November 17, 2010

Scanners a Business Scam

[From article]
"The body scanners coming to your local airport provide marginal benefits -- if any -- in detecting weapons and explosives hidden on travelers. They aren't worth the cost in money -- let alone in civil liberties.
[. . .]
An army of executives for scanner-producing corporations -- mostly former high-ranking Homeland Security officials -- successfully lobbied Congress into spending $300 million in stimulus money to buy the scanners. But running them will cost another $340 million each year. Operating them means 5,000 added TSA personnel, growing the screener workforce by 10 percent. This, when the federal debt commission is saying that we must cut federal employment rolls, including some FBI agents, just to keep spending sustainable.

Why cut funding for the people who actually catch terrorists to add more pointless hassles at the airport? (Going through a body scanner also takes longer -- the process is slower than magnetometers.)"

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/body_scanners_the_naked_truth_hBCJUd9j0d5kAZWSrStIjL

Body scanners: The naked truth
By DAVID RITTGERS
New York Post
Last Updated: 12:11 AM, November 17, 2010
Posted: 10:33 PM, November 16, 2010

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