vendredi 8 janvier 2010

Jour 974

Baissez-vous et toussez

Reuters, le 8 janvier 2010 :

"Les scanners corporels dans les aéroports français seront utilisés d'abord pour les contrôles de passagers à destination des Etats-Unis, a déclaré vendredi le secrétaire d'Etat aux Transports, Dominique Bussereau. Le gouvernement a annoncé cette semaine un durcissement des mesures de sécurité dans les aéroports, à la suite de la tentative d'attentat sur un vol entre Amsterdam et Detroit le 25 décembre dernier, et notamment l'introduction des scanners."

Très bien, alors un peu d'histoire pour commencer, le parlement européen en octobre 2008 :

"MEPs condemned the use of body scanners at airports Thursday [...] The use of body scanners at airports is "equivalent to a virtual strip search" and "has a serious impact on the right to privacy...and personal dignity"."

Depuis, il y eu un "attentat manqué" qui a un tout petit peu changé la donne, par hasard ? Un attentat où :

_le terroriste était déjà connu des services de sécurité
_n' a jamais été inquiété (à titre d'exemple un avion d'Air france s'est vu refusé le survol du territoire américain parce qu'un journaliste du Monde Diplomatique se trouvait à bord).
_est monté dans l'avion sans être contrôlé, sans passeport, accompagné par un homme en costume.

Certainement, des coïncidences malheureuses...


Et au fait, qui fabrique ces scanners ?

Pacific Free Press, 5 janvier 2010 :

"The body scanner is sure to get a go-ahead because of the illustrious personages hawking them. Chief among them is former DHS [Department of Homeland Security] secretary Michael Chertoff, who now heads the Chertoff Group, which represents one of the leading manufacturers of whole-body-imaging machines, Rapiscan Systems. For days after the attack, Chertoff made the rounds on the media promoting the scanners, calling the bombing attempt "a very vivid lesson in the value of that machinery"—all without disclosing his relationship to Rapiscan [...] In the summer, the Transportation Security Administration purchased 150 machines from Rapiscan with $25 million"

De plus, comme l'a déja signalé Time Magazine :

"One of the main criticisms of the scanners [...] is that they cannot detect low-density materials such as powders, liquids, thin pieces of plastic or anything that resembles skin. Nor can they detect any explosives concealed internally. Some politicians and aviation experts have questioned whether the scanners would have detected the powder that Abdulmutallab carried on board Northwest Flight 253. Ben Wallace, a British Conservative Parliament member who was involved in a defense firm's testing of the technology, said over the weekend that the scanners probably wouldn't have picked up the powder."

Le plus drôle, grâce au Guardian, le 4 janvier 2010 :

"The rapid introduction of full body scanners at British airports threatens to breach child protection laws which ban the creation of indecent images of children, the Guardian has learned. [...] The decision followed a warning from Terri Dowty, of Action for Rights of Children, that the scanners could breach the Protection of Children Act 1978, under which it is illegal to create an indecent image or a "pseudo-image" of a child."

Le moins drôle c'est que les états-unis commencent à s'intéresser de très près au Yemen, comme le précise Reuters, le 21 avril 2009 :

"Yemen has received investment offers from oil majors including Exxon Mobil Corp and Total [...] Yemen's Ministry for Oil and Mineral Resources has received eight oil investment bids from international companies, pan-Arab daily al-Hayat quoted Aidarous as saying, four of which were from oil majors seeking direct negotiations with Yemen. The companies include Exxon Mobil, Total, and BP, the minister said, but did not elaborate on the nature of the investments. [...] Yemen exports about 200,000 barrels of oil per day."

Une petite bombe qui va coûter cher et faire très mal.