TSA May Buy Even More Controversial Body Scanners

aviationpros.com | May 22, 2012

Despite the controversy over whether they pose a health risk, the Transportation Security Administration says it may purchase even more airport scanners that emit radiation to check passengers.

TSA spokesman Jonathan Allen said in coming months the agency plans to test software that would allow radiation-emitting scanners, known as backscatter units, to generate generic body images. Currently, these units generate naked images of passengers that resemble chalk etchings.

“When that software meets TSA’s standards and is successfully tested in an airport environment, TSA could purchase and deploy additional backscatter units,” he said.

The TSA says scanners are critical to its efforts to thwart potential terrorism attempts, in addition to making passenger screening more efficient. The agency stepped up its use of scanners after an al-Qaida operative attempted to detonate a bomb in his underwear aboard an Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight in December 2009.

This week, the CIA thwarted a similar plot in Yemen, although U.S. counter-terrorism officials are investigating whether scanners would have detected the new bomb since it had no metal parts, according to The Associated Press.

The TSA relies on two kinds of scanners: the backscatter machines, which use radiation, and millimeter wave scanners, which are considered safer because they do not.

The backscatter machines are installed at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Orlando international airports. The millimeter wave scanners are used at the Palm Beach and Miami international airports.

In November, the European Union banned the backscatter units, fearing they held potential to cause cancer in some passengers. That prompted Broward County officials to question whether they should be allowed at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.

Broward Mayor John Rodstrom, a frequent flier who refuses to go through scanners, said he was disappointed the TSA is considering buying more backscatter scanners.

“I find it unfortunate in the respect that radiation cannot be in any way good for you,” he said. “Given that they have an alternative, and why they won’t embrace that alternative, is beyond me.”

TSA administrator John Pistole said the agency has conducted “intense research, analysis and independent testing” and concluded the units pose no danger.

He said a person could receive 5,000 airport screenings every year without exceeding the radiation does limit set by the American National Standards Institute/Health Physics Society.

“This would require an average of 15 screenings a day, every day, for a year,” Pistole wrote in a letter to Kent George, director of the Broward County Aviation Department. “In fact, the average person receives more radiation from the natural environment each hour than from one screening by a backscatter system.” .

Some medical experts disagree, saying that the ionizing radiation of the units creates a risk for women genetically predisposed to breast cancer and people over age 65.

Among the experts is Dr. Edward Dauer, head of radiology at Florida Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale. He said ionizing radiation breaks down electrons and DNA, which can cause death or cancer.

His concerns were echoed by to a group of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco. They note the cosmic radiation that infiltrates airliners is absorbed by the whole body and less dangerous than ionizing radiation of the scanners, which only goes skin deep.

Passengers can opt to bypass the body scanners but then are subject to a secondary screening and possibly a pat-down. Allen said about 1 percent of air travelers avoid the scanners, and don’t have to cite a reason why.

In all, the TSA has installed about 700 body scanners at 180 U.S. airports. Of those, about 245 are backscatter machines, in use at about 40 airports. About 455 are millimeter-wave scanners in use at about 140 airports.

Allen said in September 2011, the TSA ordered 300 millimeter-wave scanners but no backscatter machines.

TSA breaks 16-year-old diabetic girl’s $10,000 insulin pump

Many travelers find airport screening an annoying and frustrating experience but for 16-year-old Savannah Barry, a recent trip proved both humiliating and potentially life-threatening.

MSNBC | May 22, 2012

By Rob Lovitt

Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes four years ago, the Colorado teenager says TSA screeners forced her to go through a full-body scanner in Salt Lake City last week, breaking her $10,000 insulin pump in the process.

According to Sandra Barry, Savannah’s mother, her daughter was coming home from a school trip when screeners required to her to go through a full-body scanner despite the fact that the girl had a doctor’s note describing her condition and stating that she should be given a pat-down rather than subjected to screening machines.

“Believe me, being 16 and female, she probably doesn’t want the pat-down but she knows that this is what’s required,” Sandra Barry told msnbc.com. “She tried to advocate for herself and they just shut her down.”

Upon hearing of the situation, the elder Barry called Animas, the maker of Savannah’s pump, and was told that they couldn’t guarantee that the screening machine hadn’t damaged the pump and that her daughter should take the pump off as soon as she landed.

“It was hard to pick her up and tell her she had to disconnect immediately,” said Barry, who says the family has filed a formal complaint with TSA but has only received an e-mailed response requesting a conference call to discuss the incident.

For Barry, the issue goes beyond the specific incident involving her daughter. “It’s bigger than diabetes — there are other people with other medical conditions that need to opt for the pat-down,” she said. “That’s why we’re questioning the education and training of these agents.

“It’s not a one-time thing and we’re going to keep putting the pressure on them.”

In a statement released Tuesday afternoon, TSA said “the passenger has reached out … regarding her screening experience and TSA has attempted to contact her in response.”

TSA Goons Stooping to New Lows

Four-year-old girl detained as terror threat; drug runners allowed to pass

Rather than harass grandmothers and little girls, the TSA would be wise to keep a closer eye on its own people

AFP | May 5, 2012   

By Keith Johnson

American travelers have been repeatedly subjected to humiliation by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents. But one recent case went too far, sparking an outcry across the country that federal security officials were out of control.

This was the case of four-year-old Isabella Brademeyer, who was recently left traumatized. TSA agents deemed her a “high security threat” after she hugged her grandmother at an airport in Wichita, Kansas.

The girl’s outraged mother gave an account of the ordeal on her Facebook page, writing: “It was implied, several times, that my mother, in their brief two-second embrace, had passed a handgun to my daughter.”

Just prior to the confrontation, Mrs. Brademeyer and her two daughters had passed through security without incident. However, the grandmother was flagged for additional screening after triggering an alarm on the scanners. That’s when, according to Mrs. Brademeyer, Isabella “excitedly ran over to give her a hug, as children often do. They made very brief contact, no longer than a few seconds.”

Security agents seized the girl and told her mother she would have to be frisked. Rather than have her body probed by strangers, Isabella tried to run. Of course, she didn’t get far, and was dragged off by the agents into a small room where, according to Mrs. Brademeyer, “The [TSA agent] loomed over my daughter, with an angry grimace on her face, and ordered her to stop crying. When my scared child could not do so, two [TSA agents] called for backup saying, ‘The suspect is not cooperating.’ The suspect, of course, being a frightened child. They treated my daughter no better than if she had been a terrorist.”

Terrorized by TSA

The TSA has since responded regarding the incident but denies any wrongdoing.

“TSA has long had a security procedure where if somebody has contact with a person who is undergoing additional screening, they must also undergo additional screening,” writes Bob Burns on the TSA’s website. “Why, you might ask? You’ve probably heard the old saying that the hand can be faster than eye? Well, that’s the reasoning behind this procedure. There’s always the chance that a prohibited item could be traded off during contact. I’m sure you’ve watched the scene play out in more than one movie where two people collide or shake hands and an item is traded off? Same thing.”

In other words, the TSA is now explaining away their actions by referring to fantasy plot lines from movie scripts.

Absurd situations like this are becoming increasingly routine as the TSA’s reputation, never very good, continues to disintegrate. Just recently, four TSA agents assigned to the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) were arrested and charged with narcotics trafficking and bribery after it was discovered that they allowed “drug mules” to pass through screenings unhindered.

Rather than harass grandmothers and little girls, the TSA would be wise to keep a closer eye on its own people. WSBTV in Atlanta revealed that this is apparently a low priority. According to a recent report: “In a move that could affect security at airports around the nation, TSA confirmed Wednesday it had such a backlog of background security checks, airport employers were allowed to hire any employee needed. . . . TSA officials said the background checks are delayed, but they are processing them as fast as they can.”

US Military Eager To ‘Microchip’ Troops

U.S. military developing spychips for soldiers

WND | May 6, 2012

by Bob Unruh

The U.S. military wants to plant nanosensors in soldiers to monitor health on future battlefields and immediately respond to needs, but a privacy expert warns the step is just one more down the road to computer chips for all.

“It’s never going to happen that the government at gunpoint says, ‘You’re going to have a tracking chip,’” said Katherine Albrecht, who with Liz McIntyre authored “Spychips,” a book that warns of the threat to privacy posed by Radio Frequency Identification.

“It’s always in incremental steps. If you can put a microchip in someone that doesn’t track them … everybody looks and says, ‘Come on,’” she said. “It’ll be interesting seeing where we go.”

According to a report at Mobiledia, the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has confirmed plans to create nanosensors to monitor the health of soldiers on battlefields.

The devices also would report data to doctors. But privacy analysts have expressed concern that the implants could be used not just to monitor health but to keep track of and possibly control people.

DARPA describes the technology on which it is working as “a truly disruptive innovation,” which would diagnose, monitor vital states and “even deliver medicine into the bloodstream.”

According to LiveScience.com, “Solving the problem of sickness could have a huge impact on the number of soldiers ready to fight, because far more have historically died due to illness rather than combat.”

The report suggested that for special forces, “the practical realization of implantable nanosensors capable of monitoring multiple indicators of physiological state could be a truly disruptive innovation.”

Already being researched is the concept of nanosensors diagnosing disease.

DARPA expects to launch a second effort focused on treatment later this year.

Albrecht said the move is another step in the trip down the road of having every person implanted with a chip that might very well monitor health but also other areas of life.

Microchipping, she said, already is “par for the course” for pets in many parts of the nation, and that acceptance will make it easier to require it for people.

She said it was expected that captive audiences, such as prisoners and troops, would be the first subjected to the requirement, which would make it easier for the general populace to accept it as well.

“It’s interesting,” she said. “I’m stunned how this younger generation is OK. They don’t see the problem. … ‘Why wouldn’t everyone want to be tracked?’”

But she said Americans will have to decide to say no to incremental advances, or by the time officials finally roll out the idea of chips for all, whether they want them or not, it will be too late to decide.

“The analogy that I draw is [that of a train], and if I’m in California and I do not want to wind up in New City, every stop brings me closer,” she said. “At some point I have to get off the train.”

Albrecht also has helped develop and launch a new project called StartPage, which now is handling some 2 million search requests per day.

The benefit of the page is its privacy. The site explains that every time a person uses a typical search program such as Google, “your search data is recorded.”

“Then they store that information in a giant database,” she explains.

As a result, corporate America and the government have access to “a shocking amount of personal information about you, such as your interests, family circumstances, political leanings, medical conditions and more

WND reported previously that owners of pets have reported cancer in their animals after microchipping. The report documented how a dog developed a highly aggressive cancer right at the point where a chip was embedded.

Albrecht told the story of another dog, a 5-year-old Yorkshire terrier named Scotty that was diagnosed with cancer in Memphis, Tenn. Scotty developed a tumor between his shoulder blades, in the same location where the microchip had been implanted. The tumor the size of a small balloon – described as malignant lymphoma – was removed. Scotty’s microchip was embedded inside the tumor.

Verichip, a major manufacturer of the microchip implants, touts the technology’s capability to identify a lost pet and enable its return home, while dismissing potential health risks.

“Over the last 15 years,” stated the VeriChip website, “millions of dogs and cats have safely received an implantable microchip with limited or no reports of adverse health reactions from this life-saving product, which was recently endorsed by the USDA. These chips are a well-accepted and well-respected means of global identification for pets in the veterinary community.”

WND also reported there were warnings about a radio chip plan that would allow identification of individuals by government agents simply by walking through an assembly.

The proposal, which was supported by Janet Napolitano, the chief of the Department of Homeland Security, would embed radio chips in driver’s licenses, or “enhanced driver’s licenses.”

“Enhanced driver’s licenses give confidence that the person holding the card is the person who is supposed to be holding the card, and it’s less elaborate than REAL ID,” Napolitano said in a Washington Times report.

REAL ID was a plan for a federal identification system standardized across the nation that so alarmed governors many states have adopted formal plans to oppose it. However, a privacy advocate today told WND that the EDLs are many times worse.

WND also previously has reported on such chips when hospitals used them to identify newborns, a company desired to embed immigrants with the electronic devices, a government health event showcased them and when Wal-Mart used microchips to track customers.

7-Year-Old Girl With Cerebral Palsy Gets Agressive TSA Pat-Down; Family Misses Flight

The seven-year-old’s leg braces won’t allow her to pass through metal detectors. (April 25, 2012)

IBTimes | Apr 25, 2012

The ever-controversial screening policies of the TSA are under the microscope again after Dina Frank, a 7-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, was rigorously patted down to the point where her family missed their flight.

“They make our lives completely difficult,” Dina’s father, Joshua Frank, told The Daily, as reported by CBS Washington, referring to the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. Dina’s “not a threat to national security.”

Dina’s condition prevents her from being able to go through metal detectors at airports because of her leg braces and crutches, which means TSA agents have to pat her down.

The experience is usually uncomfortable for Dina and her family asks that TSA agents be friendly with her during the pat down.

Mom: TSA agents at Wichita airport treated daughter, 4, like a terrorist

But Monday’s incident did not go as usual for Dina, as the agents were aggressive with her, the Franks said.

The pat-down ordeal caused the Franks to miss their flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to their destination in Florida.

Joshua Frank is the latest to criticize the TSA over their screening policies, joining celebrities such as model Bar Refaeli, who suggested the TSA agent who patted her down must have been a lesbian over the way she was handled by the agent.

But did the TSA reach a new low over Dina’s pat-down?

“They’re harassing people. This is totally misguided policy,” Frank said. “Yes, I understand that TSA is in charge of national security and there’s all these threats. For [Dina] to be singled out, it’s crazy.”

The incident came just three days after Dina was featured on CBS 2 New York after she was able to take her first steps after getting a Botox treatment.

Dina’s mother, Marcy Frank, hailed the new treatment.

“Now she’ll walk around the neighborhood. We don’t need to take the wheelchair anywhere anymore. It’s incredible,” Marcy Frank told the news station.

Dina’s father said the treatment has changed his daughter’s life.

“As a parent, it’s just amazing to be able to see your daughter walk out onto the driveway and onto a school bus instead of having to be put in a wheelchair and having to be lifted onto the school bus is a life we couldn’t have even imagined a year ago,” he said.

Homeland Security’s ‘Pre-Crime’ Screening Will Never Work

Pre-crime prevention is a terrible idea.

theatlantic.com | Apr 17 2012

By Alexander Furnas

Here is a quiz for you. Is predicting crime before it happens: (a) something out of Philip K. Dick’s Minority Report; (b) the subject of of a Department of Homeland Security research project that has recently entered testing; (c) a terrible and dangerous idea which will inevitably be counter-productive and which will levy a high price in terms of civil liberties while providing little to no marginal security; or (d) all of the above.

If you picked (d) you are a winner!

The U.S. Department of Homeland security is working on a project called FAST, the Future Attribute Screening Technology, which is some crazy straight-out-of-sci-fi pre-crime detection and prevention software which may  come to an airport security screening checkpoint near you someday soon. Yet again the threat of terrorism is being used to justify the introduction of super-creepy invasions of privacy, and lead us one step closer to a turn-key totalitarian state. This may sound alarmist, but in cases like this a little alarm is warranted. FAST will remotely monitor physiological and behavioral cues, like elevated heart rate, eye movement, body temperature, facial patterns, and body language, and analyze these cues algorithmically for statistical aberrance in an attempt to identify people with nefarious intentions. There are several major flaws with a program like this, any one of which should be enough to condemn attempts of this kind to the dustbin. Lets look at them in turn.

First, predictive software of this kind is undermined by a simple statistical problem known as the false-positive paradox. Any system designed to spot terrorists before they commit an act of terrorism is, necessarily, looking for a needle in a haystack. As the adage would suggest, it turns out that this is an incredibly difficult thing to do. Here is why: let’s assume for a moment that 1 in 1,000,000 people is a terrorist about to commit a crime. Terrorists are actually probably much much more rare, or we would have a whole lot more acts of terrorism, given the daily throughput of the global transportation system. Now lets imagine the FAST algorithm correctly classifies 99.99 percent of observations — an incredibly high rate of accuracy for any big data-based predictive model. Even with this unbelievable level of accuracy, the system would still falsely accuse 99 people of being terrorists for every one terrorist it finds. Given that none of these people would have actually committed a terrorist act yet distinguishing the innocent false positives from the guilty might be a non-trivial, and invasive task.

Of course FAST has nowhere near a 99.99 percent accuracy rate. I imagine much of the work being done here is classified, but a writeup in Nature reported that the first round of field tests had a 70 percent accuracy rate. From the available material it is difficult to determine exactly what this number means. There are a couple of ways to interpret this, since both the write-up and the DHS documentation (all pdfs) are unclear. This might mean that the current iteration of FAST correctly classifies 70 percent of people it observes — which would produce false positives at an abysmal rate, given the rarity of terrorists in the population. The other way of interpreting this reported result is that FAST will call a terrorist a terrorist 70 percent of the time. This second option tells us nothing about the rate of false positives, but it would likely be quite high. In either case, it is likely that the false-positive paradox would be in full force for FAST, ensuring that any real terrorists identified are lost in a sea of falsely accused innocents.

The second major problem with FAST is the experimental methodology being used to develop it. According to a DHS privacy impact assessment of the research, the technology is being tested in a lab setting using volunteer subjects. These volunteer participants are sorted into two groups, one of which is “explicitly instructed to carry out a disruptive act, so that the researchers and the participant (but not the experimental screeners) already know that the participant has malintent.” The experimental screeners then use the results from the FAST sensors to try and identify participants with malintent. Presumably this is where that 70 percent number comes from.

The validity of this procedure is based on the assumption that volunteers who have been instructed by researchers to “have malintent” serve as a reasonable facsimile of real life terrorists in the field. This seems like quite a leap. Without actual intent to commit a terrorist act — something these volunteers necessarily don’t have — it is likely to be difficult to have test observations that mimic the actual subtle cues a terrorist might show. It would seem that the act of instructing a volunteer to have malintent would make that intent seem acceptable within the testing conditions, thereby altering the subtle cues that a subject might exhibit. Without a legitimate sample exhibiting the actual characteristics being screened for — a near impossible proposition for this project — we should be extremely wary of any claimed results.

The fact is that the world is not perfectly controllable and infallible security is impossible. It will always be possible to imagine incremental gains in security by instituting increasingly invasive and opaque algorithmic screening procedures. What we should be thinking about, however, is the marginal gain in security in relation to the marginal cost. A program like FAST is doomed from the word go by a preponderance of false positives. We should ask, in a world where we are already pass through full-body scanners, take off our shoes, belts, coats and only carry 3.5 oz containers of liquid, is more stringent screening really what we need and will it make us any safer? Or will it merely brand hundreds of innocent people as potential terrorists and provide the justification of pseudo-scientific algorithmic behavioral screening to greater invasions of their privacy? In this case the cost is likely to be high, and there is little evidence that the gain will be meaningful. In fact, the results may be counter-productive as TSA and DHS staff are forced to divert their attention to weeding through the pile of falsely flagged people, instead of spending their time on more time-tested common-sense screening procedures.

Thinking statistically tells us that any project like FAST is unlikely to overcome the false-positive paradox. Thinking scientifically tells us that it is nearly impossible to get a real, meaningful sample for testing or validating such a screening program — and as a result we shouldn’t trust the sparse findings we have. And thinking about the marginal trade off we are making tells us the (possible) gain is not worth the cost. Pick your reason, FAST is a bad idea.

Swedish minister of culture’s “racist spectacle” of black female genital mutilation sparks outrage

Minister in ‘racist circumcision outrage’

thelocal.se | Apr 17, 2012

Swedish minister of culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth’s participation in a “racist spectacle” in which she carved up a cake depicting a naked black woman has sparked outrage and prompted calls for the minister’s dismissal.

“In our view, this simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden,” Kitimbwa Sabuni, spokesperson for the National Afro-Swedish Association (Afrosvenskarnas riksförbund) told The Local.

“This was a racist spectacle.”

Sabuni’s comments come following Adelsohn Liljeroth’s participation in an art installation that took place at Stockholm’s Moderna Museet in connection with World Art Day on April 15th.

As part of the installation, which was reportedly meant to highlight the issue of female circumcision, the culture minister began cutting a large cake shaped like a black woman, symbolically starting at the clitoris.

Makode Aj Linde, the artist who created the installation and whose head is part of the cake cut by the minister, wrote about the “genital mutilation cake” on his Facebook page.

Swedish town gives ‘Negro Village’ new name

“Before cutting me up she whispered, ‘Your life will be better after this’ in my ear,” he wrote in a caption next to the partially eaten cake.

But images of the event, which show a smiling and laughing Adelsohn Liljeroth slicing up the cake, have caused the National Afro-Swedish Association and its members to see red and issue calls for her resignation.

“According to the Moderna Museet, the ‘cake party’ was meant to problematize female circumcision but how that is accomplished through a cake representing a racist caricature of a black woman complete with ‘black face’ is unclear,” Sabuni said in a statement.

According to Sabuni, the mere fact that the minister particiapted in the event, which he argued was also marked by “cannibalistic” overtones, betrays her “incompetence and lack of judgement”.

“Her participation, as she laughs, drinks, and eats cake, merely adds to the insult against people who suffer from racist taunts and against women affected by circumcision,” he said.

“We have no confidence in her any longer.”

Speaking with the TT news agency, Adelsohn Liljeroth was sympathetic to the association’s reaction, but nevertheless defended her actions.

“I understand quite well that this is provocative and that it was a rather bizarre situation,” she said.

“I was invited to speak at World Art Day about art’s freedom and the right to provoke. And then they wanted me to cut the cake.”

However, Adelsohn Liljeroth said the National Afro-Swedish Association’s anger should be directed at the artist, not at her, claiming the situation was “misinterpreted”.

“He claims that it challenges a romanticized and exoticized view from the west about something that is really about violence and racism,” she said.

“Art needs to be provocative.”

But the minster’s defence of her actions rang hollow for Sabuni.

“It’s extremely insulting for the minister to claim that we’ve somehow ‘misunderstood’ racism,” he said.

According to Sabuni, the incident is “strange” but “not unexpected” in the Swedish context.

“Sweden thinks of itself as a place where racism is not a problem,” he said.

“That just provides cover for not discussing the issue which leads to incidents like this.”

While a museum is certainly allowed to do what it wants as long as the laws are followed, Sabuni argued that a minister needs to be held to “higher standards”.

“To participate in a racist manifestation masquerading as art is totally over the line and can only be interpreted as the culture minister supporting the Moderna Museet’s racist prank,” he said.

Let passengers take KNIVES on planes… it will make air travel safer, says ex-TSA head in plea to stop ‘unending nightmare’ of airport security

Controversial: The former head of the TSA has argued that passengers should be able to take almost anything onboard including liquids and lighters

Daily Mail | Apr 14, 2012

The former head of Transportation Security Administration has said that the country’s airport security system is a broken mess making travelling ‘an unending nightmare’ for passengers.

Kip Hawley, who was head of the TSA from 2005-2009, has argued that the system would be more effective if it embraced more risk including allowing passengers to bring almost anything on board including knives, liquids and lighters.

Hawley criticises the current procedure for reducing airport security into an ‘Easter-egg hunt’ where TSA officers look out for low-risk prohibited items, such as lighters, rather than focusing on disrupting terror plots.

In an article for the Wall Street Journal, Hawley argued that the problems stem from the TSA trying to eliminate all risk for every single passenger travelling rather than concentrating on preventing a catastrophic attack.

He suggests that there should be no more banned items aside from weapons capable of fast, multiple killings such as guns, toxins and explosives.

‘It is time to end the TSA’s use of well-trained security officers as kindergarten teachers to millions of passengers a day’ he writes in the Wall Street Journal.

‘Worse, banning certain items gives terrorists a complete list of what not to use in their next attack. Lighters are banned? The next attack will use an electric trigger,’ he continues.

Airport security, with its lengthy queues and well-known irritations, has to change as the relationship between the public and the TSA is ‘too poisonous to be sustained’, Hawley argued.

In the newspaper, he lists five ideas for reforming the airport security system which he described as a ‘national embarrassment’ because of its bureaucratic nature and its disconnect from the people it is meant to protect.

As well as reducing the ‘banned items’, Hawley suggests a solution to allow passengers to take liquids on board.

He proposes two queues at the checkpoint – one for people with no liquids and another for passengers who want to bring all their liquids on board and don’t mind queuing for longer.

He also believes that airlines should eliminate baggage fees for faster and safer security.

The introduction of fees has led to passengers over-stuffing their carry-on luggage, making it more difficult for TSA officials to determine what is in the bags when they go through the scanners and slowing the whole process down, he writes.

‘Predictability is deadly’, Hawley continues – arguing that security needs to be randomized so that terrorists do not know what to expect making it much harder for them to learn how to evade protocols.

His fifth recommendation is that TSA officers need more flexibility and more discretion to interact with passengers.

‘The public wants the airport experience to be predictable, hassle-free and airtight and for it to keep us 100% safe. But 100% safety is unattainable. Embracing a bit of risk could reduce the hassle of today’s airport experience while making us safer at the same time,’ Hawley argues.

TSA agent faces up to 10 years in jail after stealing eight iPads from the bags he’s supposed to be inspecting

TSA trouble: The iPad thievery arrest came just days after eight TSA agents were suspended for misconduct at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey

Daily Mail | Apr 14, 2012

A baggage handler has been charged with theft by a public servant after he stole tablet computers from the luggage he was tasked with checking for security threats.

Clayton Keith Dovel, 36, of Bedford, Texas, was busted in February after he was found to have eight iPads believed to have been stolen from passengers.

Police said Dovel worked in a ‘resolution room’ at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, where checked bags are examined before they’re placed on a flight.

He was suspended from his position as a TSA agent.

Borna Mojra, one of the iPad theft victims, said the crime is a breach of the public trust.

He told KXAS: ‘If they’re the guys who are protecting us and they’re not, who am I going to trust next?’

Police were reportedly led right to Dovel’s home in Bedford by one of the theft victims, who was able to track his stolen device.

The TSA said in a statement: ‘The unacceptable behavior of this individual in no way reflects the dedication of our nearly 50,000 transportation security officers who work tirelessly to keep our skies safe.’

Dovel’s arrest came just days after eight TSA agents were suspended for misconduct at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

Hidden CCTV cameras allegedly caught staff at Terminal B – which handles Delta, British Airways and Virgin – sleeping on the job.

Some of them also face possible dismissal for stealing items out of some of the bags they are paid to inspect.

If convicted, Dovel could face between two and 10 years in prison. He has been released on $5,000 bail.

iBrain can ‘read your mind’, upload it to computers

yahoo.com | Apr 9, 2012

By Eric Pfeiffer

 

Dr. Philip Low wearing the "iBrain" (Misha Gravenor/TechnologyReview.com)

A team of California scientists have developed the world’s first portable brain scanner, and it may soon be able to “read a person’s mind,” playing a major role in facilitating medical breakthroughs.

“This is very exciting for us because it allows us to have a window into the brain. We’re building technology that will allow humanity to have access to the human brain for the first time,” said the project’s leader, Phillip Low.

KGTV reports that the device, created by San Diego-based NeuroVigil, and dubbed the iBrain, fits over a person’s head and measures unique neurological patterns connected to specific thought processes.

Low says the goal is to eventually have a large enough database of these brainwaves that a computer could essentially read a person’s thoughts out loud. One person who has already tried out the iBrain is famed physicist Dr. Stephen Hawking.

“We’d like to find a way to bypass his body, pretty much hack his brain,” said Low. This past summer, Low traveled to Cambridge, England, where he met with Hawking, who was asked to think “very hard” about completing various tasks while wearing the device.

NeuroVigil says the device could be used at home by individuals and worn during sleep. It comes equipped with a USB port for transferring the recorded data to a local computer.

Beyond so-called mind reading, the device has potential medical applications, such as enlisting the iBrain to help doctors prescribe the correct levels of medication based on a person’s brainwave responses.

“This is the first step to personalized medicine,” Low said.