- The FAA, US Customs, The Under Secretary of Defense for
Acquisition & Technology, and National Security Advisors to the President
knew in 1996 That Current X-Ray Machines Installed at Airports and Border
Crossings Cannot Successfully Detect Well-Disguised Arms, Explosives, Chemical
or Biological Weapons, or Nuclear Weapons
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- From 1996 through 1998, David Sereda, President of HiEnergy
Microdevices, a small US Defense Contractor in Irvine, California, building
leading edge National Security Detection Systems, conducted investigations
at the FAA, US Customs, The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition
& Technology, and Special National Security Advisors to President Clinton.
The investigations revealed a terrible weakness in the nationís
ability to successfully detect well-disguised explosives and weapons, chemical
or biological weapons, and nuclear weapons.
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- Curtis Bell, head of the FAAís National Security
Detection Systems, told David Sereda in a clandestine interview in 1996
on the telephone at HiEnergy Microdevices in Irvine, California, "There
has never been an incident, that I can recall, where an x-ray machine or
metal detector installed at an airport actually detected a weapon or an
explosive that actually led to an arrest. There was only once incident
where we found some guns hidden in some speakers in cargo."
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- Sereda points out after his thorough investigation into
all of the manufacturers of Airport and US Customs detection systems (including
InVisionís CTX-5000, EG&G, SAIC, etc.), the fatal flaw in x-ray
machines is that they can only see a "suspicious looking object"
but cannot actually detect a well-disguised weapon, arms, or explosive,
let alone a biological weapon of mass destruction because x-ray machines
are "chemically blind." They also have a high false alarm rate
and canít seem to be able to tell the difference between a plastic
explosive, some ordinary plastics, sugar an others. Because of the high
false alarm rate, passengers setting off the alarms are taken aside and
mildly searched but they do not get interrogated very often.
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- Dr. Bogdan Maglich, Chief Scientist at HiEnergy Microdevices,
Seredaís Boss, had completed a Phase-1 Department of Defense Contract
in 1997 demonstrating the success of detecting explosives with stunning
accuracy in a subcontracted Department of Defense Lab in Santa Barbara,
California. Maglich, an M.I.T. Ph.D., revolutionized detection by creating
a detection system that not only "sees" but can non-intrusively
"chemically identify" a plastic explosive even if it is disguised
as a lap-top computer or a cellular phone. Maglichís new system,
actually uses a type of radiation (different than x-rays) that gets chemical
signatures of everything it scans and thereby makes it virtually impossible
for a terrorist to disguise or conceal any weapon, explosive or biological
weapon. This is because the computer in the detector has a list of chemical
signatures of any dangerous substance, explosive, weapon, biological weapon
or radioactive material, and once it detects it, in any concealed form,
it sets off the alarm..
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- In 1997, when Sereda argued with Armand Sahagian, President
Clintonís Special Advisor to counter terrorism in the United States,
that our current systems could not actually detect explosives (citing many
documented failed tests conducted on metal detectors and x-ray machines),
Mr. Sahagian replied that "We should not run stories about the weakness
of our detection systems in the press because we will be admitting to terrorists
they the United States is defenseless. This will lead to more terrorism."
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- But Sereda argued that well-funded terrorists only have
to conduct their own tests to find out how to make explosives or weapons
pass through x-ray machines without getting detected, and it is not hard
to do. Sereda warned Mr. Sahagian that he felt the United States was living
in a state of "false security" and that terrorists already know
that these detection systems do not work. Because of all-plastic explsoves
and plastic detonators, metal detectors are virtually useless. The United
States should spend the money and implement the new technology for better
detection systems.
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- The repose to Sereda and HiEnergy Microdevices from Mr.
Sahagian was that Congress and the FAA had already spent its budget for
new detection systems to be installed at airports, the InVision CTX-500
won the contract award (announced by the press), another x-ray machine
that the nationís best security personnel knew could not really
work. There was no interest in Congress in 1997 to spend the billions of
dollars required to revamp the whole nationís vulnerable detection
systems.
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- Despite Maglichís success in the lab in being
able to detect an explosiveís chemical signature using advanced
forms of radiation, Maglich was turned down by Congress, the Pentagon,
The US Army, Navy, US Customs, and the Under Secretary of Defense for further
government funding for the development of a National Security Detection
System that could successfully defend the United States of America against
terrorism. The reason was due to the financial cost of having to develop,
and replace all of the nationís failing x-ray machines and metal
detectors.
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- Sereda left HiEnergy Microdevices in 1998 due to lack
of funding. Maglich kept the research going since then with a few hundred
thousand dollars, and is getting very positive results in the lab on detecting
explosives, weapons, chemical weapons and even narcotics.
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- On September 11, 2001, when the Pentagon and the World
Trade Centers were targeted by terrorism, the United States had no one
to blame but its own weakness and failures in its ability to detect the
kinds of weapons and explosives that these terrorists would need to hijack
all 4 of these airplanes.
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- The idea that the press is perpetrating on Americans
that the hijackers used small knives and mace is unproven and stupid. There
is no way 80 passengers on an airplane would let a mace spray and little
knives overwhelm them and the entire crew. From a cell phone caller on
board one of the planes. CNN revealed that the terrorists said they had
a bomb on board.
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- Sereda adds, "I think the United States government
is so embarrassed to the people, and still wants the American public to
believe that x-ray machines and metal detectors can defend the nation against
terrorism while rogue nations knew the truth about the failure in the system
years ago and are taking advantage of that failure today. That is why these
terrorists succeeded in attacking America with such devastating force.
The facts are that after careful research and study of test results, x-ray
machines and metal detectors cannot detect well-disguised plastic explosives
with plastic detonators (such as a lap-top computer shell made of C-4),
they cannot find all-plastic bullets and well-disguised guns, they cannot
detect chemical or biological weapons (the greatest threat of all), and
they cannot detect well-disguised radioactive material."
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