Before there were full-body scanners, there were puffers. The Transportation Security Administration spent about $30 million on devices that puffed air on travelers to “sniff” them out for explosives residue. Those machines ended up in warehouses, removed from airports, abandoned as impractical.
The massive push to fix airport security in the United States after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, led to a gold rush in technology contracts for an industry that mushroomed almost overnight. Since it was founded in 2001, the TSA has spent roughly $14 billion in more than 20,900 transactions with dozens of contractors.
In addition to beefing up the fleets of X-ray machines and traditional security systems at airports nationwide, about $8 billion also paid for ambitious new technologies. The agency has spent about $800 million on devices to screen bags and passenger items, including shoes, bottled liquids, casts and prostheses. For next year, it wants more than $1.3 billion for airport screening technologies.
But lawmakers, auditors and national security experts question whether the government is too quick to embrace technology as a solution for basic security problems and whether the TSA has been too eager to write checks for unproven products.
Time for a collective ‘Duh!”
#17, I don’t think X-rays putting people out of work is the issue here.
Wasted money? Good grief, no. The war against terrorism proceeds …
“Toledo Express Airport in Ohio is the newest recipient of some fancy holiday largess: This week it was announced that the regional airport, boasting five departing flights per day, will receive a full-body scanner.”
http://wtol.com/Global/story.asp?S=13685331
Useless technology, these backscatter devices. More theater. “Even if exposure were to be increased significantly, normal anatomy would make a dangerous amount of plastic explosive with tapered edges difficult if not impossible to detect.” (Journal of Transportation Security
DOI: 10.1007/s12198-010-0059-7)
http://springerlink.com/content/g6620thk08679160/
How long before we stop throwing money at the problem and do what needs to be done: profiling. Profiling is a normal part of everyday life. We may not like it but we do it. In some cases, it’s important. If I see a patient who has nicotine stains on his fingers, reeks of tobacco smoke and has a pack of Chesterfields in his shirt sleeve,then I start to think of tobacco-related syndromes. Doesn’t mean I forget everything else, but it saves time and is so often right.
Scan my carryon for a handgun. OK. Walk me through a metal detector and see if I’m carrying a hunting knife. OK. It won’t help. If I’m determined, the gun will be dismantled into pieces that don’t look like a gun. My knife will be ceramic. And now my PETN will have tapered edges.
Good grief. Look in my eyes, talk to me for 30 seconds, look at my travel patterns. PROFILE ME!!!
#23
Don’t worry, I’m sure someone is now.
Profiling is the only method that works, but if the TSA switched to profiling, everyone on here would be bitching about it, whether it be because of one little discretion occurring ages ago in their lives that causes a problem, or the fact they look a little too much on the ethnically suspicious side, or for whatever reason. And don’t forget the ACLU is just waiting to pounce with thousands of lawsuits if profiling is ever used as airport security. That alone will assure that profiling is never used in this country, despite its success everywhere else.
Start a scare about the X-Ray machines and testicular cancer. That should slow the line down.
Were not Luddites, we’re anti-waste; this system is a waste.
Scrap it and start with a sensible one; crowd source it to get as much input, some of which is bound to be good, and stop hiring people who should be wearing ‘Do Rags’ and putting them in a position where they do damage to the traveling public and the airlines.
#26 – How about two lines – profile and no profile?
I’d bet the profile line moves faster and the body scan line will continue to not find anything.
I think the TSA is just shy.
They don’t find it comfortable to just speak with travelers to ascertain their threat or not.
Of course, now with free genital feel-ups, maybe the TSA can hire some extroverts.
I heard the TSA is now training turd tasters in preparation for the next level of checks.
Unfortunately nothing will change though. Big business will still sell the stuff to the Government and then use “Terrorism” as a reason for funding.
Yes, Terrorists do exist but the word is used far too often these days. And especially when someone wants funding for something.