“…the lobbying contracts of the major distributors of the full-body scanners show a network of lobbyists deeply connected in Washington. For instance, L-3 Communications hired former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) who was once on the Commission on Aviation Security under President George H.W. Bush.”

At the risk of turning this blog’s focus too much at the TSA, the interesting post quoted above from opensecrets.org details the lobby groups behind the installation of AIT machines at American airports.  W.C. Varones goes further (bolding is their own):

Michael Chertoff, while he was the Head of Homeland Security under Bush, advocated and pushed for installation and implementation of these new full-body scanners at our airports. Once he was out of “public service”, Chertoff’s consulting company (Read: Lobbying Company) landed as a client (Surprise!), Rapsican, the company that makes the scanners.

The US government is plagued by lobbying, and it appears that our rights as Sikhs and Americans are being trampled by vested interests associated with our government.