TSA scanners: They're hiding and lying

[boutons_deux]

Unpopular Full-Body Scanners to Be Removed From Airports

After years of complaints by passengers and members of Congress, the Transportation Security Administration said Friday that it would begin removing the controversial full-body scanners that produce revealing images of airline travelers beginning this summer.


The agency said it canceled a contract, originally worth $40 million, with the maker of the scanners, Rapiscan, after the company failed to meet a Congressional deadline for new software that would protect passengers' privacy. Since going into widespread use nearly three years ago, the scanners have been criticized by passengers for being too invasive and are the subject of lawsuits from privacy groups.


The T.S.A. began deploying the scanners in 2010, after an attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian citizen, to blow up a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight by setting off explosives hidden in his underwear. The T.S.A. said that 174 of the machines are currently being used at airport checkpoints around the country. Another 76 are housed at a storage facility in Texas.


Rapiscan will be required to pay for removing the scanners. In a statement, Deepak Chopra, the company's president, said the decision to cancel the contract and remove the scanners was a "a mutually satisfactory agreement with the T.S.A." The company said that scanners would be used at other government agencies.


The removal of the Rapiscan scanners does not mean that all full-body scanners will be removed from airport security checkpoints. A second type of full-body scanner does not produce revealing images. Instead, it makes an avatar-like projection on security screens.


The T.S.A. said those machines, which should be in airports by June, will allow quicker scans than those using X-rays.


"This means faster lanes for the traveler and enhanced security," the agency said.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2013/01/19...nners.xml?f=19

dubya's Chertoff still pocketed $Ms for his lobbying effort.

And virgin- ing OBL has another huge laugh at provoking America into paroxysms of self-terrorizing paranoia. The Terrorist That Keeps On Terrorizing.

[The Reckoning]

Rapistscan? lmao

now i can tell my grandchildren about how i was full body scanned at the airport and gave them a thumbs up after they gawked at my package.

[ElNono]

So we can add a waste of money on top of any health concerns... great!

[Wild Cobra]

You should note, that only one type of body scanner is being removed. Body scanners are still in use, but just the ones that don't give the graphic details of our bodies.

[Clipper Nation]

Rapistscan? lmao

I legitimately thought it said "Rapeiscan" for a second before I did a double take, what a poor choice of name tbh

[Winehole23]

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove airport body scanners that privacy advocates likened to strip searches after OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS) couldn’t write software to make passenger images less revealing.

TSA will end a $5 million contract with OSI’s Rapiscan unit for the software after Administrator John Pistole concluded the company couldn’t meet a congressional deadline to produce generic passenger images, agency officials said in interviews.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...-airports.html