The company Stockwell keeps.

When I read Dr. Prole's description of the new virtual strip-search device being tested at Kelowna International Airport I knew I had read about this system well over a year ago being tested in the US. Sure enough, I waded into the wayback machine and found this posting from December 2006.

On closer comparison however, I realized that they are actually two different devices. The system being tested in Phoenix Arizona's, Sky Harbor International Airport is actually an x-ray backscatter system, different from the millimeter wave system being tested in Kelowna.

I did think it worth looking at Sky Harbor International to see how the backscatter test was working out. Well look at that. Sky Harbor International now has both backscatter and millimeter wave full body scanners in operation. And the millimeter wave scanner is identical to the one now deployed in Kelowna.

I thought it a little odd, (although not shatteringly so), that the description of the operations, procedures and even the equipment trials were virtually identical between the two airports: one in the U.S. and one in Canada where the privacy laws differ.

It leads to one common point. The supplier of the millimeter wave full body scanners in both Kelowna and Phoenix is the same - L3 Communications. And it leads to the conclusion that L3 developed the procedures for both airports, including the marketing effort to downplay legitimate privacy concerns. It is too much of a coincidence that CBC reporting on Kelowna's equipment, USA Today reporting on Phoenix and the US Transportation Safety Agency's excusatory description of their whole body imaging process would all read the same and provide identical assurances and alternatives.

And then there is the curious choice of supplier. L3 Communications is not some third-floor Canadian company with an idea and a marketing plan. No. L3 Communications is a Manhattan-based Fortune-500 corporation, well entrenched in the US military-industrial complex with a deep connection to private military contracting in the Iraq war.

L3 owns Military Professional Resources Incorporated (MPRI), (acquired in 2000), which, while described as a Private Military Company, is nothing less than a mercenary group. They also own Government Services Incorporated (GSI), a private intelligence company with personnel spread out through the Middle-East at 22 US bases. Add Titan corporation to the mix. They provide interrogators and interpreters to the US military along with security and intelligence services. And through Titan, L3 is connected to detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib, although L3 did not purchase Titan until after the details of torture were disclosed. (It should be noted that when Titan's involvement in Abu Ghraib became public other companies offering to buy Titan withdrew their bids. Only L3's offer remained.)

While L3 is firmly ensconced in the Pentagon's intelligence efforts, it also seems to have a solid position with the Bush administration in other areas. Working through various subsidiaries, L3 has managed to acquire Pentagon contracts even though they have been hauled up to answer for failure to perform and failure to deliver. In fact, one contract in Iraq brought the company under criminal investigation for:

... concealing test failures and providing flawed parts for emergency radios used by Special Forces and Air Force teams in Iraq and elsewhere.

The next trip to answer for non-performance came when it was revealed that a major component of the US border security system simply did not work. The company involved, IMC, through what appears to have been a "no-bid" contract, was suppose to have installed and tested the equipment for the US Remote Video Surveillance Program on the US side of the Canadian and Mexican borders. When the DHS Inspector General reviewed the installation it was discovered that the system did not function, much of the work had not been done and was wrapped in an agreement which violated federal contracting rules. IMC is a wholly owned subsidiary of L3.

So the involvement of the Canadian government with this firm raises questions. L3 is clearly a war profiteer and benefits from the largess of the Bush administration with "no-bid" contracts. What started out as a high-tech security company has evolved to develop its own dark side with involvement in the worst of US military scandals. Its failure to deliver the material and training to the US Border Patrol on a major project is bad enough, but the fact that the investigation into the affair was suddenly dropped, without conclusions, raises further questions. And then there's this coincidence:

... the manager of the border security project was Rebecca Reyes, who is now director of policy, procedures and administration at L-3 subsidiary, MPRI. She also happens to be the daughter of Silvestre Reyes, a member of the U.S. Congress from Texas, a former Border Patrol agent who is now a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees of the House of Representatives.

Yeah, well, that was then; this is now.

The "now" is that Canada's Public Safety Minister is courting a US war profiteer with an ugly track record. Sure, it's only $200,000 per copy for L3's ProVision remote strip-search device. Sure the company has provided assurances that a person's privacy will not be violated because the process keeps them anonymous.

That, along with other guarantees they have failed to make good on.

And if you think it stops with having some stranger look at a detailed picture of your naked body during an airport screening, think again. Millimeter wave technology already has the capability to do wide area scans. Do you think they're going to stop with a silly tubular booth?