Do TSA methods provide security that is safe effective and legal?

This program had been but in place by the administration of President George W. Bush following the devastating events resulting from the attack on U.S. soil on 9-11. In July 2007, the 6th Circuit court overturned that decision. The ACLU asked the Supreme Court of the United States to consider the ruling, but in February 2008, the Court declined to review the challenge. Now in what seems to be a turn about the ACLU, Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office said, “The government must keep us safe, but it must do so in a way that is sensible, effective and constitutional. The new ‘enhanced’ security methods are far more intrusive than other methods but have not been shown to be any more effective. Nobody should be forced to choose between ‘naked scans’ and intrusive groping by strangers to keep our airplanes safe.” The ACLU group has received over 900 complaints on their hotline in one month. To be sure the traveler will feel safe knowing that Muslim women will be exempt from either the scanners or a full invasive grope down. This according to the ever politically correct Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. This brings us to the safety issue of exposing frequent travelers, to the radiation put out by this technology. As flight attendants and pilots have filed lawsuits in an attempt to stop the frequent exposure to the scanners, one must ask a simple question? Believing that x-ray technology is safe, would patients go in three to four times a week for said treatment? Now, UCSF Scientists Question the Safety of TDS Body Scanners. After rigorously studying the effects of the radiation admitted from these machines they concluded, that the risk of damage to the skin and underlying tissue is cited as potentially being dangerously high using current TSA scanners. Their second big concern is that they feel independent data does not exist which sufficiently demonstrates the safety of the scanners. Without pointing fingers too harshly in a letter addressed to Dr. John P. Holden, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, there is an underlying tone which suggests that the researchers that cleared the scanners for use where perhaps not sufficiently qualified to do so or possibly misrepresented or shielded their data. “In addition, it appears that real independent safety data do not exist. A search, ultimately finding top FDA radiation physics staff, suggests that the relevant radiation quantity, the Flux [photons per unit area and time (because this is a scanning device)] has not been characterized. The UCSF Scientists, further concluded: There are eight specific health concerns that are known to exist from X-rays that they feel are elevated due to the use of these body scanners which include:

1. Possible damage to the cornea and thymus
2. The skin of the testicles being at risk for sperm mutagenesis
3. Possible fetal damage in pregnant women
4. Immuno-compromised individuals, like those with HIV and cancer, being at a higher risk for cancer.
5. The possibility of white blood cells perfusing to the skin
6. The possibility of children and adolescents being at high risk to health problems due to the increased exposure.
7. The mutagenic effects of X-rays in patients over 65 in regards to melanocyte aging.
8. A small percentage of women that have an elevated sensitivity mutagenesis-provoking radiation which could lend itself to an increased susceptibility to breast cancer.

The policy toward acts of terror by the current administration is reactive not proactive. They seem to be playing catch up and rarely have anticipated then next actual targets. Should the traveler be concerned of the obvious conflict of interest when billionaire George Soros and former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff lobbied to have Rapiscan receive the initial $173 million order from the naked-scanner contract? Soros the billionaire investor purchased $11,300 shares of OSI Systems Inc., the parent company of Rapiscan. He has subsequently liquidated his holdings last week? Does he see the scanner market going south? To be sure, al-Qaeda is very well organized. Will they continue to attack our airlines when other softer targets could provide significantly more damage? Jihad can be used on the battlefield, cowardly attacks with explosives, against innocent civilians, but the number one way they are waging war upon the U.S at present is through financial jihad. What better way than to have financial resources diverted toward the purchase of scanning equipment that Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has signaled that, malls, sporting events, and train stations may be next. It is not suggested that the cost of the equipment would be the major cost. Citizen’s may interpret this to mean there are no safe places to go. What happens to the U.S. economy at that point. Interested in crippling an economy? Try this at the malls and see how quickly shoppers switch to the Internet for their purchases. (Sales were up on the net 16% over Thanksgiving). Sports events? Cable sports packages will do nicely. Trains? In America trains are considered a joke and couldn’t be sustained without taxpayer funding, no, they are not too big to fail. Let them. Please don’t give Ms. Napolitano the idea for subways, which would kill work among those forced to use them primarily in the East. A suggestion is made, that future targets are more likely to be the softer nature, malls, food courts, night clubs, virtually anyplace large crowds gather. Though HLS and TSA seem rather inept at the moment, why not terrorize the United States using much larger targets, with less security resulting in “more bang for the buck.” American’s are faced with a dilemma, do they believe Rep Peter King’s (R-NY) that TSA procedures shoulde be viewed as “better safe than sorry? What is your evidence that this intrusion is “safe?” you have none so stop with the time worn homilies. Are Americans going to demand of their representatives begin implementation of serious profiling techniques used by Israel, combined with other measures yet to be determined. FBI thwarts terrorist bombing attempt at Portland holiday tree lighting as reported in the Oregonian on November 27th, The FBI thwarted an attempted terrorist bombing in Portland’s Pioneer Courthouse Square before the city’s annual tree-lighting Friday night, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon. A Corvallis man, thinking he was going to ignite a bomb, drove a van to the corner of the square at Southwest Yamhill Street and Sixth Avenue and attempted to detonate it. However, the supposed explosive was a dummy that FBI operatives supplied to him, according to an affidavit in support of a criminal complaint signed Friday night by U.S. Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta. Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, a Somali-born U.S. citizen, was arrested at 5:42 p.m., 18 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur, on an accusation of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a $250,000 fine. The arrest was the culmination of a long-term undercover operation, during which Mohamud had been monitored for months as his alleged bomb plot developed. fact inert, and the public was never in danger,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office “ Perhaps it’s time to begin thinking logically, sit back and relax. The odds of dying in a terrorist attack in an airplane are 1 in 25 million. Struck by lightening 1 in 500,000 If the decision is made to stick with the current technology don’t be surprised if the waitress in the airport coffee shop asks you “ how do you want your eggs, radiated or groped?” That’s my story and I’m sticking to it, I’m J.C. Jim Campbell runs Charging Elephants.