TSA: "Opting out is not an option."

[HazelGod]

Yes, it's another topic about our illustrious blueshirted government thugs, but I'm starting it with a specific focus.

A frequent passenger flying from Atlanta who routinely opts out of the virtual strip search scanners was informed yesterday by a TSA supervisor that "opting out was not an option, and [he] needed to leave the airport."

He was only allowed to proceed to his flight after submitting to being run through the machine.


Why the big, draconian push to force everyone through these things? They're fraught with health and privacy concerns, arguably violate our constitutionally protected rights...but for what gain? They don't provide any additional safety beyond what is already in use, and they cost a shitload of money.

As usual, when you start following the money, the picture takes on a new light. Here's a little timeline on the porno-scanner phenomenon:

• 2005: Michael Chertoff, as head of Homeland Security, orders the first batch of porno scanners from a company called Rapiscan Systems. After his departure, Chertoff gave dozens of interviews using his government credentials to promote the device. What he didn’t tell people was that Rapiscan was one of the clients of his consulting company, The Chertoff group.
  
• March 2009: The Department of Homeland Security says they will apply $1 billion in stimulus money to the nation’s airports. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, personally promises to oversee the distribution of stimulus funds so money goes toward the goal of creating “4 million jobs” and not on “boondoggles”
  
• December 2009: Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz inserted language into the Homeland Security appropriations bill barring the use of full-body image scans as “primary” screening tools at airports, and it passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 310-118. Both the ACLU and the NRA backed it. The amendment also made it illegal to store and copy these images. It died in the Senate.
  
• December 25, 2009: The “Christmas bomber” attempts to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board a flight to Detroit.
  
• December 29, 2009: Joe Lieberman calls for “more widespread use of the full-body scanners after the aborted attack.”
  
• January 2010: Since they couldn’t get money for the porno scanners from Congress, TSA uses the “Christmas bomber” scare to appropriate $25 million they had received in stimulus money to buy the “backscatter” scanners — from Rapiscan, Chertoff’s client. Rapiscan said the contract “helped create” 25 jobs. The government gives the TSA the green light to spend a total of $173 million on the scanners. TSA spokesperson Sarah Horowitz said “the agency has enough funds that would come from the stimulus program and other federal sources” to purchase 300 more porno scanners, per CNN. Total jobs created, per the government’s own website: 1.
  
• April 2010: The GAO reports that “it remains unclear whether the AIT would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident based on the preliminary information GAO has received.”
  
• November 8, 2010: US Airline Pilots Association tells its members “NOT to submit to AIT screenings.”
  
• November 15, 2010: Joe Lieberman says he “comes down on the side of the patdowns.”

Considering the TSA plans to install nearly 700 more of these $200,000 machines in the coming months, I smell a dirty, stinking rat.

 

[SilverTrain]

Yes, it's another topic about our illustrious blueshirted government thugs, but I'm starting it with a specific focus.

A frequent passenger flying from Atlanta who routinely opts out of the virtual strip search scanners was informed yesterday by a TSA supervisor that "opting out was not an option, and [he] needed to leave the airport."

He was only allowed to proceed to his flight after submitting to being run through the machine.


Why the big, draconian push to force everyone through these things? They're fraught with health and privacy concerns, arguably violate our constitutionally protected rights...but for what gain? They don't provide any additional safety beyond what is already in use, and they cost a shitload of money.

As usual, when you start following the money, the picture takes on a new light. Here's a little timeline on the porno-scanner phenomenon:

• 2005: Michael Chertoff, as head of Homeland Security, orders the first batch of porno scanners from a company called Rapiscan Systems. After his departure, Chertoff gave dozens of interviews using his government credentials to promote the device. What he didn’t tell people was that Rapiscan was one of the clients of his consulting company, The Chertoff group.
  
• March 2009: The Department of Homeland Security says they will apply $1 billion in stimulus money to the nation’s airports. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, personally promises to oversee the distribution of stimulus funds so money goes toward the goal of creating “4 million jobs” and not on “boondoggles”
  
• December 2009: Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz inserted language into the Homeland Security appropriations bill barring the use of full-body image scans as “primary” screening tools at airports, and it passed the House on a bipartisan vote of 310-118. Both the ACLU and the NRA backed it. The amendment also made it illegal to store and copy these images. It died in the Senate.
  
• December 25, 2009: The “Christmas bomber” attempts to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board a flight to Detroit.
  
• December 29, 2009: Joe Lieberman calls for “more widespread use of the full-body scanners after the aborted attack.”
  
• January 2010: Since they couldn’t get money for the porno scanners from Congress, TSA uses the “Christmas bomber” scare to appropriate $25 million they had received in stimulus money to buy the “backscatter” scanners — from Rapiscan, Chertoff’s client. Rapiscan said the contract “helped create” 25 jobs. The government gives the TSA the green light to spend a total of $173 million on the scanners. TSA spokesperson Sarah Horowitz said “the agency has enough funds that would come from the stimulus program and other federal sources” to purchase 300 more porno scanners, per CNN. Total jobs created, per the government’s own website: 1.
  
• April 2010: The GAO reports that “it remains unclear whether the AIT would have detected the weapon used in the December 2009 incident based on the preliminary information GAO has received.”
  
• November 8, 2010: US Airline Pilots Association tells its members “NOT to submit to AIT screenings.”
  
• November 15, 2010: Joe Lieberman says he “comes down on the side of the patdowns.”

Considering the TSA plans to install nearly 700 more of these $200,000 machines in the coming months, I smell a dirty, stinking rat.

Excellent work, "Woodstein"!

 

[DexterMorgan]

So let me see, if I understand what you're saying....you're saying....it's wrong that someone who is personally (financially) vested in the implementation of a device...shouldn't also be the same person creating the climate and legal requirements for it's use......???

Boy, I don't know....seams like a stretch to me (extreme sarcasm intended)

Now, I hear that after the pilots were able to bitch and moan their way around it (body imaging devices)....flight attendants have also been successful, too...

But, let me ask another question....pilots, flight attendants, and passengers aren't the only ones who have access to aircraft....How about baggage handlers and mechanics...?

How easy would it be to impersonate a baggage handler (fabricate fake ID badges, steal a uniform, etc)....sneak onto an airport tarmac and place explosives in the wheel-well of a sitting aircraft....????

I guess we'll find out after it happens....

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Honestly, when I head to South America in a few weeks I hope I go through these new scanners. I really, REALLY want to see what all of the drama is about firsthand.

 

[Bbucko]

Your continued interest in this topic is a tremendous service to this board and the community at large, HG.

Oh, and that rat you smell? It's the color of money, obviously: such fetid stench it gives.

 

[HazelGod]

Excellent work, "Woodstein"!

D'oh...forgot to include the link!

I can't take credit for putting together that timeline myself...that's the work of someone over at FDL.

Now, I hear that after the pilots were able to bitch and moan their way around it (body imaging devices)....flight attendants have also been successful, too...

Don't forget about the Congressmen...also exempt, even when flying commercial.

 

[catman]

Hulu - Saturday Night Live: Message from TSA

 

[maxcok]

Excellent work, "Woodstein"!

Your continued interest in this topic is a tremendous service to this board and the community at large, HG.

+10

 

[B_starinvestor]

Aside from the profits - which seems to be a dirty word on this board - is there a more efficient and fool-proof maneuver or mechanism for scanning people for bombs, etc., than this machine?

Airlines are losing money hand over fist, flights are taking much longer, security is a pain in the ass, and we've got bunches of TSA agents rooting through carry-on luggage and causing backups at every terminal.

Send everybody through the nude scanner, require all baggage to be checked and flight times will decrease, security will move much faster, the boarding and deplaning process will be reduced dramatically and the entire flying experience will improve.

And oh by the way, we'll be safer.

Of course, the most sensible way to attack the issue would be to profile; but that ain't gonna happen.

Instead of employing a 'results oriented' system, we employ the typical government 'process oriented,' expensive, bloated and wasteful program.

 

[luka82]

Honestly, when I head to South America in a few weeks I hope I go through these new scanners. I really, REALLY want to see what all of the drama is about firsthand.

You just want your junk touched! :biggrin1:
Bring me some big bananas! :wink:

 

[yandrsupreme]

Honestly, when I head to South America in a few weeks I hope I go through these new scanners. I really, REALLY want to see what all of the drama is about firsthand.

don't ya know... thre's a dude in another room somewhere looking at you coming through saying to himself "Hot damn!!! I get to see some big, black dick! and I'm getting paid for it!" while he wipes the slobber off his chin.

 

[B_24065]

don't ya know... thre's a dude in another room somewhere looking at you coming through saying to himself "Hot damn!!! I get to see some big, black dick! and I'm getting paid for it!" while he wipes the slobber off his chin.

It doesnt matter if he and his whole family was ganged raped at the airport. Because this is happening on Obama's watch, Vinyl would never criticize it. Now, wiretapping those with links to terrorist activity, or applying enhanced interrogations to known terrorists under the Bush administration? Those are heinous civil right abuses!! Unless Obama was doing them. Its okay to grope and view the naked bodies of millions of innocent civilians, buts its not okay to listen in on suspected terrorists phone conversations. Liberal hypocrisy at its clearest. Or is it just plain stupidity???

 

[HazelGod]

Liberal hypocrisy at its clearest. Or is it just plain stupidity???

Who says it necessarily has to be one or the other?

 

[B_VinylBoy]

It doesnt matter if he and his whole family was ganged raped at the airport. Because this is happening on Obama's watch, Vinyl would never criticize it.

Gee, don't you think combining your morbid fantasies of intergenerational inbreeding with your continued failed assumptions about my political beliefs is just a little much for the board?

Now, wiretapping those with links to terrorist activity, or applying enhanced interrogations to known terrorists under the Bush administration? Those are heinous civil right abuses!! Unless Obama was doing them. Its okay to grope and view the naked bodies of millions of innocent civilians, buts its not okay to listen in on suspected terrorists phone conversations. Liberal hypocrisy at its clearest. Or is it just plain stupidity???

Actually, if you need to know the full body scanners were first implemented in airports in 2001 and they first started appearing in the United States around 2006. That was all under the previous administration, alas none of the political hacks such as yourself even noticed. Gee, where was all of the outrage then? Oh I forgot, you were too busy wanking yourself over the prospects of doing it with your folks. Do try to get that disorder attended to, OK?

 

[D_CountVonBhigBohner]

I'm more concerned with getting an xray 4x a week. I travel often and wonder if it's unhealthy. Who cares about being seen by a bunch of TSA agents?

 

[B_24065]

Gee, don't you think combining your morbid fantasies of intergenerational inbreeding with your continued failed assumptions about my political beliefs is just a little much for the board?



Actually, if you need to know the full body scanners were first implemented in airports in 2001 and they first started appearing in the United States around 2006. That was all under the previous administration, alas none of the political hacks such as yourself even noticed. Gee, where was all of the outrage then? Oh I forgot, you were too busy wanking yourself over the prospects of doing it with your folks. Do try to get that disorder attended to, OK?

Haha, I knew you would have some lame-ass rebuttal. And yeah, wiretappings werent anything new under Bush either. Fuckn hypocrite...

 

[B_VinylBoy]

Haha, I knew you would have some lame-ass rebuttal.

Well, what do you expect when you make an unwarranted, unprovoked, degrading comment that includes my family? Are you that desperate for attention that you'd sink this low? Wait... you did call me a diseased, dicksucking faggot before, so I guess that question has already been answered.

And yeah, wiretappings werent anything new under Bush either. Fuckn hypocrite...

Yes... you are a fuckin' hypocrite. Glad that you finally noticed.
My post history not only includes posts that have several different critiques of Obama, the current administration and Democrats, but I also voiced major opposition to the Patriot Act as well. So as much as you want to think you were talking to me when you dropped the H-Bomb, you weren't. And since I'm not here to win your approval, I don't give two shits if you don't approve of how I form my critiques either. Now, do you have anything else ignorant to say? Go ahead and let it all out. I know you waited for weeks to do this.

 

[HazelGod]

they first started appearing in the United States around 2006. (partisan ad hominem removed) Gee, where was all of the outrage then? (personal attacks removed)

For the 15 thousandth time...the decision to implement the use of the virtual strip-search machines as a primary screening tool was made within the past few weeks. Prior to that decision, they were use as secondary screening mechanisms only.

 

[B_VinylBoy]

For the 15 thousandth time...the decision to implement the use of the virtual strip-search machines as a primary screening tool was made within the past few weeks. Prior to that decision, they were use as secondary screening mechanisms only.

I already knew this information because it happened in New Jersey at a PATH station for a two week trial. Hence why I stated the machines started appearing in the United States around 2006 and didn't make any reference as to when they were going to be used as a primary or secondary tool. In fact, it wasn't even necessary to mention it considering that 24065's only objective is to take shots at me for no reason.

Also, after the three day flame war we had in that other TSA thread, I think it's best that you and I no longer have any dialogue. So thanks for assuming you were educating me on something that I not only knew but actually SAW, but I don't need your help.

 

[B_24065]

Well, what do you expect when you make an unwarranted, unprovoked, degrading comment that includes my family? Are you that desperate for attention that you'd sink this low? Wait... you did call me a diseased, dicksucking faggot before, so I guess that question has already been answered.



Yes... you are a fuckin' hypocrite. Glad that you finally noticed.
My post history not only includes posts that have several different critiques of Obama, the current administration and Democrats, but I also voiced major opposition to the Patriot Act as well. So as much as you want to think you were talking to me when you dropped the H-Bomb, you weren't. And since I'm not here to win your approval, I don't give two shits if you don't approve of how I form my critiques either. Now, do you have anything else ignorant to say? Go ahead and let it all out. I know you waited for weeks to do this.

LOL, Getting you all pissed off and foaming at the mouth makes it all totally worth it. Glad to see I succeeded!