When a Former Government Official Pushes Something, Look to See how He Benefits

The former government official is Michael Chertoff, former head of the DBP. The technology he has been pushing has been the full body scanners:

Michael Chertoff, who was homeland security secretary from 2005 to 2009, said terrorists appear to have exploited the natural inhibition of screeners to conduct overly intrusive searches, and he renewed calls for widespread expansion of whole-body imaging scanners that use radio waves or X-rays to reveal objects beneath a person's clothes.

What he is more reluctant to talk about, of course, is that Rapi-scan, one of the makers of those scanners, is one of his clients.

Chertoff isn't appearing as an expert on airport security when he discusses full body scanners; he is appearing as a paid pitchman. When you see Chertoff talking about body scanners, think of what the infomercial would look like (starring the late Billy Mays, of course) and you will have the full flavor of what is going on.