WCBSTV Reports: The botched airline bombing on December 25 is sparking a great debate about full-body scanners. The controversial scanners may soon be landing in the tri-state area.
Terminal B at Newark Liberty Airport is in the process of modernizing its passenger areas, and airport officials are said to be hoping to receive six full-body scanners within the next few months, in early 2010.
Some lawmakers say the full-body scanners, which operate almost like X-ray machines, could have prevented Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab from boarding a plane on Christmas Day with explosive materials he had sewn into his underwear. 150 high-tech full-body scanners will be going to airports throughout the U.S. next year.
According to a Transportation Security Administration representative, Newark was likely to be among the first for two reasons: because it’s one of the nation’s busiest airports, and because one of the planes hijacked in the September 11 terror attacks came from Newark.
The full-body scanners cost about $160,000 each and are high-tech machines that can show hidden contraband, but the American Civil Liberties Union say they violate a passenger’s right to privacy, calling it a virtual strip search.
A TSA representative says the new scanners will be less intrusive. Images will be looked at in a remote room by an officer who could not see or interact with passengers.
Terminal B at Newark Liberty will have a total of 12 passenger screening lanes when all the construction is complete. With recommendations of a scanner in every other lane, the cost will be close to one million dollars.
The full-body scanners are currently used in 19 American aiports. The closest is Ronald Reagan National Airport, right outside the nation’s capitol.
(Source: WCBSTV)
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5 Responses
Airport security is a life or death thing, so I don’t care if my underwear is seen. Same with medicine or surgery, where the doctor might see under my clothes, except in an airplane, many more people could be harmed than compared to surgery.
Good shabbos.
What has the world come to?
“but the American Civil Liberties Union say they violate a passenger’s right to privacy, calling it a virtual strip search”
That’s ok! These people don’t have to fly.
Let the ACLU and all the people that feel it violates their liberty have their own airlines with no body search. Let’s see how many of them would fly on them. These ACLU people are full of garbage they just like to fight anything good. Reb avigder miller always spoke about how terrible the ACLU is
This terrorist could have been, and should have been caught without this. This is another example of utilizing a situation for a set project, irrespective of it being proven necessary by that particular situation.
I ask again, why can’t a computer do the scanning instead?