L-3 Communications, which sold $40 million in scanners to TSA, doubled its lobbyist spending in the last five years and hired several high-profile former government officials to advance its cause in Washington.
Deepak Chopra, Chairman and CEO of OSI Systems, Inc., whose subsidiary Rapiscan Systems makes one of the most commonly used backscatter x-ray machines, accompanied President Barack Obama to Mumbai and attended the US India Business Entrepreneurship meeting, which was held by the US India Business Council. The government has spent almost $42 million with Rapiscan Systems and lobbying expenses by that company also were 5X. They even hired Michael Chertoff , the second Secretary of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush.
A Utah Congressman is proposing legislation to use the 'porno scanners' only as a back up but you can't thank Republicans for caring more about privacy if it goes through - there are just as many Republican lobbyists working for these industries as Democrats.
The big question people have for science is can these machines give you cancer? Dr. Mike White has that answer.
