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We Get Results II

The post below says, "The Op-Ed pages are silent." No longer! From The Denver Post:



GUEST COMMENTARY




NO: They are both an intrusion and a health risk

By Becky Akers






The Transportation Security Administration will install five of its "whole-body imagers" at Denver International Airport this fall. It's similarly outfitting terminals nationwide. Eventually, the TSA will scan every passenger on every flight.
The gizmos do exactly what the name implies, peering through clothing so that we appear naked on the monitors. Should these X-rays be rated X, as critics claim?
Not if you listen to the TSA. It uses two technologies to scan us through our jeans; it says one "produces an image that resembles a fuzzy photo negative" while the other's just "a chalk etching."
But can we trust the TSA? The agency has already misrepresented another aspect of these scanners: their ability to retain the naughty negatives. "[Whole-body technologies] cannot store, print, transmit or save the image," asserts the TSA's website. Yet CNN reported earlier this year that a Freedom of Information Act suit had "obtained the technical specifications and vendor contracts" for the scanners — and those specs show that the TSA required "image storage and sending abilities . . . ."
In addition, one of the two technologies, backscatter X-ray, may be carcinogenic. But again, the TSA says otherwise: "Advanced imaging technology is safe and meets national health and safety standards."
Currently, the TSA pretends that submitting to the scan is voluntary. But the agency threatens those who refuse to pose naked with a groping. And even this charade of a choice may disappear in 2013: the Senate introduced legislation in June requiring the TSA to replace metal detectors with these contraptions at all checkpoints by then.
Fortunately, there's a third option: abolish the TSA. Let airlines provide their own security, as other industries do. Why should aviation alone stick taxpayers with its costs? For eight years, the TSA has bullied, abused, humiliated and delayed passengers. What it hasn't done is find a single terrorist.



I'll add another reason to abolish the TSA: The more money they spend on the expensive nude-o-scopes, the more difficult they will be to ever get rid off. If there is a "war on terror," one presumes that, at some point, there will be a "victory." But, even if victorious and the terrorism threat virtually eliminated, once the tens of billions are spent on these machines, we'll never be rid of them.

Please read the commentary from the airline pilot I linked to below. Hijackings are not common. With the reinforced cockpit doors plus passengers willing to fight on-board terrorists completely changes the equation. The TSA is fighting "the last war." I'm not saying we don't need some security. I suggest we go back to pre-September 11 security except that all checked bags get scanned for bombs and we have much better screening of the people who service the planes. Most of the rest is "security theatre."

If you would like to read more, please go to my December posting on the topic where I ask the question, "What ever happened to the 'home of brave, land of the free'?"

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