Was it just me? Was I the only one who noticed a tiny announcement in February that Airport Scanners were coming to Australia, the land where terrorists haven’t landed (yet), and … wait for it… there would be no (NO!) — opt — out– clause. Did I hear that correctly?

And the crowd roared (about the cricket), nobody said a word about the scanners, and the ten libertarians left who can bear to watch the ABC were too busy trying to save the nation from nastier threats. Australia is getting millimeter wave scanners at International Airports, and if you don’t want to be scanned, you need to leave the country… by boat. (Either that or swim with the crocs across the Timor Sea.)

With no opt out clause, what happens when the first person facing deportation refuses to be scanned? Well that’s all right then, we’ll just book them on a cruise to Kandahar? Civil Liberties Australia was one of the few to speak up. Maybe those scanners are safe? Maybe? But at least one man with a pacemaker says Australia is off his holiday list now. Can someone find the peer reviewed research showing there are no long term effects on the unborn?

There’s also the catch that if any terrorist has a computer with an internet connection, they probably know how to get guns past the scanners.

Then a nice man named Tony wrote to me asking if I liked his graphic (below), and I did. Do admire the powerful communication tool here (it’s worth a look). The only thing it lacked was to tell us non-US folk that the TSA stood for the Transportation Security Administration.

Once upon a time it took months to get to Australia, the ships had no GPS, sometimes not even an engine, and the in-non-flight food gave you scurvy. People died, no one had travel insurance, and before WWII even a blister could kill you.

Brace yourself, how things have changed. Travel in the satellite era is so dangerous now, it takes 62,000 employees to make it safe (just in the USA). Of those, nearly 4,000 are based in the Washington DC headquarters of the TSA. The average salary of those desk-based public servants in the regulating class is … $104,000. That’s average?

Here in Australia our airport scanning scheme is supposed to cost $28 million.

Article Continues »

Hate the full-body scans, pat-downs and slow going at TSA airport security screening checkpoints? For $100, you can now bypass the hassle.

The Transportation Security Administration is rolling out expedited screening at big airports called "Precheck." It has special lanes for background-checked travelers, who can keep their shoes, belt and jacket on, leave laptops and liquids in carry-on bags and walk through a metal detector rather than a full-body scan. The process, now at two airlines and nine airports, is much like how screenings worked before the Sept. 11 attacks.

To qualify, frequent fliers must meet undisclosed TSA criteria and get invited in by the airlines. There is also a backdoor in. Approved travelers who are in the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's "Global Entry" program can transfer into Precheck using their Global Entry number.

"It's a completely different experience than what you're used to," said Matt Stegmeir, a platinum-level Delta Air Lines frequent flier who was invited into Precheck when it opened at his home airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul. Besides zipping through security screening quickly and easily, Mr. Stegmeir noticed another difference: TSA agents at the Precheck lane are usually smiling.

"It's really a jarring contrast. It reminds you just how much of a hassle the security procedures in place really are," he said.

Global Entry has been extremely popular with frequent international travelers. Approved travelers get to use a kiosk to enter the country rather than waiting in often-long lines to get their passports stamped and go through Customs inspection.

Consider that in January at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, the average wait in line was 35 minutes between 4 and 5 p.m., and the longest wait was 137 minutes. The wait at Terminal 1 at New York's Kennedy International Airport averaged 44 minutes in January for people arriving between 10 and 11 a.m. Enrolling requires a $100 application fee for a background check, plus a brief interview with a Customs officer.

For domestic travel, Global Entry pays off because it gets you into Precheck. Once TSA announced in the fall that enrollment in Global Entry and CBP's other "trusted travel" programs (Nexus for frequent travel across the Canadian border and Sentri for frequent travel across the Mexican border) would get you into Precheck, applications for Global Entry took off.

In February, for example, 26,602 people applied, more than triple the number of applications in February 2011, according to CBP. And February applications were up 42% from January as more and more travelers catch on.

"We want as many people as possible in the program," said John Wagner, CBP's executive director of admissibility and passenger programs.

TSA says it also wants as many people as possible in Precheck, which is still in pilot-testing phase. Both agencies say the programs can enhance screening of people they know nothing about if they can move low-risk people who submit to background checks out of the main queues.

"We can reduce the size of the haystack when we are looking for that one-in-a-billion terrorist," said TSA Administrator John Pistole.

Mr. Pistole, an FBI veteran who took over TSA in 2010, said that by studying frequent-flier histories as well as conducting background checks, he's confident the U.S. now has the technology and the intelligence information to make less-rigorous, faster screening work. TSA has been trying to move to more "risk-based" security—something critics have suggested for many years.

Once in Precheck, TSA still checks names against terrorism watch lists before every flight, just as it does for other travelers. If a passenger is cleared for Precheck screening, a code is embedded in a traveler's boarding pass.

Article Continues »

In today's show we bring you an interview from the Rule of Law radio show with Hereward Fenton, who discusses the health, privacy and civil liberties issues of body scanners with Deborah Stevens.

Hereward talks about the introduction of body scanners in Australian airports which are due to go operational in July 2012 and introduces the the new website WeWillNotBeScanned.org - "Promoting Lawful Rebellion against Full Body Scanners".

From We Will Not Be Scanned:

"Naked body scanners are an affront to human dignity with the sole purpose of training human beings to supplicate before the supreme authority of the state. We pledge to resist this attack on democracy and human rights using all legal means available."

We oppose the introduction of full body scanners on the following grounds:

• Invasion of privacy
• Violation of civil liberties
• Lack of research on health risks
• Manifest corruption and conflicts of interest within Government and private corporations who manufacture the scanners
• The use of staged "false flag" terrorist attacks to justify their use

Related Links

• WeWillNotBeScanned.org
• How To Get Anything Through TSA Nude Body Scanners
• Airport body scanners lengthen queues as many trigger alarms
• L-3: the $15 billion defence contractor that will be scanning us
• Kurt Haskell: Witness to Government False Flag
• Global payment system to block Iranian banks
• Crossing Syrian border and Free Syrian Army plea to the world for help
• Keiser Report Episode 263
• Citizen journalists escape from Syria
• America's "Lone Gunman" in Afghanistan: "I Did It"...

Truth News covers the stop CSG Rally at Parliament House NSW, 15 March 2012.

In the morning a motion was put to the NSW Upper House by Jeremy Buckingham of the Greens – to place a moratorium on all coal seam gas (CSG) projects in the state, other than the Camden production field. It was lost 16-19, with the Coalition, Shooters and Fishers and Christian Democrats against; and Labor and The Greens in favour.

In the afternoon a petition with over 20,000 signatures was presented in Parliament.

Protesters assembled outside Parliament at 4:00pm, then entered the building to continue their peaceful protest. After barely 10 minutes, the protesters were ejected from Parliament, allegedly because of the wording on their T-shirts.

Report from Stop CSG Illawarra follows:

Thursday March 15 2012 was a big day for the coal seam gas issue in our state parliament.

In the morning a motion was put to the NSW Upper House by Jeremy Buckingham of the Greens – to place a moratorium on all coal seam gas (CSG) projects in the state, other than the Camden production field. It was lost 16-19, with the Coalition, Shooters and Fishers and Christian Democrats against; and Labor and The Greens in favour.

In the afternoon it was the turn of our petition, YOUR petition, to be debated. Over 20,000 signed, calling on the Government to put in place an immediate moratorium on all CSG projects; a royal commission into the full impacts of CSG; and an immediate ban on fracking. Gareth Ward and Lee Evans spoke against, and Ryan Park and John Robertson spoke in favour. You can view the “debate” video (including its descent into chaos) in full online.

In both Houses Coalition members showed absolute contempt for the people of NSW. The Coalition called a moratorium irresponsible, saying that the Government must wait for more facts. But it is completely irresponsible to develop an industry before getting the facts.

Gareth Ward spoke against the petition – defending Coalition plans as adequate. Lee Evans spoke against the petition, then admitted to signing it. But he can’t have it both ways. He either stands with his community, and the 74% of people in NSW who support the call for a moratorium, or he tows the Coalition line and acts on behalf of the CSG industry. Yesterday, he chose the latter.

Actions speak louder than words. The Liberals opposed the petition. The Coalition voted down a moratorium. Barry O’Farrell did not even show up. CSG wells are being drilled in our drinking water catchment and the Government is not stopping it.

Yesterday, the vital role of community campaigns could not have been clearer. The Government is failing to act for the people of NSW; so we must. As the Coalition scrambles to defend the indefensible, we must launch a people’s moratorium and lock the industry out of our communities.

See you at the CSG Community Conference on Sunday March 25.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have been struggling (unsuccesfully) to get the new facebook timeline features to work in a reasonable way which suit the needs of this website, and I just want to let you all know that I've had enough!

I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!

I've come to the conclusion that the Facebook ruling elite have decided to quietly exterminate their community pages, by forcing everyone (including fan pages and groups) over to the new publishing format which gives THEM more control and YOU less control.

Of course, this is sugar coated as such draconian changes always are, with superficially "nice" features such as a wider tab and a few token settings which give you the illusion of control.

But here is the bitter pill: as an admin of the TNRA page I can no longer control what users see - this is now managed by Facebook. THEY now decide is appropriate for each of us to see, based on our friends, our "likes" and our previous browsing choices.

They call this "personalizing" our user experience.

Don't be fooled! In reality they are CONTROLLING our user experience, under the cover of tailoring our view to a vacuous commercial construct of "personal preference".

Hyper "personalization", which facebook is forcing on us, is anathema to the very essence of community, which is about shared experience. It is more in keeping with modern consumer marketing practices, which use all kinds of psychologically manipulative tactics to get people to become attached to a BRAND.

Indeed, personalization is a great way of DESTROYING communities because it forces everyone into a scenario where all interactions are mediated by "Nanny Facebook", who "personalizes" what we see based on an involuntary algorithm which determines what is best for each of us.

Folks, it is time to LEAVE Facebook!

In 2008, the NSW government under Labor granted Dart Energy a Petroleum Exploration Licence (PEL 463) to explore for CSG across 2400sqkm of the Sydney Basin - from Gosford on the Central Coast to Coalcliff south of Sydney. The first exploration well has been approved was for the inner city Sydney suburb of St Peters. On June 2, 2011 Stop CSG-Sydney provided Dart Energy with a list of questions related directly to their plans to drill in St Peters, based on the Review of Environmental Factors. Here's the list of questions and the responses (received 64 days later).

Dart Energy agreed to meet St Peters residents at St Peters Town Hall, Tuesday 16th of August 6pm. For those that couldn't make it visit You Tube or watch the video.

CSG mining is already destroying communities across NSW and QLD, so it is crucial we act now to stop csg drilling in St Peters.

So far we have rallied together, lobbied our politicians, held community information events, hosted a community forum to hear the City of Sydney plans for trigeneration (view the City Of Sydney response to our questions), screened the US documentary Gasland, letterboxed hundreds of homes, submitted a formal submission to the NSW Government Coal and Gas Strategy and more.

Over 200,000 people live, work and play within 2km of the gas exploration site in St Peters.

ARE YOU ONE OF THEM?

The engineer who reported on serious flaws in body scanner technology now reports that journalists are being warned not to cover the story.

I’ve been on the phone all day for the last 2 days with reporters and journalists of all kinds, including the big bad MSM, and one South Florida reporter told me that he had been “strongly cautioned” by the TSA not to cover my viral YouTube video showing TSA nude body scanners to be completely worthless. Absolutely unbelievable:

Update: The name of the TSA spokeswoman who attempted to intimidate this journalist is Sari Koshetz.

Update 2: Second journalist comes forward in comments on this post: SmarterTravel March 8, 2012 at 3:34 pm | #11 Reply | Quote | Edit We were also “strongly cautioned” not to cover the story. We did anyway at SmarterTravel: http://tinyurl.com/7te5wj8

The TSA is clearly no fan of the 4th Amendment, nor of 5th Amendment due process rights, and now this blatant attempt to manipulate the free press with “strong caution” hits at Amendment the First. Why strong caution? Are there repercussions for journalists that fail to heed this “advice?” Because, you know, if I were a member of the free press and the federal government asked me to censor myself, I’d happily comply . . . . . . . . . riiight.

I have news for the federal government: Americans will not take censorship in any form. We thought we made this clear when you tried to force SOPA on us.

So what should we do about this? If you’re a journalist who has received any kind of similar warning, please contact me. Everyone else, please take a moment to contact your local mainstream media outlets (Fox, ABC, NBC, CNN, etc.) to request that they cover the original story. The Internet has been absolutely amazing as have large alternative programs (Alex Jones, for example) and I do believe that we have successfully spread the word. But, if the TSA doesn’t want the MSM to cover it, there’s probably a reason, so let’s take the battle there!

This document and video presentation outlines steps you can take right now to help put a stop to the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which poses a serious threat to our freedom and national sovereignty. For additional information and links on ACTA, please click here.

We need a new approach, whereby we take back government from the elite’s stooges and appointees – grassroots campaigns whereby we go to visit our Local Members with a carefully prepared plan, limited to a maximum of ten point plan to tell them why we find something unacceptable.  What I mean is don’t go in with voluminous documents except as reference documents.  Let the politicians know that this reference material is not part of the presentation.

The Most Effective Strategy is to actually visit your Local MP in person to make representations as to why we should not ratify ACTA.

How to find your Local Federal MP
If you are unsure in which electorate you reside, then, try visiting the Australian Electoral Commission Website at http://apps.aec.gov.au/esearch/.
in order to ascertain this information. 

What to Do About Getting an Appointment
Ring your Local Federal MP’s office and make an appointment to see them.  Suppose that you are told that they are unable to see you, then, don’t be deterred, ask to see the appropriate member of their staff. 

Prepare a Ten Point Plan
Do not go into visit your Local MP with a voluminous document complaining about ACTA because it will not be read!  Instead prepare a careful ten point plan that sets out the problems with ACTA in summary but do make sure that you reference every point and do take in the reference material with you.  If your MP, or their staff member asks for a copy of this or access to this reference material, then, give them a copy. 

Do be polite but let your Local Member know that you are very concerned about the impact that ACTA will have on our society and that you are only prepared to support a candidate who will vote against ACTA being implemented. 

Politics is a numbers’ game!
If every electorate in Australia receives ten visits, then, that will be sufficient to let our politicians know that we don’t want ACTA ratified.  Not many politicians have a death wish and visits of this magnitude will convince them that the policy is not only unpopular but that supporting it is political suicide.  Get your friends to do likewise.  Make this information go viral!  Urge everyone on your email contacts’ list to do the same.

ACTA 10 Point Plan – Point Form Only

Download the FULL 10 POINT PLAN: click here

• The Stated Aims of ACTA do not stand up to scrutiny
• There is no necessity for ACTA as there are already remedies available for breach of copyright and Trade Mark violations
• ACTA makes it possible to bypass the judicial system of this country
• If a warrant is issued against someone in your household then every computer in your place will be seized
• ACTA provides for a custodial sentence for the unauthorized copying of cinematographic films:  This is manifestly excessive!
• ACTA necessitates the Principle of Excessive Surveillance
• ACTA will make criminals out of an estimated 25% of Net users
• The Claims about Net Piracy Are Flawed
• We do not know how foreign law is to apply as regards extradition?
• ACTA was negotiated in secret with public consultation
• The Dirty Secret of the Copyright Lobby is that is that the very people who are trying to make criminals of those who upload or download copyright material are the very same people who have made a fortune out of file sharing software! 
• ACTA may well prevent you getting the vitamins, minerals and alternative medicine you want
• ACTA may well prevent you watching sport when you want to watch sport
   

The Transportation Security Administration has tacitly admitted that the critical flaws brought to light in a viral You Tube video yesterday which exposed how airport body scanners could easily be beaten are accurate, rendering the entire $1 billion dollar program virtually worthless.

Engineer Jon Corbett of the popular blog TSA Out of Our Pants! posted a video yesterday that demonstrates how the TSA’s radiation firing body scanners can easily be bypassed. The clip has already received over 700,000 views.

The video shows Corbett carrying a metal case through the scanner, away from his body in his side pocket. Corbett explains that because metallic objects appear as black on the image the scanners produce, the machines do not pick up such objects if they are obscured by the background, which is also black.

The video went viral and despite You Tube slapping an age-restricted censor on the clip, the story was picked up by dozens of major news outlets, forcing the TSA to respond.

On the TSA’s official blog, the agency attempts to discredit Corbett by describing him as “some guy” who launched a “crude attempt to allegedly show how to circumvent TSA screening procedures.”

However, nowhere in the response does the TSA actually address or attempt to disprove Corbett’s demonstration that the body scanner can be easily fooled.

In labeling Corbett’s successful effort to evade the body scanner as “crude,” the TSA has inadvertently admitted that its $1 billion dollar body scanner system can be defeated by “crude” methods.

Body scanners are “one layer of our 20 layers of security,” the blog states, before adding, “our nation’s aviation system is much safer now with the deployment of 600 imaging technology units at 140 airports.”

Obviously, it is not safer if these 600 units can all be rendered useless merely by placing an object inside a pocket sown on to the side of a shirt.

Illustrating how insufficient the TSA’s response is in disproving Corbett’s evidence, the comments in response to the blog post completely savage the federal agency.

“Beautiful, so instead of posting anything to refute the video and/or support it. You give us the old soft shoe and call it good. Sorry, not good enough, if someone has figured out how to bypass the screening. Then this is a cause for concern,” writes one.

“So, TSA detects an artfully concealed item, and it makes that detection a part of its weekly brag report, saying “look how wonderful AIT is, it caught this”. But then when ordinary people find a way to smuggle contraband past a checkpoint, TSA’s response is “oh, that’s not important, because we have other layers, too. Either AIT is important, or it’s not. Which is it, TSA?” asks another.

“This was such a carefully worded blog post that one can safely conclude that the vulnerability described in the video is true,” adds another.

Almost all of the 60 odd comments made in response to the TSA blog post are critical of the agency and express the belief that Corbett’s video has completely destroyed the justification behind body scanners.

During a press conference yesterday, Janet Napolitano was asked about the viral video but stated she had no knowledge of it. Napolitano has probably heard of it by now given the fact that it could represent the final nail in the coffin for the TSA’s expensive, unpopular and completely useless body scanner program.