Radiation firing body scanners are set to be used by events organizers during the Olympics in London as part of a huge security lockdown from 27 July to 12 August.
Event Magazine reports that promotion company Live Nation, organizer of the London Live series of events scheduled during the games, will work in conjunction with police to conduct airport-style security checks that could take up to an hour.
The body scanners, along with bag scanners will be temporarily installed at the entrances to Hyde Park and Victoria Park, where organizers plan to broadcast the games on big screens and hold several music concerts.
John Probyn, chief operating officer for Live Nation, said: “The security services will search the sites a couple of days before we open and then we have to vouch for every person, item and every piece of equipment from that point on, so it effectively becomes a sealed site.”
“Every person entering the site, including crew and artists, will either pass through a scanner or be searched,” he said.
“I’m hoping our staff will have more smiles on their faces than the staff you get greeted by at some airports,” Probyn added.
The use of body scanners at large public events is now on the increase, following the precedent set by the Department of Homeland Security employing the machines at The Super Bowl in February.
As we have tirelessly recounted, studies conducted by prestigious universities and health authorities have warned that the machines could lead to serious health problems.
In addition, recent exposure has revealed that the scanners are fundamentally flawed, backing up assertions by some security experts that the machines do not offer an increased level of security.
Last week the London Guardian reported that the Olympics will see a lockdown representing the biggest mobilization of military and security forces since the second world war.
13,500 troops will be deployed in London, more than are currently at war in Afghanistan. The total number of security officials is said to be anywhere in the region of between 24,000 and 49,000 in total.
From the Guardian report:
During the Games an aircraft carrier will dock on the Thames. Surface-to-air missile systems will scan the skies. Unmanned drones, thankfully without lethal missiles, will loiter above the gleaming stadiums and opening and closing ceremonies. RAF Typhoon Eurofighters will fly from RAF Northolt.
A thousand armed US diplomatic and FBI agents and 55 dog teams will patrol an Olympic zone partitioned off from the wider city by an 11-mile, £80m, 5,000-volt electric fence.
Beyond these security spectaculars, more stealthy changes are underway. New, punitive and potentially invasive laws such as the London Olympic Games Act 2006 are in force. These legitimise the use of force, potentially by private security companies, to proscribe Occupy-style protests.
They also allow Olympic security personnel to deal forcibly with the display of any commercial material that is deemed to challenge the complete management of London as a “clean city” to be branded for the global TV audience wholly by prime corporate sponsors (including McDonald’s, Visa and Dow Chemical).
London is also being wired up with a new range of scanners, biometric ID cards, number-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems, disease tracking systems, new police control centres and checkpoints.
These will intensify the sense of lockdown in a city which is already a byword across the world for remarkably intensive surveillance.
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