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Posts Tagged ‘backscatter’

Secret body scanners with 50 times more radiation than airport x-ray scanners to be rolled out

September 13, 2012 Comments off

naturalnews.com

radiation

(NaturalNews) A growing number of Americans are already outraged over the government’s use of high-powered, ultra-revealing and potentially dangerous backscatter x-ray machines at a growing number of the nation’s airports, and as bad as that problem is, it’s about to get a whole lot worse unless Congress intervenes to stop the madness.

In the late 1990s, travel experts doubted the government would ever employ such machines in a security checkpoint role at airports or other locations. The terrorist attacks on 9/11 dramatically reversed that mentality to the point that now, no doubt afraid of being accused of doing “too little” to enhance security, lawmakers and select government agencies have done a complete reversal, permitting the use of high-powered x-ray machines to “scan” airline travelers (and perhaps, we near bus, train and other modes of travel in the future).

The all-knowing Transportation Security Administration insists the machines it is currently using – some 250 of them – are safe, but the agency relies primarily on its own in-house and government experts to support their claims.

The non-governmental experts speak

But other private-sector experts, including a bevy of health and radiation scientists cited by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, disagree. They include Read more…

Full Body Scanners At Super Bowl 2012

February 2, 2012 Comments off

prisonplanet.com

First time devices linked with cancer risk used for public sports event

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, February 2, 2012

Fans attending the 2012 Super Bowl on Sunday will face a new level of security in addition to pat downs before they are allowed to enter the Lucas Oil Stadium – full body x-ray scanners.

Full Body Scanners At Super Bowl 2012 Lucas Oil Stadium1

According to WPRI.com News reporter Matt Touchette, despite a congressional demand for an investigation into the machines following health concerns, the scanners will be part of the security set up in Indianapolis this weekend, marking the first time that the controversial devices have been used for a public sporting event.

“I was out for a stroll with the intention of snapping some photos for our blog when my travels took me to Lucas Oil Stadium of all places,” writes Touchette. “It was there that I stumbled upon a temporary Patriots street sign put in place close to the site of Super Bowl XLVI (appropriately). I then found myself walking into the side gates of the stadium, through intense security which included full body scanners and then down the tunnel onto the field.”

Although Super Bowl authorities and Homeland Security have announced that pat downs and bag searches will be part of security procedures before the game, they have failed to Read more…

New York Moves to Deploy Body Scanners on Street in Search for Guns

January 18, 2012 Comments off
Terahertz Imaging Detection

 

The NYPD and Department of Defense are working together testing Terahertz Imaging Detection, a new way to get concealed illegal weapons off the streets. (Photo courtesy: NYPD)

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly told CBS in New York his department is looking to deploy Terahertz Imaging Detection scanners on the street in the war on “illegal guns.”

Kelly said the scanners would be used in “reasonably suspicious circumstances” and intended to cut down on the number of stop-and-frisks on the street. So called stop-and-frisks are considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment.

New York City is largely a Second Amendment free zone. The city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has said that citizens “acting outside of any governmental military effort” should not be allowed to protect themselves with firearms.

“The NYPD and Department of Defense are working together testing Terahertz Imaging Detection, a new way to get concealed illegal weapons off the streets,” CBS reports. Terahertz Imaging Detection measures energy radiating from Read more…

Future TSA: Track All ‘Daily Travels To Work, Grocery Stores & Social Events’

August 23, 2011 Comments off

networkworld

While the TSA can’t explain why invasive patdowns without probable cause are legal, that isn’t stopping TSA from future plans to track all your daily travels, anywhere you go, from work, to stores, or even when you go out to play.

By Ms. Smith

When the TSA was asked to provide legal reasons that definitely spelled out why physically invasive patdowns are legal, without any probable cause, not one TSA person had an answer. There was no legal documentation for enhanced patdowns other than it serves “the essential administrative purpose.”

Peep show, police state or privacy invasion, patdowns and body scans are not just in airports. EPIC said DHS is refusing to disclose details of mobile body scanner technology. In fact, in answer to EPIC’s FOIA request, DHS handed over “several papers that were completely redacted.”

Meanwhile at airports, the TSA is rolling out “less-invasive gingerbread man” body scanners to a tune of $2.7 million for 240 machines. At this point, I don’t think skinnier versions of the Pillsbury Doughboy via kinder and gentler naked body scans are going to placate people who are secretly Read more…

TSA could begin searching for explosives hidden inside you

July 7, 2011 Comments off

homelandsecuritynewswire

Government intelligence officials are now warning airlines that terrorists could be using surgically implanted explosives to bypass security measures; there is no information regarding a specific plot or threat, but airlines could begin to implement additional screening procedures as the current body scanners cannot effectively detect bombs hidden inside an individual; last year, al Qaeda operatives in Iraq implanted two dogs with explosives, but the dogs died before they could loaded onto a U.S.-bound plane
Swabbing hands for explosive residue // Source: consumertraveler.com

Government intelligence officials are now warning airlines that terrorists could be using surgically implanted explosives to bypass security measures.

There is no information regarding a specific plot or threat, but airlines could begin to implement additional screening procedures as the current body scanners cannot effectively detect bombs hidden inside an individual.

According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. officials have received new information that suggest terrorists may be seriously considering surgically implanting explosive devices to circumvent existing screening procedures.

In response, Nicholas Kimball, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), said Read more…

TSA asked 95-year-old woman to remove adult diaper

June 26, 2011 Comments off

rawstory

A woman has filed a complaint with the Department of Homeland Security over how her elderly mother was detained and searched by Transportation Security Administration officers at the Northwest Florida Regional Airport last weekend.

News Herald reported that Jean Weber filed the complaint after her wheelchair-bound 95-year-old mother, who is in the final stages of her battle with leukemia, was asked to remove an adult diaper during a pat down search.

According to Weber, her elderly mother was first taken to a glass-partitioned area and patted down before being taken to another room. As she was waiting outside of the room, officers conducting the pat down told Weber that her mother’s Depends diaper would need to be removed because it was soiled and impeding their search.

“It’s something I couldn’t imagine happening on American soil,” Weber said. “Here is my mother, 95 years old, 105 pounds, barely able to stand, and then this.”

Weber took her elderly mother to the bathroom and removed her diaper, then returned to complete the pat down. She said she did not have another clean diaper with her.

A spokesperson for the TSA said that officers must follow the same procedures for everyone to prevent terrorists from finding vulnerabilities in the security check points.

The American Civil Liberties Union received over 900 complaints in November 2010 alone from travelers subjected to the new screening procedures of the TSA.

Airports across the nation have put backscatter x-ray machines that can see beneath passengers’ clothing into use. If the ticket-holder refuses the scan due to health or privacy concerns, they’re subjected to an invasive physical pat down. The new body scanners and pat down procedure have received intense scrutiny amid reports of travelers feeling humiliated and traumatized.

Surprise! TSA Is Searching Your Car, Subway, Ferry, Bus, AND Plane

June 22, 2011 Comments off

motherjones

Scott Ableman/FlickrScott Ableman/FlickrThink you could avoid the TSA’s body scanners and pat-downs by taking Amtrak? Think again. Even your daily commute isn’t safe from TSA screenings. And because the TSA is working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol, you may have your immigration status examined along with your “junk“.

As part of the TSA’s request for FY 2012 funding, TSA Administrator John Pistole told Congress last week that the TSA conducts 8,000 unannounced security screenings every year. These screenings, conducted with local law enforcement agencies as well as immigration, can be as simple as checking out cargo at a busy seaport. But more and more, they seem to involve giving airport-style pat-downs and screenings of unsuspecting passengers at bus terminals, ferries, and even subways.

These surprise visits are part of the TSA’s VIPR program: Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response. The VIPR program first started doing searches in Read more…

Our Fear-Based Society and the Resultant Loss of Liberty

May 11, 2011 Comments off

truthistreason

What do the Patriot Act, X-ray scanners and “enhanced” pat downs at airports, our new healthcare system (I hate calling it “Obamacare” because he’s just a puppet like all Presidents), Roosevelt’s “New Deal,” and all other government programs have in common? They’re all sold to us by politicians as a means to keep us safe: safe from terrorists, safe from the bad insurance companies who will uninsure you when you get sick, safe from economic hardships.

Notice, if you will, that these sort of programs get passed by our government when something bad happens that affects the psyche of the entire US. 9/11 happens and we get the PATRIOT Act, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and a host of other anti-liberty, supposedly pro-safety, laws and agencies; the Christmas Day underwear bomber detonates a small bomb setting himself ablaze and we get body scanners and “enhanced” pat downs at airports; the economy hits the skids and it’s the perfect time to pass sweeping healthcare “reform” because everyone’s concerned they will lose their job and their healthcare.

As Rahm Emmanuel famously said, “You don’t ever want a crisis to go to waste; it’s an opportunity to do important things that you would otherwise avoid.”

However, I would argue Ben Franklin’s perspective is the healthy one. In 1818, he wrote: “They willing to give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety, deserve neither and will lose both.”

Benjamin Franklin was a wise man; a student of history. He studied — as all the founders did — the toll this forfeiture of liberty for Read more…

Thermal Cameras Look Inside Homes to Monitor Energy Efficiency

April 13, 2011 Comments off

Aaron Dykes
Infowars.com
April 11, 2011

The city of Boston has been taken to task by the ACLU over concerns about a roll-out of thermal imaging cameras being used to monitor energy efficiency inside homes. A pilot program to take aerial and street-level photos of heat loss in Boston was part of a scheme to encourage participation in home energy improvement programs, as well as to drive consumers towards green companies.

According to CBS, the project had been halted following public outcry about invasions of privacy, namely that “infrared cameras would reveal information about what’s going on inside the homes.” Further objections have been raised about potential violations of the Fourth Amendment (but what’s that anyway?). Officials reportedly “planned on sharing the photos and analysis with homeowners, and were hoping the findings would increase enrollment in efficiency programs and also create business opportunities.”

MIT, who helped develop the technology’s use for energy tracking, has already thermally-mapped the entire city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their press writers brag that automated cameras attached to vehicles would collect data “similar to the way Google Street View vehicles obtain visual imagery.” This 55 second video provides a glimpse at their system: Read more…

Jails turning to full body scanners

March 19, 2011 Comments off

homelandsecuritynewswire

Cook County Jail in Chicago recently installed four full-body scanners to help improve security; officials say that the body scanners have enabled officers to better detect contraband items, hidden away in body cavities, and reduced the need for strip searches; the machines are located in the jail’s two maximum security areas as well as the initial processing area; officials say they plan to begin using body scanners at the Cook County courthouse to scan detainees before they enter the courtroom

Keeping weapons and contraband out of jails // Source: avvo.com

Body scanners are no longer just for airports. Cook County Jail in Chicago recently installed four full-body scanners to help improve security.

The machines were first installed last November in the jail’s two maximum security areas Read more…