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TSA ends naked airport scanners contract after years of controversy
Russia Today ^ | 1-18-13 | Unknown

Posted on 01/18/2013 7:47:00 AM PST by Veggie Todd

The US Transport and Security Administration (TSA) will remove all 174 of OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS)’s Rapiscan body scanners from airports, following serious concerns over their inability to protect the privacy of passengers.

(Excerpt) Read more at rt.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airport; scanners; tsa
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To: grobdriver

With the other company they are already using that makes a cartoon figure instead of a direct copy of your physical outline.

The machines are NOT going away, but the nudie pictures are going away.

From the article:

The TSA has been using two companies to conduct the searches, outsourcing to both Rapiscan and L-3 Communications Holdings to produce the machines. While the Rapiscan machines have been utilizing weak X-rays to create what appears to be a naked image of the subject, the machines of L-3 Communications Holdings use radio waves to depict concealed objects on an avatar image on a screen, and will continue to be used by the TSA.


21 posted on 01/18/2013 8:18:51 AM PST by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: FReepers

             

22 posted on 01/18/2013 8:20:43 AM PST by tomkat ( .. shall NOT be infringed)
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To: Buckeye McFrog
"I think the EU had determined they presented an unsafe radiation risk..."

If union, maybe TSA'ers rebelled that they were being radiated throughout their shifts.

Not to mention, the passengers being loud at the TSA checkpoint.

Being radiated and having to listen to aggravated pilots, passengers, catering staff and stewards, etc.

What's not to love about body scanners?!

23 posted on 01/18/2013 8:21:41 AM PST by hummingbird
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To: Buckeye McFrog

They’re not getting rid of all scanners. Just the ones that are the radiation risk. They’re keeping the other ones and replacing the xray machines.


24 posted on 01/18/2013 8:24:07 AM PST by ladyjane (For the first time in my life I am not proud of my country.)
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To: Still Thinking

>> Body cavity search with Uncle Friendly wearing latex gloves.

By the way, those gloves are to protect HIM, not you. They may not be clean. Demand that he change them right before he “does” you.


25 posted on 01/18/2013 8:30:59 AM PST by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
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To: ladyjane

Every time I fly, which is only about 4 times a year, I get pulled out of line for the full body scanner. This year in Sydney I was pulled out of line to be checked for explosives. The security guy had me read a document and asked me if I agreed to be checked. Of course the alternative was that you would not be allowed on the plane. Some choice.


26 posted on 01/18/2013 8:35:13 AM PST by heylady (“Sometimes I wish I could be a Democrat and then I remember I have a soul.”( Deb))
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To: Still Thinking
"Body cavity search with Uncle Friendly wearing latex gloves"

To protect the TSA worker and spread G knows what to you!

27 posted on 01/18/2013 8:35:56 AM PST by Average Al
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To: Veggie Todd

This is article is from a Russian newspaper. Why is it we hear about this in foreign papers and not ours?

Silly me. If it was about the Kardashians or Lance Armstrong this would be front page news.


28 posted on 01/18/2013 8:40:10 AM PST by twoputt
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To: hummingbird
But will I get my scan back? I'm scheduled for a MRI and could maybe save money and tine by using the airport scan./sarc

"As part of my ongoing cost-savings initiatives, I have just signed an Executive Order certifying TSA screeners with the authority to continue using the Rapiscan body scanners, not for airport screening, but for giving virtual colonoscopies and detecting precancerous breast tissues."


29 posted on 01/18/2013 8:40:34 AM PST by COBOL2Java (kak-is-toc-ra-cy: Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens. See: GOP-e)
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To: bushbuddy

That caught my eye too. I’m not familiar with this source. Can we trust it as valid? Even if the press were avoiding this, Fox News would be all over it. Until I see it there or over national news, I’m hesitant that the next time I fly these will be gone.


30 posted on 01/18/2013 9:25:27 AM PST by Marko413
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To: bushbuddy

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_AIRPORT_SCANNERS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-01-18-11-51-13

From AP...brief article, only mentions privacy concerns not safety. Seems congress had issues also with the machines


31 posted on 01/18/2013 9:34:30 AM PST by opentalk
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To: cuban leaf
I did the same thing. Have never been through anything but the metal detector, and have opted out every time when that wasn't an option.

I used to fly about 25 times a year. I guess I'll have to wait until June until those things are gone for good. I'd like to think we played a very small role in creating the Congressional mandate to get rid of them.

32 posted on 01/18/2013 9:43:33 AM PST by GunRunner (***Not associated with any criminal actions by the ATF***)
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To: bushbuddy

“...Silly me. If it was about the Kardashians or Lance Armstrong this would be front page news.”

Or the what’s his name ball player with the alleged fake girlfriend...


33 posted on 01/18/2013 9:45:40 AM PST by 444Flyer (We are experiencing the perfect storm.)
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To: COBOL2Java
"As part of my ongoing cost-savings initiatives, I have just signed an Executive Order certifying TSA screeners with the authority to continue using the Rapiscan body scanners, not for airport screening, but for giving virtual colonoscopies and detecting precancerous breast tissues."

Welcome to Obamacare.

34 posted on 01/18/2013 9:49:15 AM PST by 444Flyer (We are experiencing the perfect storm.)
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To: GunRunner

I’d like to think we played a very small role


Not as small as the role a voter plays in a national election. ;-)


35 posted on 01/18/2013 9:50:00 AM PST by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: Veggie Todd
Interesting comment at link

… This is the outfit that Chertoff is associated with. But the makers of the L-3 scanners that now have a monopoly have Tom Daschle's wife as a key lobbyist for them. They're all crooks and carpetbaggers. It's more likey that this decision is about money and politics than protecting anyone

36 posted on 01/18/2013 9:50:41 AM PST by opentalk
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To: Veggie Todd

Obama’s cronies made a fortune selling those scanners to the TSA.

Now that they’ve made the money on those sales, might as well junk the things and move on to something else—which Obama will order the TSA to buy from his cronies.


37 posted on 01/18/2013 9:52:16 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: grobdriver
The TSA has been using two companies to conduct the searches, outsourcing to both Rapiscan and L-3 Communications Holdings to produce the machines. While the Rapiscan machines have been utilizing weak X-rays to create what appears to be a naked image of the subject, the machines of L-3 Communications Holdings use radio waves to depict concealed objects on an avatar image on a screen, and will continue to be used by the TSA. The Rapiscan machines will be replaced by 60 units supplied by L-3.

I directed the operational testing of these systems for a DoD agency for deploying them into operational theaters (the safety testing was done elsewhere). We concluded that the Rapidscan was deficient in several respects and we did this with full knowledge and experience with other backscatter X-ray systems that we employed for other purposes. In the end, we selected the L3 system. I have spent many hours in front of the displays of both systems and found the L3 device better at identifying threats and was less intrusive from a body display perspective.

Over at the TSA, it's useful to know that Chertoff has a business relationship with Rapidscan and that the TSA testing (done by someone I know) came to conclusions similar to mine, but were overruled at higher levels in TSA.

38 posted on 01/18/2013 10:47:37 AM PST by centurion316
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To: centurion316
So the L-3 uses RF versus the back-scatter xray, as I understand.

Does L-3 offer reduced/eliminated skin cancer risk from uncalibrated back-scatter machines?

39 posted on 01/18/2013 10:54:49 AM PST by grobdriver (Sic semper tyrannis!)
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To: grobdriver

Short answer is yes. Backscatter is X-Ray and some in the medical field claim that any X-Ray energy represents risk, even though we all get X-Rays at the doctors’ and the dentist. This just adds to that mix.

L3 system operates in a different band on the spectrum and I haven’t heard any of the smart guys say that they had any safety concerns. I am not an expert, but the experts that I have talked to haven’t expressed concerns.

I travel frequently and have metal knees. I avoid the magnetometer whenever I can and pick the L3 whenever I can. I do go through the Rapidscan when I have to. (KC only has Rapidscan, so I use that outbound. Most return trips I can use a L3 machine.

The Rapidscan machine is the flat panel that you turn and face. The L3 machine is the one where you stand in a cylinder and the scanner revolves around you.


40 posted on 01/18/2013 11:03:31 AM PST by centurion316
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