Russia Today points out an important detail being left out of most mainstream media reports about the new body scanning devices being rolled out in airports everywhere: former Department of Homeland Security Chief, Michael Chertoff, who has been advocating this technology on any news program that will have him is personally profiting from their implementation. As a Security Consultant and Chairman of the Chertoff Group, one of his main clients is Rapiscan, a manufacturer of these devices.
Last year, the Department of Homeland Security awarded contracts of US$160 million each to two manufacturers of these back-scattering devices, one which which was Rapiscan.
Beyond the issue of Chertoff’s illegal advertising his product on news programs by pretending to be a public servant, there is some debate about the safety of these new Back-scatter X-Ray Body Scanning devices. One former intelligence agent and present-day security consultant, Wayne Simmons appeared on Andrew Napolitano’s “Liberty Pen” and said that while the device is an excellent tool, “There is no dose of backscatter ionizing radiation that has ever been proven safe,” and that he would prefer to see only passengers who are deemed to be suspicious going through these devices, with the bulk going through the metal detectors, with which we’ve all become accustomed.
Recently, passenger John Tyner was singled out to go through one of these machines but chose to “opt out,” which meant he’d be subjected to the TSA’s new irrationally invasive pat-down method. As he was barefoot and taken aside by the TSA worker he turned on his cellphone camera and said: “If you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested.” Tyner then uploaded the video to his YouTube account and he became a instant hero as it went viral.
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