Air travelers stripped bare with X-ray machine

[MugenOne]

When I was travelling to Singapore last year, we had to pass through a infrared machine before leaving the terminal. Most of the Asian big airports like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan are very high tech, clean, and modern wonders (they are constantly rated top 10 airports in the world by Forbes. Not surprisingly, none of US airports makes it in the top 20 list). Try to smuggle something in or out and you might get caught on the spot. There were a female and male US servicemembers trying to smuggle 5 lbs of weed and estacy into Japan once and they were caught before going through immigration. The female had estacy hidden in her bra. I think she might have walked through a full body x-ray without knowing it. TSA is only trying to catch up to the rest of the world when it comes to security.

 

[chevalier]

Oh God… so they are looking on you naked without telling you?

I think there’s nothing like a good reason for that.

Doctors do it with your consent and for your health. Airport guards, policemen etc are not (at least not normally) people with high education and manners. They are mostly the same kind of people who roam the streets and haunt gyms, only this time on the right side of the law.

No other man will get to see my future wife naked, save if she goes to a doctor for medical reasons. A female guard or policewoman… if she doesn’t object… But a male guard or policeman? I object!

No freaking way.

 

[CarolAnnSFO]

Before jumping too quickly on this bandwagon, do an internet search for “backscatter images”, and take a look at some images other than just the top half of the guy shown in the first post. :bigyikes:

 

[chevalier]

What about the staff-done, non-electronical searching, then?

And I’m still not comfortable with the thing. Not to mention the other possible kinds of scans.

As for the top of the guy, there are muscles and shades showing. I don’t want any males looking on my wife’s top like that.

 

[tcay584]

chevalier:

Oh God… so they are looking on you naked without telling you?

I think there’s nothing like a good reason for that.

Doctors do it with your consent and for your health. Airport guards, policemen etc are not (at least not normally) people with high education and manners. They are mostly the same kind of people who roam the streets and haunt gyms, only this time on the right side of the law.

No other man will get to see my future wife naked, save if she goes to a doctor for medical reasons. A female guard or policewoman… if she doesn’t object… But a male guard or policeman? I object!

No freaking way.

Regarding your doctor comment about health issues, I can’t think of a better way to protect your health than by being assured there’s not some wacko with a bomb or a gun on him who wants to bring down an airplane you happen to be on. I’ve never been treated with anything other than respect and courtesy by airport personnel, and don’t see how their educational level has anything to do with the matter. I admit, it’s a bit creepy that we may have to go to such extremes, but to me my life is worth it.

 

[snoopy]

TPJCatholic:

snoopy,

Most of the people using those machines will be good upstanding people–yet perverts will be attracted to such tools. I can see a day when people’s images are sold on ebay. Sorry, I do not want my wife and children subjected to another layer of possible perversion.

Then you probably should not fly. For those of us who must fly, I for one, appreciate all the attempts to identify people set out to harm myself and others.

 

[dumspirospero]

Oh well…I will just grin and bear it…it probably won’t be teh last time I get embarrassed…if I have to go through one of those things to go visit Rome and see the Pope…then that is what I will do.

 

[Benedictus]

I really don’t see this as a big deal. This type of technology will make it harder to get weapons on an aircraft, and I see that as a good thing.

If getting to New York in three hours instead of twenty means that someone has to look at low-resolution, greyscale images of me, then so be it.

The perverts will likely just look at full-color, high-resolution images on the Internet.

 

[wabrams]

I can’t believe all the people here willing to trade a little bit of freedom for a sense of security. What about good old racial profiling? We know the terrorists that wish to do this country harm are Arab. Search them, require tougher security standards for them at airport. Quit strip searching grandma and taking away juniors toys because they could be a security risk.

 

[TPJCatholic]

Snoopy,

I agree, if those machines become standard issue, I will fly only when I have to…my family will drive for all vacations.

 

[harveyc]

This is good. IMO, these images will be just like looking at numbers to the screeners.

http://a1112.g.akamai.net/7/1112/49...m/news/images/full/see_through_security_f.jpg

Susan Hallowell, the director of the Transportation Security Administration’s security laboratory, allows her body to be X-rayed by the ‘backscatter’ machine at the Transportation Security Administration. The machine bounces X-rays off the skin, producing a black-and-white image. She is dressed in a skirt and blazer in dark, businesslike colors but on the monitor she is naked, except for a gun and a bomb that she hid under her outfit. The government is considering using the technology at airport security checkpoints because the magnetometers now in use cannot detect plastic weapons or substances used in explosives.
Photo: AP Photo/Brian Branch-Price

wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,59401,00.html

 

[tcay584]

wabrams:

I can’t believe all the people here willing to trade a little bit of freedom for a sense of security. What about good old racial profiling? We know the terrorists that wish to do this country harm are Arab. Search them, require tougher security standards for them at airport. Quit strip searching grandma and taking away juniors toys because they could be a security risk.

Oh yeah…Tim McVeigh was Arab. I can’t believe you’d agree to racial profiling! If you search one…you search all. Equal treatment because nuts come in every color.

 

[wabrams]

tcay584:

Oh yeah…Tim McVeigh was Arab. I can’t believe you’d agree to racial profiling! If you search one…you search all. Equal treatment because nuts come in every color.

Tim McVeigh didn’t fly a plane into a building, either.

If a white male, between the ages of 18 and 25, brown hair, robs a bank, fleeing in a red mini van, do you pull over the red mini van with the driver matching the above description or do you pull over every mini van? Remember, you stop one you stop all.

 

[Brad]

tcay584:

Oh yeah…Tim McVeigh was Arab. I can’t believe you’d agree to racial profiling! If you search one…you search all. Equal treatment because nuts come in every color.

What a motto. Take away freedoms from all because of the nuts. Meanwhile, in NY, a judge rules that we must allow drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Not that one of these aliens would decided to run a truck full of nuclear weaponry into a building or anything.

Let’s take all reasonable security measures first. Any kid could sneak something into a school. Do we need to strip search all kids prior to entry or do we need to prosecute the adults responsbile for allowing a kid to get a weapon? Which is more reasonable?

 

[tcay584]

Brad:

What a motto. Take away freedoms from all because of the nuts. Meanwhile, in NY, a judge rules that we must allow drivers licenses to illegal aliens. Not that one of these aliens would decided to run a truck full of nuclear weaponry into a building or anything.

Let’s take all reasonable security measures first. Any kid could sneak something into a school. Do we need to strip search all kids prior to entry or do we need to prosecute the adults responsbile for allowing a kid to get a weapon? Which is more reasonable?

What freedom is being taken away? The freedom to be blown up at 35000 ft? I think this is a reasonable security measure given that it doesn’t take much to knock a plane out of the sky.

 

[tcay584]

wabrams:

Tim McVeigh didn’t fly a plane into a building, either.

If a white male, between the ages of 18 and 25, brown hair, robs a bank, fleeing in a red mini van, do you pull over the red mini van with the driver matching the above description or do you pull over every mini van? Remember, you stop one you stop all.

Ok, you’ve given the physical description of a suspect fleeing the scene of a crime that has already been committed.
That’s totally different from using a racial profile to harass people of a given ethnicity because of something someone of their race has done! What about americans of Arab descent? Should they be targeted as well? Are you Ok with stopping cars driven by african americans because, you know, they all deal drugs and probably have some with them…

 

[wabrams]

tcay584:

Ok, you’ve given the physical description of a suspect fleeing the scene of a crime that has already been committed.

But it’s still racial profiling.

tcay584:

That’s totally different from using a racial profile to harass people of a given ethnicity because of something someone of their race has done! What about americans of Arab descent? Should they be targeted as well? Are you Ok with stopping cars driven by african americans because, you know, they all deal drugs and probably have some with them…

Well, if African American drug dealers start flying planes into buildings, then no, I wouldn’t have a problem.

 

[wabrams]

tcay584:

What freedom is being taken away? The freedom to be blown up at 35000 ft? I think this is a reasonable security measure given that it doesn’t take much to knock a plane out of the sky.

That’s also the same line of thinking that leads to people accepting there personal fire arms being taken away from them by the government. Because it’s a good security measure if no one has a gun but the government. If someone REALLY, REALLY wants to blow up a plane, so amount of preventative security is going to stop them.

 

[chevalier]

ccay584:

Regarding your doctor comment about health issues, I can’t think of a better way to protect your health than by being assured there’s not some wacko with a bomb or a gun on him who wants to bring down an airplane you happen to be on. I’ve never been treated with anything other than respect and courtesy by airport personnel, and don’t see how their educational level has anything to do with the matter. I admit, it’s a bit creepy that we may have to go to such extremes, but to me my life is worth it.

Is your “life” (as if your life really depended on it) worth some guys with guns looking on your naked wife?

dumspirospero:

Oh well…I will just grin and bear it…it probably won’t be teh last time I get embarrassed…if I have to go through one of those things to go visit Rome and see the Pope…then that is what I will do.

What if you were female? I could probably get over it for myself but not for my wife, daughter, sister, female friend…

@harveyc: What if the lady in the picture were your wife?

 

[Benedictus]

A lot of trouble on airlines has been caused by non-Arabs. PSA flight 1771 was hijacked and crashed by a disgruntled (non-Arab) employee. John Graham blew up United flight 629. The famous hijacker D.B. Cooper wasn’t an Arab either.