The spokesman who was the subject of yesterday’s post replied to me today, telling me:

“I’m a spokesperson for this airport so when I said everybody in my quote, I meant our staff and our passengers from whom we’ve had overwhelmingly positive, genuine feedback.”

“On the health point, medical and x-ray equipment experts from across the World who’ve actually examined back scatter technology in detail have concluded unanimously that it poses negligible health risks.”

“Unsurprisingly, I also don’t agree that the scanners are ineffective. Security officers are not looking for metal tins but your film is an interesting watch and has certainly fuelled imaginations. We have actually operated body scanners for three years and we know they work.”

Well, on the first one, only you know whether or not you’re being truthful, but judging by the fact that even the TSA admits to receiving hundreds of complaints, it seems that Manchester must have very selective hearing.

On the second one, I’m no doctor, but I do know that there has been no fully-independent testing of the nude body scanners. Most of the times, the government has provided “researchers” with the data and asked them to come to conclusions, rather than giving them scanners and letting them run tests. I use “researchers” lightly because such a “scientist” is but a government lackey. I also know that the x-ray machines have been shown to operate out-of-specification (calculation error… or was it??) and to leak radiation to those near it (known as overshoot, which will affect the screeners more than anyone else). I also know that the most deadly computer programming error ever involved an x-ray machine that was “totally safe” until it accidentally overdosed its subjects, most of whom died a horribly painful death. Finally, I also know that the screeners are not qualified, even by the TSA’s own policies, to run radiation machines.

But that last one — the efficacy claim — I happen to know a lot about. 🙂 In March 2012, I took an undetected metal container through both backscatter and MMW ATD nude body scanners. The whole point of these things was supposed to be to detect non-metallic explosives, which my metal container could have been full of. To say that they are effective when they have been proven otherwise seems to be a matter of believing what you want to believe.

But Manchester, or any other airport with nude body scanners, if you would like an efficacy test, I would be happy to provide one. Get in touch with me and get me the proper approvals and paperwork, and we can have a challenge to see what can and cannot be brought past your security. My only condition is that we publish the results.

Somehow I don’t expect any takers on that one. I wonder why?

Dear Manchester Blokes:

Today, an article in The Daily Mail noted that the European Union has decided to ban nude body scanners that use x-rays from airports across the continent. The article had the following quote from Russell Craig regarding nude body scanners in use at your airport:

“Today, we’re just kind of standing around scratching our heads wondering why a trial that was popular with everybody, that everybody approved of, just never got the green light from Europe.”

I’m not quite sure exactly how far up his ass Craig’s head is, but nude body scanning has been the subject of international scorn. It is extraordinarily invasive and demeaning, and I’ve received hundreds of e-mails from people who have been left in tears after the process. It is a huge health risk, not just for the passengers, but for the operators who are exposed to ambient radiation from thousands of daily scans. And it is entirely ineffective, as I clearly demonstrated in my viral video, “How to Get ANYTHING Through TSA Nude Body Scanners.”

“Everybody” does not approve of your trial, but many are quite happy that the machines will end up in the rubbish heap.

Cheers,

Jonathan Corbett
TSA Out of Our Pants

A group called governmentattic.org was nice enough to file an FOIA request with the TSA requesting snail-mail complaints received by them regarding their then-new pat-down procedure (which they admit requires screeners to touch your genitals, buttocks, breasts, and everywhere else). Over a year and a half later, the TSA replied with 201 complaints submitted by members of the public in Q4 of 2010.

Considering the ACLU states that it received over 900 complaints in just a single month of Q4, it seems highly unlikely that only 200 people wrote to the TSA to complain. Luckily, I don’t have to simply have suspicions: I know that the TSA either destroyed or simply failed to release complaints, because I personally wrote to the TSA on November 6th, 2010, just 10 days before I decided to file suit, and my complaint is not included in the 201 released!

Lying in an FOIA response may constitute a federal crime. Sure, it’s possible that mine just got “lost,” but based on the ACLU number, it seems more than a few disappeared. Let’s expose this: if you sent a complaint about the pat-downs to the TSA, DHS, or Office of the President at the end of 2010, please have a look at the complaints released and let me know (either way) in the comments here whether your complaint was included.

“If you don’t like it, don’t fly!” That has been the refrain of the few people left who support allowing the TSA to digitally strip search us and molest us and our families. We’ve already seen the TSA’s mission creep, expanding to patrolling Amtrak stations, Greyhound terminals, music festivals, and political events. But, the TSA thus far has not brought their nude body scanners and genital groping out of the airport, and has never stated an intention to do so. So, maybe TSA abuse will solely be confined to airports?

Not a chance. Through a Freedom of Information Act response that I’ve obtained of formerly unreleased, secret (“Sensitive Security Information”) documents, it now comes out that the TSA has been plotting since 2008 to bring nude body scanners to “ferry terminals, railway, and mass transit stations” as well as unspecified “other locations” — in other words, everywhere. You can expect them at train stations, bus stations, subways, highways, cruise ships, and anywhere that “transportation” happens (i.e., everywhere). And, where the body scanners go, so does the groping, since the body scanners have at least a 40% false positive rate which needs to be resolved by blue-gloved gestapo.

Further, the TSA notes that they have refused to conduct an environmental impact study of any kind. According to the document, DHS has issued an order “exempting” security devices from environmental review. Why not conduct an environmental impact study? Unless, of course, your device is leaking radiation everywhere…

So, why hasn’t the TSA told the public that they intend to bring nude body scanners to every mode of transportation we use? Because, of course, the only way they can convince the American people to allow for their rights to be taken away is slowly. Only a small percentage of people fly and only a small percentage of fliers are scanned. Combined with the fact that people are afraid of flying and are therefore more easily tempted to trade liberty for (a false sense of) security, there are not many to complain, and the government hopes that those of us who are complaining eventually give up. Then they can inch forward. Perhaps just the extra-fast Acela Amtrak trains will be scanned next. Then only buses that seat more than 100 people. Then those who are driving commercial vehicles on the highway. Until everywhere we go, we are scanned, groped, abused, and violated. Sensational? Read the document — the TSA admits in black and white what their intentions are, even if it is unpleasant to believe. Body scanning must be stopped now, or it will be a part of your daily life soon.

These “orders” of the TSA — declaring that body scanning will be everywhere and for all, declaring that no study is required, and declaring that your privacy is “protected enough” — are issued by this guy:

Anonymous. The TSA redacted the name of the guy who decided all of this. “Change I can believe in” should have been transparency in government. “Change I can believe in” should have been full environmental studies before deploying radiation devices across the country. What the hell kind of change have we actually received in nearly 4 years?

TSA – Deploy Nude Body Scanners Everywhere, Conduct no EIS (.pdf)

Anything for our safety, right?

And then they discovered an “anomaly” in her bra, so she needed to be patted down on her breasts. This freaked her out even more. She asked for a private room and for me to be there, and it was obvious that this pissed off the female assist TSO. As she started shaking and sobbing in the room as the TSO began to touch her breasts, I gently touched her arm. Big mistake – the TSO yelled that I couldn’t touch her and that I’d need to go through screening again.

Source: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/checkpoints-borders-policy-debate/1374235-pat-down-ended-my-wife-up-er.html

This is the organization who just claimed the right to detain citizens and read through their documents (paper, electronic, or what have you). This is the organization that claims the rights to inspect your genitals. This is the organization that has its employees arrested for felonies on a weekly basis.

“For our safety.”