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TSA Accepting Public Comments On Whole Body Airport Screening
New submitter trims writes "The TSA is now in the public comment stage of its project to roll out Advanced Imaging Technology (i.e. full-body X-ray) scanners. The TSA wants your feedback as to whether or not this project should be continued or cancelled. Now is your chance to tell the TSA that this is a huge porkbarrel project and nothing more than Security Theater. You can comment at http:///www.regulations.gov and reference the docket ID TSA-2013-0004." Note: the backscatter X-ray machines are being phased out, in favor of millimeter-wave systems; the linked documents give the government's side of the story when it comes to efficacy, safety, privacy, and worth. The comment period runs until June 24.
Will it detect a pressure cooker?
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Years of delays, violating a court other many wondered what the heck was up with the TSA delaying this public comment.
Now it's clear: They were waiting for a terrorist attack.
"naked and petrified Natalie Portman"
We're in 2013 now, not 2000.
Isn't it a little late for a public comment period?
Body scan was of the most high-standard quality! Great holding pen. Quality of the internment was superior. TSA is exceptional.
In Soviet Union, Natalie Portmans fully erect penis makes a statement in the bathhouse.It says "! !"
I'd like to comment first, by saying " We should re-purpose the units and the TSA to the Mexican border immediately" . At best they'll deter a few from crossing. At worst they'll make them submit to an intrusive search and check their junk out with the units and do a body search before permitting them to cross,due to anti-profiling regulations.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Are the TSA just going to say "We have listened to your comments, and are continuing to pursue security theater^W practices as they best "serve" our country", or is there some sort of accountability set up for what the comments are saying?
It's nice to see that even right after the Boston bombing, the comments appear to still be 100% against AIT scanners.
As with other things, John Madden was way out front on this.
I am afraid that Michael Chertoff only made hundreds of millions with the old backscatter machines and needed even more government money, so his company decided to come out with some new units which the TSA will spend over a billion dollars to acquire. The military industrial complex will bankrupt us as Eisenhower predicted.
I don't care if she got knocked up by a frog, I'd still eat the peanuts out of her shit.
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Like it or not, MMW systems are the new metal detector; albeit with some issues that need to be addressed technologically speaking. They're literally light years ahead of your conventional metal detector with AFAIK far less false positives and sensitivity issues (I can walk through a metal detector at the airport with a lighter in my pocket, but not the PMMW systems-- which understandably is a bad example of what I'm trying to express).
That all said, I find it mildly absurd that any security we don't like we just classify as security theater.. How on earth can we on one hand argue that Bush et al had ample warning and did nothing and then on the other bitch when they do something? The back-scatter and active MMW systems and their ilk concern me mostly for health reasons, but the passive systems? that's quicker and AFAIK more efficient than the conventional systems with a much better detection rate, they're less of a hassle overall and eh, 'quit your bitching'.
That said, there is going to be road bumps, I can think of a few off-hand, but such is life with all new technologies.
This is like a thief polling you on whether you would prefer they rummage through your trunk or your glove compartment.
The TSA needs to get out of my pocket and out of my pants. A court ordered RFC does not approach what should be done.
Millimeter wave scanners are dangerous to medical equipment, and have too many shortcomings to be useful. It's been proven that they can be fooled by placing items along the sides of your body, and they nearly killed a young diabetic girl when it caused her insulin pump to malfunction after the retard in the TSA costume told her it was safe, without any knowledge of how the scanner worked, or what it would do to the expensive, life necessary pump.
That TSA retard should have faced attempted murder charges because it nearly killed her, also should have had to pay for the replacement unit out of their own paycheck, even if it would take 14 years to pay for it, as they were responsible for it's destruction due to their own ineptitude.
Wow, I jokingly made comments a long while back that it wouldn't surprise me if the TSA opened up these comments the moment a bomb went off somewhere, considering how long they've just been sitting on it.
But now that it's happened, I am surprised. If there really is a connection to the timing, that's downright shameful. However that's not entirely anything new for the TSA.
Within TSA their system works flawlessly, perfectly and precisely. The propose is to instill fear into each and every USA citizen who dares to board an airliner.
Fear, is the currency of Fuhrer Obama.
Fear, is the life blood of the Federal Forces against the scum, the USA citizen.
Answering such a survey is to provide arrest fodder to the Federal Gestapo to the delight of Derr Fuhrer.
Sig Hail
New means to populate their Suspected Terrorist Database?
The Bomb
They need to post sample scans (what TSA airport personnel will be viewing), where a TSA male and female top official are used as models.
Done correctly, that could be a powerful sales tool. But if they're not willing to do it, that would go the other way.
In any case I found this fascinating article http://www.internationalpolicydigest.org/2012/06/19/what-israeli-airport-security-teaches-the-world/ that Israel does not have x-ray machines, or taking off your shoes to go in the airport. They have behavioral based interviews. And in the end everyone wants to blow up Israel, and yet I cannot remember hearing of planes crashing into buildings, or even being hijacked. It's really quite amazing. I would cut the security theatre and go do what Israel is doing.... Which seems to be behavioral based interviews and paying attention to how people act.
Also they do a ton of screening on cars. In some US airports, the parking lot is right near the terminal. Drive in a car full of explosive material and you could do a lot of damage. Or even pull right up to the terminal unchecked for dropping bags. In some terminals you could even crash the car right through the glass doors and then go do something..... That's not security.
''We ignored you all along but now that we have been forced to remove those scanners anyway we will consult you for your retrospective opinions. Signed, TSA.''
All I could seem to muster is an endless series of FUCK YOUs until the character limit ran out.
If you have ever actually tried doing a body search without taking off someones clothes, you will realize how hard it is. There are just way to many folds and pockets in clothes that could contain a weapon. Combine this with a que of hundreds of people waiting in line to board a plane, you will realize that the job the TSA does for safety is largely imaginary. Yet when the TSA actually tries to do a good job and bring technology in to help search for weapons you are all up in arms about it. I for one welcom backscatter / mm wave radar to check for contraband. When another bomb goes off, you will all be asking why didn't the TSA do something about it.
Seriously listening to you guys talk about the TSA is like watching the episode of the simpsons where they institute the anti-bear patroll. Another thing you guys keep complaining about is the TSA allowing short knives, but no liquides on a plane. A 2" knife will not bring down a plane. A binary explosive will. You guys are really unreal.
I used to be a nice person, but then I got turned onto slashdot. Now I wan't to kill you all.
Erh... careful, the blame might well be not on the retard but on the retard training him. If he was told that this scanner is safe for all medical equipment, he cannot but act on this information.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I couldn't care less if they see my nekkid body. I JUST WANT TO KEEP MY SHOES ON!!!!
The law disallows certain behaviors, regardless of technology empowering them. These scanners are unreasonable search of my person and effects. Traveling is not suspicious behavior.
I was about claim "citation needed" when I found one.
"... the cost of government spirals, and the range and extent of the political sector increases. ... "
As we are learning, this process can be quite expensive, not just in fighting the war on terror,
Coats, RM, Karahan, G, Tollison RD 2006, 'Terrorism and pork-barrel spending', Public Choice, no. 128, pp. 275-287, viewed as '22286040.pdf'.
We know why these damn things sell so well. They're every teenager's dream come true: X-Ray Glasses!
The problem is they were build by morons, and have no adequate safety testing.
We must replace the scanners with better options, while considering the actual target market.
It's clear we need non-ionizing under the clothes imagining systems that replace people's bodies with those of a supermodel's.
Put out a call for engineers married for at least seven years, or with children. They have the required experience.
'Cause if they are, I'd like to tell the TSA and Chertoff to go fuck themselves with rusty tire irons, and to take their bullshit backscatter genital-groping security theater revolving-door corruption nonsense with them. Disband the TSA, and charge every politician and government employee that sets up deals with the private sector that personally enriches themselves with crimes.
My Comment to Them:
"I travel about twice a month and have been a regular traveler most of my life, and because of this, the deployment of this technology has had a major impact on my life.
This technology is not wanted by air travelers, and was put in place with less testing than the shampoo I am no longer allowed to carry through security. Experts have found that shadowing can cause items to slip through this screening, and these devices cannot detect anything inside the body. They have also created long, bunched up lines of people at airports, outside of the "secure" cordon, which would allow a terrorist to kill many more people than would be on a single airplane... and these deaths could ironically be attributed directly to the delays caused by these devices, which regularly slow the lines and require pat-downs when they don't read properly (my experience when waiting).
Security at airports has become a reactive reflex which always fights the last threat. I am confident I am not the only tax payer who feels their money was completely wasted on these devices, whose only value, I feel, was to make some contractor rich, and get some person re-elected by convincing the under-informed that they were "safe."
Have these machines ever stopped an actual terrorist? What were the results when undercover security testers tried to smuggle simulated explosives? I am not sacrificing my liberty for security, but I can sacrifice my modesty for security, if that security is any good.
Hoping this issue goes viral so that they're flooded them with comments against AIT.
All I get is:
Your web browser must have JavaScript enabled in order for Regulations.gov to display correctly.
We all get used to being less free, to being herded around more like cattle, on the assurance it will make us more safe.
If you fly economy on commercial airlines, you are already cattle. Flying is really energy inefficient, and airplanes are quite fragile. Cattle treatment is needed to constrain prices, and keep fuel consumption down. I'm worried about Homeland Security trying to branch out and secure bus, train travel and football games.
Now is your chance to tell the TSA that this is a huge porkbarrel project and nothing more than Security Theater.
It's your chance to tell the TSA that. It's my chance to tell the TSA my opinion.
Everybody here should enter the same comment: "I would like an independent body to calculate the cost vs. saved lives and compare it to other possible investments like traffic safety, cancer research, or promoting healthier lifestyles to school children."
10 ?"Hello World" life was simple then
The blame lies on the person making the statement. I am sick and tired of people doing everything in their power to deflect taking responsibility for their own actions. Unless the training specifically covered insulin pumps of that type, the retard should have said "I didn't know" and allowed the girl to skip them. But no, retard wanted to play out their pompous power play and said yes it's safe instead. That right there is sufficient grounds for the blame to go no further than the retard in question. Case closed, retard arrested for attempted murder.
We will probably tell you to bugger off afterwards, but we are accepting comments..
So your theory is that people should be allowed to bypass security as long as they claim to have a reason to do so? Or that the minimum wage people working these devices should have a complete understanding of their interaction with every other piece of technology on earth?
Clearly a near-tragic mistake was made, but your over-the-top rage is ridiculous.
How about this - if you depend upon a piece of technology to keep you alive, YOU should never subject it to anything that YOU don't know is safe. That's at least as reasonable as your attack on the "retard".
Life needs more saving throws.
Petrified Natalie Portman doesn't age. That's the benefit of petrification.
Only the machines from Rapiscan are being phased out. It's not because of safety, rather it's because Rapiscan can't deliver software to remove human-in-the-loop (eg removing the need for a human to look at you naked).
They've awarded additional contracts to both Smiths (makers of the garbage "puffer" machines) and AESi (in addition to the current millimeter wave machines from Level3). I believe that AESi's devices are back scatter x-ray.
Liberty has NEVER been something you "give up." You can't give it up while the next person keeps his. It is something everyone has or no one has.
So you're saying that the Founding Fathers were not fighting for liberty just because they kept slaves?
apparently the docile and cowed citizens of that burg of millions have no problem living under instant martial law like scared housecats simply because a guy with a gun is running about and the polizia tells them to stay put
Disclaimer: I am, and always have been, completely opposed to the existence of the TSA and their Security Theatre.
However, I'm equally opposed to the concept that public input to what should be a scientific decision (assuming you include demographic studies and threat assessment as potentially scientific) is a good idea at all. You can't vote on reality, and the overwhelming majority of people are nto qualified to make an educated assessment of nearly any issue. It's like asking your neurosurgeon to attend a design review for your Saturn V rocket engine. The only thing a public comments collection can do is provide a 'vote' on whether people want to be bodyscanned (or TSA-ed at all). And if that's the intent, then why not just let people decide at the point of entry to the aircraft in the first place?
https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
They don't want your comments, they want you to think they want your comments. To which they'll respond that the public demanded more awesome scanners.
Only slashdot would post such an incredibly naive headline. Must be timothy ... yep, scroll back to the top and see its slashdots' #1 moron.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
The TSA is now in the public comment stage of its project to roll out Advanced Imaging Technology scanners. The TSA wants your feedback as to whether or not this project should be continued or cancelled.
If we convince the TSA to cancel the project, does that mean that the TSA will keep the x-ray machines, and not replace them with millimeter-wave systems? That's actually a bad thing. Given a choice, I would prefer the millimeter-wave scanners over an x-ray scanner.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
It did nothing to the pump, it overloaded the sensor.
You're right, they shouldn't have scanned it, but their purpose is to find odd devices that might be bombs and when in doubt they are protecting everyone in the airport/air system, not one girl. They did the right thing as far as protocol was concerned, it would only be wrong if they were working under the impression that x-ray scanners are a waste of time ... which presumably TSA employees themselves are not evil people in general, so probably just misinformed.
Its more her fault than theirs.
Trusting your life to a single human designed system without any backup? That makes you pretty fucking stupid, more so than the TSA agent following the rules of his job. Of course, it really came no where near ever being any sort of threat to her life, but if we're going to pretend she nearly died then lets put the pretend blame where it belongs. And lets face it, you know nothing of what its like living as a diabetic or you wouldn't be sounding so silly.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Do you rely on your glasses? Or your shoes? Or stoplights? Or rely on your shoelaces not to come undone and trip you in the middle of the street? Then get over the "relying on a single man-made device is stupid" thing.
I do know what it's like living as a diabetic. Over 40 years, since long before home glucometers or continuous sensors existed, and still going strong, and if something screwed with my glucometer readings it could be very, very, very dangerous. (There's nothing like trying to get up or down stairs to a kitchen with food in it when your blood sugar is so low you can't walk.) And if the victim were a driver, there's nothing like testing your blood sugar before driving, setting your pump and setting aside any needed snacks, and *your glucometer is lying to you* while you're on the road.
That's why I don't use the continuous sensors: they're not reliable enough yet, and they take hours to draw osmotic fluid, get recalibrated, and be useful after replacement.
The TSA seems to target the screening of airplane passengers, but with little concern for the security of said passengers. For example, the long lines at the security checkpoint are an obvious target for extreme damage, more than inside an airplane. The airport terminals are similarly insecure, with drivers being able to pull up all the way to within a few feet of the bag check-in counters. Railway stations are not protected either.
The question is who benefits from TSA's screening procedures? Clearly not the passengers. Considering that the TSA was created to prevent another 9/11, and that many victims of 9/11 where inside buildings, the people being protected are building dwellers. What the TSA is trying to prevent is the use of airplanes as weapons against specific targets--say, the White House, or a financial center like the former twin towers. Note as well a strong correlation between places where the 1% spends their days and places protected by current TSA procedures.
The girl wasn't going to go through the scanner. The retard coerced her into doing so. Nuff said.
The TSA wants your feedback as to whether or not this project should be continued or cancelled.
No they don't.
They were required to set up the public hearing by some law or administrator demanding that they do so. They'll politely pretend to listen, and then ignore the result and do whatever they wanted to in the first place.
T.S.A. should stand by its word and get body scanned everyday; also, they should let some psycodic moron put their hands on their reproductive areas and comment about their body shape out loud in front a group of strangers. Of course if this were to happen lets say in a public area, all I would have to do is file a criminal complaint. it means going to the Supreme Court, and Constitutional Law, but hay; the T.S.A. has deep pockets.
Movie idea, "Women walks up to the TSA offical, dressed in a TSA uniform. Has all the credentials that TSA types have. BOOOOOM". Want to know the ending, buy the rights. - apologies to OMC
Complete waste of time and money for a negligible improvement in secutiry.
Fuck off and die.
Phew! Boy, am I sure glad they're taking public comments on this! That's sure a load off my mind, as that'll undoubtedly completely resolve this issue and they'll be out of our airports fast! Not a single thing could possibly go wrong with this!
Shut the fuck up you militaristic, authoritarian prick
Dude, please register with the FBI before you go completely batshit crazy and start killing people and blowing shit up.
Lol, you people have no clue what real freedom means. What you call freedom is only the illusion of freedom. Land of the free, my ass!
It is an absurdity, this extortion of the American traveler, that has turned our airports from places of tearful hellos and goodbyes into abject chattel shakedowns for the satisfaction of corporations wishing, nay, NEEDING us to be afraid in order to succumb to the very notion that being scanned is required to feel or be safe. I travel overseas 4-5 times a year and it is a national embarrassment what we do in our airports. I am ashamed, really, of what you, the TSA, has done to our airports. Whole body scanners, really? What a crock...
What's next, ballsack scanners? I bet they are as unique as fingerprints! Seriously though why do they need to use the existing pervert scanners. Do they screen TSA employees for being perverts?