statism watch

The people of Canada have the power to fight that plan. And it is vital that they do, because otherwise, they may as well just tear up Section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms – the bit that protects you against unreasonable search and seizure. This journal is pretty certain this is a ‘must have’ piece of legislation for the Tories for multiple reasons relating to their agenda, but one motivating factor that never gets talked about is how it will also more closely align Canadian law with that of the EU, greasing the skids for the current free trade negotiations that are going on under the radar. See here and here for more on that.

Flashback: Tories revive random roadside breath test | Random breathalyzer tests considered for Canada | Secret juror background checks not illegal, prosecutor says | You Commit Three Felonies a Day | Police training to forcibly take blood in Texas, Idaho | US Supreme Court rules police can initiate suspect’s questioning if right to counsel waived | Cops can now ‘take all your stuff’ | Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Ottawa moves to toughen anti-gang laws | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | ‘Mens rea’ intention test questioned prior to Toronto 18 terror verdict | Tory ‘Guilty before proven innocent’ law to make debut in court | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Justice Critic Brands Street Racing Vehicle Seizure Law as “Police State-ism” | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | You Are a Suspect

The Windsor Star
March 16, 2010

It looks like the federal government will go through with a plan to force random roadside breath tests on Canadian drivers.

The Justice Department has posted a special committee discussion paper on its website outlining the “remarkable results” random testing has had in some of the 25 countries that now impose the practice. The idea is to draw people to the site and convince them that the benefits far outweigh the loss of their personal rights and freedoms.

The department is also asking for “public input” to gauge our national sentiment on the subject, but we believe that’s all for show. The Harper Conservatives already have their minds made up. They are intent upon scrapping the 40-year-old impaired driving legislation that says breathalyzer tests can be administered only if there’s a reasonable suspicion that someone is driving drunk.

They want to give police the power to pull people over at whim and demand they take a breathalyzer test. By law, individuals will not be able to refuse.

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It’s another insanely oppressive attack on your section 8 charter rights to freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, back from the dead. First floated last October and effectively quashed by the act of prorogation, these agenda items will keep coming back like the undead until Canadians capitulate or a regime more favourable to our natural rights is installed. But here’s the big picture. As this journal mentioned back in October, the reason why we’re seeing this, or continual reintroduction of DMCA or ACTA copyright legislation, is because it’s one tiny but important part of an agenda to ‘harmonize’ Canadian law with that of the EU as we drive towards a free trade pact. The HST tax (known in Europe as the VAT), restrictive copyright negotiations, industrial food advocacy and random roadside checkpoints are a part of EU law – not Canada’s. So why are the Tories forcing parts of that rulebook on Canadians – a sovereign nation with a Constitution that says this sort of thing just isn’t done – if not to grease the skids for economic and legal integration? We’ve all got the same body scanners now, the control grid is being manifest. So here’s a question to ponder, because it’s vital to the wider issue of whether it’s legitimate to be scanned and analyzed and prodded without reasonable suspicion you’ve already committed a crime – does the state grant its citizens rights, or does a state govern by the consent of its citizens? These are the two political worldviews typified by Machiavelli and Locke – choose wisely.

Related: Random breathalyzer tests considered for Canada | Secret juror background checks not illegal, prosecutor says | You Commit Three Felonies a Day | Police training to forcibly take blood in Texas, Idaho | US Supreme Court rules police can initiate suspect’s questioning if right to counsel waived | Cops can now ‘take all your stuff’ | Entrapment becoming standard procedure for police | UK: Government ‘using fear as a weapon to erode civil liberties’ | Ottawa moves to toughen anti-gang laws | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Ontario to place prosecutors in police stations | ‘Mens rea’ intention test questioned prior to Toronto 18 terror verdict | Tory ‘Guilty before proven innocent’ law to make debut in court | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Justice Critic Brands Street Racing Vehicle Seizure Law as “Police State-ism” | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | You Are a Suspect

Janice Tibbetts and Kenyon Wallace, National Post
March 11, 2010

Critics fear racial profiling

The Harper government appears ready to move ahead with imposing random roadside breath testing, which a new federal discussion paper says has produced “remarkable results” in catching drunk drivers in other countries.

The proposal has encountered skepticism, however, with civil liberties proponents warning that the new legislation could give police the power to detain drivers without reasonable grounds or suspicion.

“The reality is that it creates a bit of a police-state mentality in which an innocent person can be subjected to a whole host of testings,” said Edward Prutschi, a Toronto criminal lawyer.

“One’s going to have to put an awful lot of faith in the typical officer on the road because they are going to be given a dramatically expanded discretion — basically absolute carte blanche — to stop anyone, anywhere, anytime and demand breath alcohol testing.”

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Flashback: Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

David Kravets, Wired.com
March 5, 2010

Transportation officials announced Friday 11 more United States airports will begin receiving full-body imaging machines

“By accelerating the deployment of this technology, we are enhancing our capability to detect and disrupt threats of terrorism across the nation,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement.

Despite concerns of privacy and their effectiveness, the 11 airports are to get the 150 machines beginning Monday at Boston’s Logan International Airport, and one at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago. In all, 30 U.S. airports will employ the scanning devices.

Fliers declining to submit to the machines that create X-ray-like virtual images of the body may get intense pat-downs from Transportation Security Administration authorities. The combined 150 imaging machines are being bought, in part, by $1 billion the government set aside from its $787 billion federal bailout bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union has decried the scanners as “virtual strip searchs.” The Electronic Privacy Information Center, in a Freedom of Information Act request, said the machines are capable of storing and transmitting images of passengers despite the government’s claim to the contrary.

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Would it not be a little redundant to point out that disturbing aspects of having police sitting there watching people on the TTC? What next, sub machine guns? They already have those in New York, and have for over a year as of this writing.  But of course, this will begin in marginalized communities first, so those who live downtown TO will be able to safely deny and rationalize. For now.

Flashback: USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TTC officers won’t carry Tasers, guns | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | TTC studies using Tasers | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Privacy issues surround planned TTC cameras | Photo surveillance on Toronto Transit System aims to snap every user

Natalie Alcoba, The National Post
March 4, 2010

If Toronto’s operating budget is approved, you’ll be seeing more police roaming buses and subways. Toronto police say there is a plan to replace a significant portion of the TTC’s security complement with 42 officers. There are already 40 police officers on transit. The information is detailed in a report that is before the Police Services Board next week, as it continues to fight for more funding from the city.

Toronto Police Service has a uniform strength of 5500 officers. Its 2010 net operating budget is $37-million more than last year – and brass say that’s largely due to an arbitrated salary settlement that they cannot control. City staff are asking police to cut $5.9-million off their $892-million net operating budget.

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You know your new driver’s license? That’s part of the international biometric-enabled control grid you will not be told about until it’s already in place. That’s right – this isn’t just for brown people travelling from the Middle East. It’s for you, too. So what are you going to do about it now that you know?

Flashback: Privacy commissioner OKs Barwatch software | US: REALID tracking chip ID card resurrected by PASS initiative | India to issue all 1.2 billion citizens with biometric ID cards | BC Bars swipe patron IDs, collect data | Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | Australian nightclub installs face-scanning security system | Alberta bars could collect names, photos under proposed bill | Let’s face it, soon Big Brother will have no trouble recognising you | Police will use new device to take fingerprints in street, vendors say face scanning next | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Billboards that look back | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Tokyo Vending Machines Learn New Trick: Facial Recognition | North American ID card in the works through SPP | Alberta privacy commission to rule on bar scans

CBC News
February 23, 2010

Australia plans to fingerprint and face-scan visitors from 10 high-risk countries, say government officials.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the plan on Tuesday as he released a government white paper compiled by intelligence agencies. The paper said Islamist radicals born or raised in Australia represent a permanent and increased threat to the country.

Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith echoed the Prime Minister’s comments. He said the white paper shows that the threat from al-Qaeda is evolving, and Australia must also be aware of threats from “homegrown” terrorists.

“We have to be very careful to watch that in Australia,” he said.

An Australian court handed out heavy jail sentences last week to five Australians of Lebanese, Libyan and Bangladeshi origin for conspiring to commit an act, or acts, in preparation for a terrorist act between July 2004 and November 2005. They had gathered weapons and planned to attack an unknown target.

Smith would not say which countries will be included in the list, but applicants from those nations will have to submit their fingerprints and photos to be cross-checked against databases of known criminals and terrorists.

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Flashback: Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Illegal Victoria Transit bag searches reinstated under new policy for Canada Day | Toronto police ready to take over transit patrols | Drug-sniffing dog plan for BC SkyTrain unconstitutional: legal critics | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | American Rail Passengers Subject to Random Searches, Police Presence | Greyhound bus passengers now subject to arbitrary luggage searches | Edmonton bus terminal ‘wide open’, security needed: ex-security guard | RCMP conducts random search and seizure on Canada Day | TTC officers won’t carry Tasers, guns | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway | TTC studies using Tasers | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Privacy issues surround planned TTC cameras | Photo surveillance on Toronto Transit System aims to snap every user

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
February 18, 2010

Guilty until proven innocent: Unconstitutional searches, pat-downs, sniffer dogs arrive at bus depots

Tampa police, TSA and Homeland Security agents are teaming up “to keep your family safe,” according to ABC News, by implementing random searches at bus depots, in yet another example of how airport tyranny is being rolled out onto the streets.

“Bomb sniffing dogs, pat-downs and metal detector wanding, gloved inspections of hand-held bags” are all now going to become a routine part of everyday life as the Fourth Amendment is completely trashed in the name of “security”.

Of course, bus bombings are non-existent in America, but that won’t stop federal authorities turning U.S. cities into downtown Beirut, with every shopping mall, transport hub and public building patrolled by TSA thugs who are caught abusing their power on an almost daily basis with nightmare stories of them harassing disabled children, old people and other regular Americans trying in vain to innocently go about their business.

“And so passengers ready to head toward Orlando, Jacksonville and points north had to go through a series of checks…a K-9 officer from the Tampa Airport Police department gave the bus his special “sniff test” in the baggage compartment. This is all a part of VIPR, which stands for Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response,” according to the report.

As was announced way back in 2005, VIPR teams now patrol Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and Los Angeles rail lines; ferries in Washington state; bus stations in Houston; and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore, “expanding their work beyond airplanes, launching counterterror surveillance at train stations and other mass transit facilities.”

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The hoax of the benign body scanner has been entirely exploded now. These machines need to be banned, and they need to throw the book at Michael Chertoff for corruption. Want to know how that will happen? It’s up to you, the reader, to get this information out.

Flashback: Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
February 9, 2010

Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.

UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said last week that the images produced by the scanners were deleted “immediately” and airport staff carrying out the procedure are fully trained and supervised.

“It is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner,” Adonis told the London Evening Standard.

Adonis was forced to address privacy concerns following reports that the images produced by the scanners broke child pornography laws in the UK. When the scanners were first introduced, it was also speculated that images of famous people would be ripe for abuse as the pictures produced by the devices make genitals “eerily visible” according to journalists who have investigated trials of the technology.

However, the Transport Secretary’s assurances were demolished after it was revealed on the BBC’s Jonathan Ross show Friday that Indian actor Shahrukh Khan had passed through a body scan and later had the image of his naked body printed out and circulated by Heathrow security staff.

“I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed – if you’re not well endowed,” said Khan, referring to how the scans produce clear images of a person’s genitals.

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Additionally, A Los Alamos lab study suggested that the frequency at which the radiation is emitted from the scanners could directly damage the integrity of DNA.

Flashback: UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
February 5, 2010

Children and pregnant women should not be subject to scan says influential body

An influential international radiation safety organization has warned that the naked body scanners currently being rolled out in airports across the world increase the risk of cancer and birth defects and should not be used on pregnant women or children.

Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.

Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”

“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reports Bloomberg.

Despite the fact that the level of radiation the passenger is exposed to is relatively low, repeated exposure for frequent flyers would undoubtedly increase cancer risks.

The report issued by the IACRS encompasses the work of the European Commission, International Atomic Energy Agency, Nuclear Energy Agency and the World Health Organization.

As we have highlighted, not only do the body scanners pose health risks but they also violate the fundamental human right of the innocent to be protected against strip-searches.

Despite official denials that the images produced by the devices show details of genitalia, journalists who have investigated trials of the technology have reported that details of sexual organs are “eerily visible”.

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No right to refuse the probable cancer causing Terahertz radiation beam, that should read. Well, it’s to be expected given that airline passengers have no rights left in general. And, incidentally, it has been exposed as a lie that the machines can’t save or transmit your nudie pics. All that requires is a configuration change. And it’s baldly admitted below that the machines can’t detect liquid explosives (or bomb parts, incidentally) – they never would have prevented the crotch bomber, which was the pretext for getting them installed in the first place! This article is a tissue of lies. So – the naked body scanners are useless, dangerous, and we’re being herded through them why again precisely? People have to start revolting, boycotting these airlines.

Flashback: Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Alan Travis and Dan Milmo, The Guardian
January 26, 2010

Ministers ignore human rights advice and rule out option of pat-down search when scanner goes on trial at Heathrow next week

Airline passengers will have no right to refuse to go through a full-body search scanner when the devices are introduced at Heathrow airport next week, ministers have confirmed.

The option of having a full-body pat-down search instead, offered to passengers at US airports, will not be available despite warnings from the government’s Equality and Human Rights Commission that the scanners, which reveal naked bodies, breach privacy rules under the Human Rights Act.

The transport minister Paul Clark told MPs a random selection of passengers would go through the new scanners at UK airports. The machines’ introduction would be followed later this year by extra “trace” scanners, which can detect liquid explosives. A draft code of practice covering privacy and health issues is being discussed in Whitehall.

Clark dealt with concerns raised by the Commons home affairs select committee about the ability of airports abroad to upgrade their security to similar levels by indicating that extra support and help was under discussion.

Lord West, the counter-terrorism minister, told the MPs the government had firmly ruled out the introduction of “religious or ethnic profiling” into transport security. Instead, he said, airport security staff were being trained in “behavioural profiling”, which meant spotting passengers who had paid cash, were travelling with only a book for luggage on a long-haul flight or were behaving erratically at the airport.

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Flashback: Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Rik Myslewski, TheRegister.co.uk
January 24, 2010

Todger, yes. Combustibles, no

Most of the uproar over full-body scanners has focused on privacy concerns. There’s one larger question, however, that hasn’t received much scrutiny by the chattering classes: do the damnable things work?

One German TV station says “Nein.”

By way of Americablog comes a video of a man easily concealing the makings of high-temperature combustibles in a manner that evaded a full-body scanner. As the blogger writes: “Even if you don’t understand German, it’s easy enough to follow how this physicist beat the system.”

First the World’s Ugliest Man forced us all to remove our shoes when going through airport security. Now the Nigerian crotchbomber has upped the ante, forcing us to leave our dignity at home.

And for what? So that few hundred million taxpayer dollars can be spent slowing our boarding even longer while producing images that some of the more-squeamish members of the public have likened to child porn and which can’t detect bomb ingredients?

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