below. You know why people voted for Lolbama? Because if they hadn't, the economy would be worse, equality for all Americans would've been set back a hundred years, and instead of randomly bombing Libya, we'd be in a fucking ground war with Iran.
You betcha.
At all and at any cost. Oh, the humanity....
Windows assumes you are an idiot...Linux demands proof.
He is just using it as an extension of the penis. He probably has pictures and/or video of himself waving his hand gun around posted on the internet so everyone can see how tough he is. I have a carry permit but don't carry most of the time, and when I do it is for protection from dangerous wild animals.
Time to offend someone
Lead would be your best bet, but remember this thing sees through container walls with no trouble, which is about 1/4" steel. Newer cars have beefier frames but the metal on my old lightweight cars ranges from about 1/8" to paper-thin, depending on where it is.
Of course dramatically increasing your car's weight will cause a huge increase in consumable use, and even some things you might not consider consumable, like shocks and suspension bushings.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Damn right the TSA is about rapping! TSA Gangstaz in da house!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7AWw7t5zj0
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I did a quick google search and came up with this
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&tab=core&id=bd97a8f9b4c3bf8393ff69b58026ffb1&_cview=0
"The NexGenCI project seeks to significantly upgrade existing x-ray backscatter, whole-body-imaging, bulk detection portals already in use by the TSA"