Posted on 07/21/2011 10:45:15 AM PDT by 92nina
...Most notably, the announcement by TSA comes just five days after a Federal Court of Appeals ruling that the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act and must work through a public comment and rulemaking period, something the agency failed to undertake before placing scanners at airports. The move by TSA is a likely attempt to head off a period of media attention and strong public opposition to individual-specific images surrounding the comment proceedings.
The case, brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), also centered on whether TSA scanners violated the Fourth Amendment and other federal statutes. However, such claims were largely dismissed. The court ruled the screenings constitute an "administrative search," permissible under the Fourth Amendment to "protect the public from a terrorist attack." However, another challenge that scanners violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act were dismissed only for lack of standing. This could leave room for future court challenges, yet the TSA's switch to generic imaging may diminish the success of a petition.
Whether motivated by federal court ruling, public backlash, or a genuine desire to upgrade technology against invasive imaging, the switch is a win for passengers everywhere. A special thanks to EPIC for bringing the case.
(Excerpt) Read more at digitalliberty.net ...
Take this article and others I found to the fight to the Libs on their own turf; put the Left on the defensive at at Digg and at Reddit and in Stumbleupon and Delicious
So now they won’t see the cancer chunks hanging off your skin that these machines produced?
I don’t buy it.
A year ago, they had this same story in the media.....how “stick figures” will be seen at the checkpoint, and no TSA in the back room looking at naked images, blah blah blah.
This issue is being discussed at www.flyertalk.com. Under the Travel/Dining heading, there is a security thread.
Frequent flyers there claim that such stick-figure software IS possible for the millimeter wave scanners, but not for the Rapidscan backscatters which are basically an electronic strip search.
Many flyers complain of being patted down and groped even AFTER they go through these machines; I hear nothing about this disgusting practice being rolled back. And what about the cancer risk?
More cover-your-butt phony PR from TSA.
I went thru Orlando IA last Saturday morning. Gentlemen behind me was dressed in a business suit, clean-cut young guy about 25 to 30 years old. Black man, very Sidney Poitier type features, my first thought was ‘Nigerian’ looking. Completely harmless, possibly the nicest guy in the world. Two little girls ahead of me in the line looked to be about 5 and 7 years old, traveling with their parents (I suppose), wheeling their little Cinderella suitcases behind them. For these girls to be put thru the same ‘security’ measures as this guy – or same measures as me for that matter – is beyond moronic.
Who is behind the EPIC? This could possibly be another one of obama’s attempts to tamp down as many of the “irritants” among the populous as possible before the elections of 2012. Lull America to sleep again and get re-elected. Then watch all of it come back with a vengeance if he wins. He will finish the job of destroying the U.S.
Guess they’re putting pasties on the scanners.
I’m with you. I want to know what if any radiation is coming out of those machines and why the pat downs are so frequent. I’m not buying it either.
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