TSA: New Scanners Kept Many Illegal or Dangerous Items Off Planes This Year

FoxNews.com ^ | November 18, 2010 | Diane Macedo

[kingu]

Airport passenger screening measures have become a touchy issue in the U.S. in the past week, but in the past year the controversial measures have detected more than 130 prohibited, illegal or dangerous items that otherwise would have made it onto airplanes, the Transportation Security Administration says.

The TSA now requires all passengers at some U.S. airports either to pass through a full-body scanning device, which reveals everything beneath their clothing, or to submit to a thorough pat-down inspection -- a choice that has some travelers livid about their loss of privacy.

But the TSA says keeping passengers safe is its top priority, and the new measures are necessary.

"This year alone, the use of advanced imaging technology has led to the detection of over 130 prohibited, illegal or dangerous items," TSA spokesman Greg Soule told FoxNews.com. The TSA would not disclose exactly what those items were, but it said they included weapons like ceramic knives and various drugs -- including a syringe filled with heroine hidden in a passenger’s underwear.

[Indy Pendance]

Danger!!!

[curiosity]

I don’t know if I called them idiots,

Good point. You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

[wendy1946]

If some of what you see on youtube about blackmarket binary explosives is real, we're all gonna be flying naked shortly. There'd be no other way to protect an aircraft from something like that.

[bray]

Yep, this is being done to destroy the airline industry so we will be forced onto their trains.

Pray for America

[curiosity]

There'd be no other way to protect an aircraft from something like that.

Sure there is. Profile, snoop, and regularly update no-fly lists to make sure the terrorist never makes it to the airport. That's the only thing that has a prayer of ever working.