| New Airport Scanners Will
Reveal Breasts and Gentials
New security airport scanners are so efficient they can pick
up passengers' personal details such as BREAST and GENITAL size.
The hi-tech machines are being installed in ten US airports and
take just seconds to scan plane passengers.
They are designed to replace the physical pat-downs that is currently
widespread in airports.
A random selection of plane travellers in Washington, New York's
Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in glass
booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath
their clothes.
The booths close around the passenger and emit "millimetre
waves" that go through cloth to identify metal, plastics,
ceramics, chemical materials and explosives, according to the
Transport Safety Authority (TSA).
Sexual organs
While it allows the security screeners - looking at the images
in a separate room - to clearly see the passenger's sexual organs
as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger's face
is blurred, TSA said.
The authority introduced the body scanners in April in airports,
first in the Phoenix, Arizona terminal.
The installations are continuing this month, with machines in
place or planned for airports in Washington (Reagan National and
Baltimore-Washington International), Dallas, Las Vegas, Albuquerque,
Miami and Detroit.
The new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights
activists.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program
at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said: "People
have no idea how graphic the images are."
The ACLU said passengers expecting privacy underneath their clothing
"should not be required to display highly personal details
of their bodies such as evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances,
penile implants, catheter tubes and the size of their breasts
or genitals as a pre-requisite to boarding a plane".
Besides masking their faces, the TSA says on its website, the
images made "will not be printed stored or transmitted.
"Once the transportation security officer has viewed the
image and resolved anomalies, the image is erased from the screen
permanently. The officer is unable to print, export, store or
transmit the image."
Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, said passengers were not obliged
to accept the new machines.
"The passengers can choose between the body imaging and
the pat-down," she said.
TSA foresees 30 of the machines installed across the country
by the end of 2008. In Europe, Amsterdam's Schipol airport is
already using the scanners.
Reference Sources: thesun.co.uk
December 30, 2009
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