Getting naked for security
Roger Pike
24 May 2007
The Advertiser
Are you ready to get naked for airport security?
This is no joke. The government needs to look under your cloths.
Ceramic knives, plastic guns and liquid explosives have now made
airport mental detectors obsolete. Carry on bags are x-rayed, so the
safest place to hide a weapon is on your body.
Earlier this year the Transportation Security
Administration in the United States began using a new backscatter x-
ray machine in several airports to screen passengers for weapons.
The first machine is up and running in Phoenix and according to an
internet story by William Saletan for Human Nature: Science,
Technology and Life the next ones will be set up in New York and Los
Angeles.
Susan Hallowell apparently runs the Transportation
Security Administration's research lab. A few years ago, according
to Saletan, she apparently volunteered to be scanned by a new
backscatter x-ray machine which sees through clothing. She was
wearing a skirt and blazer. But in the picture viewed by security
scanners she's as good as nude. Now, says Saletan, it's our turn to
get nude for security.
When the manufacturer of the backscatter machines,
American Science and Engineering, introduced the technology in
prisons nine years ago the whole point was to replace strip
searches. Thanks to terrorism the rest of us now face the same
choice. Under TSA policy in the United States, if you set off an
airport metal detector or are chosen for secondary screening, you're
subject to a pat down inspection that may include sensitive areas of
your body. Unless, that is, you're lucky enough to be in Phoenix,
where you can choose a backscatter machine instead.
So how long will it take to get this new technology
into Canada? My guess is that it's on its way. Will VIP's have to
be screened this way? Can the images be transferred for others to
see? What about my privacy? I just recently experienced the puffer
screener in Los Angeles. This screener puffs massive volumes of air
onto the body in search for drugs, explosives or perfume. It messed
up my wife's hair big time fortunately I was ok if you know what I
mean. The new technology boggles the mind.
And what about shoes? Some airports require you to
take off your shoes. One passenger actually had to remove her flip
flops.
How can you hide explosives in flip flops? I even heard of another
passenger having to remove rabbit paws collected while on a recent
snaring trip to the province. Some people take crazy things through
security don't they?
Airport security is big business today and rightly
so, but one has to wonder where it will end. It's not that I'm
against security. Heck I want to fly safe. But will my image from a
backscatter x-ray machine be a conversation piece for the security
staff and how secure is that image from being placed on the Internet
for the world to see. Glad I'm not a movie star.
I don't mind being ogled by airport security but be
dammed if I want to be Googled.
http://www.gfwadvertiser.ca/index.cf...2537&sid=21747
Roger Pike
24 May 2007
The Advertiser
Are you ready to get naked for airport security?
This is no joke. The government needs to look under your cloths.
Ceramic knives, plastic guns and liquid explosives have now made
airport mental detectors obsolete. Carry on bags are x-rayed, so the
safest place to hide a weapon is on your body.
Earlier this year the Transportation Security
Administration in the United States began using a new backscatter x-
ray machine in several airports to screen passengers for weapons.
The first machine is up and running in Phoenix and according to an
internet story by William Saletan for Human Nature: Science,
Technology and Life the next ones will be set up in New York and Los
Angeles.
Susan Hallowell apparently runs the Transportation
Security Administration's research lab. A few years ago, according
to Saletan, she apparently volunteered to be scanned by a new
backscatter x-ray machine which sees through clothing. She was
wearing a skirt and blazer. But in the picture viewed by security
scanners she's as good as nude. Now, says Saletan, it's our turn to
get nude for security.
When the manufacturer of the backscatter machines,
American Science and Engineering, introduced the technology in
prisons nine years ago the whole point was to replace strip
searches. Thanks to terrorism the rest of us now face the same
choice. Under TSA policy in the United States, if you set off an
airport metal detector or are chosen for secondary screening, you're
subject to a pat down inspection that may include sensitive areas of
your body. Unless, that is, you're lucky enough to be in Phoenix,
where you can choose a backscatter machine instead.
So how long will it take to get this new technology
into Canada? My guess is that it's on its way. Will VIP's have to
be screened this way? Can the images be transferred for others to
see? What about my privacy? I just recently experienced the puffer
screener in Los Angeles. This screener puffs massive volumes of air
onto the body in search for drugs, explosives or perfume. It messed
up my wife's hair big time fortunately I was ok if you know what I
mean. The new technology boggles the mind.
And what about shoes? Some airports require you to
take off your shoes. One passenger actually had to remove her flip
flops.
How can you hide explosives in flip flops? I even heard of another
passenger having to remove rabbit paws collected while on a recent
snaring trip to the province. Some people take crazy things through
security don't they?
Airport security is big business today and rightly
so, but one has to wonder where it will end. It's not that I'm
against security. Heck I want to fly safe. But will my image from a
backscatter x-ray machine be a conversation piece for the security
staff and how secure is that image from being placed on the Internet
for the world to see. Glad I'm not a movie star.
I don't mind being ogled by airport security but be
dammed if I want to be Googled.
http://www.gfwadvertiser.ca/index.cf...2537&sid=21747
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