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House Subcommittee Holds Hearing On TSA's "Scanner Shuffle"
OverTheGeicoE writes "The Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security held a hearing on TSA's recent decision to move X-ray body scanners from major airports to smaller ones, which the subcommittee refers to as a 'Scanner Shuffle.' John Sanders, TSA's assistant administrator for security capabilities, testified that 91 scanners recently removed from major airports were now in storage due to 'privacy concerns.' Although TSA originally planned to relocate the scanners to smaller airports, those plans have been shelved because smaller airports don't have room for them. The subcommitteee is also investigating allegations that the machines' manufacturer, Rapiscan, 'may have falsified tests of software intended to stop the machines from recording graphic images of travelers' (VIDEO). Coincidentally, shares of Rapiscan's parent company, OSI Systems Inc., dropped in value almost 25% today, its biggest intraday decline in about 12 years. If wrongdoing is proven, Rapiscan could face fines, prison terms and a ban on government contracting, according to a former head of federal procurement."
I never noticed how poorly the scanner machine's company was named...
The best thing about UDP jokes is I don't care if you get them or not
I can hear the rubber stamp bouncing now.
The mind conceives, the body achieves, the spirit manifests.
the cluster fuck agency. seems they are consistently boorish, idiotic in rulemaking, inconsistent, and being called out as leaders in group comedy, instead of as an effective security force.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
What I don't understand is why the TSA still exists. Everybody hates it and it costs us a ridiculous amount of money. Every time I've uttered the phrase "security theater" around normals, they've heard it before and agree with it. Why haven't any politicians jumped at the chance to cut it like the cancer it is and score major points with their electorate?
Is corruption really the answer, or am I missing something, here?
I want to go through one of the scanners right now. Just to show the TSA how happy I am :)
Can someone please translate the comment above to english?
How the fuck do you fail to NOT program a piece of custom hardware to encode JPG and MPG4 files? One would think you would merely have to...not code it to do that! The prosecution rests.
If only privacy was the biggest concern..
These things are skin cancer machines, just do a quick Google search.
That's why they are not found in Europe..
Certain constitutional protections are suspended at airports and borders. This is for your personal safety and to ensure that bootleg mp3s don't endanger the economic safety of the nation.
Please consider our agents and screeners. While pay is good for the level of qualifications being asked (similar hiring process to a burger joint), it's not a very high salary. Searching just one 10 year old girl can be enough to get a TSA agent through the entire day. Is it really too much to ask, and what else can we do? You want these people out working in schools? Here at airports we can watch them to ensure that they look, touch but don't penetrate.
I flew out of Minneapolis a few weeks ago and while on the way down I didn't have to go through the scanner (in Canada we use millimeter wave and always have), they had the backscatter in the airport. I simply, and politely, asked to have my kids go through the metal detector along-side the backscatter instead since I didn't want them to get a blast of xrays. "No problem" said the TSA person (who BTW was incredibly nice and reasonable about the whole thing). In fact, the whole fam. got processed through the metal detector instead. They DID confiscate the ~3 oz. of my kids' toothpaste however. Security theater.
Rapiscan could face fines, prison terms and a ban on government contracting, according to a former head of federal procurement."
Yeah, right. That'll happen.
Good luck getting Eric Holder to prosecute.
The only thing Holder is "busting" these days are the very laws and constitution he's supposed to uphold and defend. Heck, all Rapiscan needs to do is put a NBPP member in as the new CEO. They'll be "teflon" and it won't matter if the body scanners disintegrate passengers like one of the "Mars Attacks!" rayguns.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
If wrongdoing is proven, Rapiscan could face fines, prison terms and a ban on government contracting, according to a former head of federal procurement.
Yeah, right. Thanks for the best laugh I've had all day.
Now, time for a good cry.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
The backscatter machines were pulled three weeks ago from New York's LaGuardia and JFK, Chicago O'Hare, Los Angeles, Boston, Charlotte and Orlando airports. The move was designed to speed up security lines at checkpoints there.
Sanders said it's worked and that lines at those airports are now moving 180,000 more passengers each day.
I find this confusing. Were the TSA lines the gating factor in keeping 180,000 passengers from flying each day? According to A4A, 2.4 Million Passengers will fly on 11/25/2012. 180,000 passengers is 7.5% of that figure. An average travel day in the US looks to be roughly 1.8 million passengers. 180,000 is 10% of that figure.
What did those 180,000 people do? Wait in line until it closed/they missed their flight, then try again another day? Decide not to fly?
The TSA needs to be abolished. Period.
Here at airports we can watch them to ensure that they look, touch but don't penetrate.
You obviously haven't been subjected to the customs guys with their plastic gloves.
Anyhow, the main problem is neither modesty nor cancer, but that you're treated as a suspect and lose your right not to go through search and seizure without even being suspected of any wrongdoing,
If you have nothing to hide, you get angry when treated like you do.
This is a little off-topic, but concerns getting TSA to change it's ways. There is a petition on change.org asking TSA to get rid of "priority" screening lines. As the petition says, the speed of a government service should NOT depend on how much we pay to an airline, and TSA should not allow airlines to profit by offering better access to a government service as a perk for a high priced ticket (or participation in their reward programs).
The petition doesn't have a lot of signatures yet, but to me it's a no brainer, so I hope it catches on.
The problem with the petition is that the lines are run by the different airport authorities and not by TSA. So the petition is addressing the wrong institution.
Reminds me of the saying, "I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one."
Table-ized A.I.