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TSA Terminates Its Contract With Maker of Full-Body Scanner
McGruber writes "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has ended a contract with Rapiscan, a unit of OSI Systems Inc., manufacturer of about half of all of the controversial full-body scanners used on air passengers. TSA officials claim that Rapiscan failed to deliver software that would protect the privacy of passengers, but the contract termination happened immediately after the TSA finally got around to studying the health effects of the scanners, and Congress had a hearing on TSA's 'Scanner Shuffle'."
is the first 'a' in Rapiscan pronounced as just a regular 'a' or like 'ae' ?
Why wasn't this determined during the test and acceptance phase for this product. Perhaps it's my cynical nature tempered by years of working for the government but this type of thing happens far too frequently.
Clearly these scanners didn't give them a clear enough image of everybody's bodies. They want more clarity, more embarrassing images, more power to force you to stand quietly like a sheep and be treated worse than luggage or be subject to their highly invasive personal inspections.
It's a shame that nothing will really change despite having this validate almost everything that was ever said by the anti-crowd against these things. Health and privacy concerns, a nice double-whammy. I was tempted to skip these the last time I flew, but I'm a Brit and I was trying to get into the USA, and I was already having trouble with people not believing my passport photograph (oh no, new hair styles, you're a different person!!!) and I think I would have just gotten immense grief from security if I'd have asked for the extended groping session. Plus, my balls are for my fiancée only.
I wish I were optimistic enough to believe that this change had something to do with safety or people's rights.
My guess is that the right people made enough money or the right favors were repaid and now it's time to move on to making someone else richer.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Everyone and everything's name is hilarious, but RAPEYSCAN really takes the proverbial cake, and eats it too.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The real reason is that the agents have a deep rooted "touching fetish" that they need to keep satisfied.
So, Chertoff (Deviloff) got rich and you folks got screwed for a billion bucks worth useless, and potentionaly harmful, HW.
I, for one, have not flown for years, as neither the Rapiscan scanners, nor the pat down meet my religion's modesty requirements. Also, I'm of the opinion that the less radiation I'm exposed to, the better. :)
The L3 scanners would seem to be sort of a perfect alternative. Is that too optimistic? Is there some danger with their technology of which I am not aware?
.... probably in favor of the new "Double dozen hand groping machine - If a machine is grabbing your junk, you can't be offended" :-|
If I made a scanner that looked through your clothes I sure as hell would make sure not to call my company "Rapey-scan". You would think they would have gone with something friendlier.
From the TFA:
"The TSA plans to remove 174 Rapiscan machines from U.S. airports, with the company absorbing the cost, according to TSA officials. The machines will be replaced by L-3 scanners."
It's not like the scanners are going away. They're just replacing the backscatter X-Ray scanners from Rapiscan with the millimeter radio-wave scanners from L-3 Communications.
I flew for the first time in a while a couple of months ago and gave it a try. The line was shorter and if they want to go blind seeing me nekkid then so be it, and I doubt one time would mean much with the health concerns (frequent flyers another story).
I'd gone to the airport prepped accordingly and took of my slip-on shoes, my thinner belt, emptied my pockets entirely... ready to just go through quickly.
STILL... they had to pat me and a bunch of people down.
W T H I thought the whole point of this thing was to go through quicker AND not have to be man-handled!?
The only thing that is changing here is the vendor to which the money goes. L-3 has successfully forced Rapiscan out of the picture and probably the market.
This has absolutely zero to do with outrage, safety, congress or anything else besides good old fashioned business skulduggery.
Stay in line sheeple, lest you be an enemy combatant!
It was. You, me and millions of others have been alpha testing this product for years. Now, bend over and get ready the beta testing phase.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
Interesting name. It's the same as the Office of Strategic Influence, the psyops department of the DOD. The OSI was later renamed for PR reasons, but apparently it lives on.
Nothing to do with the massive public outcry, or the groped, irradiated, molested, and strip searched passengers. No, it's because they didn't provide timely patches...
Just how much do the rapists making the child-porn-source-scanning devices get for early contract termination?
Hoping it's multiple life sentences for making devices intentionally to produce child porn.
not everything done for us is for our rights or safety....is that all bad? In this case, I think that all the airport security is for the general public's peace of mind. Sure, its irritating, but the general public 'feel' safer once they are through it. If they never did anything after 9/11 and it happened a second time, so many would stop flying it could kill the industry. If they took steps to only stop knives (like was used on 9/11) and some next used a stick, everyone would be mad that they didn't think to look for stick. Since we are trying to protect the public for some in the public, we need to allow a level of inspection of us all. Personally, I have nothing to hide at anytime. I don't care what they watch, track or see. They got nothing on me. Big whoop.
The only thing needed to prevent another 9/11 was a good strong door to keep passengers out of the cockpit. Combine that with the fact that passengers now assume they are going to be murdered instead of held hostage and it gets extremely difficult to take control of an airliner.
So the question now is: will ere be an ongoing service contract to repair the existing scanners? How about ongoing safety testing?
If they never did anything after 9/11 and it happened a second time,
If they never did anything, 9/11 couldn't happen a second time. Examples include the times that someone DID try to rush the cabin, pretty much everyone on the plane lept to action.
The rest of your post... It's an anathema to democracy. But I suppose that someone posting as 'anonymous' should be taken seriously when they state they have nothing to hide at anytime.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
There are scanners and TSA upon arrival at many USA airports. If you got out of your basement and traveled the world you would see them at SEA (Seattle-Taccoma International), MEM (Memphis International), and at least up until a year or so ago, at ATL (Atlanta International). In those and likely some others, US Customs (which happens after US Immigration) exits into the airside "sterile" section of the airport, not "landside". So in order to arrive in the USA and exit the airport, yes, you do have to clear through TSA. I've flown into the USA into all three airports internationally and have had to go through TSA to get out.
More common in US airport layout is where the US ICE section exits to the outside, or to the main concourse, such as Boston Logan Terminal E, Denver International, the TBIT terminal at LAX, the various terminals at JFK, O'Hare International in Chicago, etc. But not all.
BTW there are no X-Ray whole-body scanners in Amsterdam, as the EU doesn't allow them. What there is at AMS is at-gate security of the typical x-ray carryon bag scanner, before you are able to enter the actual departure lounge area. Plus if flying out of AMS on a USA-based airline, a contract employee asking you the stupid questions that they stopped asking in the USA 10 years ago. "Who packed your bag?", etc.
vinehair could have hit scanners and the TSA full monty in the USA. If flying out of AMS to the USA, there is a high likelihood he was on either Delta or KLM, a Delta hub because of the old KLM-Northwest joint venture, and two of the AMS-US likely routes are into either MEM or ATL. With SEA also a possibility; I think KL still flies that.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Personally, I have nothing to hide at anytime. I don't care what they watch, track or see. They got nothing on me. Big whoop.
Well, you did post as AC. Just sayin'...
In this case, I think that all the airport security is for the general public's peace of mind.
Well, last time I checked, there is no right to FEEL safe, especially at the expense of our rights, health, or well being. A reasonable right to expect to be safe yes, but not a right to merely feel safe.
If you believe in privacy, and believe you have "nothing to hide" at the same time, you're a goddammed idiot
Actually, the purpose of the scanners is to increase cancer in the general population, so that Big Pharma can make more money with chemotherapy drugs...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Ever since the TSA began its grossly abusive 'security theatre', every forum that discussed the problem was infected by government shills- shills that attempted to disarm every concern with a carefully calculated payload of propaganda. For instance, here on Slashdot, you have been told, at very great length, why these body scanners were safe, essential, and of no concern to the 'honest traveller'.
When a researcher had even a few minutes access to one of these machines, he was able to prove their uselessness at even doing their stated job- finding illicit objects on the person. He proved conclusively that a skilled person could bypass any 'detection' function claimed by the scanner just as easily as that person could fool a 'lie detector' with a little trivial training. Do you REALLY think team Obama didn't know this?
Slashdot owners will continue to use this site to push pro-government agendas, especially in their never-ending 'war on terror'. The government shills will always magically have their posts (be they pro-scanner, or anti-muslim) promoting to a score of '5' courtesy of the comment promotion mechanism Slashdot implements for exactly this purpose. You see Slashdot has a policy of no censorship (snigger), just a formula that ensures the 'wrong' views (in the political stories) are invisible, and the State-approved views are given maximum exposure, to the average reader.
The body scanners are not going because the drone-loving monster, Obama, has decided to give you a break. No, they were a bad idea from the start, driven by the corrupt presence of senior politicians on the board of the company that made them. They are clunky, extremely dangerous to the operators (recall the 'safe' x-ray machines used in shoe shops in the near past), massively expensive to run, massively expensive to maintain, useless, and sexually extremely abusive to those scanned. Ex-TSA employees continuously confirm that attractive women are targeted both for the scans and the grope-downs.
They have served their purpose, though. They prove that even middle-class Americans will put up with anything, especially if fronted by a 'black' president. They prove that the will of the American people has been dumbed-down enough to the point where it may as well not exist. They prove that even the worst governmental abuses will be successfully defended by government shills on sites like Slashdot, with the full co-operation of those sites owners.
Do yourself a favour. Go back to those earlier discussions here, and go read the detailed posts by these shills. Then remind yourself thee shills are still posting here on other pro-government issues, like anything to do with the approaching war with Iran, a war that will definitely involve Obama (or his successor) using nuclear weapons.
Who really cares about the millimeter wave scanners?
Anyone who cares about personal privacy or actual security. The scanners are expensive security theater that do not demonstrably improve safety while simultaneously manage to violate our constitutional rights against unreasonable searches.
Is non-ionizing radiation something you worry about?
That is honestly the least of my concerns regarding the scanners.
I don't care if you see my balls, but I would like to prevent my thyroid condition from getting any worse.
I'm not particularly shy but I don't particular care to show my stuff either. It's just none of their business and doesn't make anyone safer.
What exactly is the rational objection to millimeter wave?
My fourth amendment rights. The fact that it doesn't improve safety. That it is expensive. That it is security theater. That while we logically can infer that it is safe we do not have much in the way of credible data backing up our logical assumptions.
Isn't it called Gropyscan?
We might not be finished with X-ray body scanners. TSA and DHS have a fairly-recent $245 million contract with another supplier for a similar X-ray scanner.
The Lockerbie bomber used a female to carry the bomb. He lured a poor girl into being his 'girlfriend' and then gave her the boombox to carry. That's why the airlines ask you if you packed your stuff yourself and that you're not carrying anyone else's stuff.
For wasting billions in taxpayer dollars and causing more deaths than they could ever have reasonably been expected to save. Just defund the entire goddamn organization and contract airport security out to private firms based on performance metrics.
No more political security theatre bullshit and no more high school dropouts with badges.
but it wasn't stupid. I could tell the lady that was questioned was intently observing me. I am sure they are now trained to look for 'tells' which I think is better than the stupid scanners. And, they had no scanners.. This was to board a US airline from ATH to JFK.
The underwear bomber boarded his flight in Amsterdam. The shoe bomber boarded his flight in Paris.
What good does using body scanners in the US do? If the terrorist's goal is to blow up a plane, it doesn't matter if he gets scanned in the US, even upon arrival, because he'll have long since carried out his attack.
No, the point of these body scanners is to enrich the manufacturers and catch drug smugglers. That's it. Terrorism is just a convenient pretext.
:(){
If you don't board they'll pull your bags.
If the bags don't make the flight that you board, no biggie.
paintball
It is against international regulations to have luggage for a passenger carried on a plane where the passenger isn't flying.
Passenger/bag matching is a bit of a deterrent, but not much of one when we know terrorists are willing to fly planes into buildings, or attempt to blow up planes with bombs in their crotch.
paintball
Of how the goatse guy came to be!
bbw-chan[dot]net, actually.
I believe that this is still a fresh waste of taxpayer dollars. I believe the Rapiscan backscatter machines will be repurposed and fit into other government buildings, and the TSA will buy more L-3 (mm-radiowave) scanners, which provide a generic screen without the nudity. What are the safety data on the L3 scanners?
Australia was damned to hell for all eternity by Oral Roberts (and the God that apparently takes orders from him) when a customs inspector dared to examine his luggage. Funny how attitudes change and people will accept being grabbed by the balls by airport security.
Just wondering.
I would never, ever, ever let a strange touch my privates. If anyone did in an official capacity I would have them in a lock and would be patiently explaining to them that they have no right to assault or touch me just because I am about to get on a plane.
But then, I don't live in the USA