Julia Davis

 We’ve all been told that the whole body scanners are being implemented for our own good. We’ve been assured that our misapprehensions were unfounded. Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate that it has been likened it to a virtual strip search. Technologies vary, with millimeter wave systems capturing fuzzier images, and backscatter X-ray machines able to show precise anatomical detail. During Department of Homeland Security hearings, Janet Napolitano assured the Congress (and this writer who was present at the hearing) that all images collected by the full body scanners are not stored, cannot be stored and are discarded as soon as they're viewed. Just last summer the Transportation Security Administration claimed that " scanned images cannot be stored or recorded ." Privacy advocates (including yours truly) cried foul. Turns out, they were right. Yet again we’ve been lied to by the government. Of course, as usual, the official ta...

With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, what do you do if you’re growing tired of your pregnant wife? How about arranging for a fake deportation? This bizarre plan was recently carried out to fruition in California, in plain sight of law enforcement officials. In the process, the perpetrator brazenly penetrated TSA’s security at the San Diego International Airport, in spite of security improvements after the attempted Christmas Day bombing. All it took was a few simple props and oodles of chutzpah. On January 15, 2010, Gregory Raymond Denny, Jr., a 37-year-old California man, barged into the Hemet residence of his cousin Craig Hibbard and his wife Cherriebelle. Posing as a federal officer with a gun and a badge, Denny handcuffed five months pregnant Cherriebelle. He claimed to possess a deportation order issued by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), but did not produce any immigration paperwork. Denny marched the woman out of the house in handcuffs and drove her to the ...