US Marshals Saved 35,000 Full Body Scans 712
PatPending writes "A Gizmodo investigation has revealed 100 of the photographs saved by the Gen 2 millimeter-wave scanner from Brijot Imaging Systems, Inc., obtained by a FOIA request after it was recently revealed that US Marshals operating the machine in the Orlando, Florida courthouse had improperly — perhaps illegally — saved [35,000] images [low resolution] of the scans of public servants and private citizens."
Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
The more these assholes abuse their power, the less willing the public will be to entrust power to them.
Oh god, who am I kidding?..
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
the less willing the public will be to entrust power to them.
Problem is - you're trained from day 1 to entrust your power to them. Most everyone doesn't believe there is any other way.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
President Merkin Muffley: General Turgidson, I find this very difficult to understand. I was under the impression that I was the only one in authority to order the use of nuclear weapons.
General "Buck" Turgidson: That's right, sir, you are the only person authorized to do so. And although I, uh, hate to judge before all the facts are in, it's beginning to look like, uh, General Ripper exceeded his authority.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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The more these assholes abuse their power, the less willing the public will be to entrust power to them.
Oh god, who am I kidding?..
Yeah, you mean they're doing that exact thing that we knew they were going to do and abusing their power? Nope, nobody saw that coming.
... err I mean those paranoid naysayers at once. Cue the "I got nothing to hide", "why don't you want to stop terrori
Oh, and you're some kind of paranoid tin-foil hat wearing nutter if you ever read about a not-yet-implemented proposal and say "this is dangerous because it will be abused." We must ridicule and marginalize those who aren't in denial about basic reality
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Exactly. People don't care till their backs are up against the wall. It's amazing how complacent this country has become.
Apparently the certain knowledge that they will have their backs up against the wall if they continue down this path doesn't move them. Until it actually happens there's lots denial to go around.
The predictability of it all makes me want to use "stupid" where you used "complacent" sometimes.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Insightful)
On second thought, I know people older than 30 who don't question authority, either.
So it turns out you can be ignorant at any age. I'll add ignorant to the running list of stupid, complacent, apathetic, and weak.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
I overheard it put this way: "If the government is going to keep groping our wives and daughters [wikipedia.org], somebody's going to go Braveheart on them." Oppressive behavior just creates terrorists, it doesn't find or defeat them.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Interesting)
What I would personally like to see is someone with a young child, preferably female that instructs their child to start screaming if anyone touches their genitals. After the child begins screaming at the TSA checkpoint said parent asks that the cops be called and insists that the officer arrest the TSA agent for sexual molestation of a child. Most likely the cops will refuse, at that point a civil suit against the TSA for sexual molestation of a child would be appropriate.
And for the record, no Federal law can override state criminal statutes. If it's illegal to touch a child's genitals the DHS and TSA can't make a regulation that says it's OK. One of these days I'm praying that this happens and that either a TSA agent is charged as a sex criminal or the TSA itself is defeated in a Civil Suit for instructing their agents to sexually molest children. These "enhanced" pat downs are offensive and illegal and until someone is willing to stand up and take the damn thing to court the DHS and TSA is going to continue molesting children. And let me tell you, once a pedophile finds out he can touch all the children he wants with TSA approval the ranks of the TSA are going to be FULL of pedophiles. I wouldn't be surprised if it's already occurring!
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Insightful)
...at that point a civil suit against the TSA for sexual molestation of a child would be appropriate.
And would be dismissed due to "National Security" concerns.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Informative)
Is that all? Here ya go:
http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-spokane/tsa-screener-terrorizes-3-year-old-girl [examiner.com]
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That's going to make the Church's recruiting efforts grind to a halt...
It's already happened... outraged? (Score:3, Informative)
What I would personally like to see is someone with a young child, preferably female that instructs their child to start screaming if anyone touches their genitals.
link [sfgate.com]... have you called your airline contacts and congresscritters? I sure have.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
In the early 40s, "half wits believing what they were doing was ok" were shoving slavs, jews, and homosexuals into railroad cars. You're wrong, we absolutely need to use the law to utterly destroy the life of at least one TSA half-wit and a not few of the degenerates at the top (Janet N.) who approved of our child-molesting and grandma-groping overloads..
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
By the Power of GODWINS LAW!!!
Persecuting a TSA dumbass for following an illegal order is probably the worst way of effecting change. Do you understand that the problem is at the top of the pyramid? The problem is the people at the top and the policies they are crafting. Not the rank and file guys following these ridiculous policies.
By no means am I condoning the activity, but stringing up the first TSA grunt that gropes the wrong person is ridiculous. That dudes life will be absolutely and utterly destroyed for following what he believe to be legal and lawful instructions. I'm saying we should prevent the groping from happening in the first place.
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It's interesting that people here are bashing the TSA for saving body scan images, but in articles about Google "accidentally" saving emails, passwords, and other personal information, people spend their time defending Google.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
In order to be a juror at a building, I was required to remove my belt and shoes.
The Republic was somehow able to survive through 2 World Wars, a Civil War, and multiple British invasions (see what I did there?) without disrobing jurors. There is no greater threat now than has existed in the past. There is only a populace that is more cowed and less willing to challenge an ever increasing authority.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Insightful)
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for example, the requirement to notify the government 72 hours in advance when you travel domestically [tsa.gov]
Keep in mind though that his only applies to airlines. There is no government intrusion for people packing up their own private vehicle and driving across the country (almost none anyway).
I don't support the intrusion on privacy in general, but I also acknowledge that when electing to use nationally critical infrastructure for travel I must submit to some kind of vetting before I'm allowed on it. The current state of security theater has gone too far, but I don't think we can ever rightfully expect to com
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Since when are commuter jets nationally critical infrastructure? There's literally nothing else other than the terminals and jets (and passengers, of course) that are more vulnerable to someone past security than someone outside of the secured area.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
You make it sound like putting very good locks on the cockpit doors would have prevented the 9/11 attacks, but not funneled as much money to friends of politicians nor been as visible in a "see, we're making it better" sort of way. Maybe include an armed undercover LEO on every plane as an additional security measure -- undercover so that an attacker knows someone on the plane is armed, but has no way of knowing whom.
Seriously, there are two things that allowed the 9/11 attacks to occur, and much like the "be handed the ball and stroll through the defensive line" football play (seriously, just search youtube for football play, it's probably still the first result) it will never work again. Those two things are:
1. Access to the cockpit by the attackers. A securely locked cockpit resolves this issue entirely. Even better if it can only be locked or unlocked from the inside.
2. Apathy by the passengers -- before this, being hijacked basically meant an unfortunate detour for you. Now that it's clear it can mean potential death, the passengers who wildly outnumber the terrorists can almost certainly stop him. Even if he's armed -- after all, resist and maybe die is a better bet than don't and certainly die.
Here is a fact to help you with your education: (Score:5, Informative)
Bush's Fatherland Security czar, Michael Chertoff, profits from the sale of the nudie-scanners.
http://gawker.com/5437499/why-is-michael-chertoff-so-excited-about-full+body-scanners [gawker.com]
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/full-body-scanner-lobby-michael-chertoff-rapiscan-2552674.html [nowpublic.com]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2627190/posts [freerepublic.com]
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/airport-scanner-scam [motherjones.com]
this shit wasn't invented in two years (Score:5, Informative)
Seth
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, security theater, and heck, all government bureaucracy dealings make a lot more sense if you look at it as CYA (cover yer arse).
If (when) the next terrorist action occurs, you have to be able to say you did all you could (no matter how ridiculous) to prevent it. But who could have foreseen the $(shoe | underwear | pregnant) bomber? Now that we know, we shall immediately take action to more rigorously screen $(shoes | underwear | fetuses).
And anyone who backs off on one of those ridiculous reactionary measures will get hit will full responsibility for the next attack. And not our failures in $(foreign relations | winning hearts and minds | education | outreach) that perpetuate the inequalities that make people desperate enough to get indoctrinated for guerrilla suicide operations in the first place.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Insightful)
I will do nothing
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Big corporations are the only ones these days with the muscle to push around big sis/bro
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You are not surprised I hope. The election didn't remove the asshats from their jobs in homeland security did it? Same asshats, same asshatholery.....
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Insightful)
The only question is what are you going to do about it?
Drive, and not fly international until this retarded behavior by the totalitarian fucktards in DC either fix the mess or get strung up.
Neither of which will happen. If a 2 year investigation of Charlie Rangle can find him "guilty" on 13 of 14 charges, some of them quite illegal as well ad HE violations, and all he gets is a letter of reprimand, do you think any of these douche bags are going to clean up their act and risk their beuqacratic positions of power and prestige? (that's a rhetorical question) These fuckers need to be carried out naked* and stripped of their power.
*(except Janet Napolitano, she needs to leave her clothes on as she's done enough damage already)
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Insightful)
What I do every four years, vote for a non-Republicrat party. Hasn't seemed to help much however.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Informative)
http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/05/technology/full_body_scanner/
And say what you will, but it wasn't until this crop of scanners came around that this administration created the existing policies on opt-outs.
I flew many times post 9/11, and the worst I ever got was my bags opened or run over with the wand.
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Or modify legislation that allows us to walk around naked, all the time... Should be our choice, if they want to invade our "privacy" anyways... I'm willing to bet if I try to clear security with my junk hanging out, I aint gonna make my flight.
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Are you kidding? Easy access to a lake of fire? If that isn't cheap energy I don't know what is.
Re:Good. Hope this keeps up (Score:4, Informative)
There is no greater threat now than has existed in the past.
Oh, yes there is -- the threat is from our own government, and the threat is to our freedom. When they say "they hate us for our freedom" they must be talking about themselves, because ever since 911 gave them an excuse our freedoms have been rapidly vanishing.
Sooner or later (Score:2, Funny)
We all knew it would happen sooner or later. So, when does Bodyscanporn.com open up? :)
Re:Sooner or later (Score:4, Funny)
RateMyBodyScan.com
IsMyScanHotOrNot.com
etc.
Better go register them quick!
uhuh (Score:5, Insightful)
Like maybe: "The officers involved have received reprimands that will go in their permanent record."
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After the OKC bombing, not TWA 800. There was never any suggestion that TWA was brought down by something on board (other than the fuel tanks). There was a conspiracy theory about a SAM.
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Opt for the frisking (Score:5, Insightful)
If someone is going to invade my privacy for pointless security theater, I might as well make it as uncomfortable and inconvenient for them as possible. In airports, I always opt for frisking instead backscatter. No pictures to save then, either.
Re:Opt for the frisking (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Opt for the frisking (Score:4, Funny)
And take laxatives.
Re:Opt for the frisking (Score:4, Funny)
Nah, take viagra.
Re:Opt for the frisking (Score:4, Funny)
They wouldn't be able to tell if you were coming or going...
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I think you should wear a cup. Then when they go for the groin they will get a big plastic blob.
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Or, if you have some end-of-life pants, let an ink pen 'accidentally' leak all over outside of your junkal area. Poor TSA guy will have "I grabbed a guy's inky junk" hands for weeks. Me, I'm just going to opt for the x-ray, drop my pants in the middle of it and hum the national anthem. If anybody complains I'll just claim I was confused about the procedure...
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That's one option.
The other is described in Heinlein's PuppetMasters. His specific version is also a solution to the bomb problem as well.
So why don't we abolish the indecent exposure offence for starters. Personally, I do not really care about anyone getting pictures of me in the buff. Nothing particularly interesting to see there.
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And do a little thrust while they're down there.
And drop a few lines like "Hey, aren't you gonna at least buy me dinner first?"
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Any teens? (Score:2)
operators "cannot store, print, transmit or save" (Score:2)
You keep using that word 'privacy.' I do not think it means what you think it means.
Abuse of power is never new (Score:2)
Every time the public or public advocates complain about new law enforcement technologies or powers, it is always important to remember is that it is not the ability to perform effective law enforcement that is the problem -- it is precisely to prevent the inevitable abuse of power that we seek to enjoin. Let's forget about official abuse of power (which also happens frequently) and look at unofficial and inappropriate abuse of power such as a sheriff's deputy using their police facilities to check up on h
Re:Abuse of power is never new (Score:4, Informative)
You're absolutely correct, but at the same time, let's not forget that such abuses occur because those in power deliberately lie to the people. That is what the Gizmodo article proves--that the public is intentionally told falsehoods so that the government can continue their abuse. It isn't the individual screener or machine that is the root of corruption. Rather, the corruption is systematic, in the form of a security agency that tells people that their privacy is assured when it is not. They do this because it makes their task more expedient, and gives the impression of effectiveness. Much the same can be said of the deliberate provocation of fear as a means of gaining more power and control.
I repeat: the corruption is systematic. Yes, you can remove the opportunity to exploit weaknesses and the lack of accountability, but this is a piecemeal approach to fixing the larger underlying problem, which is that we have a system that is accountable to no one, that is fundamentally disinterested in serving its stated purpose, and exists for the sole purpose of allowing those in power to concentrate their influence through the use of scare tactics and lies. In other words, we wouldn't need to stop individual enforcement officers from violating people's privacy, and we wouldn't need the regulations to do so, if we didn't need to subject people to these scans in the first place. This technology didn't always exist, yet people weren't being blown out of the skies every day for the lack of it. There's an unspoken, and therefore largely unchallenged, assumption that this kind of screening is necessary--which on the face of it is an absurd claim, for if it were, the only rational way to use it would be to apply it to everybody. And I need not state the myriad ways in which someone with half a brain would still find it trivial to circumvent it.
What is needed is a drastic change, one in which the people reassert their control over the government that purports to serve them. I doubt this will happen, but nevertheless it is the only viable solution.
I thought nude viewing was in separate room ? (Score:3, Insightful)
I thought that for passengers' privacy, the nude-o-scope operator was in another room with no view of the real person, but these photographs match each person with their scan so there obviously is a simple way to view person both clothed and naked! ohhh, the opportunities...
Scanning not confined to pad (Score:5, Interesting)
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Point of fact - while I don't disagree with the general point of your comment, this statement is not true: they are arguing that it is a very small fraction of the radiation dose from a chest x-ray. Rough numbers, a chest x-ray will deliver ~100 microsieverts of ionizing radiation. The TSA specs say that a single scan delivers ~0.02 microsieverts. You would need to go through 5000 scans to reach the equivalent of one chest x-ray.
There are, addi
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There's one good reason to treat pilots the same as everyone else: Consistency - everybody on the plane goes through the scan, no special exceptions because special exceptions can be exploited. For example, someone could impersonate a pilot. The guys at the checkpoint are barely competent enough to run the checkpoint as is. Making them verify pilots' credentials, especially in the face of a determined attacker who can presumably afford good forging skills and can bribe the right people to tweak the data
The same machines we're repeatedly told can't save (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean the same machines that we're repeatedly told cannot save images? The ones people don't like because of the privacy invasion and the answer is always "the machines cannot save images"?
Who is actually surprised by this?
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Who cares whether the machines can save images or not anyway? Any screener with a camera phone could just take a picture of the screen.
Security personel are always dicks (Score:5, Insightful)
Pie Crust Promise (Score:5, Interesting)
Saying "the pictures will never be saved" is known as a "Pie Crust Promise" - easily made, easily broken. Here is some interesting reading on similar promises from the government, especially on how the SSN will never be used for identification. http://www.scragged.com/articles/the-plague-of-presidential-pie-crust-promises [scragged.com] . The moral is never EVER trust the government .
Good time to campaign for trains (Score:5, Insightful)
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Trains take multiple days to go from one side of this country to the other. Not flying is simply dodging the problem, and unchecked they'll push it on the trains too.
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I took a train up the east coast and back recently. It is not an experience I wish to repeat. It was loud, cramped, bumpy, uncomfortable, and long.
Why did I take that train? Because I refuse to take airplanes since the ridiculous things they had started doing at airports... Years ago.
After taking that train, the airports didn't seem quite so bad any more. And now they've started with the cancer-inducing scanners and groping.
Now, I just don't travel.
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Trains don't fall from the sky. They run on electric power. Carry many more people than planes. Stops right in the middle of downtown, origin and destination, no trip to and from the airport needed. Sometimes you can just get on, no papers or checking at all, and buy the ticket later on board. Sometimes there is a restaurant car, or a bar car. You can see the scenery, it is less than a yard away from your window. You have long seats, tables, lots of space, walk around the cars. You can get off at the next town, walk around, and take the next train. There are almost never any accidents. Did I say it's electric?
Unfortunately, in the USA, trains go from where you aren't to where you don't want to be. They are diesel-electric. They are limited to around 90mph under best conditions. The tracks are frequently shared with freight traffic, which has right of way, so passenger trains are frequently side-tracked for long delays. 2000 miles at 90mph is over 20 hours. More like 36 hours with delays, sidetracking and stops. The 250 mile trip across Missouri takes 6-8 hours -- you could drive it faster. Everything in the r
That's nothing (Score:5, Interesting)
The TSA is now groping women's breasts and little kids genitals. (See the recent video of a girl crying, "Stop touching me!"
And I just now heard an interview with an American is being punished $11,000 by the U.S.G. because he refused to be scanned, or groped by the TSA, so the guards told him, "You cannot fly." He then canceled his ticket, got a refund, left the airport, and was arrested for leaving the area.
Apparently once you enter an air terminal, you no longer have any rights... except to submit to the US Gestapo and their warrantless/illegal searches.
Re:That's nothing (Score:4, Informative)
They are charging and fining anyone who submits to examination and then backs out. This is to keep terrorists from exploring the limits of the system by bringing contraband to the examination and then backing away at the last minute so they're not caught. It is an extremely ham-fisted way of preventing a social engineering attack, but it should suffice.
In the US, once you enter in an agreement with any corporation you lose some rights. What the TSA is doing now is no worse than what many software companies do with their EULAs, it's just more obvious because it's physical.
I'm just waiting for a website to collect body scan pictures and post them with the travellers' names. Is the domain tsa-leaks.com taken? Aunt Mildred might put up with having one official in the airport look through her blouse, but put those pictures up on the internet and there will be fury.
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
In the US, once you enter in an agreement with any corporation you lose some rights. What the TSA is doing now is no worse than what many software companies do with their EULAs, it's just more obvious because it's physical.
No. That’s bullshit.
Certain rights can’t be contracted away. Period.
That’s why almost any contract has a clause in it that says something to the effect that “you may have certain rights that are not listed, or we may not legally be able to indemnify ourselves from certain warranties or liabilities, in which case those claims are held void but the rest of our contract is still actionable”.
Writing a clause into a contract that takes away my inalienable rights just makes the contract illegal.
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Nah, this is pure spite.
For years, they have allowed people to walk through metal detectors and, if it goes off, to walk back, remove some metal object and try again. Any terrorist with half a brain could have used this to accurately calibrate the meta
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
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Last EULA I read also had a clause that stated that if any of it would be illegal or unlawful, those parts were inapplicable to me. This is nothing like a EULA.
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Informative)
The video was taken down from YouTube, but this guy has it for now:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1258192/pg1 [godlikeproductions.com]
That was the most heart-wrenching thing I've seen in a long time. The girl wasn't being bad or anything, she was just freaking out that this strange woman was poking her all over.
I'm driving for Christmas this year (12 hours) rather than fly. I want to visit an old friend of the family that lives in Alabama, and I'm in Chicago. I really hope they stop this BS before then. I'm just glad I don't have kids yet, I would probably assault a TSA agent if they did this to my child. You guys would write me in prison, right?
Re:That's nothing (Score:4, Insightful)
Newsflash to the TSA, it's not an optional screening if there are serious consequences to saying no. I wouldn't consider something optional if the alternative is paying a $10,000 fine or being arrested. Sure technically there isn't a gun to the head, but no reasonable person is going to conclude that there isn't force being applied.
This isn't any different than when a Priest, teacher or parent pressures a child to allow touching which wouldn't normally be tolerated. There is no informed consent when the party asking for it has the power to inflict such serious consequences.
Re:That's nothing (Score:4, Insightful)
I think that the $10K lawsuit and arrest was an empty threat, not actually happening. But that's still a pretty dirtbag Nazi kind of thing to threaten somebody with.
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Replying to myself -- Hate to say it, but the TSA chief in San Diego held a press conference Monday to confirm that the fine (now $11K) is still on the table and they've opened an investigation on this guy:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/15/tsa-probe-scan-resistor/ [signonsandiego.com]
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, take a moment and think about this.
How, exactly, would they know that they are going to be detected on one attempt, and know that they are not going to be detected on another attempt? What used to be "additional screening" a few years ago is now applied to all passengers - we're all getting a pat-down or backscatter scan now.
The moronic thing is thinking that someone who is going to set off a bomb to kill hundreds in an airplane would not set off a bomb to kill hundreds in a crowded security area.
so my choice is (Score:5, Insightful)
1. radiation exposure and some mall cop staring at my dick. with pictures for permanent internet memories
2. some mall cop groping my dick
i choose 3: fuck flying. taking the airplane is a burdensome horrendous experience that just keeps getting worse and worse. it makes driving 20 hours seem more attractive than flying 4 hours
"the terrorists have won" is a lame trite statement, but it's true. they've permanently altered our society to turn us into scared cattle and they've permanently made airplanes a hellish unattractive transportation method
Re:so my choice is (Score:5, Insightful)
they've permanently altered our society to turn us into scared cattle and they've permanently made airplanes a hellish unattractive transportation method
No. That was us.
Thats Unpossible. (Score:4, Insightful)
So where are the political people who promised us it was "impossible" for the images from these scanners to be saved? It was clearly a manufacturing possibility that the images could be stored. And the rule of operation is that "if it can be done, it will be".
Geeky systems observation:
There needs to be a better political process where, when the political message is later proven to be a lie, we can shoot the original messenger. Because without negative feedback the system will continue to run amok. The current political process is not good enough and has a large enough time lag that corrective factors build up and sever oscillations occur.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phase_margin
Remember National Opt Out Day (Score:5, Informative)
Next Wednesday: http://www.optoutday.com/ [optoutday.com]
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It is, by far, the busiest travel day of the year in the US, so that might be worth something, but I agree that an ongoing boycot is the only real way.
Then again, the airlines would probably just blame the 20% on the economy and ask for a bailout.
Naked Body Scanners DO and ARE saving images! (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't the ONLY thing either...
Big Sis Caught Lying To American People
http://www.infowars.com/big-sis-caught-lying-to-american-people/ [infowars.com]
Video: Big Sis Caught Lying
http://www.prisonplanet.com/video-big-sis-caught-lying.html [prisonplanet.com]
'Naked' scanners at US airports may be dangerous: scientists
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h08khPyFPinX_4vNYd1JZwn8hV4Q?docId=CNG.442824fa7c08853af96322d7315a6f02.461 [google.com]
Shocker: TSA Has Been Molesting Children For Years
http://www.prisonplanet.com/shocker-tsa-has-been-molesting-children-for-years.html [prisonplanet.com]
TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants
http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-now-putting-hands-down-fliers-pants.html [prisonplanet.com]
TSA Gives Rapists And Illegals The Green Light While Groping Children
http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-gives-rapists-and-illegals-the-green-light-while-groping-children.html [prisonplanet.com]
Obese pictures! (Score:3, Funny)
Damn the people of the US are fat!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Damn the people of the US are fat!
We're trying to make ourselves unattractive so they stop raping us, virtually.
Post-mortem (Score:3, Insightful)
Lying about this is unconscionable, but I can see a valid reason for them wanting to save such things: it lets you know how they were defeated last time.
Suppose that somebody does manage to sneak something deadly on board. If this were a bug in a piece of software, you'd all want to leap to reconstructing the event, and you'd be irked if you knew you had deliberately thrown away a crucial piece of information. Especially since if it happened once, it could happen again. So you'd have to go on lockdown.
I'm NOT trying to justify this. Lying bad, radiation bad, groping bad, virtual strip search bad, TSA bad, pictures always leak, terrorists winning, Orwell right, etc. I'm good with all that.
But I'm a bit surprised that they didn't even try to make the case for saving the pictures, perhaps with an public key encryption and the private key kept only on a piece of paper locked in a safe somewhere. I guess they felt it was futile; people are uncomfortable enough about the pictures as it is.
Two words.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I got a terabyte drive full of better porn... (Score:3, Insightful)
Why should I care about the low-res crap copped from some security scanners?
Seriously, as long as they don't give me cancer (which is iffy so I'm "opting out" until "the science is in") or cause growths (like a second head,) who gives a fuck?
Hell, if they turn the heat up in winter, I'll walk naked through the airport. It won't be pretty but neither is comedy.
Michael Chertoff's scam (Score:3, Informative)
This is a scam.
These scanners were promoted by Michael Cherfoff, Head of Homeland Security under W.
Now he is CEO of the Chertoff Group [chertoffgroup.com], and is lobbying [wcvarones.com] for Rapiscan [rapiscansystems.com], which makes these very machines at issue here. How convenient.
Re:is this what you're worried about? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it's the fact that the data isn't supposed to be stored. They're retaining the data illegally. That's what we're supposed to be even more worried about--the abuse of the system.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They're retaining the data illegally.
No one really seems to care if anything is illegal anymore, as long as it isn't a "classic" crime like assault, robbery, murder, drugs, or the like. The notion of illegality is as benign and dead as ever. Now it seems, laws are merely for retaining and furthering the authoritative reach of those in power, not as a code by which we determine what constitutes a crime.
I've had money stolen by Fortune 500 companies and those employees laugh at me after I read the applicable laws aloud to them, even though
Re:is this what you're worried about? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, what you should be worried about is that other people are concerned, and the government that represents them doesn't give a shit.
You should be concerned that the government that represents them lied to everyone and said that images could not be saved on the machines that the TSA was getting.
You should be concerned that you are being asked to give up more and more privacy, now the privacy of what is under your clothes and in your pockets, for little more than the simple assertion that it is needed, with nothing of significance to show any real credible threat whatsoever.
-Steve
Re:is this what you're worried about? (Score:5, Insightful)
None of the politicians would stand by any government servant. If there is one thing civil servants know, it is when the shit hits the fan, one of them will be scape goated. Media would be going fanning the flames. All those liberatarians and the small government conservatives and the "tax cuts will solve everything" crowd will be silent, very very silent. There will be no one to tell in the media frenzy, "It is sad it happened, but it can't prevented without serious invasion of privacy of millions of people and huge expansion of the government and law enforcement expenditure."
Next time a terrorist blows up a plane, stand up and say, "yeah, it is sad and tragic. But we as a country have gone through far worse. We lost a million soldiers in WW II. 50K in Vietnam. Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, London were all bombed mercilessly. We survived. Compared to that it losing two buildings and 3000 people is nothing. If we cower in our shoes and crap in pants, the terrorists have won. Just let us go back to normalcy." But no one will.