Ah yes, MIT Lincoln Lab, from where originated two years ago a ham fixated on buying a handheld radio from me at a flea market who basically harassed me into lowering the price, by returning to the table every 5 minutes like a nut. He was ignoring my protestations that it was nearly new, and that my father had just died taking his pension with him. Sure I could have said no. He could have said yes.
He was Jewish. The ham, not my father, as far as I know. Sorry. Whatever.
He then made me show him how to use it for 45 minutes. Do you want this upper level employee with a PhD running your life through their technology if he can't read a ham radio instruction manual ?
Science has been relegated to people like the eventual math major and actuary I went to high school with that would flail his arms and say "why's it matter," about the Constitution, such was the nearly autistic world he lived in.
Imagine my utter joy to read that Dr. Gregory L. Charvet, N8ZRY, isn't getting this little Fourth Amendment issue, either. His web site is here.
Men more read than most of us put together devised this protection from the juvenile doctor's clutches:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Then there are the military officers and security pretenders who say they serve you, but who earn over $100,000 a year before they move on or retire to take jobs for multiples of that in allied industry.
He protests ad nauseum throughout the article, that the device is for military use.
The law (and I seem to remember we are governed by written laws here passed by the legislative branches) says in the
Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C. § 1385)
Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Don't expect to see the TWIR out on the streets, at least not anytime soon. It's being pitched solely for military use in urban war zones.
Charvet did say he and his colleagues think that perhaps a version of this technology could be very useful in finding people stuck in rubble in the event of a natural disaster or even a terrorist attack but right now the plan is for military use.
Chertoff's clients have prospered in the last two years, largely through lucrative government contracts, and The Chertoff Group's assistance in navigating the complex federal procurement bureaucracy is in high demand. One example involves the company at the heart of the recent uproar over intrusive airport security procedures -- Rapiscan, which makes the so-called body scanners. Back in 2005, Chertoff was promoting the technology and Homeland Security placed the government's first order, buying five Rapiscan scanners.
SPQR
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