X-Ray Vans on US streets

It is time for tin-foil hats … and (tin-foil) whole-body uniforms.

• “Security Theater Creep: Full Strength X-Ray Body Scanners coming to Airports” by Steve Watson (Prisonplanet.com; 201.03.02)- http://imperialtwilight.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/security-theater-creep-full-strength-x-ray-body-scanners-coming-to-airports/
• “Mobile X-Ray Anti-Terrorist Van Disturbs Privacy Advocates” by Charles Tate (Internetbits; 2010.10.04) – http://www.internetbits.com/mobile-x-ray-anti-terrorist-van-disturbs-privacy-advocates/54175/
• “Full-Body Scan Technology Deployed In Street-Roving Vans” by Andy Greenberg (Forbes; 2010.08.24) – http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2010/08/24/full-body-scan-technology-deployed-in-street-roving-vans/
  

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Related here: “Surveillance, wiretapping, tracking, etc.” – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/surveilance-wiretapping-etc/.

TSA folies

• Association for Airline Passenger Rights’ (AAPR) – http://www.flyfriendlyskies.com/
• 2001.03.15: “TSA Admits Bungling of Airport Body-Scanner Radiation Tests” by David Kravets (Wired; 2011.03.15) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/tsa-radiation-test-bungling/ – the radiation is either 10 times larger or 10 times smaller than the previously stated levels.
• “X-ray Screening Technology Safety Reports” (TSA; documents disclosed due to FOIA requests) – http://www.tsa.gov/research/reading/xray_screening_technology_safety_reports.shtm
• 2011.01.24: If you assert your right to decline being irradiated by them; they force you march though the machine anyhow; promising “Oh we won’t turn it on…”
• 2011.01.02 – Tom Toles cartoon at http://www.gocomics.com/tomtoles/2011/01/02/:

Government sanctioned groping

• “Felt up or blown up? The psychology of the TSA, body scans and risk perception” by David Ropeik (Scientific American; 2010.11.23) – http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=tsa-body-scans-and-risk-perception-2010-11-23
• “Call the TSA’s Office of Strategic Comms when you’re threatened with arrest for airport photography” by Cory Doctorow (BoingBoing; 2010.11.23) – http://www.boingboing.net/2010/11/23/call-the-tsas-office.html
  • TSA’s Office of Strategic Communications: (571)227-2829.
  • TSA Office of Civil Rights: (571)227-1917.
• “San Diego Airport Says Recording TSA Gropings Is An Arrestible Offense?” (TechDirt; 2010.11.23) – http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101122/16092011976/san-diego-airport-says-recording-tsa-gropings-is-arrestible-offense.shtml
• “Debate: Do Body Scanners Make Us Safer?” (NY Times; 2010.11.23) – http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/11/22/do-body-scanners-make-us-safer
• “TSA Abuses, Dental X-Rays, Children — and How to Lie About Radiation” by Lauren Weinstein (2010.11.23) – http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000784.html

  • … But while trying to get to sleep last night, thinking about this horrendous TSA mess along its various vectors — everything from the Bush DHS head who pushed body scanners and then went to work for the manufacturer, to the useless TSA groping, to the arguments about radiation levels — I suddenly thought about a rather horrifying article in today’s New York Times that I read last night: “The Radiation Boom”: “Radiation Worries for Children in Dentists’ Chairs.” …
  • … The companies that manufacture such equipment have everyone by the proverbial balls — including the government which seems to have a historically duplicitous attitude toward such systems — just think of all the blatant “safety” lies told to the public in the name of national security related to nuclear weapons tests and manufacturing-related radiation contaminations of people and property historically.
  • And to make matters worse, typically it’s impossible to prove whether any given radiation exposure directly related to cancers down the line. It can take years or decades for these to develop, and nobody is really keeping track of radiation dosage levels for anyone who isn’t a medical or nuclear worker — and even for them it’s only tracked to some degree within their work environments.
  • Put this all together, and think about all of those backscatter x-ray units in airport terminals, being operated as if they were popcorn machines by — frankly — unskilled personnel.
  • TSA is begging people not to refuse to go through the x-ray units. Their argument lately appears to be more about not disrupting air travel than about catching terrorists (TSA now apparently considers the information about whether their x-ray units and groping procedures have ever actually stopped a terrorist to be a state secret!)
  • Here’s my bottom line opinion on all this. You may not like it: Given the current state of information, research, and “validation,” if you voluntarily go through those x-ray backscatter units, you are approximating the behavior of a fool. It’s your choice, of course. But if you allow your young children to go through the units, you are, I believe, worse than a fool.

• “Terrorist Triumph” by Yaakov Kirschen (“PA Pundits – International” blog; 2010.11.23) – http://papundits.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/terrorist-triumph/
• “It’s Muslim Terrorists, Stupid, Not Americans!” by Alan Caruba (“PA Pundits – International” blog; 2010.11.23) – http://papundits.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/its-muslim-terrorists-stupid-not-americans/
• Janetalia (Warning Signs blog; 2010.11.23) – http://factsnotfantasy.blogspot.com/
  
• “Untold Stories of the TSA Abuses of Power” (“The Word of Me…” blog; 2010.11.22) – http://thewordofme.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/untold-stories-of-the-tsa-abuse-of-power/
  … In March of this year a developmentally delayed 4 year old boy who had to wear leg braces because his ankles were malformed and weak because of a premature birth, was on his way to Disney World for his birthday celebration.
  The braces the boy has to wear are made of metal and hard plastic…of course this sets off the airport scanners in Philadelphia and the SS TSA screener said the boy had to take the braces off and he had to walk without them…
• “TSA Sexual Abuses and the Long Shadow of Abu Ghraib” (Kittywampus blog; 2010.11.22) – http://kittywampus.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/tsa-sexual-abuses-and-the-long-shadow-of-abu-ghraib/
  • Am I the only person struck by the Orwellian weirdness of calling a grope-down an “enhanced” pat-down? The term seems to originate with the TSA. …
  • “Enhanced Pat-downs” by “Blogger Bob” (TSA blog; 2010.08.27) – http://blog.tsa.gov/2010/08/enhanced-pat-downs.html
• “ABC producer says TSA agent felt inside her underwear” by David Edwards (RawStory; 2010.11.22) – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/abc-producer-tsa-patdown-worse-gynecologist/
• 2010.11.22: Shirtless boy:
  • “Utah man posts video of TSA searching shirtless boy” by Erin Alberty (The Salt Lake Tribune; 2010.11.22) – http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50725057-76/tait-tsa-video-shirt.html.csp
  • “Young boy gets pat down from TSA” (LA Times) – http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/wire/sns-viral-video-boy-strip-searched-tsa,0,7895580.htmlstory
• “TSA workers face verbal abuse from travelers ” (MSN; 2010.11.22) – http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/40318901/ns/travel-news/
• “US airport security chiefs stand firm over invasion of the body scanners” (Guardian; 2010.11.22) – http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/nov/22/american-protests-body-scanners-terrorism
• “Please Remove Your Prosthetic Breast: The TSA Horror Story to Trump Them All” by Steven James Snyder (Time.com; 2010.11.22) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/22/the-tsa-horror-story-to-trump-them-all/?iid=nfmostpopular
• Business Travel Coalition: National airport screening opt-out protests dangerous (2010.11.21) – http://www.eturbonews.com/19677/btc-national-airport-screening-opt-out-protests-dangerous
  • As expected, this guys are trying to protect their income. No surprise here.
• “Yes Hillary, It is called Profiling.” by notalemming (YourDaddy’s Politics blog; 2010.11.21) – http://notalemming.wordpress.com/2010/11/21/yes-hillary-it-is-called-profiling/
• “TSA screeners leave cancer survivor covered in urine” by Daniel Tencer (TheRawStory; 2010.11.20) – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/tsa-cancer-survivor-covered-urine/
  • “TSA Chief Apologizes to Airline Passenger Soaked in Urine After Pat-Down” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.11.23) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/sawyer/
• “TSA to exempt pilots from screenings, mulls ‘G-rated’ scanners” (TheRawStory; 2010.11.19) – http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/tsa-exempt-pilots-screenings/
• “Boycott Airport Full Body Scanners And Patdowns” (“The World of Me …” blog; 2010.11.19) – http://thewordofme.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/boycott-airport-full-body-scanners-and-patdowns/
  • YouTube video – http://www.youtube.com/v/X1vmcJVIErA
• Liberty Lost (The Berger Memoranda blog; 2010.11.19) – http://bergermemo.wordpress.com/2010/11/19/liberty-lost/
  http://bergermemo.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/tsa_patdown.jpg
• “Ron Paul says what I said: the airport groping and x-raying has to stop!” (Xanthippa’s Chamberpot blog; 2010.11.18) – http://blog.xanthippas.com/2010/11/18/ron-paul-says-what-i-said-the-airport-groping-and-x-raying-has-to-stop/
  • YouTube video – http://www.youtube.com/v/Qwsdq69AHnw
  • “Ron Paul Blasts TSA and Introduces Legislation” (Dvorak Uncensored; 2010.11.18) – http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/11/18/ron-paul-blasts-tsa-and-introduces-legislation/

  Published on November 18th, 2010

  • Update: MDs and scientists warn that the full body scanners are unsafe and were not properly tested – http://www.npr.org/assets/news/2010/05/17/concern.pdf [PDF]
• “Pat-Downs 101: Nine Things to Know About Your Thanksgiving Airport Screening” by Josh Sanburn (Time.com; 2010.11.17) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/17/pat-downs-101/
• “TSA Now Putting Hands Down Fliers’ Pants” by Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones (PrisonPlanet; 2010.11.16) – http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-now-putting-hands-down-fliers-pants.html
  The TSA’s invasive new screening measures include officers literally putting their hands down people’s pants if they are wearing baggy clothing in a shocking new elevation of groping procedures that have stoked a nationwide revolt against privacy-busting airport security measures….
• “100 Naked Citizens: 100 Leaked Body Scans” (Wired; 2010.11.16) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/giz-scans/
  … To the point, these sample images were removed from the machine in Orlando by the U.S. Marshals for distribution under the FOIA request before the machine was sent back to its manufacturer — images intact….
• “More on airport ‘security’ procedures” (Xanthippa’s Chamberpot blog; 2010.11.16) – http://blog.xanthippas.com/2010/11/16/more-on-airport-security-procedures/
• 2010.11.16: “Junk-gate”: A new specific incident where a passenger refused to be either radiated or groped:
  • “TSA Investigating ‘Don’t Touch My Junk’ Passenger” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.11.16) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/tsa-investigating-passenger/
    • … Due to privacy and health concerns, Tyner opted out of the scan in favor of a pat-down. But when the TSA agent explained in detail the agency’s new policy for “enhanced” pat-downs — which includes using the front of hands and fingers to touch passengers in their groins — Tyner balked….
      “If you touch my junk,” he told the agent, “I’ll have you arrested.”
      The agent called his supervisor, who told Tyner that if he wasn’t comfortable with the enhanced pat-down “we can escort you back out and you don’t have to fly today.”
      Tyner told the agent, “I don’t understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying.”
      When the agent replied that a pat-down was not considered a sexual assault, Tyner said, “It would be if you were not the government.”
      The TSA supervisor told him, “By buying your ticket you gave up a lot of rights.” …
  • Traveler to TSA Agent: “If you touch my junk, I’ll have you arrested.” [Video] (We Won’t Fly blog; 2010.11.16) – http://wewontfly.com/traveler-to-tsa-agent
  • California Man Tells TSA, Don’t ‘Touch My Junk’ – http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/tsa-encounter-dont-touch-my-junk/19716789
  • John Tyner Utters Those Immortal Words “Don’t Touch My Junk!” (Tasithoughts’s Weblog; 2010.11.16) – http://tasithoughts.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/john-tyner-utters-those-immortal-words-dont-touch-my-junk/
  • “TSA Cavity Search Goes Awry” by Karson & Kennedy (2010.11.16) – http://mix1041.radio.com/2010/11/16/tsa-cavity-search-goes-awry/
  • TSA encounter at SAN – http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-events-took-place-roughly-between.html
• Protest grows:
  • “TSA Rage Hitting All Age Demographics Now” (Time online; 2010.11.16) – http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/11/16/tsa-rage-hitting-all-age-demographics-now/
  • “Screening Protests Grow as Holiday Crunch Looms” by Joe Sharkey (The New Yourk Times; 2010.11.15) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/16/business/16road.html
  • “Opt-Out Day” campaign’s web site – http://www.optoutday.com/
  • Say “I Opt Out” of Airport Scanners on National Opt Out Day, November 24 (We Won’t Fly blog – http://wewontfly.com/) – http://wewontfly.com/opt-out-day/
  • “National Opt-Out Day Called Against Invasive Body Scanners” by Kim Zetter (Wired; 2010.11.12) – http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/11/national-opt-out/
  • “Body scanners, pat downs prompt traveler backlash” by Jonathan Adams (The Christian Science Monitor; 2010.11.16) – http://www.csmonitor.com/World/terrorism-security/2010/1116/Body-scanners-pat-downs-prompt-traveler-backlash
• “Welcome to Antfarm World — sociopathic modality at the airports” at the The Path Whisperer blog – http://pathwhisperer.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/welcome-to-antfarm-world-%E2%80%94-sociopathic-modality-at%C2%A0the%C2%A0airports/
• “TSA adopts neck-licking anti-terror screening; warns body cavity searches could follow on behind” – http://hogsatemysister.com/tsa-adopts-neck-licking-anti-terror-screening-warns-body-cavity-searches-could-follow-on-behind/ – a satire.
• Full Body Scans and Pat Downs. Violation or Safety? (“It is my Time to Shine’ blog; 2010.11.16) – http://itismytimetoshine.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/full-body-scans-and-pat-downs-violation-or-safety/
• Three year old girl searched by TSA cries, “Stop touching me!” (2010.11.16) – http://saynsumthn.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/three-year-old-girl-searched-by-tsa/
• A simple example of abuse by TSA:
  • Small penis jokes lead to TSA worker beatdown – http://celebrifi.com/gossip/Small-penis-jokes-lead-to-TSA-worker-beatdown-2508247.html | http://guyism.com/humor/small-penis-jokes-lead-to-tsa-worker-beatdown.html
  • “Rolando Negrin: TSA Worker Arrested, Assaulted Colleague Over Genital Joke” – http://law.rightpundits.com/?p=1566
• “Your choice: nude photos or sexual assault” (Xanthippa’s Chamberpot blog; 2010.11.09) – http://blog.xanthippas.com/2010/11/09/your-choice-nude-photos-or-sexual-assault/
  • YouTube video – http://www.youtube.com/v/5EqV2Rmkqaw
• “Airline Pilots Union Rejects use of Body Scanners for Health Reasons” (Dvorak Uncensored blog; 2010.11.08) – http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2010/11/08/airline-pilots-union-rejects-use-of-body-scanners-for-health-reasons/
• “Enhanced Airport Pat Downs (VIDEO) Get ‘Personal'” by Jim Brogan (the Post Chronicle; 2010.11.01) – http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212330260.shtml
  • “TSA to air travelers: ‘Enhanced pat-downs’ start Friday” by Katie Boer (KVAl.com; 2010.11.01) – http://www.kval.com/news/local/106156984.html
• “‘Enhanced’ airport security measures taking effect” (MarketWatch; 2001.01.04) – http://www.marketwatch.com/story/enhanced-airport-security-measures-taking-effect-2010-01-04
• Full body scanner (WikiPedia) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_body_scanner

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Elsewhere:

• WordPress blog’s postings on TSA – http://en.wordpress.com/tag/tsa/

Surveillance, wiretapping, tracking, etc.

There are (at least) 4 types of big brothers:

• Type I: (True Big Brother) Governments and their services. They track population in order to prevent, detect, undercut and punish political dissent, frequently under pretense of enforcing various laws. They have full latitude to amend existing or generate the new laws (DMCA, ACTA, …) in order to legislate-out undesirable behaviors. Due to instrumentation of governments by certain well organized holders of the money (industry: e.g. RIAA, MPAA, etc), they frequently act as a suppressors of behaviors, groups and individuals that these branches of industry consider undesirable.
• Type II: (Small Big Brother) Commercial industry. There are two main motivations here: 1) suppression of threats to their current business model, and 2) acquisition of consumer data with intent to somehow monetarize collected information (e.g. by cross-pollination with other databases, targeted advertising, profiling the households, etc).
• Type III: (Wannabe Big Brother) Non-legal entities that look for (mainly) monetary gain by use of users data. This include various criminal groups, unaligned individuals, etc.
• Type IV: (Not-really Big Brother) family members, stalkers, etc

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Surveillance by Type I Big Brothers

USA:

• “SECURITY THEATER CREEP: FULL STRENGTH X-RAY BODY SCANNERS COMING TO AIRPORTS” by Steve Watson
  (Prisonplanet.com; 201.03.02)- http://imperialtwilight.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/security-theater-creep-full-strength-x-ray-body-scanners-coming-to-airports/ [Fringe]
  • See also: X-Ray Vans on US streets – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/23/x-ray-vans-on-us-streets/
• “10 Signs You are Being Watched” (The Line in the Sand blog; 2011.03.02) – http://thelineinthesand.net/2011/03/02/10-signs-you-are-being-watched/ [Fringe]
• “New Hampshire Vs. TSA” by Skip MacLure (2011.03.02) – http://skipmaclure.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/new-hampshire-vs-tsa/ [Fringe]
• 
  “Documents Reveal TSA Research Proposal To Body-Scan Pedestrians, Train Passengers” by Andy Greenberg (Forbes; 2011.03.03) – http://blogs.forbes.com/andygreenberg/2011/03/02/docs-reveal-tsa-plan-to-body-scan-pedestrians-train-passengers/
• “TSA Lies To Justify Illegal Train Station Grope-Down” by Paul Joseph Watson (Prison Planet [http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-lies-to-justify-illegal-train-station-grope-down.html]; 2011.03.01) – http://www.prisonplanet.com/tsa-lies-to-justify-illegal-train-station-grope-down.html
  TSA’s VIPR team ordered disembarking train passengers to enter the building where they were exposed to detailed pat-downs. When the information about this check point was exposed to public, TSA lied that passengers entered building on their own volition.
• “What The Heck Is The TSA Up To?” by Skip MacLure (2011.02.28) – http://skipmaclure.wordpress.com/2011/02/28/what-the-heck-is-the-tsa-up-to/
• ACTA – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/acta/
• 2010.11.16: FBI Director meeting Google, Facebook, etc. in push for Universal Internet Wiretapping:
  • “F.B.I. Seeks Wider Wiretap Law for Web” (NYTimes; 2010.11.16) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/17/technology/17wiretap.html?_r=2&hpw
• 2010.09.27: US government (FBI, NSA, DOJ) is pushing for back-doors in the various Internet-based communication services: for the encrypted communication systems like Skype and Blackberry, for the social communication networks (Ala FaceBook), etc.
  • “U.S. Wants to Make It Easier to Wiretap the Internet” by Charlie Savage (TheNewYoirkTimes; 2010.09.27) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/us/27wiretap.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all
  • “US seeks to ease Internet wiretaps: report” (AFP; 2010.09.27) – http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i8U22zC5TxC326IHeLox-BX7bFxA
  • “Ready for the Facebook, Skype wiretap?” by Larry Dignan (ZDNet; 2010.09.27) – http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/ready-for-the-facebook-skype-wiretap/39680
  • US Government Seeking New Internet Wiretap Regulations (Security Watch blog at PCMag; 2010.09.27) – http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/09/us_government_seeking_new_inte.php
  • “Opinion: Say No to Insecure Systems” by Larry Seltzer – http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2010/09/opinion_say_no_to_insecure_sys.php
    • The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third-Party Encryption – http://www.schneier.com/paper-key-escrow.html
• The New York Times’ topical articles feeds:
  • Surveillance of Citizens by Government – http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=des&v1=Surveillance+of+Citizens+by+Government&fdq=19960101
  • Wiretapping and Other Eavesdropping Devices and Methods – http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=des&v1=Wiretapping+and+Other+Eavesdropping+Devices+and+Methods&fdq=19960101>
• “The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous” at Wake-up Call blog (http://laudyms.wordpress.com/) –
  http://laudyms.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/the-digital-surveillance-state-vast-secret-and-dangerous/
• USA: TSA – https://eikonal.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/tsa-folies/

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Surveillance by Type II Big Brothers

• “Resisting the Online Tracking Programs” by Riva Richmond (NYTimes; 2010.11.10) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/technology/personaltech/11basics.html
• “Removing and Blocking Ad Cookies, Browser by Browser” by Riva Richmond (NYTimes; 2010.11.10) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/11/technology/personaltech/11basics-sidebar.html
• “Code That Tracks Users’ Browsing Prompts Lawsuits” by Tanzina Vega (NYTimes; 2010.09.20) – http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/technology/21cookie.html/?pagewanted=all

DNA registry for whole population

• “The Goblins Want Your DNA!” (The Line in the Sand blog; 2011.03.01) – http://thelineinthesand.net/2011/03/01/the-goblins-want-your-dna/
• “S. 1858: Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007” by 110th Congress – http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s110-1858 – This is a bill in the U.S. Congress originating in the Senate (“S.”). A bill must be passed by both the Senate and House and then be signed by the President before it becomes law.

Misc