Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, [3]
The $160 million bill includes $120 million for the body scanners now in place in hundreds of airports nationwide, according to newly disclosed figures obtained by POLITICO. The rest of the money went to the agency’s “naked” X-ray scanners, which it pulled from airports two years ago amid worries about health risks and the devices’ detailed images of travelers’ bodies.
A recent security audit found that TSA had failed to find fake explosives and weapons in 96 percent of covert tests. And members of Congress familiar with the classified details say the body scanners are to blame for much of the problem.
Johnson said that while bomb detection is obviously a complex undertaking, “these things weren’t even catching metal.”
– From the post: Big Brother Idiocy – TSA Spent $160 Million on Naked Body Scanners that Fail 96% of the Time [4]
Long time Liberty Blitzkrieg [5] readers will be well aware of the fact that I’ve never gone through one of the TSA’s ridiculous and completely pointless naked body scanners. Whatever shred of human dignity an American citizen has left is relinquished the moment one consents to raising his or her arms in the air like a prisoner, while a machine that never met a terrorist it could catch scans an image of your body in yet another superfluous display of imperial slave-training.
Have you ever stopped to think about how ridiculous your fellow travelers look when they go through one of these things. Take a look at the following images and think about them for a second.
Reflect upon what the thoughtless consent to such demeaning behavior does to the psyche of an American citizen. Can such people truly think of themselves as free, empowered individuals, or have they been conditioned to think of themselves as helpless prisoners, grateful to the all powerful security state for their continued survival? Moreover, note that the “hands up” pose is the one a passenger is required to assume, the exact same posture police force upon people during a confrontation.
Of course, this intentional demoralization and slave-condiitoning of the American public is happening all across U.S. society. Since it primarily operates at the subconscious level, most people don’t even recognize it, but happening it most certainly is.
What’s worse, these pointless machines don’t even work, and the entire TSA spectacle is pure security theater. But don’t take my word for it. We learned the following in the post, Big Brother Idiocy – TSA Spent $160 Million on Naked Body Scanners that Fail 96% of the Time [4]:
It’s now becoming clear exactly how many tens of millions of dollars the TSA spent on body scanners that have missed airport security threats, outraged passengers and brought the agency under congressional scrutiny.
The $160 million bill includes $120 million for the body scanners now in place in hundreds of airports nationwide, according to newly disclosed figures obtained by POLITICO. The rest of the money went to the agency’s “naked” X-ray scanners, which it pulled from airports two years ago amid worries about health risks and the devices’ detailed images of travelers’ bodies.
A recent security audit found that TSA had failed to find fake explosives and weapons in 96 percent of covert tests. And members of Congress familiar with the classified details say the body scanners are to blame for much of the problem.
Johnson said that while bomb detection is obviously a complex undertaking, “these things weren’t even catching metal.”
“If you really want to keep using those, and I’m not saying we shouldn’t, at a minimum we should put a metal detector on the other side,” the Wisconsin Republican said in an interview. “Why not go through two? You’ve just gotta use common sense.”
So despite a 96% failure rate, the TSA’s response is to double down and begin the process of making body scanner use mandatory.
For the record, I’m not saying that choosing to get a pat down is particularly dignifying, but it is nevertheless a form of non-compliance. It is a way of saying I’m not going to play your game and go through these ineffective machines with my hands up in the air like a convict and pretend they are actually doing something.
Apparently, the TSA is fed up with some of us peasants making such a choice, so they have begun the process of removing the voluntary opt-out option.
Time [6] reports:
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screeners at airports can now force passengers to go through body scanners, according to a new policy change [7].
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has updated its protocol to no longer allow passengers to opt out of being electronically scanned at through Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) machines at checkpoints. Before the change, people could choose a physical screening.
“While passengers may generally decline AIT screening in favor of physical screening, TSA may direct mandatory AIT screening for some passengers,” the DHS issued in a Dec. 18 policy update.
The change weakens the opt-out rule but doesn’t entirely eliminate it, a TSA spokesman told TIME. “Passengers undergoing screening will still have the option to decline an AIT screening in favor of a physical screening,” agency spokesman Mike England said in a statement. “However, some passengers will still be required to undergo AIT screenings as warranted by security considerations in order to safeguard transportation security.”
A couple of points to make here. First of all, the TSA is saying that body scanner screening may be mandatory for some passengers, but it fails to make clear the criteria that would disqualify someone from opting out. This is troubling since it’s reminiscent of the due process destroying no-fly list (see: How Obama is Using the Grossly Unconstitutional “No Fly List” to Push Gun Control [8]).
Indeed, the only thing the TSA is alluding to is the fact some passengers will be denied the right to opt-out “in order to safeguard transportation security,” something we know is a sham since the body scanners have a 96% failure rate.
So what’s actually going on? My view is that this is simply another example of government conditioning the populace to accept a slave-like mentality in exchange for a false promise of protection. If the government can convince people to engage in pointless security theater that doesn’t work just to take a flight, what won’t they be capable of forcing people to do a few years down the road?
