Posted on 11/19/2010 12:07:00 PM PST by cll
Critics have blasted the Transportation Security Administration for putting passengers through graphic body scanners and enhanced pat-downs -- but technology and political pressure may move American scanners in a more G-rated direction even as foreign countries are getting more invasive.
The TSA is testing new X-ray technology that will show a "stick figure" instead of a passenger's full- body image. Viewers on the other end of the X-ray would see anomalies -- anything from a suicide vest to a cell phone on a belt clip -- highlighted on the anatomically-ambiguous figure.
No images were available to illustrate what the new scan would look like.
But despite the debate over body searches and scans here in America -- illustrated by Rep. Ron Paul, R- Texas, introducing the American Traveler Dignity Act Wednesday to protect against "physical and emotional abuse" at the hands of TSA employees -- the United States is not the only country employing unpopular security methods.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
This, I’d be willing to do.
Frankly I don’t care if they get to see an image of me naked. Even the most perved out TSA drone will get bored after seeing a few hundred a day.
What I do care about it the radiation, esp from multiple exposures. And I am not willing to be molested as the alternative.
So no flying for me until this is resolved.
They were talking about scanners years ago when these things were in the test and development stage that would show a random shape for the body and reveal only items of interest. That didn’t happen because they were really only trying to deflect criticism. Same thing now. They’re just kicking the can down the road until they get us sufficiently acclimated to being groped. I frankly don’t believe them.
I live on an island one thousand miles from the U.S. mainland so I don't have much of a choice. The only alternative is to book a partial cruise to Miami.
If you have a pilot with a gun and you go through metal detector, that should be all a person needs. And they should profile like Israel does. We would be safe. What isn’t safe is the cargo, it doesn’t get screened....dumb, dumb, dumb.
Barry and Janet “feel your pain”
I dont want either one of them to feel my anything...
I wouldn’t mind pat downs & naked xrays either - after exhaustive profiling of middle easterners and muslims in general proves to be ineffective.
Exactly. I think that these scanners will ultimately become the "Agent Orange" of this generation. When people associated with them (Flight crews and those agents who work mere feet away form these things) start turning up sick or worse, these scanners will be a multi-million dollar closets.
Sniffers are the only technology that would have a prayer to stop bombs. Otherwise; Profile.
I have to wonder how much money we are spending on all of these trial and error machines????
I have to wonder how much money we are spending on all of these trial and error machines????
Unisex. TSA doesn't really need to know the gender of the person in the scanner.
Why is this meaningful? Whatever process (algorithm) used to overlay pertinent images onto a stick figure can be reversed to recover the original image. It isn’t like the bits obtained from the scan were never part of the input.
The NappyOne
1) Train and arm pilots to defend the flight deck
2) Train and arm prior pilots, military and police personnel and let them fly armed as an on flight security detail
3) Basic metal scanners
4) Bomb dogs to sniff passengers after they pas the metal scanners
5) Profile strange behaviour such as tickets purchased in cash, One way tickets purchased by foreign nationals for extra screening
6) Save the most invasive techniques for the folks singled out for extra screening
The machine is far less likely to miss something out of the ordinary than are TSA employees. Hence, it is absolutely absurd that we have people looking at these scans. The invasion of privacy they constitute is completely unnecessary.
Finally, is there any doubt that the next level will be bombs inserted into bodily cavities? There is no way for a back-scatter machine to detect that at all.
Understood. Also, many business people simply have no choice but to fly.
That said, if everyone who does have a choice chooses not to fly, the economic pressure would force a change to something more sane. IMHO, of course.
Exactly, this is insane and abusive. So while our government is abusing it’s citizens the terrorist will figuring out another way to kill. Like say, oh I don’t know, CROSSING THE MEXICAN BORDER maybe? Putting something in cargo through Fed-ex or UPS.
You probably don't have a 13-year-old daughter, so let's put it this way: do you not care that someone else's 13-year-old daughter would be subjected to the humiliating, dehumanizing experience of being photographed naked by a government employee?
Do you think she has no right to refuse, if she wishes to board an airplane?
How do you feel about the 4th Amendment reference to probable cause?
The "I have no secrets to conceal" argument is lame.
You might as well throw out the 5th Amendment while you're at it.
Some things are inviolate.
7) Profile, profile, profile!
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
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