Many Americans planning holiday travel have expressed concern -- even outrage -- over the Transportation Security Administration's use of full-body scanning and enhanced pat-downs. This is the first time since 9/11 that Americans are pushing back and showing outrage over their limited liberty rights that seem to shrink with every passing day! There are 400 full-body scanning machines at 69 airports nationwide, according to the TSA. The average medal detector, that every person boarding the plane will have to go through, has been set to extremely sensitive. The medal detector goes off when a person is wearing only a wedding ring. Even the slightest amount of medal can set it off.According to CNN News about 24 million air travelers are expected to fly over the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to the Air Transport Association of America, an airline trade group. The group expects daily passenger volumes to range from 1.3 million to 2.5 million fliers. Certainly, a large number of those will be asked to step into one of the full-body scanning machines. The real danger of full-body scanning machines is that some of them capture a person’s image on one side of the screen and the scanned image right next to it. It is no secret to anyone that some of these images have already ended up on the Internet. I want to know where is my guarantee that I will not be one of the people whose image is now online for the world to see? What rights do I still have left when I chose to fly to see my family for the holidays?
Passengers in either the medal detector or full-body scan lines may be selected for additional screening, including the enhanced pat-down procedure that allows security officers of the same sex to touch sensitive areas of a passenger's body. Does the fact that you are being groped all over by someone of the same sex as you make you feel any warmer inside? Because it still leaves me feeling as violated as if it were a person of the opposite sex. Children over 12 are also subject to these “pat-downs.” How comfortable would a mother feel while her child is being touched right in front of her eyes?
No more thing to take into consideration before flying these days: how safe are the full-body scanning machines? The body-scanning machines use two separate means of creating images of passengers -- backscatter X-ray technology and millimeter-wave technology. About 190 backscatter machines have been installed in airports; the remainder are millimeter-wave machines. If someone could really explain to me the risks to my health from these machines, I would feel a lot better. But if you do chose to fly, make sure to check out the website to see which airports now have full-body scanning machines.
Bureaucracy in the United States appears to have evolved in a less than positive way. Bureaucratic institutions seem to have become more compartmentalized and inward looking; with less attention paid to how their policies are accepted by the public. There simply isn't enough communication between the government and the people. A lack of communication was one of the major complaints about the failure of our intelligence community after 9/11 (ie., the FBI wasn't talking to the CIA and neither of those agencies were talking to the NSA). This seems to be a trend rather than an aberration. Not surprising then is that the TSA doesn't understand the extent of the push back by the American people concerning their new procedures. They rolled out these new procedures in what appears to be an isolated vacuum of administrative policy making. I never saw any ads on TV that described the upcoming policy change. On one day all you had to do is take off your shoes. The next day they've got us bending over and coughing. In a free country that kind of administrative process isn't going to work.
ReplyDeleteI guess I don't travel enough, but I really don't see the major issue with these. I have been to a court house where I had to remove my belt, shoes, jacket and outter shirt before. That was a violation because I had to strip right there in the middle of the hall and rewalk through the detector. I don't see a body scanner that will make it probably much faster as an issue. I would feel better knowing everyone was checked before they boarded the plane I was on instead of having lax security who just waved you through. All in all, I like the scanners.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Miller. I am the type of person who agrees with saftey first. I fell like this is a good addition to airports, and theat security always comes first. I know my mother would much rather have me patted down by someone of the same sex, than to worry about my life being in danger becuase someone is carrying a weapon on board. I feel lik after 9/11 things like this need to happen. Shoot even before 9/11 this should have happen. Imagine if we had this before the attacks, the twin towers would probably still be standing today and thousands of lives saved.
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