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Edwynn -> RE: Rage Against The TSA: Protesters Storm Texas Capitol Alex Jones’ spontaneous decision calling on (5/26/2011 10:26:28 PM)
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~FR~
It is a scam, and nothing more than a scam, from the word go.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-11-22-scanner-lobby_N.htm
WASHINGTON — The companies with multimillion-dollar contracts to supply American airports with body-scanning machines more than doubled their spending on lobbying in the past five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance their causes in Washington, government records show.
http://becauseican-2old2care.blogspot.com/2010/11/tsa-scanners-it-is-about-money.html
L-3 Communications
$ L-3 Communications, which has sold $39.7 million worth of the machines to the federal government
$ The Transportation Security Administration awarded a contract to L-3 Communications to buy up to $165 million worth of its ProVision scanners.
$ L-3 Communications $2.1 million in 2005, lobbying data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show.
$ Last year, the company L-3 Communications $5.5 million on lobbying.
$ L-3 Communications spent $4.3 million to influence Congress and federal agencies during the first nine months of this year,
$ L-3 Communications hired former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) who was once on the Commission on Aviation Security under President George H.W. Bush.
$ L-3 Communications lobbyist Linda Daschle (the wife of former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle), a prominent Democratic figure in Washington, who is a former Federal Aviation Administration official.
$ Among the bills targeted by L-3 Communications lobbyists: Legislation proposed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, that would limit the use of the scanners at airports.
Rapiscan Systems
$ Rapiscan Systems Inc. manufactured 211 of the 385 image scanners in use at 68 airports nationwide.
$ The government has spent $41.2 million so far on Rapiscan's machines.
$ Rapiscan, whose contract is worth $173 million
$ Last year the company did $17 million t $20 million in contracts. Over the past six months, the company has had $40 million in sales to the U.S. government, compared with $8 million in 2004.
$ Meanwhile, Rapiscan reportedly knows how to “play ball in Washington to increase its profits.” As a result, the company made $40 million in sales to the United States government, compared to $8 million in 2004.
$ Rapiscan Systems, meanwhile, has spent $271,500 on lobbying so far this year, compared with $80,000 five years earlier.
$ Rapiscan Systems spent $440,000 on lobbying in 2009
$ Among Rapiscan's lobbyists: Beth Spivey, a former aide to ex-Senate majority leader Trent Lott
$ Lobbyists for this company include Susan Carr, a former senior legislative aide to Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) who is coincidentally chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee (Carr, $80,000 - Rapiscan Systems)
$ David Whitestone, a former aide to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), and John Bucher, once the chief lobbyist for United Airlines, are lobbying for Holland & Knight (has earned $480,000 from Rapiscan)
$ Former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff went on a media tour promoting the use of these scanners, without disclosing that he was getting paid by Rapiscan (Christmas 2009)
Here is what someone who actually knows what he's talking about has to say on the matter:
Among other things ...
http://www.schneier.com/essay-333.html
"The problem is that no scanners or puffers can detect PETN (an explosive); only swabs and dogs work. What the TSA hopes is that they will detect the bulge if someone is hiding a wad of it on their person. But they won't catch PETN hidden in a body cavity. - Or he can roll it thin enough to be part of a garment, and sneak it through that way. These tricks aren't new. In the days after the Underwear Bomber was stopped, a scanner manufacturer admitted that the machines might not have caught him."
"Investigation and intelligence is how we're going to prevent terrorism, on airplanes and elsewhere. It's how we caught the liquid bombers. It's how we found the Yemeni printer-cartridge bombs. And it's our best chance at stopping the next serious plot. Because if a group of well-planned and well-funded terrorist plotters makes it to the airport, the chance is pretty low that those blue-shirted crotch-groping water-bottle-confiscating TSA agents are going to catch them."
After all the graft involved in invoking these machines, the implementers seem to take the greatest umbrage at anyone having the temerity to decline the scan, such displeasure being manifested by feeling up grandmothers and children.
One thing that people hate even worse than being scammed is having to admit that they've been scammed, hence all the 'protesting too loudly' in the form of "no, we really DO need it!", "if you don't like it, don't fly!" and other assorted belligerence.
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