Body scanning influence round-up

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1) According to USA Today, companies manufacturing the body scanning devices of recent controversy had doubled their lobbying spending over the past five years.

2) The Hill reports on the lobbying of Linda Daschle, wife of ex-Sen. Tom Daschle, on behalf of the scanning companies. Daschle, “Lobbyists are not the problem. Terrorists are the ones who can do harm to innocent victims.”

3) The CEO of the parent company of Rapiscan (yes, the actual name of the company making body scanning machines could be mispronounced as Rape-i-scan) was a big donor to President Obama’s 2008 election campaign, according to Tim Carney.

4) From a few days ago comes this report from the Christian Science Monitor on the history of the scanning machines.