Friday, October 8, 2010

Full Body Scanners Rolling Out at LaGuardia, Kennedy and Newark Airports

 The next time you fly you may show "security guards" more than you planned. Controversial full body scanners are scheduled to be installed first at Newark, then Kennedy and LaGuardia airports starting this month, according to Travel AOL and the NY Post.

In July, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that scanners would soon appear at virtually all major airports.

There are a few problems with what are known as strip-search scans, however:

- "Body scanners produce graphic images of travelers' bodies and are an assault on their essential dignity," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Project.

- Britain may be forced to delay the introduction of full-body scans because of concerns that the images produced may break national laws against the production of pornographic images of children. the lede/ NY Times

- While federal agencies insist the revealing images will be destroyed soon after viewing, the US Marshals service has admitted that over 30,000 of the images were surreptitiously saved and stored at a single Florida courthouse, CNET reports.

- Scientists are now warning that radiation from said scanners has been dangerously underestimated and could lead to an increase in skin cancer, particularly in children. Digital Journal

- TSA security sometimes bullies those who exercise their U.S.  right to request to be hand screened instead of full body scanned.  Consumerist

- Using technology for every threat may cost more and reduce risk less than measures such as increasing visa reviews in “high-risk” countries, said David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University.

Photo: TSA

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2 comments:

bj said...

I certainly wouldn't let a stranger(s) in some room at an airport stare at naked pictures of my daughter. Would you?
BTW, these are the same people who stole my husband's cell phone while going through the security checkpoint. Eventually TSA paid him the money. Someone there told us it happens "all the time." They try to drag out the paperwork and make you send it in multiple times so you give up. What else do the security people steal? Those scanner pictures would probably fetch some good bucks.

bryr said...

I have just opted out of Thanksgiving travel at JFK. When I compared the extra 1 hour 20 minutes Amtrak would take it seemed a much better option than this insanity.
http://www.optoutday.com/