Chertoff owns the company that partners with the manufacturer of the body scanners

[ElsewheresDaughter]

He's making millions off them.



http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/bushs-homeland-security-secretary-flacking-for-nudie-scanners-too-108187479.html

(snip)
The companies that make the airport nudie-scanners have high-priced lobbying teams that include former congressmen, top Capitol Hill staff, and former TSA brass, as I reported in my column yesterday.

But because I focussed on registered lobbyists, I left out the highest-profile revolving-door character in the pay of the nudie-scanner industry: George W. Bush’s Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff. After the undie-bomber attempt on Christmas 2009, Chertoff went on a media tour promoting the use of these scanners, without disclosing that he was getting paid by Rapiscan, one of the two companies currently contracted by TSA to take a nude picture of you at the airport.


Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/bushs-homeland-security-secretary-flacking-for-nudie-scanners-too-108187479.html#ixzz15YI8neGP

Now I don't know about you but, we all need to protest in mass these machines!

[fascisthunter]

1. so... tax payers are forced to purchase a product from a private business interest

and the government finds a way to utilize it....

I'm not sure feeling safe is what I'm feeling right now... how about feeling ripped off and having my rights trampled upon. Totalitarian fascist freakazoids.

[YOY]

2. Happens more than you know.

Your Government is mostly run by private contractors and not governmental workers.

Many of which are belong to companies that have far more say in how the departments they work in operate than any sane human being should let them. Usually there is a politician behind this thanking a corporation for their contribution to his/her campaign.

Everytime a Republican talks about small government I laugh...but of course, it's not like any DLC types are willing to do anything more than embrace it.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

4. disproportionately higher for Repubs

Many experts and critics suspect that the full-body "naked scanners" recently deployed at U.S. airports do little to make us more secure, and a lot to make us angry, embarrassed and late. For instance, the scanners can't see through skin, and so weapons or explosives can be hidden safely in body cavities.

But this is government we're talking about. A program or product doesn't need to be effective, it only needs to have a good lobby. And the naked-scanner lobby is small but well-connected.

If you've seen one of these scanners at an airport, there's a good chance it was made by L-3 Communications, a major contractor with the Department of Homeland Security. L-3 employs three different lobbying firms including Park Strategies, where former Sen. Al D'Amato, R-N.Y., plumps on the company's behalf. Back in 1989, President George H.W. Bush appointed D'Amato to the President's Commission on Aviation Security and Terrorism following the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. Also on Park's L-3 account is former Appropriations staffer Kraig Siracuse.

The scanner contract, issued four days after the Christmas Day bomb attempt last year, is worth $165 million to L-3.




Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/_Naked-scanners__-Lobbyists-join-the-war-on-terror-1540901-107548388.html#ixzz15YPWKs00

[YOY]

7. You do know the Examiner is a free RW publication owned by a Christian Fundie?

Just sayin'...

[ElsewheresDaughter]

8. I do...read some of the comments at the bottom ...

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/_Naked-scanners__-Lobbyists-join-the-war-on-terror-1540901-107548388.html

[spanone]

3. of course he does....that's the american way...

no sarcasm intended

[Solly Mack]

5. k/r

[Poboy]

6. As is often the case. It is clear conflict of interest, and criminal, but thats America today!