Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says

A leading Israeli airport security expert says the Canadian government has wasted millions of dollars to install "useless" imaging machines at airports across the country.

"I don't know why everybody is running to buy these expensive and useless machines. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747," Rafi Sela told parliamentarians probing the state of aviation safety in Canada.

"That's why we haven't put them in our airport," Sela said, referring to Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion International Airport, which has some of the toughest security in the world.

Sela, former chief security officer of the Israel Airport Authority and a 30-year veteran in airport security and defence technology, helped design the security at Ben Gurion.

He told MPs on the House of Commons transport committee via video conference from Kfar Vradim, Israel, that he wouldn't reveal how to get past the virtual strip-search scanners, but said he can provide briefings to officials with security clearance.
More at: http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Full+body+scanners+waste+money+Israeli+expert+says/2941610/story.html

Why am I not surprised?

forcing people to get their nads microwaved at the airport?

that ain't natural.

amortizing R&D on federally required security equipment, that IS natural.

Somebody's going to profit from scanners whether they work or not, and it will all add to ticket prices, taxes and airport fees making flying no safer but certainly more expensive.

Money ALWAYS trumps real security. Hardware is more profitable than hiring competent people and training them well. And well trained, decently paid people pay taxes, so that helps some too. But the nations are corporate influenced now and money trumps....

so some feel safe, that is what is more important. lying to ourselves lets us get thru the day, until it doesnt anymore

:P

of safety. i have democratic family that sneers at my refusal to play the "be safe" fantasy. unfortunately, it is not only the rw....

and as usual he has no clue what the real purpose for these things are. He thinks it's to stop bombs. What a moron.

It's to make money and give the flying public a false sense of security while they are subjected to demeaning treatment.

Some people just don't get it. :sarcasm:

Far as I'm concerned it's just one more reason why I don't want to fly again. I'd rather sit on a train for 2 days than put up with this bullshit.

I can walk around, have decent meals with real silverware (well, maybe not real silver), and get totally plastered without having some attendant tell me I can't go pee. And I can do that plastering with a couple of bottles of liquid that I carried on.

i prefer to drive. i have had do much fun on two cross country drives with family.

You can enjoy the trip more if you get to interact with your family. It almost makes going across North Dakota bearable.

Until then I'll continue to fly and continue to laugh at TSA - Thousands Standing Around.

The biggest change that has made flying safer is reinforced cockpit doors.

on edit:

And if you want a truly scary perspective on flying safety go to the disney parks fan site. Those folks WANT to be strip searched to be "safe".

Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says, Vancouver Sun, April 23, 2010









Group slams Chertoff on scanner promotion, January 2, 2010








Chertoff has pushed for invasive strip-search scanning of airline passengers since 2005.



Grift. Corruption. Greed.

Can't even remember which one it was anymore.

The owners of the machines are making a bag of money

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7420898&mesg_id=7451654


"own by their opponents as "digital strip search" machines, the full-body scanners use one of two technologies—millimeter wave sensors or backscatter x-rays—to see through clothing, producing ghostly images of naked passengers. Yet critics say that these, too, are highly fallible, and are incapable of revealing explosives hidden in body cavities—an age-old method for smuggling contraband. If that’s the case, a terrorist could hide the entire bomb works within his or her body, and breeze through the virtual strip search undetected. Yesterday, the London Independent reported on "authoritative claims that officials at the Department for Transport and the Home Office have already tested the scanners and were not persuaded that they would work comprehensively against terrorist threats to aviation." A British defense-research firm reportedly found the machines unreliable in detecting "low-density" materials like plastics, chemicals, and liquids—precisely what the underwear bomber had stuffed in his briefs.

Yet the rush toward full-body scans already seems unstoppable. They were mandated today as part of the "enhanced" screening for travelers from selected countries, and hundreds of the machines are already on order, at a cost of about $150,000 apiece. Within days of the bombing attempt, Reuters was reporting that the "greater U.S. government shift toward using the high-tech devices could create a boom for makers of security imaging products, and it has already created a speculative spike in share prices in some companies."

Which brings us to the money shot. The body scanner is sure to get a go-ahead because of the illustrious personages hawking them. Chief among them is former DHS secretary Michael Chertoff, who now heads the Chertoff Group, which represents one of the leading manufacturers of whole-body-imaging machines, Rapiscan Systems. For days after the attack, Chertoff made the rounds on the media promoting the scanners, calling the bombing attempt "a very vivid lesson in the value of that machinery"—all without disclosing his relationship to Rapiscan. According to the Washington Post:

Chertoff’s advocacy for the technology dates back to his time in the Bush administration. In 2005, Homeland Security ordered the government’s first batch of the scanners—five from California-based Rapiscan Systems.

Today, 40 body scanners are in use at 19 U.S. airports. The number is expected to skyrocket at least in part because of the Christmas Day incident. The Transportation Security Administration this week said it will order 300 more machines.

In the summer, TSA purchased 150 machines from Rapiscan with $25 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.

The Washington Examiner last week ran down an entire list of all the former Washington politicians and staff members who are now part of what it calls the "full-body scanner lobby":

One manufacturer, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, is American Science & Engineering, Inc. AS&E has retained the K Street firm Wexler & Walker to lobby for "federal deployment of security technology by DHS and DOD." Individual lobbyists on this account include former TSA deputy administration Tom Blank, who also worked under House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Chad Wolf—former assistant administrator for policy at TSA, and a former aide to Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Tex., a top Senate appropriator and the ranking Republican on the transportation committee—is also lobbying on AS&E’s behalf......


http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/airport-scanner-sca...

And that as a result of demonstrating it, mandatory random cavity searches (of hot-looking women).