TSA Unplugs, Boxes Up Airport Body Scanner X-ray Devices
Earlier this year, the TSA indicated that it would no longer purchase backscatter x-ray devices for deployment in US airports. A news story this week confirms that the TSA has ceased buying the “Whole Body Imaging” devices and is actively replacing them with millimeter wave scanners, a less intrusive but also controversial scanning technology. EPIC sued the Department of Homeland Security to force disclosure of technical documents about the body scanner program. In a subsequent lawsuit, EPIC v. DHS, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals determined that air travelers have a right to opt-out of the body scanner screening and that the TSA must undertake a notice and comment rulemaking. In the most recent decision, the Court has ordered the agency to begin the public comment process by March 2013. For more information, see EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and Body Scanners and EPIC; EPIC v. DHS (suspension of airport body scanners).
h/t EPIC.org
What about pulling the plug on TSA? Anyone still talking about that?
Posted by Rev. Paul | November 3, 2012, 9:45 amWho knows? Baby steps?
Posted by guffaw1952 | November 3, 2012, 12:39 pmBaby steps indeedr, but one very worrying aspect remains – the Millimeter Wave scanners simply don’t detect anything more than sweaty armpits. That was the finding of the German transport police who ran trials with these scanners at Hamburg airport. In fact, they called them “useless”! The Italian Aviation Authority came to a similar concluion and Paris Charles de Gaulle has already discontinued trials with these scanners. The worrying part is when you consider that the TSA has already replaced traditional metal detector arches with these “useless” scanners at many airports. So now the TSA offers zero security, how many recent terrorist attcks have there been?
Posted by Sam Edi | November 3, 2012, 1:19 pmInteresting information! Thanks!
Posted by guffaw1952 | November 3, 2012, 3:04 pm