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TSA Spending $245 Million On "Second Generation" Body Scanners
McGruber writes "Continuing its standard practice of wasting hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, the TSA has awarded an indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, worth up to $245 Million, to American Science and Engineering Inc. to deliver an unspecified number of 'second generation' Advanced Imaging Technology screening systems for use at U.S. airports. As previously reported, Jonathan Corbett proved that TSA's current nude-o-scopes are incapable of actually detecting hidden objects."
TSA = Trolling State Airports?
Second generation != better
Maybe they should think about using the methods employed by countries like Israel which actually work.
sudo make me a sandwich
It's the only way to be sure...
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
The people who manage this agency are on a powertrip. They are the "nosy neighbor" types who love to spy on other people, and being in control of the TSA (and the overall Dept. of Homeland Security) allows them to do what they love to do. Be nosy. They nudebody scan you at airports, rifle through your luggage, do random spots checks along highways, at bus depots, and train stations. They've even surprised citizens at post offices and malls and public parks by demanding IDs and performing warrantless searches of backpacks, purses, et cetera. They've detained & arrested people who were doing nothing wrong except posting on facebook.
It's about time that we Americans Stand Up and start saying, "No. Do you have a warrant? Then no you may not search me at the mall, in the train station, in my car, or pour shit in my drinks." As the ACLU recently told citizens of DC:
No warrant; no search.
No warrant; no search.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
Nothing less than that. It's what government does today. I say that as a life-time Democrat that used to think the government could do some good.
Third generation will be a (recycled) latex glove and lotion. We'll stop those terrorists from hiding their weapons in places we're afraid to look!
And, I assume (without RTFA) that it's the same suppliers and that these scanners will have flaws that cause them to be upgraded again in a few years.
You walk through a cardboard box with a frosted plexiglass window on one side and a drop light shining from the other. 245 mil will get you one.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
2nd generation means they scan yer gonads to see if your offspring are/will be terrorists.
rewriting history since 2109
Yeah. But, hey! I mean naked
Hard to go wrong there. Or it's wrong to go hard there. Or... You know.
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
when i was in the army in the 90's IDIQ contracts were used to buy computers. it's just a price sheet that's updated a few times a year for some products. it just means there is no set quantity or delivery schedule for the contract
Talk about a huge cost to US businesses. The number of additional man-hours lost daily is staggering. With the "enhanced" security you can plan on an extra 1-1.5 hours of transit time each way on every single trip. That almost 1.8 billion hours spent every single year on worthless "security". At typical billing rates, that's over 100 Billion dollars a year of wasted time.
I don't hear any outrage from the right. I wonder why...
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I love a good incendiary summary as much as the next guy, but isn't this a bit blatant, even for Slashdot?
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
I think it's a bad move that they chose X rays instead of THz for this generation. THz rays can't hurt you, while the TSA has been preventing independent safety analyses of the backscatter X ray machines.
The total dose of backscatter X rays is low, but it's so concentrated that it might still be a problem. Cancer risk grows superlinearly with exposure, so concentrating exposure to skin effectively amplifies the effects of the small dose. Independent medical researchers are not permitted to investigate these machines, so we don't actually know if they present a problem. We're not all going to die, but it could be that choosing X rays over microwaves will result in a few dozen extra cancer deaths per year, in which case it's a bad move.
In any case, microwave scanners are probably just as effective (read that how you will), so I'm surprised the TSA doubled down on the potentially risky bet that X ray backscatter technology is going to remain legal.
Expected time to finish is 1 hour and 60 minutes.
Step 1, cavity search flyers. Step 2, insert rolled $20 into said cavity. You may find more and actually leave a few people happy at the taxes.you just returned!
Silence is a state of mime.
This post was removed due to Dice content standards violations.
TSA won't stop until they have seen EVERYONE naked.
Ultimate government funded pervert society...
they can even spend $245 trillion.. I just don't care and don't travel any more to this shit country called USA.
It means the pictures get automatically uploaded to Facebook, with face recognition for tagging. Remember "Privacy is dead, get over it?"
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
Why are they expending money on new versions of the scanners when not all airports have the first version?
Even if one assumed that the scanners could detect everything (which they can't), it would make since to at least have a version 1 scanner at all the airports.
So TSA purchases version 2 scanners that go into some airports. Terrorists just go to airports that have version 1. Oh wait, they can just go to airports that don't have any scanners. Weakest link principle.
So, wait, which president was it that founded the organization in the first place?
Or are we pretending that 2000-2008 never happened, now? That's the new party policy, right, where Clint Eastwood rants to an empty chair about the wars Obama started in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Bush is the one who gave us the TSA, and started overpaying them in the first place. You really think Romney'd change anything?
The latest machines can actually photograph your bone marrow, in case you smuggle a shoe bomb in there. Of course it also gives you horrific cancer but that's OK, so long as it's in the interest of safety.
They told me if I voted for McCain, we'd see an administration more beholden the military industrial complex and even more wasteful than ever before... and they were right.
Romney sure isn't going to stand up for my individual liberties. Dig Eisenhower out of his grave (or maybe Goldwater) and I'll vote for a conservative.
Apparently the TSA agents didn't know what a MoH is and were supsicious because the medal is the shape of a star and feared it might be used like a Japanese shuriken (throwing star)! Never mind that the guy they didn't trust was a WWII ace, a retired general, and form governor. http://www.snopes.com/military/medal.asp The meme used to be if you weren't smart enough to get into college, you could join the Army. I think now it's you can join the TSA.
The TSA has this program now called Fly By. It's a voluntary program that has been rolled out to a few airports (lucky my hometown airport is one of them). If you join up - and remember it's voluntary - the TSA will do a background check on you. If all goes well then the next time you go to the airport you get whisked over to a special line at security. You don't have to take your shoes off, you don't have to take your belt off, you don't have to take out your toiletry bag. You just put your stuff on the belt and walk through the x-ray machine. Easy, peesy. Now, I still can't bring through a bottle of water and I'm still subject to the regulations that other passengers are but still...this is a Godsend for frequent flyers and a model for how airport security should be done. It's fast and convenient and still provides a measure of safety.
I've been critical of the TSA in the past but this time they got it right.
However, back to the article at hand. Don't you think it might make sense to try these new things out in the field before awarding an IDIQ contract? I haven't read the contract but it sounds suspiciously like some of the other government contracts in that the supplier gets paid no matter what. If something goes wrong then you have to sign another contract, and pay more money, to get it fixed.
I've worked with many government agencies over the years as a contractor, and many years ago, as an employee. The big problem, as I see it, is not so much the people that work there it's the procurement system. The rules and the hoops you have to jump through to get anything done is just appalling. Often, the rules prevent you from making the best purchasing decision. No private company could survive under the same set of rules. That - as much as anything else - is what is contributing to the massive waste in government today.
They won't be happy until we get to this and remember, the white lines lead to red lines which lead to the detention centers..
It's all about being "Perfectly Safe"
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
The total dose of backscatter X rays is low, but it's so concentrated that it might still be a problem. Cancer risk grows superlinearly with exposure, so concentrating exposure to skin effectively amplifies the effects of the small dose. Independent medical researchers are not permitted to investigate these machines, so we don't actually know if they present a problem. We're not all going to die, but it could be that choosing X rays over microwaves will result in a few dozen extra cancer deaths per year, in which case it's a bad move.
The typical response to this is that you get a higher dose of radiation when you fly at cruising altitude for a couple hours than you get going through the machine. That response doesn't answer all of your points, including the concentrated dose as opposed to a lower dose over time, but it hides an important question: if the TSA is saying the machines are "safe" because you're only in front of them for a few seconds, what about the TSA workers? I know we all love to hate on those incompetent and frequently criminal asshats, but they're just the grunts following policy from management and have no options other than quitting, and most of them are pretty unemployable.
However, those workers spend hours every day, five days a week, standing around these poorly shielded machines that have been shown to leak. They don't wear radiation dosimeters, they haven't been allowed to form unions until just recently, and the TSA's response to safety questions is "the public is safe because they don't spend as much time around the machines as, say, the workers". I think it's much more likely that we're going to see a surge in cancer among TSA workers in a few years.
Being a troublemaker, of course, I tell the screener all of this while they're doing my opt-out pat-down.
Get an infrared imaging system. Put it by the gate. Also at the gate, plaster it with those Dutch cartoons mocking Mohammad. Who ever shows up beet red on the monitor can't go aboard.
Romney's going to spend like a drunken warmonger, on the other hand.
No, the Army rejects go to try to become regular security guards. Those rejects then become TSA agents, based on their prior experience of applying to be a security guard.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Bush gave us the TSA so Romney won't change anything? Dude, it's been years since Bush has been in office. The Obama administration could have thrown them out in the past 3.5 years and they did not.
The TSA was formed under Bush, but do you think Gore or Kerry would have done any different? The TSA was created as a reaction to the public panic over 9/11. Any sitting President would have done the same thing, and to be honest not knowing what exactly was coming or what was going on, any President would have erred on the side over caution. Also, the TSA is not going away any time soon; an article posted on Slashdot awhile back showed that most people in the US think the TSA's doing a good job (news flash, Slashdot thinks they suck but the slashdot crowd is a small minority of the population and not even entirely American). Prove that the TSA is a waste of time and money and isn't doing anything, get the public against it, and then it won't matter whether Obama or Romney is President; they'll have to follow the will of the people if they want to get re-elected. Easier said than done, sure, but that's what it will take. Obama will not get rid of the TSA. Neither will Romney. But if the public is turned against the TSA, then either one as President will get rid of them.
...the TSA has awarded an indefinite delivery / indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract, worth up to $245 Million...
Headline says "spending" $245 million. An IDIQ contract is not at all the same as spending -- it is a vehicle through which money *can* be spent. TSA could use it to purchase between $0 and and $245 million in scanners. It doesn't even mean that there's money allocated in their budget for this.
As previously reported, Jonathan Corbett proved that TSA's current nude-o-scopes are incapable of actually detecting hidden objects.
No, he demonstrated that it is possible to conceal an object from the scanners. There are still plenty of hidden objects (in practice, most) that they can detect, so they are capable of actually detecting hidden objects. Just not all of them.
If you're going to be inflammatory, at least get your facts half-right.
I'm not going to do the math but I bet it'd be cheaper to put an armed air marshal on every single US flight instead.
I'm not "conservative". I'm a classical liberal, as some folks define the term -- a philosophy closer to classical conservatism than to either Obama or Romney.
Modern conservatives have pretty uniformly been disasters.
But I won't reply to yours...
Oh wait... Damn!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Yeah. But, hey! I mean naked
Hard to go wrong there.
Ummm...C4 will fit up people's asses. Even if we go totally naked the terrorists can still win.
No sig today...
Don't you think it might make sense to try these new things out in the field before awarding an IDIQ contract? I haven't read the contract but it sounds suspiciously like some of the other government contracts in that the supplier gets paid no matter what. If something goes wrong then you have to sign another contract, and pay more money, to get it fixed.
A few points:
As part of the procurement and contract competition for AIT-2 (Advanced Imaging Technology - Second Generation) the bidders supplied machines which were used in live tests by the government, in real-life conditions. The performance of the machines in those tests was part of the evaluation and source selection process.
The contract is Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity. This is the exact opposite of "You must pay no matter what." The TSA may buy up to $245M off this contract. However, it is not committed to buy anything at all. That's what ID/IQ means, and that flexibility is exactly why the government designed this type of procurement vehicle. It is a promise from the contractor that, should the government choose to do so, it may buy any amount of the goods or services at a pre-arranged, competitively-bid price. They may buy 100 of these machines. They may buy one. Or even none. The vendor is bound by the pre-negotiated terms, however. (To answer the "First they hook you, then they raise the price" complaint, I should say that even the out-year price increase is part of most procurements of this type. It is common for there to be some built in year-to-year price adjustment (generally called "escalation") to account for increasing out-year labor costs. However, that too is pre-negotiated, and set at the time of contract award. The effect being that every part of a vendor's price is subject to competition from other vendors at the time of proposal submittal.)
Maintenance arrangements for any machines the TSA chooses to purchase are part of the procurement. Therefore, that is also pre-set. Further, it is part of the $245 contract value. It simply isn't possible for the vendor to surprise the TSA with new charges to fix broken devices.
There may be many reasons to dislike the TSA in general, and their scanning machines in particular. But being upset about theoretical contract issues that people make up out of whole cloth isn't one of them, and it isn't very useful.
I agree that the procurement system is cumbersome and slow. Very few people, either inside the government or out understand it. The people that do can earn quite a good living helping companies sell and government agencies buy. I know a few.
Novaflyer
"Prior experience"?
Last time I checked the TSA were putting adverts on pizza boxes.
No sig today...
"The TSA was created as a reaction to the public panic over 9/11"
The TSA was implemented by responding to the public panic over 9/11. I could argue its creation had been planned for YEARS - awaiting the PNAC anticipated "new Pearl Harbor" event. The whole of the voluminous "PATRIOT" act was obviously crafted through many years of effort. Only the final collation of this voluminous compendium of human oppression occurred after 9/11.
The TSA is now an institution that will not be eradicated, without the complete dissolution of the USA.
US out of North America, NOW!
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
Taxes Squandered Arduously
Theater of Sovereign Arrogance
Tush Squeezing Auxiliary
Trifling Sleazy Abductions
Testicle Screening Apparatus
Trouser Skeptics Association
Transgressing Social Abodes
Trimester State Assurance
Trespassing Submissive Anatomy
Tenaciously Swabbing Anything
Traveler's Subversion Agency
Terminally Sordid Asshats
Titillating Sensitive Appendages
That's all for now
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
I don't expect _any_ future president to disband TSA. At least not until the world become a Provably Safe Place (TM), or massive public resistance develops. Any politician skilled enough to be up for the job (or a Senate seat, etc.) is going to see that as accepting a lot of risk. There would certainly be an outcry from those who want the government to protect them from _everything_. If there were another attack afterwards, the politician(s) who were involved in dismantling it would then be toast.
What you do with a computer does not constitute the whole of computing.
You've gotta be shitting me. There is not threat to the US, there is more domestic terrorism among Americans than there is outside influence. This is a waste of money. That's what it's for, better wasting money here than giving it to the poor/homeless/ or helping more students go to college.
to run them. Please, God, let Romney win.
Do you think Romney would do anything differently?
Hint: if he would, he would have mentioned it by now.
Why does this story have an EFF logo? There are no references anywhere to the EFF anywhere outside of the logo & tag.
You really think Romney'd change anything?
Sure he will. I am certain that an entirely different group of contractors would get to develop "3rd generation" machines if Romney replaced Obama.
Are these assholes even government employees? If not, WHY ARE THEY GETTING TAXPAYER MONEY?
Nope, it's actually easier than that. Simply ban all items that can be used as weapons.
Are you including hands, feet and body odor?
The AS&E Z-backscatter systems are quite good. There's some X-ray exposure, and they're very expensive, but they're effective. They image by atomic number, and can distinguish elements. It's not just density any more, like transmission X-rays. This technology is much more effective (and intrusive) than microwave-based systems.
The machines need a huge number of X-ray detectors, are physically large, very expensive, and aren't that fast. The latest generation of machines are about 2/3 the size of the previous ones (which were so big that they wouldn't fit through standard doors) and are faster. But they're still big.
If the TSA is going to throw money at something, this is at least something that works.
The San Ysidro border US border checkpoint has several lanes of the big version for cars. This thing is the size of a drive-through carwash. It's too slow to use for primary inspection, though; only some vehicles are run through it. The biggest weakness of the technology is that it is slow.
I wish I had a time machine because I would go back in time, show Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin a video of the BS that goes on in our time, and it would be more than enough for them to travel to the future with me. Then I'd like to see what they do when a TSA agent tries to violate them.
RAWR!
You don't need to be a sociopath to not open the door, even if there are 200 people being killed. It's a simple calculation today. The assumption now is that they want to be able to control the plane in order to turn it into an improvised guided missile. The 200 people are dead anyways if that happens, and the potential casualties on the ground are in the thousands. This is despite the odds being rather against 5 terrorists armed only with knives being able to kill 200. It would be difficult even with guns. Remember, even today a good percentage of commercial airplane pilots come from a military background, and we're talking about people who, during 9/11, were prepared to ram the plane with their unarmed fighter to prevent it from going into another occupied building.
Attitudes changed on 9/11. It's been our biggest defense against a repeat. Today, passangers have gotten so enthusiastic about defending the plane that they've killed people who tried to get through the flight door.
I don't read AC A human right
I have to disagree. You have to remember that we're a morass of federal laws, 50 different sets of state law, who knows how many city/county laws, etc... That's before you consider that the police can arrest you for pretty much whatever they want, mistakes in the specifics of law themselves. There's a difference between being arrested for something, being charged for it, much less being convicted of it.
That being said, I figure that there has to be more to the story about the indecent exposure charge. Perhaps there were allegations/suspicion that the guy deliberately dropped his pants?
I don't read AC A human right
The TSA is now an institution that will not be eradicated, without the complete dissolution of the USA.
Unless we get a true Tea Party president that wants to slash the public sector massively. Look at TSA's massive budget and ask: Just how many terrorists has it actually caught? - and compare the response to previous efforts in airport security. When the enormous waste of money on nothing comes to light, the TSA will be eradicated faster than if it was nuked from orbit...
It is kind of scary that the TSA was formed in response to 9/11, and yet NONE of the current security measures would have caught the 9/11 hijackers. One of my friends actually brought a huge steak knife with him through the security in THREE international airports and it wasn't discovered. It came from a restaurant in his initial airport (with stamped logo) so if it was found he could always claim that he didn't know it was there (in a bag of duty free stuff, into which it could easily have fallen).
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Lets just disband the TSA already and let travelers choose the level of security the wish to have. Seriously you're more likely to die slipping in the shower,on the drive up there,by insect stings or bites, or even falling out of bed then by international terror.