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Government using Spam Mail.........?
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Is the government using spam mail to tell us how exactly they are dealing with potential terrorist threats in airports? Today i recieved my usual
amount of spam mail, everything from paris hilton to free prescription medicine. I thought i had delted the lot, and started to sift thru some of my
"proper" mail. Being half asleep and not really concentrating very hard, i opened a mail talking about how to make yourself look younger (if i
looked any younger i would be getting asked i.d for PG rated films lol). However to my surprise i found something else below the link(complete email
follows):
From : Appearence Changes
Sent : 05 June 2002 22:56:17
To :
Subject : In Days
| | Inbox
Now You Can Look and Feel Better!
http://(removedthelink)
More than two years after the hijackings that prompted a new U.S. air security
system, the government has been unable to decide on a new technology that could
prevent terrorists from sneaking explosives into airline cabins.
Airport security officials have circulated several alerts to airport directors
and security screeners across the country this year, warning that terrorists
might try to get explosives or bombs through security checkpoints inside items
such as cameras, cell phones and stuffed animals, or inside the linings of
jackets and pillows.
Several technology companies say they make systems that could thwart such
tactics. But the companies say the Transportation Security Administration has
been slow to review their products.
TSA officials say they have been reviewing more than 30,000 proposals submitted
by private companies, testing some in laboratories and rejecting many because
the suggested devices are too big to be installed in U.S. airports. The
proposals include such things as screens that can see through a person's
clothing and access systems that allow people to enter doors by pressing their
palms on a machine.
"You can have the latest gadget to detect a single threat, but then you'd have
to remove all of your metal detectors, all your screeners" to make room for it,
TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said.
Since 2001, the TSA has spent more than $1 billion to install machines that test
checked luggage for explosives. Most of those devices, which use existing
technology, scan passengers' bags at ticket counters.
Congress mandated that airports install machines to test checked luggage for
explosives by Dec. 31, 2002, but issued no such deadlines for checking
passengers and carry-on luggage. Still, some lawmakers and aviation security
experts say the agency could have moved sooner to address the threat posed at
the checkpoint by terrorists like Richard C. Reid, the British citizen who was
convicted of trying to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes during a flight in
2001.
Terrorists have succeeded in sneaking explosives past checkpoints outside the
United States. In 1994, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef brought bomb materials on board a
Philippine Airlines flight, assembled a device in the lavatory and left it on a
timer under a seat when he departed. The bomb killed a passenger on the next
flight and blew a hole in the cabin. The plane landed safely. Yousef is in U.S.
custody for masterminding the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and for
plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995.
U.S. security checkpoints do have some bomb-detecting machines but they are not
used routinely on every passenger, nor are they used to scan for explosives on
passengers' bodies. Screeners use them both randomly and on passengers who are
flagged for additional screening. The machines sometimes fail to find
well-hidden explosives, say security experts.
Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure's aviation subcommittee, said the TSA has hurt itself with
misguided priorities and by cutting its own research and development budget. Of
the $226 million set aside for research and development in the last two years,
36 percent was diverted for other purposes such as general TSA operations,
paying contractors, and even a technology project for another agency, TSA
records show.
Mica said that, for example, it was a waste for the TSA to buy new metal
detectors for every airport in the nation. "That money should have been spent
first on new technology. The latest metal-detection equipment they've deployed
is only marginally better than the previous and does nothing to detect
explosives," he said.
The TSA's chief technology officer, Randy Null, said the metal detectors at
airports in September 2001 could not detect metal across a person's entire body
and could not detect metal in someone's shoes.
"We find much smaller objects now" with the new detectors, Null said, as well as
a wider range of weapons.
Null said the agency plans to budget $155 million for research and development
this year. He said research and development investment fell behind as the
agency's priority was to meet congressional deadlines for employing a new
workforce of more than 48,000 federal airport screeners, and for inspecting
checked luggage for explosives.
(email ends here)
-------
What is most strange is that the send date was 5 june 2002, and not supposed to be for my address (although i think this is how spam works..)
Is the government sublimally trying to tell us whats going on, or have spam mailers decided to join the war against terror? Comments appreciated.
[Edited on 8-12-2003 by BloodAngel]
From : Appearence Changes
Sent : 05 June 2002 22:56:17
To :
Subject : In Days
| | Inbox
Now You Can Look and Feel Better!
http://(removedthelink)
More than two years after the hijackings that prompted a new U.S. air security
system, the government has been unable to decide on a new technology that could
prevent terrorists from sneaking explosives into airline cabins.
Airport security officials have circulated several alerts to airport directors
and security screeners across the country this year, warning that terrorists
might try to get explosives or bombs through security checkpoints inside items
such as cameras, cell phones and stuffed animals, or inside the linings of
jackets and pillows.
Several technology companies say they make systems that could thwart such
tactics. But the companies say the Transportation Security Administration has
been slow to review their products.
TSA officials say they have been reviewing more than 30,000 proposals submitted
by private companies, testing some in laboratories and rejecting many because
the suggested devices are too big to be installed in U.S. airports. The
proposals include such things as screens that can see through a person's
clothing and access systems that allow people to enter doors by pressing their
palms on a machine.
"You can have the latest gadget to detect a single threat, but then you'd have
to remove all of your metal detectors, all your screeners" to make room for it,
TSA spokesman Brian Turmail said.
Since 2001, the TSA has spent more than $1 billion to install machines that test
checked luggage for explosives. Most of those devices, which use existing
technology, scan passengers' bags at ticket counters.
Congress mandated that airports install machines to test checked luggage for
explosives by Dec. 31, 2002, but issued no such deadlines for checking
passengers and carry-on luggage. Still, some lawmakers and aviation security
experts say the agency could have moved sooner to address the threat posed at
the checkpoint by terrorists like Richard C. Reid, the British citizen who was
convicted of trying to ignite explosives hidden in his shoes during a flight in
2001.
Terrorists have succeeded in sneaking explosives past checkpoints outside the
United States. In 1994, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef brought bomb materials on board a
Philippine Airlines flight, assembled a device in the lavatory and left it on a
timer under a seat when he departed. The bomb killed a passenger on the next
flight and blew a hole in the cabin. The plane landed safely. Yousef is in U.S.
custody for masterminding the World Trade Center bombing in 1993 and for
plotting to blow up a dozen U.S. airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1995.
U.S. security checkpoints do have some bomb-detecting machines but they are not
used routinely on every passenger, nor are they used to scan for explosives on
passengers' bodies. Screeners use them both randomly and on passengers who are
flagged for additional screening. The machines sometimes fail to find
well-hidden explosives, say security experts.
Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure's aviation subcommittee, said the TSA has hurt itself with
misguided priorities and by cutting its own research and development budget. Of
the $226 million set aside for research and development in the last two years,
36 percent was diverted for other purposes such as general TSA operations,
paying contractors, and even a technology project for another agency, TSA
records show.
Mica said that, for example, it was a waste for the TSA to buy new metal
detectors for every airport in the nation. "That money should have been spent
first on new technology. The latest metal-detection equipment they've deployed
is only marginally better than the previous and does nothing to detect
explosives," he said.
The TSA's chief technology officer, Randy Null, said the metal detectors at
airports in September 2001 could not detect metal across a person's entire body
and could not detect metal in someone's shoes.
"We find much smaller objects now" with the new detectors, Null said, as well as
a wider range of weapons.
Null said the agency plans to budget $155 million for research and development
this year. He said research and development investment fell behind as the
agency's priority was to meet congressional deadlines for employing a new
workforce of more than 48,000 federal airport screeners, and for inspecting
checked luggage for explosives.
(email ends here)
-------
What is most strange is that the send date was 5 june 2002, and not supposed to be for my address (although i think this is how spam works..)
Is the government sublimally trying to tell us whats going on, or have spam mailers decided to join the war against terror? Comments appreciated.
[Edited on 8-12-2003 by BloodAngel]
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