Invasion of the Body Scanners

[ckramer]

Phoenix flyers will soon be the first travelers digitally stripped naked by a Transportation Security Agency (TSA) X-Ray machine that uses a technology called "backscatter." The device, known by the unfortunate name of Rapiscan Secure 1000, bounces a low-intensity X-Ray beam off the target's body and digitally analyzes and stores the returning signal, or backscatter.





http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20070102/bs_bw/tc20070102030201

[tanyev]

1. I just can't see the American public accepting this.

[mike_c]

3. the sheep will accept anything that keeps the herd secure....

The American public has bought the whole premise for doing this-- the scam "war on terror" and the security state it engendered-- with hardly a whimper. The media will pimp it as the latest technology to keep them safe, and they will be grateful for it.

[murray hill farm]

6. and the sheep are terror stricken.

The more frightened and insecure the sheeple become, the more they will embrace any and all action that will make them feel safe...as the economy fails more and more, they will even embrace and beg for a strong and dictatorial leader who can make it all right and secure again. Even a strong "father" leader who will take control of the failing country and make it all better and all safe and all secure again. History, it seems, often repeats itself.

[BrokenBeyondRepair]

8. 4 legs good, 2 legs better...

[tanyev]

10. I dunno.

It's one thing for Clem and Ethel to not care about losing the vague concept of civil liberties that they barely understand anyway. It's quite another for their nekkid bodies to be completely exposed to any Tom, Dick or Harry who happens to be operating the machine that day. Hits closer to home for some people.

[Double T]

2. modern day strip search..............

fly the unfriendly, undignified skies. The feds always take things to absurd extremes.

[Warpy]

4. Both the items shown on that body

would be picked up by the metal detectors.

This is just another way to humiliate travelers.

What are they trying to do, kill the industry?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. What better way to recreate the Dark Ages?

[Union Thug]

5. I came unglued when I saw this a month ago...and I'm still unglued..

I will not travel if I know this technology is being implemented.

[Scairp]

7. This writer is an idiot

He thinks it's okay as long as some perverted TSA employee doesn't get ahold of any photos of himself, or Heaven forbid his children, and post them on porn websites, or point and laugh at he and his love handles. But he concedes that seems rather likely, as the professionalism of TSA employees is, at best, spotty depending on where you're at. He writes "any people-screening process detailed enough to provide airport security is subject to abuse if improperly managed". Duh. This is the only one with naked pictures being saved to some hardrive, moron. When this begins to happen, as it most certainly will eventually, then the outcry will be enormous. I really am not happy already, as we have trips planned in the coming year to places that you cannot drive to from California, namely Hawaii and the UK. I don't know how I will handle this if I forced to put myself AND my two-year-old through this thing.