Quote:
Originally Posted by Walt.
Would it surprise anyone if it turns out that the manufacturers of the scanning devices are large contributors to political campaigns?
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You are really, really close in your suspicions Walt. In fact, the manufacturers of these machines are employing former government staffers, who have ties to Homeland Security, to lobby for and promote their product.
Former Dept. of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, is now head of the Chertoff Group which represents one the leading manufacturers of whole body imaging machines, Rapiscan Systems. He has appeared on many news shows promoting scanning systems without revealing his own connections to them.
Another manufacturer is American Science & Engineering, Inc. who have retained the K Street firm Wexler & Walker to lobby for them. Individual lobbyists on this account include former TSA deputy administrator Tom Blank.
Smiths Detection, another manufacturer, employs transportation lobbying firm Van Scoyoc Associates, employs Kevin Patrick Kelly, a former top staffer to Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who sits on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.
We're all being manipulated and used, in more ways than one, by politicians and lobbyists hunting for their fortunes.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/...t-scanner-scam
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of Pennsylvania (1759)