Michael Chertoff, former Homeland Security chief who released Israelis who filmed the 9-11 attack and who promotes full-body scanners, represensts the primary company that sells them

Michael Chertoff, former head of Homeland Security, has close Israeli ties and may have Israeli citizenship. Chertoff was in charge of Homeland Security when the five Israelis who had filmed the 9-11 action and were seen celebrating were released. Investigative reporter Christopher Ketcham reports in CounterPunch :

Following what ABC News reported were "high-level negotiations between Israeli and U.S. government officials", a settlement was reached in the case of the five Urban Moving Systems suspects. Intense political pressure apparently had been brought to bear. The reputable Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that by the last week of October 2001, some six weeks after the men had been detained, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and two unidentified "prominent New York congressmen" were lobbying heavily for their release. According to a source at ABC News close to the 20/20 report, high-profile criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz also stepped in as a negotiator on behalf of the men to smooth out differences with the U.S. government. (Dershowitz declined to comment for this article.) And so, at the end of November 2001, for reasons that only noted they had been working in the country illegally as movers, in violation of their visas, the men were flown home to Israel. (pdf version)

Journalist Michael Scott reports:

...One of the primary advocates for the use of body scanners or the more politically correct 'advanced imaging technology' (AIT), is former DHS head Michael Chertoff. Secretary Chertoff's advocacy of body scanners dates back to at least 2005. After leaving DHS, Chertoff founded the Chertoff Group, a consultancy firm whose corporate logo is an iron spiked closing portcullis.

The Chertoff Group represents the primary manufacturer of body scanners, Rapiscan, which is set to make billions of dollars off the sale and maintenance of the body scanners. In the days after the attempted underwear bombing, Chertoff made the rounds on the cable news talk shows where he stressed the necessity of deploying body scanners. Of course Chertoff failed to disclose the fact that his company represented Rapiscan. Chertoff is not alone in having conflicting interests: a competing manufacturer of body scan systems, American Science and Technology, has retained the services of two former TSA administrators who are now acting as lobbyists. Read more

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