So that was real the reason for the Xmas bomber. OSI probably hired him just for the occasion.

"using funds from last year's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus."

and these machines will stimulate precisely what?

maybe we should board planes naked...it will be much easier and simpler.

"To win popular acceptance, TSA officials also set the machines to quickly discard the images rather than store them, and placed guards out of sight of passengers so they cannot tell who they are screening."

Yeah, I am so relieved because we trust them at their word, right? NO. Funny how often I was "randomly selected" back when I was flying around to/from AK. Am I male? young? person of (any) color? out-spoken? differently-dressed? uncooperative? NO.

I already didn't like flying anymore which is sad because it used to be fun and exciting and stuff. Now it's ridiculous - the last I heard they seldom catch the actual weapons smuggled through security during tests of the system. If the PTB were adept at this fascistic repressive nascent security state thing, they would have sent a patsy or a faux armed 'terrorist' to be 'caught', and then the flying public would think, 'Oh! it's really keeping us safe!' :P

So a bunch of voyeurs hide in another room and "randomly" select a lot of cute young women while they let the old fat men pass right on through.

Sounds like Amerikkka to me.

Oh, and by the way--who are the financial beneficiaries of this bit fascist technology?

"Three to be activated on Monday at Boston's Logan International Airport will be the first of 150 the U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials hope to deploy in the next few months..." This and other parts of the article seem to imply that full-body screening machines are not already in use, but according to CNN* today, "Forty body-imaging machines already have been put into use at 19 airports nationwide as part of a field test, according the Department of Homeland Security." Also, the "150" does not comport with the CNN piece: "The Transportation Security Administration expects to deploy 450 units by the end of this year."

I'm against even one full-body screen, but we do need to know exactly what's going on.

* http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/03/05/body.scanners.airports/?hpt=T2

Coming to an airport near you. Feel safe yet?

http://www.suspectdetection.com/about.html

I think the real invasion of privacy is to have unnecessary X-rays passed through one's body. I would like to hear from epidemiologists an estimate of how many people will develop cancer 20 or 30 years from now because of the extra X-ray exposure.

>>>>>U.S. congressional leaders called for more full-body imaging after a Nigerian man was charged with trying to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner on Christmas Day using explosives smuggled onboard in his underwear.<<<<<<

Not mentioned: these scanners would not have detected the underwear bomber's bomb. Low density plastic explosives would not even be as visible as, for example, an elastic waistband. They are spending hundreds of millions to develop new, even more expensive machines to replace these machines that have already sucked up billions to develop and deploy. The new machines are only experimental and not to scale at this point, but I'm sure we'll buy them when they are ready.

Somebody asked who profits: Remember Michael Chertoff had been recommending them but then it turned out he was hawking them for his clients.

Seriously, why can't people just take off their clothes for a minute before they get on board? I guess I'm a hippie but I'd rather pay less for my ticket and create jobs building wind turbines than pay for this obsolete technology. If people are so prudish, we could divide into two lines at the gate, boys in one, girls in the other, and put our clothes thru the carry on scanners, which can be used to detect plastic explosives at a much lower cost.

Of course it's a sin to fly anyway considering the atmosphere so if these scanners keep people at home they may be worth the money after all.

The real reason for this nonsense is to let the populace know, up close and personal, that the "authorities" have complete control over you. Your privacy, your sense of dignity and pride are stripped away.

This will make you a more docile citizen. If you object, you get marked in a database.

This is 1984, updated 25 years, with modern technology.

All this...just by tapping into the vast sea of unknowing, unwarranted fear out there.

The British security experts have already tested out these machines, and they don't work. They won't make anybody safer, but travelers such as that one Dutchman who stopped that bombing will. That has nothing to do with some high tech this or that. It has to do with low tech, guts and the willingness to put the body on the line for others. These machines are all about making a pile of money for a gang of rip off, con artists. That's all they will do besides violate people's privacy and maybe endanger people's health as the Spanish and German governments are already saying.

AD

Your or should I say your grandchildren's tax dollars at work. More American paranoia. Just what the world needs. The country is being run by mentally unstable people.

Have you noticed recently (like in the last 20-30 years) the only news about air travel is bad news. Crashes, hijackings, attempted suicide missions, increased prices, decreased service, longer delays, reduction in service, overbooking, etc.?

Were someone to set out to kill the idea of air travel in the mind of the public they couldn't have made a more thorough or convincing case. On balance this is probably a good thing since jet aircraft are tremendous wasters of fossil fuels, there are other less costly means to get from point a to point b, and (at least for business anyway)there are other ways to do what formerly had required air travel to accomplish.

Like with the postal service, it feels like the end of an era or epoch and probably not any too soon.

Poet

And make Michael Chertoff a boat load of money since he runs one of the companies that makes the machines.

I support full body scans and cavity searches. However, I must wonder, from time to time, why a country that has no problem knowing when and where you used your cell-phone last night, who you called, and what you said, can't seem to figure out where trillions of American dollars are being 'invested' in Swiss bank accounts and offshore hedge funds. 'Gosh, that's so difficult' they tell us, as they clap the handcuffs on and close the jail cell door.

The little guy is going to jail for tax evasion.

The big guy is going to run for governor of California for the same crime (check out Bill Simon if you don't believe me).

When I have an x-ray at a hospital or Dr.'s office, the technician sets up the shot, then retires behind a shielded wall to limit exposure.

Now every American will, eventually, be subjected to such x-ray scans when entering or leaving government buildings, possibly banks, air ports, crossing the border, etc.

Remember, radiation effects are cumulative, even x-rays. Frequent fliers are really asking for it. Someone that commutes by air, say from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Two full body scans per day, five days a week. I think NOT!

Ahhnuld Schwarzenegger featured this kind of pervasive, intrusive personal scanning in a movie some years back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CX9Agzeh-c

I guess we can say that the PTB have been working very hard to make many of Arnie's films a reality.

Came across the following advice:

Please Take The Following Security Measures

Act as if you know where you are going even if you don't know.

Be as unpredictable as you can be.

For instance: Don't go to your favorite restaurant every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Determine your route in advance.

Always keep distance between yourself and others.

Travel on main, well-lighted roads.

Don't talk to strangers.

Always lock your doors.

Don't keep a key to your apartment or home under the door mat,
or under a potted plant on the front steps.

Don't keep all of your money in one place.

If you think you are being followed, immediately beat a path to public space.

Walk erect and briskly; be alert at all times.

Dress in camouflage.

Report anything unusual or abnormal.

Always remember: You may be a target, even without your knowledge,
simply because of your nationality, ethnicity, political beliefs,
religion, or sexual orientation.

It is always safer to drive close to the center of the road.

Don't accept food from strangers.

Be careful whom you trust.

When going to disease-infested areas, be sure in advance
to get proper pillsand inoculations.

Wear a condom.

Better yet: Don't have sex, especially with strangers.

At night, walk in well-lit areas.

Better still: Don't walk at all.

Drive in heavily armored vehicles.

Install high concrete barriers or walls around your communities to keep out
those who hate you. Call them gates or fences.

If you think you might be attacked, strike first without pausing to assess
whether the threat is real or imagined.

The time it takes to think might cost you your life.

Remember: No place is safe yet some places are safer than others;
you may not be able to determine which is which.

If you know where you are going to die
stay away from that place

a day en fascist amerika....

Full body scanners are x-ray machines. They cause cancer. They cause people's deaths.

Oh, and they should charge co-pays at the airport.

I would rather get to the front of the line, then take off every stitch of my clothes for the TSA to ogle me. Of course, I'm a guy and I happen to have little shame.

----

Alternatively, a protester might allow his/herself to be scanned, but with an alluring bondage costume under his/her clothes. If they're going to see naked bodies all day they might as well get all excited about their work.

So, ummm, what country actually manufactures these machines? Please tell me that it's
not in China. After the hacking of Google and others, ( wasn't that from Chinese
government people?) Are these awful things made in the USA? If you insist on robbing people of their dignity, at least give Americans some jobs out of it.

I don't like the idea of countries like China manufacturing our computers, so please, don't let them be manufacturing these. Hey repubs, shouldn't this be a national security issue? Can we get our jobs back that way?

On the other hand, if these things morph into other uses, then you'll have a whole lot more viewers on C-Span. Congress, you'll really have no where to hide! Of course, it could do wonders for the undergarment industry. Victoria's secret, unplugged!

Oh yeah, Apple, don't even THINK about adding this" TRU VIEW " feature to one of your apps.

And you will still get the possibility of a further gate grope after the Nude-O-Scope.

Did anyone hear about the testing of drinks airside with litmus paper? Or the 4 goons who observe passengers boarding - it's called a staredown.

I don't think I could manage that last one without howling with laughter.

Jet airplanes consume five times the fuel as equivalent speed rail transport. This is simply due to the cost of taking a jet to high altitude. They can't fly at low altitude for various reasons.

The fascist pigs are delighted at the extra fuel consumption. They had to promote air travel over rail, because they were "obligated by law" to serve the petro-fuel shareholder interests.

Every major choice is made in the "Good ol USA" to better serve the shareholder interests. So travel by air, not rail, and be thankful you get to ride above the clouds.

Now this show must go on, so the fight with brown people must commence to fuel the show with the fossil resources under their ancestral lands. The brown people should give up their ancestral lands to the whiteys, like the Native Americans gave up theirs.

Imperial Blowback ensues. But of course the show must go, as a "legal obligation" to shareholder interests, so, no more privacy for the consumption slaves! Get naked in front of Big Brother, for love of country!!!

I thought the name of the company was rather instructive, especially if you pronounce the first 'a' with a long 'a' sound:
Rapiscan

Then if you just change the 'n' to 'm', I think you get a really clear picture of what is really going on.

We should develop the "Clockwork Orange" drug where the sceener would get nauseous when thinking sexual thoughts.

If the machine blacks out the private areas, how would we catch the underwear bomber?

Screeners should complete a thousand hours of viewing nude pictures of average people with blacked out faces in normal or non-sexual poses. The too much chocolate syndrome.

Can we have a radiologist check our scans for different forms of cancer. Part of Obama's health plan?

Hire nudists who have seen far too many other nudists. If you have been to a nudist beach, you have been exposed to way too many overweight and out of shape americans.

Acutally, the more I think about this job, the more I get revolted. The whole system will collapse when screeners have become repulsed by faceless, genitaless scans. The scans will become worthless as no one will be paying attention. It's just another profit center for OSI.

While millions of Americans worry whether they can survive the economic disaster that has struck them why do you fart around with an infinitesimal issue for them such as airport security?

The American public is duped again! How often does it have to occur before someone gets a clue? One Nigerian does something very foolish and all of a sudden the American public are electronically stripped of not only their clothes but their self respect. What a crock! Do you think the government will ever get a clue? I have my doubts. The only way to stop terrorism is to stop killing people in the Middle East and stop interfering in their countries. That is the only way, like it or not.