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EPIC Uncovers: Mobile Scanners Not 'Certified People Scanners'
OverTheGeicoE writes "The Electronic Privacy Information Center received more FOIA documents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security regarding mobile x-ray scanners (a.k.a. Z Backscatter Vans). We've discussed these devices before. Perhaps the most interesting part is slide #11 ('Disclaimer About Scanning People') on page 6 of this PDF explaining that the radiation output of these devices is too high to comply with ANSI N43.17. In other words, they output too much radiation even by TSA's questionable standards for airport body scanners. Regardless, the slide ends with the author stating that the ANSI standard 'is not applicable to covert operations.' What might that assertion have meant to the presentation's intended audience?"
Is not subject to the constraint of public law.
Consent of the governed is not required or desirable.
Carry on.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Cancer in the defense of freedom is not cancer at all.
Here's a better question to ask: which official is going to wind up taking the fall for these wastes of tax dollars? So far, we know the following about these machines:
This was an obvious sweetheart deal, and someone is going to have to get in trouble for it. Obama or his successor will probably pardon that person, since it will just be a fall guy and nobody wants to start an investigation that would keep expanding until half of capitol hill was implicated.
Palm trees and 8
The fact that backscatter scanners use X-rays in amounts that can't meet national standards isn't even an issue.
In point of fact, as long as nobody can prove that they have had a large radiation dose - tough with "nothing in pockets, etc" - then the TSA is off the hook. Time has taught us - those who listen - that politicians don't mind endangering or even killing people, as long as it can't be traced directly back to them, and as long as it doesn't actually apply to them, themselves.
Don't take life too seriously; it isn't permanent.
"the ANSI standard 'is not applicable to covert operations.' " parses alright. Still, for certainty of context, I'd like to read this in the original German language.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
We irradiate meat to make it safer, so why not people?
Because 'safer' in this context means "Killing everything else that's not just dead meat". The dead cow can't get cancer.
Now I'm thinking about it.. whoosh?
Who are you, you think you are a citizen, a person? You think you have rights? Liberties? You must have read that silly document from 1787 or whatever. That doesn't apply anymore, didn't you know?
Didn't you know you are now property, an asset that is used as collateral for more government borrowing on the one hand and on the other you are a piece of meat to be used fighting in conflicts that help the bona-fide persons - real people with government connections.
Your silly notions of rights and liberties are of no concern anymore, and you, yourself agree with this every day. Every day you want government to do something for you, to tax somebody and to borrow from somewhere, to print more money so that your special interest gets the tiny crumbs of the royal table, those are you 30 pieces of silver to sell your soul (obviously nobody will be paying you in silver, that's too fat. They have US federal reserve notes for that.)
What, you think it's too harsh? Trollish? A flamebait?
How about you listen to this short radio episode, the guest is Henry Juszkiewicz, CEO of Gibson Guitars. You will find out how a classic American company became an enemy of the state by providing 1200 jobs IN USA, that's right. The reasons? Who knows. The government doesn't have to tell the reasons, you peons, not even peons in the sense that you do work. You are just a number in the line up that they can use for displaying the meat mass, how much there is there to "count the votes" or whatever they need you for, and you aren't too good for organs anymore, being on FDA approved drugs and department of Agriculture subsidized foods.
You don't like the machine scanning through your body, your flesh and bones? Who is asking you?
You can't handle the truth.
Regardless, the slide ends with the author stating that the ANSI standard 'is not applicable to covert operations.' What might that assertion have meant to the presentation's intended audience?
It means, "what they don't know won't hurt them."
I mean, if you put a wad of foil in the microwave, you can get the thing to fry itself.
Would clothing with ceramic magnets in it do this to a backscatter xray or a tetrahertz mw scanner? I'm sure there's something short of an EMP that would at least deny service by such a device. Perhaps even scatter the same harmful radiation back on its operators?
This is an interesting line of inquiry. Like most forms of security, there are unexplored use cases that were never properly modelled for threat. I'm thinking this seems like an excellent practical topic for something we'd expect to see at DefCon - like this year's defeat of the CLIQ technology electro-mechanical high-security locks, mandated by Federal government.
I don't advocate this - simply applaud the ingenuity and sentiment.
Thoughts, anyone?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Comments so far are missing a salient feature of these things: they are in use at the U.S. border.
Trucks drive past them at the border (oh, they're just mezkins...)
They are located north of the border, by approx. 30 miles (DHS calls it "defense in depth"). See them in my neck of the woods in Arizona on: northbound I/19, eastbound Hwy 82, northbound Hwy 83, northbound Hwy 90
To the assholes who have no problem with this: how many checkpoints do you drive through on your way to work?
You can see a picture of these vans via the earlier /. link
I never knew anyone who ever desired the DHS or anything similar to it. I knew several people who thought that airplanes should have doors to the pilot's cabin that were locked during the entire flight, but that's a rather different matter.
The DHS was created by those who wanted to increase the "police state" nature of the country, and they were successful. The fact that all it's approaches are security theater is just what it was designed to do, not happenstance or bad management. Security theater keeps people feeling threatened, so that they are easier to manipulate.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Some unmarked van with a couple of creepy guys pulls up alongside me. Then my X-ray detector pegs. It could be a lethal dose, so I'm going to use whatever force I have available to stop them.
A couple of rounds from my M107 should do the trick.
Have gnu, will travel.
Is there a way to detect these, like a wifi signal?
Yes. Nuk Alert. This is a keychain-sized sealed radiation detector with a 10-year battery life. It beeps from 1 to 10 times, based on the log of the radiation level. You can test it with a dental X-ray machine. Price about $170.