A TSA Scanner in Every Neighborhood
Is this van photographing you naked?
The American people are outraged over the TSA’s new guidelines for airport security. Commentators have jokingly summarized travelers’ options as: porn machine or groping? However, the same body-baring technology may be rolling around their neighborhoods at this time, covertly scanning them on the sidewalks or within the sanctuary of their homes, all without a warrant.
Forbes reported in August about Z Backscatter Vans (ZBVs), vehicles that look like normal vans but are equipped with backscatter X-ray scanners attached. They can scan a vehicle in 15 seconds and X-ray anything within a 1,500 foot radius. A Massachusetts-based company has sold more than 500 of these vehicles to a variety of domestic, foreign, and international governments; law enforcement agencies; and private individuals. The use of these vans is unreported, largely unregulated, and all-but-impossible for innocent victims to detect.
American Science & Engineering (AS&E) has attempted to distinguish between ZBVs and the pornographic images produced by airport scanners, saying images produced by the vans are less revealing. But the company’s vice president of marketing, Joe Reiss, admitted the beams from these roving X-ray machines “to a large degree will penetrate clothing.” They can also see through “lightly constructed” buildings. Although TSA officials pretend their airport scanners do not save images, Reiss makes no pretense about the backscatter vans. “Sometimes customers need to save images for evidentiary reasons,” Reiss stated. “We do what our customers need.”
The idea of roving X-ray machines peeping through neighborhoods would be mildly less disturbing if we had a greater idea of who their customers were. They are apparently available to anyone who can pay the $729,000 price tag.
And now… the rest of the story. ….. http://floydreports.com/a-tsa-scanner-in-every-neighborhood/
Harold
