A quick fact check however shows that it’s Napolitano who is “just wrong”. The DHS has repeatedly lied about the privacy and health threats posed by naked body scanners in an effort to keep the controversy under wraps, as well as withholding evidence.
- Privacy concerns were completely justified after a recent release under the Freedom of Information Act of DHS plans for the mass rollout of mobile body scanners, documents which were largely redacted, with entire pages having been blacked out by the agency.
- Before the agency was forced to roll out new “stick man” software upgrades, to deflect genuine privacy concerns, the DHS simply lied about the fact that the scanners produced naked images of the body which showed genitalia in crisp detail.
- Big Sis was also caught lying about the level of radiation emitted by the scanners. Scientists at Columbia University found that the dose emitted by the naked x-ray devices could be up to 20 times higher than originally estimated, likely contributing to an increase in a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma which affects the head and neck.
- For those who refuse to go through the scanners on privacy or health grounds, the notorious TSA pat down has also been repeatedly mischaracterized and lied about by the TSA in a bid to downplay a privacy furore. Napolitano herself claimed that the pat-downs were discreet, yet hundreds upon hundreds of accounts and reports of travelers being harassed constantly prove otherwise. At one stage the TSA even tried to claim that no squeezing or groping whatsoever was taking place, even as reports of people literally having their genitals grabbed poured in.
- The TSA was also caught lying about subjecting children to pat downs in yet another transparent ploy to undermine genuine privacy concerns. In April, the TSA defended the groping of a 6 year-old girl, saying it followed policy. Yet in November 2010, the agency had vowed to conduct no ‘enhanced’ pat-downs for children under 12.
- Napolitano’s attempt to dismiss the “Orwellian” nature of how the DHS operates in the context of airport security is noticeably absent the fact that journalists who have been critical of Homeland Security have found their names being placed on a terror watchlist, people like CNN reporter Drew Griffin.
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