Aiport Body Scanners: Who Profits?

As the nation scrambles to recollect itself after the near-miss terrorist attack on Christmas Day by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, possible infringements on our rights of privacy are slipping by on noticed, and certain people have the potential to profit from it.

On December 25th, Umar Abdulmutallab was stopped by a passenger and airline several crew members as he attempted to detonate explosives that were inside his trousers - smuggled on the aircraft inside his underwear.

Enter Michael Chertoff, the son of Livia Eisen, a rumoured Mossad agent who had been involved in the "Operation Magic Carpet" that airlifted 49,000 Yemenite Jews to the newly formed State of Israel. Chertoff has existed in the upper echelons of American politics since 1990, when George Bush Sr. appointed him as U.S. Attorney for the District New Jersey, a job he held until 1994 when he took a job at the global law firm of Latham & Watkins. Latham & Watkins is renowned for their representation of companies such as Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs.

In 2001, along with former Assistant Attorney General of the United States Viet Dinh, Chertoff would co-author the USA PATRIOT Act, and in 2005 George Bush would appoint him as the United States Secretary of Homeland Security, the head of the Department of Homeland Security. He would maintain this position until January 21st, 2009. These are all the well known facts about Michael Chertoff. But there are some lesser known facts about him as well.

Chertoff has triumphantly returned in the media since the would-be bomber scorched his underwear on Flight 253 through a slew of interviews and opinion pieces, the majority of which promote a single cause: the US government needs to invest in full body scanners, and invest in them quickly!

Michael Chertoff's history with full body scanners for airport safety is nothing new. In 2005, under his supervision, DHS purchased five scanners from the California based company Rapiscan Systems, which specializes in metal detectors and x-ray machines. In the same year, Homeland Security also awarded the company a $2.7 million contract for the development of a Radiological Threat Identification System (RTIS), in order to detect dangerous radioactivity inside passenger luggage. Three years later, in 2008, the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan named Rapiscan the 2008 North American Homeland Security Inspection and Screening Company of the Year, and soon TSA would purchase one hundred and fifty machines to be used in airports. Now, as Obama denounces intelligence failures and Chertoff's cheerleading for full body scanners is splashed across the television screen, the TSA has quietly stated that it plans to purchase three hundred more scanners from DHS's golden boy. And it would have remained quiet, if Washington Post hadn't ran an article on January 1st, 2010, that revealed the former DHS head's security consulting agency, Chertoff Group, had Rapiscan on it's client list.

"Mr. Chertoff should not be allowed to abuse the trust the public has placed in him as a former public servant to privately gain from the sale of full-body scanners under the pretense that the scanners would have detected this particular type of explosive," says Kate Hanni of FlyersRights.org, an organization that opposes the use of full body scanners in the airport.

The Washington Post article goes on the mention that a New York based company called L-3 Communications has been qualified to supply the body scanners to airports, but whether or not this will happen has yet to be seen. A quick look, however, through L-3's history seems to indicate the answer will be "yes."

L-3 was formed in 1997 by Frank C. Lanza and Robert V. LaPenta in conjunction with Lockheed Martin and Lehman Brothers, intended to be "supplier of choice for prime contractors. In establishing the company, several advanced electronics businesses were purchased that were part of the Lockheed Martin, Loral Corporation merger that occurred in 1996. Also purchased from Lockheed Martin was a division located in Camden, NJ that had been part of GE." Keep in mind that Lockheed Martin is a recipient of a $120 million contract to run immigration call centers. In 2000 and 2002 L-3 acquired portions from Raytheon, the fifth largest defense arms manufacturer in the world who works alongside Lockheed Martin in the field of border control. According to the Washington Post, Raytheon is so closely tied to the CIA and NSA that they are "virtually indistinguishable" from one another.

In 2005 L-3 acquired the Titan Corporation, a communications company with a long history of activity in the US government: in 2003 they were given $112.1 million for translation service for the FBI, DEA and Secret Service, in 2005 they received $163.9 from US Army Space and Missile Defense Command to "to provide a full range of planning, analysis, exercise, and information technology services for Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosive (CBRNE) Consequence Management operations," and in 2006 they would get a $350 million five year contract from DHS for support in the National Exercise Program. Two Titan company employees, Adel Nakhia and John Israel, would be involved in the Abu Ghraib scandal.

Another acquisition of L-3 is Military Professional Resources Inc. (MPRI), founded in 1987 by retired Army General Vernon Lewis, on the idea that the end of the Cold War would be marked with a decline in the armed forces. They also have a long history of government contracts: in 2003 they were given two contracts worth $2.5 million by the Defense Department to work in Iraq and in 2008 an additional $300 million for another three years of operation in Iraq and Afghanistan. MPRI is also part of the Civilian Police International, LLC, a task force formed in 2004 to support the State Department in international law enforcement. The other companies involved in this joint venture, dedicated to bringing "new discipline, new efficiencies and new responsiveness to the [International Police Task Force] IPTF program." include AGS, which has worked with L-3 Communications in the Department of Justice's asset forfeiture program, Kellog, Brown & Root, a former subsidiary of the notorious Halliburton, and Wackenhut, a private security and investigation company that is rumoured to be a CIA front company.

One piece at a time our rights, our privacy and our lives are being sold off to private corporations in the name of safety.