Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s airport body scanners are not going over well with the general public. Last January a flash-mob (flesh-mob) staged a nude protest at the Berlin-Tegel Airport in Germany over airport body scanners. Its getting traction again because of the outrage over the increasing intrusion into personal privacy by the TSA. Read more about it and see a video of the protest below.
The new and much hated airport body scans give a whole new meaning to Big Brother is watching. Or in this case its Big Sis, Janet Napolitano. The efforts at ensuring the world is safe from law-abiding citizens has come to this. You have to basically get naked to fly an airplane now days. If you refuse, you have to let some security person with plastic gloves on grope your private parts to be sure you aren’t hiding a bottle of water or inkjet cartridge up in there somewhere.
If you don’t cooperate with one or the other of these methods of humiliating everyone who boards an airplane, then you don’t fly. In the immortal words of a very recent would-have-been-flier-if-he-had-just-been-more-cooperative, ‘Don’t touch my junk’.
The concern is not just being naked, but the radiation that is emitted from the machines, especially for frequent fliers. The Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) uses high frequency radio waves to produce images of potential passengers naked bodies. These machines are being installed in airports worldwide that are associated with the TSA and are coming under heavy public disdain and criticism.
Semi-naked activists from the Pirate Party in Germany staged a ‘fleshmob’ protest at the Berlin-Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany earlier. They were protesting the body scanners, or as they are called there ‘Nacktscanners’.
As we all know, protesters seem to love to get naked for their protests. This is one case in which protesting in the nude seems to fit the occasion.
The German protesters showed up at the airport and began stripping. They had comments written on their bodies such as, ‘Be a good citizen, drop your pants’ and their body parts pointed out with arrows. I suppose that’s was just to help the screeners identify what they are looking at. One woman wore a size ‘pixelated’. The video was taken in January, but is certainly relevant today.
The video below is of the nude protest in Germany over airport body scanners. It may be slightly NSFW.
November 15th, 2010 at 1:41 pm
If you want to understand the need for body scanners, then follow the money. Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Czar and Secretary authorized the use of scanners right after 9/11. The Christmas day/ underwear bomber who appeared drugged and accompanied by a sharp-dressed man with an American accent who tried to get him on without a passport is what set off the mass use of these machines. The VERY NEXT WEEK , the TSA has 150 scanners on order to prevent such a lapse in security in the future. Don’t worry, these scanners were paid for by the Recovery ACT of 2009 (in otherwords, you). Isn’t that special?
Who makes the scanners? Rapiscan Systems, who used The Chertoff Group as a consultant to push the things. Yes, the head of the Chertoff Group is none other than Michael Chertoff himself, who has a lot to financially gain from the widespread use of these things. Airports are just the beginning, Amtrak, bus stations, subways, etc. are probably in the pipeline.
The recent “mail bombs” over Europe after recent heads of Airlines, etc. balked at how crazy the security had become, was also fishy as many people’s stories did not mesh. But don’t worry, Rapiscan Systems also makes a lot of cargo scanners, just talk to their man Michael Chertoff and he’ll hook you right up!
November 16th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
[...] Creative protests. [...]