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Manufacturers of the lead vests used in dental offices to shield patients from x-rays may have a new source of revenue, thanks to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Courtesy of the never-ending War on Terror, intrepid DHS bureaucrats have now deployed more than 500 mobile x-ray vans. The vans drive up to suspicious looking objects, vehicles, houses, or individuals, and zaps them with a focused stream of X-rays. Technicians then analyze the reflection of the x-rays (the backscatter) to determine if explosives, drugs, or other contraband substances are present.
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Most of the vans are deployed outside the United States in the various and sundry wars in which we have chosen to involve ourselves. But not all of them one might be rolling through your neighborhood, right now, surreptitiously zapping your teenage daughter to make certain shes not a suicide bomber.
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That might not be as uncommon as you might think. This technology is similar to that deployed in the infamous full-body scanners used to produce full-body and anatomically correct images of passengers.
Not so coincidentally, it turns out that full-body scanners are useless to protect against their purported target terrorists carrying bombs into airplanes. I can overcome the body scanners with enough explosives to bring down a Boeing 747, the former chief security officer at the Israel Airport Authority recently testified. Thats why we havent put them in our airport.
So, whats the rush to employ full-body scanners or backscatter x-ray mobile vans? Well, maybe it is to check out your teenage daughter and not for drugs or bombs.
Maybe its time for a lead vest after all if not for you, for her.
October 21, 2010
Mark Nestmann is a journalist with more than 20 years of investigative experience and is a charter member of The Sovereign Society's Council of Experts. He has authored over a dozen books and many additional reports on wealth preservation, privacy and offshore investing. Mark serves as president of his own international consulting firm, The Nestmann Group, Ltd. The Nestmann Group provides international wealth preservation services for high-net worth individuals. Mark is an Associate Member of the American Bar Association (member of subcommittee on Foreign Activities of U.S. Taxpayers, Committee on Taxation) and member of the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2005, he was awarded a Masters of Laws (LL.M) degree in international tax law at the Vienna (Austria) University of Economics and Business Administration.