Have you heard the latest announcements regarding airline passenger screening by the TSA?
In some cases, TSA agents will be allowed to touch body parts that were once off limits.
"The way you used to pat down a passenger in the airport was with the back of the hands. Now we've switched it to the front of the hands. You go down the body, up to the breast portion, and if it's a female passenger, you're going to see if there's anything in the bra," said Charles Slepian of the Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center.
So...if you walk through the metal detector and somehow set it off, TSA is going to ask you to submit yourself to the new Full Body Scanners.
If you "opt out," they will take you on the side and have a same-gendered TSA agent give you a thorough groping.
So why would you opt out?
For one, no one really knows the long-term health consequences from being exposed to whatever energy these machines expose your body too.
According to http://www.dontscan.us, here's the potential health risks:
Backscatter X-ray uses ionizing radation, a known cumulative health hazard, to produce images of passengers bodies. Children, prengant women, the elderly, and those with defective DNA repair mechanisms are considered to be especially susceptible to the type of DNA damage caused by ionizing radiation. Also at high risk are those who have had, or currently have, skin cancer. Ionizing radiation's effects are cumulative, meaning that each time you are exposed you are adding to your risk of developing cancer. Since the dosage of radiation from the backscatter X-ray machines is absorbed almsot entirely by the skin and tissue directly under the skin, averaging the dose over the whole body gives an inaccurate picture of the actual harm. In their letter of concern, the UCSF faculty members noted that "the dose to the skin could be dangerously high". The eyes are particularly susceptible to the effect of radiation, and as one study found allowing the eyes to be exposed to radiation can lead to an increased incidence of cataracts.
Another type of device uses millimeter wave technology, which if improperly calibrated can cause burns. Less is known about the potential health risks of the millimeter wave devices than those of backscatter X-ray, and as with the backscatter devices, no independent testing has been conducted.
There you go...get radiated, or let a TSA agent fondle your genitals. Some choice, eh?
Of course, this is supposed to be alright that the person doing the pat down is your same gender. Gee, how comforting. What if the same gender groper is a closeted homosexual getting their jollies off? Or is no one supposed to even think about that possibility?
Of course, the larger point to be gleaned here is that this latest implementation of technocratic police state measures is the perfect example of how things REALLY work in our Corporatist/Fascist state.
Remember: Government Regulation + Industry = Cartel
Just like the way Monsanto gets their executives appointed to the FDA so that the FDA passes regulations favorable to the multinational agribusiness giant, so too is the corporate cronies seeing a chance to score a lucrative Federal Government contract through Regulatory action.
Enter former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and now consulting firm executive representing the scanner's manufacturer...
Heading up the renewed push for those controversial, clothes-penetrating scanners at airports is former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff. His consulting firm represents companies who make the scanners, but you wouldn't know it from reading the papers.
In 2009, Chertoff founded the Chertoff Group, a security consulting agency. The Chertoff Group's client list is unknown—Chertoff refused to talk about it in an interview—but he admits in the clip above that some of his clients manufacture full-body scanners.
Yet when he appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on NPR to advocate for full-body scanning, Chertoff is identified only as a former secretary of homeland security. No mention is made of the Chertoff Group. ("If they'd been deployed, this would pick up this kind of device," he tells the Times.) Did Chertoff 'forget' to tell reporters about his connection to the industry he's pimping in their stories?
As if we didn't know it before...but the NYT, WP and NPR are all organs of our corporatist fascist state willfully disseminating propaganda to scare we the sheeple into accepting more and more police state violations of our privacy and well-being.
So the next time you fly the friendly skies, what are you gonna choose, radiation or same-sex fondling of your private parts?
8 comments:
Something that I have a little bit of knowledge about. In all honesty, radiation is something that we all shouldn't f with if you catch my meaning. The link that HL provided is very informative and I encourage everyone who flies frequently to check it out.
One more thing, when you fly in a plane, you also get a higher dose of radiation as you are in a higher altitude and with less shielding to cosmic rays.
Something to consider.
While the average Joe who doesn't fly very often may have nothing to worry about between the flight itself and the x-rays in-between, frequent fliers may want to really consider the ramifications of this post.
It's worth checking out, and yes, I am refereed to as a NEW in my full-time job, which stands for Nuclear Energy Worker.
HL isn't blowing smoke up your @$$, consider it and at the very least do some research for yourself.
http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/safety/index.cfm?pg=sfty_xray
FYI
Meh. My guess would be that you get more radiation from the plane flight than you do from the scanner.
For frequent flyers, radiation could be a real concern. For infrequent flyers (once or twice a year), it is probably less so. The intrusiveness of the scan/pat down is a concern.
We "cannot" stop Mexican peasants crossing the border but we can subject passengers to scans, searches, and no-fly checklists. Not so much "where there is a will there is a way," but where there are bills there is a way. The Chertoff connection is news to me (thank you) but hardly a surprise. Typical corpo/govie mix: pass the buck or pass the bucks.
PS
I am sure your readers are glad to have a more interesting post than the "Fargin' War" one.
[although one wonders how long before Chertoff/Cheney etc. really do find a new fargin' war to fight]
Isn't it "coincidence" that the underwear bomber was not stopped and allowed into the USA and the day after it happened the naked body scanners were announced. I told my Dad it was a staged event the day it happened. Of course the lame stream media talking about it for days only enforces that truth. I would avoid these scanners. They give off strong terra-waves. Many TSA workers will be getting cancer in the future.
If I could get someone like this then I would def prefer to have opposite sex inspection.
I plan to keep away from those friendly skies and drive. I don't have much call for travelling anyways, thank goodness!
Lots of people suggest driving, as if that's really feasible for Hawaiians or Alaskans, especially in the winter.
More importantly, in 2004 British police used these scanners on raids at 2 London pubs, http://www.discourse.net/archives/2004/03/beyond_weird_scary_mass_xray_searching_in_uk.html
It's entirely possible that the use of naked body x ray scanners at U.S. airports will expand to other public-private places. In a safer communitarian world, the community has "rights" over individuals we don't even know about yet.
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