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'."

Comments

pronounciation

[Anonymous Coward]

is the first 'a' in Rapiscan pronounced as just a regular 'a' or like 'ae' ?

Re:pronounciation

[mwvdlee]

Since full body scanning does not make boarding a plane go more rapid, I think the answer is obvious.

Re:pronounciation

[Jason Levine]

Oddly enough, in all the times I've read that word, I've never once pronounced it in my head as "Rapi(d) Scan". I've always pronounced it as "Rape-i-scan" (with a short i like in "it"). For some reason, them trying to play on the word "rapid" just never came to mind.

Re:pronounciation

[cayenne8]

The last few times I've gone through security, and they tried to move me to the scanner rather than just the simple metal detector, I asked for a manual pat down.

Every time I have asked for this, the guard I asked said "Oh, but there's no radiation on these scanners", and I still insisted.

I try these days to make sure to get there in plenty enough time (1.5 hours before flight leaves) to request manual pat down, if more people would do it...they'd start seeing they have a problem maybe.

alpha test?

[OffTheLip]

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.

Re:alpha test?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because by the time that scientists can get through all of the obfuscation, the administrators that approved it will be retired. And the current administrators can simply say that it wasn't their decision. Everybody wins! (except almost everybody)

Re:alpha test?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd sooner trust the terrorists than the TSA. At least the terrorists are up-front about their agenda.

Re:alpha test?

[SuricouRaven]

Because if you respect people's privacy and safety, the terrorists win.

Re:alpha test?

[lorenlal]

Because Chertoff was the principal lobbyist for Rapiscan was a former DHS head. They were able to just get the contract in without any sort of vetting. It's one of the more shameful episodes in shady government contracts, except those involved seem immune to shame.

Re:alpha test?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because if you respect people's privacy and safety, the terrorists win.

Based on the way the West has acted in "The War Against Terror", the terrorist *have* won. They have us jumping at shadows, wasting millions of dollars on useless schemes, and all they have to do is make scary noises from time to time.
How many plane/bomb threats have been averted by DHS vigilance in the last ten years? The few that have been found have all been foiled by traditional counter-terrorism techniques: the security theater in airports is just a way for certain groups to siphon off public money into their own pockets.

Re:alpha test?

[h4rr4r]

Chertoff Group, which he founded represents scanner makers. They are a security consulting group that sells the things as well. How does that not look like a revolving door?

Personally I would prefer something that did not use ionizing radiation or waste everyone's time. If that means going back to metal detectors that would be fine.

Re:alpha test?

[RoTNCoRE]

Yep, just you. Remember what flying was like pre-9/11? We're no safer now, aside from the fact that the cabin is now inaccessible to passengers.

Also, just because it isn't on the congressional record doesn't mean it didn't happen - maybe a sweetheart deal like, if you push these through, we'll give you a sweet consultancy gig afterwards? Like his current role as head of a consultancy firm for the industry called the Chertoff Group? Do you think just maybe Rapiscan has even been a client? Similar to how generals become board members for the defense industry the second they leave service. Crony capitalism (corruption) at it's best. These postings need to have 20 year non-compete and NDA type clauses. I'm sure the pension isn't lacking...

Re:alpha test?

[Jason Levine]

It's almost to the point where the terrorists don't need to actually pull off an attack. They just release "chatter" about an attack and watch the West scurry around. I wonder how long until the terrorists try to see just how outrageous they can be and still have the West react. "There are reports that a terrorist group has come up with a nose bomb. Everyone will now submit to a TSA-enforced sinus inspection before boarding their planes."

Re:alpha test?

[blueg3]

What's "this"?

The health effects were well-studied long before they even tried to sell them to the government. They did ensure the health effects were acceptably small, but nobody believes them, because it combines the TSA and radiation. One is always scary and the other is always incompetent (only one of the two deserve the label), and so the combination can't possibly be good.

You say you work for the government -- do you really think that "we're agreeing to study the health effects (again)" turned into cancelling their contract in less than a month *and* they dug up an excuse?

As far as the stated reason for cancelling the contract -- which is probably really the reason -- without additional information, I'm going to assume incompetence over malice. They probably simply did not realize that people would view it as such a big privacy problem. Surely the engineers didn't -- it's easy to get blinded into thinking your product has no flaws. I don't know about the government folks, but it can be hard to resist flashy new technology that will Totally Stop The Terrorists(tm).

Re:alpha test?

[JeanCroix]

The few that have been found have all been foiled by traditional counter-terrorism techniques: the security theater in airports is just a way for certain groups to siphon off public money into their own pockets.

Heh. Passengers dogpiling on anyone who starts acting fishy on a flight has now become, indeed, a traditional counter-terrorism technique.

Re:alpha test?

[Zemran]

I think the real irony is that if you want to blow up a plane you need to use the tried and tested methods as they are the only ones that we do not protect against. No one has ever blown up a plane with a bottle of water, it was theoretical, but you cannot take a bottle of water onto a plane. Most planes were blown up with bombs made to look like ordinary objects. The bomb that blew up the plane over Lockerbie was made to look like a radio and the explosives were disguised as batteries, this would still work today as no one stops you from having a radio in your suitcase in the hold.

The security theatre has only served to frighten the people into letting our rulers do as they wish. The lack of real terrorist events is because no one is really trying to kill us. If a group started up today with the brains of the IRA we would be just as screwed today as we were back then. Although most of their success was due to American help which might not be as easy to get today.

Re:alpha test?

[lorenlal]

Huffington Post? Try Washington Post, oh and he disclosed it on CNN.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123102821.html

Re:alpha test?

[SecurityGuy]

This is a ridiculous assertion, and completely wrong. They have us jumping at shadows and wasting billions of dollars on useless schemes.

Re:alpha test?

[Agent0013]

It's almost to the point where the terrorists don't need to actually pull off an attack. They just release "chatter" about an attack and watch the West scurry around.

It's pretty close to how the U.S. brought down our big enemy during the cold war, U.S.S.R. We made these big plans about Star Wars, and having satellites that would be able to shoot down any missile. Our side was mostly talk. On their side they spend enormous amounts of money trying to keep up with what they thought we were doing. Our president actually hired science fiction writers to come up with some of these fantastic ideas that sounded plausible and expensive. If the terrorists figure this out they can just up the chatter until we spend ourselves into bankruptcy and fall like Rome. Then the terrorists win.

Re:alpha test?

[berashith]

A bigger element than the planes not being blown up is the nothing else being blown up. If the terrorists were as determined as we are beig told, then why havent they been thwarted by our awesome new security doodads and moved on to other things. I am sure that in a few minutes I can think of at least 15 places where people can be successfully killed in large numbers that could have ripples through the economy. As these havent been blown up, then the terrorists as presented arent out there.

Unfortunately the TSA knows all this and is working to protect those other places so that the lack of successful terrorist plots remains at the hands of our saviors in the TSA, and no one will discover that the narrrative is bullshit.

Re:alpha test?

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, now everyone posting as AC is on a list.

Re:alpha test?

[Joce640k]

The moment after a terrorist blows up a bomb hidden in his anus (on a plane or just while in the queue before security check), flying will become a whole lot worse...

He has to get caught, not succeed. Otherwise we won't know it was up his ass.

We need a guy sitting in a plane seat with his trousers down using a bic lighter to light a piece of string poking out of his ass. It's the best thing that could happen to the world right now because the TSA would have to admit in public that they're powerless and all those machines were a waste of money.

Re:alpha test?

[jafac]

uh - no.
This is FoxNews fantasy.
The way the USSR was brought down was:
Their party mukity-muks were getting rich off of illegally selling Soviet oil on the black market, and rigging prices by manipulating OPEC. (1970's).
The US did the same with KSA, getting them to open the spigots; (by playing Iraq and Iran off of each-other, dating back to 1953, and Operation AJAX - and keeping KSA, UAE, and Kuwait, terrified that Iraq was going to come in and invade them and take over. . . as long as the US protected KSA, UAE, Kuwait - they did our bidding).
So when KSA opened up oil production in the 1980's, oil prices collapsed, Soviet revenues collapsed, and their economy collapsed. The problem of how to pay their massive army while they were engaged in the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan, and operations in Chechnya, became a practical issue, and elements began to desert (and rebel).

This is what caused the USSR to fail.

Those same corrupt party members who were privately profitting off of selling Soviet oil? They became the heads of the privatized oil industry in the 1990's. Some of them actually went to jail; (but this was the result of political infighting, not actual law enforcement - the LOSERS went to jail). The winners - well some of them went on to con Iceland into privatizing their national banking system in the 2000's. They walked away with billions, and Iceland's economy collapsed. Julian Assange has information to expose these guys; but guess what happened to Julian Assange?

Re:alpha test?

[Mitreya]

The health effects were well-studied long before they even tried to sell them to the government. They did ensure the health effects were acceptably small,

Do you care to cite a study that back it up? The time to approve/deploy this machines was probably insufficient to do an extensive health study.

but nobody believes them, because it combines the TSA and radiation.

More exactly -- it combines minimum-wage people (TSA) managing medical-grade machines (radiation). The concern was -- if the machine was less-than-perfectly calibrated, no one would notice. A medical device that would trim nose-hair in a hospital would go through a far more rigorous evaluation than those monstrosities have.

reasons

[stoolpigeon]

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.

I fucking love the names these days

[drinkypoo]

Everyone and everything's name is hilarious, but RAPEYSCAN really takes the proverbial cake, and eats it too.

This is great news for L-3 Communications

[ahecht]

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.

Re:This is great news for L-3 Communications

[show me altoids]

Do a Google search on "security theater." That's all these scanners are.

Re:Who named this company?

[Anonymous Coward]

The one company that gives us honesty in its marketing and you are all upset.

Some people are never satisfied!

Used it once, still had to get pat down

[kannibal_klown]

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!?

Re:Used it once, still had to get pat down

[Jason Levine]

My wife went through one and needed to get the pat down too. They found an "anomaly" on her that required further inspection. Note to any women out there: Spanx are an anomaly to the TSA and you will get the patented TSA Feel Up to make sure that your undergarment is what is causing the issue.

Beta testing about to start

[Comboman]

Why wasn't this determined during the test and acceptance phase for this product.

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.

Re:Just another day.

[vinehair]

There are no scanners on the way into the U.S. You were either in the U.S. leaving (or an internal flight), or you encountered the scanner in the UK.

Didn't know Schipol, Amsterdam was really in the U.S.A. That's some good-ass weed, right there.

No, seriously, they had them and they had people choosing not to use them, but the representatives just prior to that had refused to believe my passport photo and my drivers license photo, so I wasn't going to press it.

Re:rights and safety...maybe

[IndustrialComplex]

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.

There are arrival scanners at some US airports

[xenoc_1]

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.