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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
You missed the part where they added your details to their 'Watch' list first...
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.
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.''
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.
Bah, fail. If you wanted to be accurate, you'd have to hold the Führer sacrosanct and blame everything just on his overbearing subordinates. That's what it was like in Germany. A common saying was "Oh if the Führer only knew...".
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.
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.
You do realize that with your support of a security state to try to prevent bombings, you also give support to major investigation of these types of threats of mass murder:
I used to be a nice person, but then I got turned onto slashdot. Now I wan't to kill you all.
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.
It is pretty much 100% certain at this point that THz radiation can selectively activate genes ... it interacts with DNA. Whether there are carcinogenic effects is a bit contested, but the gene activation in and of itself is scary enough to wait a little fucking longer before we make all the airline passengers (except VIPs I'm sure) guinea pigs.
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
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.
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.
When another bomb goes off, you will all be asking why didn't the TSA do something about it.
I didn't do any such thing on 9/11, and I certainly wouldn't now. Just because many people seem to be cowards who are afraid of the terrorist bogeyman and don't mind sacrificing everyone's rights just so they can feel safe doesn't mean I'm the same way.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
My position is that the TSA should be destroyed outright.
Another thing you guys keep complaining about is the TSA allowing short knives
No, I don't. When you speak like this, I'm not even sure who you're arguing with.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
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
And while I hear what you're saying, if you disagree with the groupthink at this point, it does make you a moron. This is one of the rare places where the standard slashdot ignorance that normally gets it so incredibly wrong is actually right.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
And we care less about you and your ignorant vote than some random nut job living in a cabin in the middle of the woods.
If you're too stupid to use a website, your thoughts and votes are not wanted in this situation. You clearly can't cope with the world around you in general if posting on slashdot is a proper response to a website not working in lynx. It shows you're too stupid to recognize the difference a tool designed to be used as a backup in a pinch and one thats actually meant to be used everyday.
Your comment being a shitty joke or not, it just demonstrates that you shouldn't be allowed to use the internet due to insufficient IQ.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
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
Seriously listening to you guys talk about the TSA is like watching the episode of the simpsons where they institute the anti-bear patroll.
You realize the TSA *is* the bear patrol?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
no, the tsa is really about making some well connected people money selling scanners and other services.
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.
"When another bomb goes off, you will all be asking why didn't the TSA do something about it."
The next time there is a bomb killing air travelers, I expect I will be asking why the TSA forced the victims to form up in a tight group outside the security cordon and thus gave the bomber such an easy way target.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
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
Dude, please register with the FBI before you go completely batshit crazy and start killing people and blowing shit up.