Idaho Leads State Revolt Against Naked Body Scanners

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Monday, March 22, 2010

Idaho has set the example for others states to follow in the continuing revolt against naked body scanners, by passing a law that limits the use of the x-ray scanning devices in airports and government buildings and also forces Homeland Security to disprove health concerns.

Athol Republican Rep. Phil Hart’s bill, which was passed 58-9 on Thursday by the Idaho state legislature, limits use of the scanners to people who have failed a prior security check, such as a metal detector.

The bill also enforces by law the option to take a manual pat-down as an alternative to the body scan, a choice that was never available in other countries that have introduced the scanners and one that the TSA has made clear it seeks to abolish, forcing everyone to use the scanners.

“Hart’s bill would also require the Idaho Department of Homeland Security to prove the scanners aren’t detrimental to health before any machine is allowed to operate in the state,” reports the Associated Press.

Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.

Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”

“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.

Responding to questions about a potential battle between federal and state jurisdiction over the use of naked scanners in Idaho, Hart said that the state could use “police power” to regulate the machine’s usage if they are found to be harmful to humans.

• A d v e r t i s e m e n t

“Hart said that in his research and talking to professionals about the machines, he has been told that the machines irradiate people to the level which equals that person spending one full day in the sun,” according to the Idaho Reporter. “Hart said the science isn’t conclusive because long-term testing of the machines has yet to be done. Because of the radiation used to produce images, Hart is concerned that those who travel often would be adversely affected more than average Americans who travel only a few times each year. Under directives of Hart’s plan, the head of Homeland Security in Idaho would need to certify the safety of the machines prior to installation and use in public facilities in the state.”

Hart highlighted the fact that the body scanners do produce naked images of the body, despite a propaganda campaign to convince Americans otherwise, and the bill addresses this by prohibiting the storage and transfer of the images produced by the scanners.

Hart’s bill was supported by House Democrat, Rep. Shirley Ringo, who reminded lawmakers that the response to the 9/11 attacks was supposed to be an attempt to preserve freedom and liberty, as well as Rep. Russ Matthews, R-Idaho Falls, who warned that the federal government should not be allowed “to pillage our freedom in the name of security.”

The bill also attracted support from both sides of the political spectrum, enlisting endorsement from both the ACLU and Gun Owners of America.

We are joining the hundreds of other Americans who have filed complaints in protesting naked body scanners as an affront to privacy, dignity, and a health risk, by launching our naked body scanner contest in an effort to focus public attention on how we must stop these machines now before they are installed in the streets and become another tool of control and oppression as part of the prison planet being constructed around us.

Not only have authorities in Europe promised to roll out mobile body scanners on the streets to mass scan crowds of people, but Homeland Security has even gone a step further, developing Orwellian mind-reading devices that are set to be installed as part of unconstitutional checkpoints at public events.

We are offering our biggest prize fund ever of $15,000 for the entries that most successfully highlight the true agenda behind naked body scanners and where this is all heading unless we put our foot down now and help to build momentum behind public pressure to remove the scanners from airports.

Click here to see the contest rules and prepare your entry.

As the video below illustrates, the fact that naked body scanner machines in the U.S. are manned by TSA thugs who are routinely caught abusing their power in treating the public like prison inmates only heightens the danger posed by the use abuse of the new devices.

This article was posted: Monday, March 22, 2010 at 11:46 am

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