Body Scanners (and Groping?) Coming To A Train Station Near You?
If Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has her way, the enhanced security procedures just starting to make their way into American airports will be showing up elsewhere in the near future:
The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary.
“[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on “Charlie Rose.”
“I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
In addition to mass transit, there’s also discussion about enhanced search techniques popping up in other places, like the nation’s Courthouses:
Taking a trip during the holidays isn’t the only time that people might get a full-body scan to pass through security. People heading to court to testify, get a restraining order, pay a ticket or answer criminal charges could also face a full-body scan at courthouses.
The U.S. Marshals Service, which is in charge of protecting federal judges nationwide, is exploring their use at federal courthouses. And two state courthouses in Douglas and El Paso counties in Colorado have already deployed full-body scanners that use radio waves to detect all objects on a person, including paper.
(…)
The new security techniques are meant to thwart plots by would-be terrorists to use liquid explosives and bombs hidden in shoes and inside underwear. Court observers note that the threat in a courtroom is somewhat different.
“What we are still worried about at a courthouse is angry divorce litigants with a gun,” said Sam Kamin, a law professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. “Metal detectors are pretty good at that.”
Honestly, I can see Americans eventually accepting enhanced security at airports given the history of security threats to the airline industry, and the palpable evidence we’ve all experienced of what can happen if those security threats are allowed to succeed. It becomes a different story, though, when you’re talking about making things like naked image body scanners and, presumably, enhanced pat-downs, part of everyday American life.
For one thing, the sheer logistical problems associated with subjecting everyone who boarded a train, or a subway in a city like New York or Washington, to some kind of security screening would grind both of those systems to a fault. It would be essentially equivalent to requiring every single car entering Manhattan to be subjected to a stop and search. It would make life, and commerce, unmanageable and it would affect the daily life of enough Americans that the revolt we’re seeing now over airport security would be a tempest in a teapot. That’s why I think, in the long run, it’s not going to happen except perhaps at some high-security federal installations.
For another, the liberty v. security trade-off has a different connotation when it implicates more than just the 45 minutes or so that you might spend in an airport security line. The idea of having to be felt up by a security officer every time you want to get on a train, subway, or boat is something that I would venture to guess the average American would not be willing to accept. Of course, that could change in the event of a wave of terrorist attacks aimed at these facilities but at that point, I’m afraid whatever is left of the American way of life as we’ve known it would be long gone.
Coming up: TSA body scanners on public transportation
Get on the bus.
Jazz has a list of reasons why he doesn’t object to the body scanners. Now it looks like we’ll be getting scanners all over the place, including public transportation, trains and boats. Janet Napolitano: “I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit […]
Body Scanners on Trains, Boats, and Subways?
Looking to avoid airport body scanners? You might not be able to do it on any form of public transit if Janet Napolitano gets her way, Jordy Yager reports for The Hill.
The next step in tightened security could be on U.S. public transportation, trains and boats.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says terrorists will continue to look for U.S. vulnerabilities, making tighter security standards necessary. “[Terrorists] are going to continue to probe the system and try to find a way through,” Napolitano said in an interview that aired Monday night on “Charlie Rose.” “I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime. So, what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?”
Napolitano’s comments, made a day before one of the nation’s busiest travel days, come in the wake of a public outcry over newly implemented airport screening measures that have been criticized for being too invasive.
The secretary has defended the new screening methods, which include advanced imaging systems and pat-downs, as necessary to stopping terrorists. During the interview with Rose, Napolitano said her agency is now looking into ways to make other popular means of travel safer for passengers and commuters.
Napolitano isn’t the only one who’s suggested that advanced scanning machines could be used in places beyond airports. Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, introduced legislation this past September that would authorize testing of body scanners at some federal buildings.
Napolitano’s comments were in response to the question: “What will they [terrorists] be thinking in the future?” She gave no details about how soon the public could see changes in security or about what additional safety measures the DHS was entertaining.
Now, as a practical matter, Napolitano is likely right. Terrorists are naturally going to look for softer targets and al Qaeda has already attacked trains and subways elsewhere. But, sheesh, with the administration already taking flak for using these devices in airports — where public support for security is naturally higher, owing to the 9/11 attacks — you’d think they’d avoid talking about using them elsewhere. The tone deafness on this issue continues.
TSA Controversy Continues: Outraged Public Refuses to Turn the Other Cheek Over TSA Body Scans and Pat Downs
Question One: Will the Transportation Safety Administration soon get its own separate listing on eHarmony.com?
I’m heading from California to Connecticut for a family Thanksgiving and am anticipating a TSA body scan and/or pat down. Usually I tell people I’m traveling “for the Thanksgiving spread” — but this isn’t what I had in mind.
This year due to the economy turkey donations are down. Perhaps it’s because all of the turkeys are serving in Congress. But not all:
You have to wonder about the Obama Administration and TSA officials who have so utterly failed to explain why TSA is doing the enhanced body scans and “intimate” pat downs that attracted so much negative publicity that some ask whether TSA should be renamed T&A. TSA isn’t using new technology and old-school, police-style body pat downs because they find their jobs boring and want something new to do.
I was scanned at San Diego’s airport in early September and it didn’t bother me. TSA officials didn’t stand around, point to my body scan and laugh. On the other hand, they didn’t run over and congratulate me, either. So they didn’t ruin – or make – my day.
There are all kinds of potential (lame) jokes here: TSA is groping for a hands-on airline security solution…TSA is trying to get a feel of the traveling public…TSA agents’ favorite sport is handball…TSA will open a bakery specializing in buns…Andy Horowitz had the best Twitter line: “Last night during sex my wife cried out the name of a TSA employee.”
Late night comedians are thanking God:
READ THE REST HERE
TSA Head John Pistole Says No Body Cavity Searches …Yet
There is a big loop hole with the body scan machines; however, the head of the TSA does not want to really discuss that reality. All about security, eh? The TSA claims they will not do any body cavity searches. At least not any time soon.
We have been told by Obama and the TSA that the invasive pat downs and intrusions on our civil rights and privacy are for our own good. The justification behind the questionable searches of innocent Americans merely trying to board a plane is because of the Christmas Day, underwear bomber. Really?
Does that justify the over-the-top retroactive response from this White House to terrorism? They claim that the metal detectors would not have discovered the bomb carried aboard Northwest Airlines Flight 253 by radical Muslim terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
What if a terrorist chooses to have a pat-down and opts out of the full body scan? What if the terrorists decide to use a page from drug traffickers and smuggle the explosives in a body cavity? TSA … do not insult our intelligence that this is not a topic of discussion among terrorists. They have been willing to do anything to kill the Infidels and meet up with the virgins.
TSA chief John Pistole today met with reporters from the Christian Science Monitor. Pistole discussed why his agency’s aggressive screening techniques don’t include body-cavity searches …
Video Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit
TSA chief John Pistole stated:
“We’re in the risk management business, being a risk-based intelligence organization. The information that I’ve seen out in public about body cavities for bombs I think is perhaps not accurate. There’s been reporting of one incident involving the Saudi Deputy Administrator of Interior. The forensics on that are not dis-positive and there is stronger indication that it was actually an underwear type bomb strapped to his upper thigh rather than a body cavity. That being, said even if it is a body cavity you still have to be an initiator. You have to have some external vice that cause that initiation such as having the TAPT that is closer to the PA10 that had a modified syringe. There has to be something external that initiates the device. That’s what the advanced imaging technology machine will pick up. Any anomaly outside the body. So we’re not going to get in the business of doing body cavity (searches) that’s just not where we are.”
I think Pistole forgot to say the word, YET. Who is to say why this is not next on the list? There was a shoe bomber and we had to removeor shoes, there is an underwear bomber and that gives the TSA a right to a free nude show or a feel-up pat down without being offered a dinner and movie first. So what will an over intrusivegovernment do when a terrorist explodes a bomb in a body cavity? This is what happens when you give up your rights.
Public Accepts Body Scanners, Divided On Pat-Down Searches
After almost two weeks of media coverage, the American public still seems to support the presence of body image scanners in airports, but is far less comfortable with the new pat-down searches that some have described as “groping,” according to a new poll:
Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the new full-body security-screening machines at the country’s airports, as most say they put higher priority on combating terrorism than protecting personal privacy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
But half of all those polled say enhanced pat-down searches go too far.
The uproar over the new generation of security technology, and the frisking of those who refuse it, continued Monday with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano saying the new measures are necessary for public safety.
“There is a continued threat against aviation involving those who seek to smuggle powders and gels that can be used as explosives on airplanes,” she said. “The new technology is designed to help us identify those individuals.”
According to the Transportation Security Administration, less than 3 percent of travelers receive the pat-downs.
But Napolitano said the TSA would “listen to concerns. Of course we will make adjustments or changes when called upon, but not changes or adjustments that will affect the basic operational capability that we need to have to make sure that air travel remains safe.”
One possibility that could generate public support is the use of profiling at airports, where the TSA would single out specific passengers for extra screening based on available information. Overall, 70 percent of Americans back the idea, which has been floated as an alternative.
These numbers are down from the 80% support that body image scanners had in a poll taken before the controversy erupted, which is probably a reflection of the almost non-stop negative coverage that has come out about TSA procedures in general over the past ten days or so. Not surprisingly, the numbers are somewhat different for people who fly on a regular basis:
Two factors behind the public’s reaction to the new airport-screening procedures: Few Americans fly regularly and their concern about the risk of terrorism on commercial aircraft remains muted.
Just 15 percent of those polled say they travel by plane every few months. Most say they fly less than once a year or never. Sixty-six percent say the risk of terrorism on airplanes is not that great.
Those who say they take flights at least once every year are less supportive of the new scanners than those who rarely or never fly, although most still like the idea. By 54 percent to 43 percent, those who fly at least once annually say the pat-down procedure goes too far.
Meanwhile, via Hit & Run, airline security expert Bruce Schneier says that all of these security methods are nothing more than “security theater” that will have no real impact on actual security:
Q: Has there been a case since 9/11 of an attempted hijacker being thwarted by airport security?
A: None that we’ve heard of. The TSA will say, “Oh, we’re not allowed to talk about successes.” That’s actually bullsh*t. They talk about successes all the time. If they did catch someone, especially during the Bush years, you could be damned sure we’d know about it. And the fact that we didn’t means that there weren’t any. Because the threat was imaginary. It’s not much of a threat. As excess deaths go, it’s just way down in the noise. More than 40,000 people die each year in car crashes. It’s 9/11 every month. The threat is really overblown….
Q: Do you think there’s been an over-reaction, on the part of the government and the press, to the underwear bomber?
A: That case was really instructive. Nobody was injured, and the plane landed safely. It was a success! And it was pre 9-11 security that made it a success. Because we screen for superficial guns and bombs, he had to resort to a syringe and 90 minutes in the bathroom with a bomb that didn’t work. This is what success looks like. Stop bellyaching!
Q: What’s the motive behind introducing this new level of security?
A: It’s politics. You have to be seen as doing something, even if nothing is the smart thing to do. You can’t be seen as doing nothing.
Q: Is this security theater?
A: 100 percent. It won’t catch anybody.
Of course, that assumes that “catching” anyone is the motive behind security ramp-ups like the one we’re experiencing now. Like Schneier says, this has more to do with the powers-that-be making sure that they’re seen to be doing something even if what they’re doing isn’t actually dealing with a security threat and is doing little more than inconveniencing large numbers of innocent air travelers and subjecting Americans to searches usually reserved for suspected criminals being taken into custody. As this poll indicates, despite the outcry we’ve seen in the media, that seems to be working out just fine. It reminds me of something a wise man once said; “They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Washington Post Covers For Team Obama With Body Scanner Poll – 53% Idiocy
It is not just the Obama Administration that is tone deaf as to what is going in with airport checkpoints: you can add the Washington Post and writers Jon Cohen and Ashley Halsey III to the list – Poll: Nearly two-thirds of Americans support full-body scanners at airports
Nearly two-thirds of Americans support the new full-body security-screening machines at the country’s airports, as most say they put higher priority on combating terrorism than protecting personal privacy, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Yet, that is NOT the major issue. Yes, some people are upset about getting scanned, but, other than a small kefuffle over the TSA saving the “nude” pictures, of which no actual facial identity can be garnered. And some are worried about potential health problems. The issue, though, is the pat downs, and why children, nuns, women with a prosthesis, and old men are being subject to being treated like criminals.
But half of all those polled say enhanced pat-down searches go too far.
Glad they tell us that. Interestingly, though, 37% fly less than once or twice a year, and 16% never fly. Wait, what was that first one? Less than once or twice a year? Wouldn’t that mean……do not fly? So, that means that 53% of the respondents have no stake in the game, and when asked the question as to whether the pat downs are “justified” or “goes to far”, a 48-53% split, the majority of responses are meaningless. But, of course, what the Washington Post is attempting to do is cover for Obama and Company
According to the Transportation Security Administration, less than 3 percent of travelers receive the pat-downs.
In other words, all you left and right wingnuts, ie, the American Public, are getting upset over spilled milk, and should chill out and let The One do his thing. He just wants to protect you in his loving arms and send TOTUS over to read you a bed time story.
The scanners are intended to catch terrorists such as Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man accused of trying to bring down a passenger jet bound for Detroit last Christmas with explosives hidden in his underwear.
Again with the scanners, which are not really the problem, though, if you’ve watched how they work, they sure look like they can slow down the waiting lines, eh? Except, the scanners might not have caught said crotch bomber (apparently, this whole thing is the fault of the Bush regime or something. BDS lives!).
Anyhow, can you imagine how slow this all will make airports such as Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, not exactly a fast airport to start with?
On the basic question of investigating threats versus protecting privacy, the public remains about where it has been in recent years. Fully 68 percent of those polled say that the federal government should focus on looking into possible terrorist actions, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Some 26 percent say it’s more important for the federal government to avoid privacy intrusions.
Let’s remember that 53% figure from above, people who do not fly making judgments for those of us who do, even if it is only once or twice a year.
Crossed at Pirate’s Cove. Follow me on Twitter @WilliamTeach. sit back and Relax. we’ll dRive!
Congressman-elect Allen West says government should rethink airport body scans, pat down
Congressman-elect Allen West said Monday the government needs to rethink the imposition of the full body image scans or extensive pat downs of airline passengers.
“I think it has to be rethought,” he said in an interview. “Look. This has become a preeminent story of the past week. And the voices are out there. If it was a great idea we wouldn’t be backing off from it. We’ve backed off from the children. We’ve backed off from the pilots.”
West, who becomes the congressman for the Broward-Palm Beach county 22nd Congressional district in January, returned to South Florida on Sunday after a week of orientation for incoming members of Congress.
He said Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., didn’t have the new kind of body scanner for his flight, so he wasn’t forced with making a body scan versus pat down choice.
“Between the two I would do the body scan and not the pat down. I do think that the pat down is very invasive.”
West said it’s an example of what he thinks doesn’t work too well in the way the government operates generally, and particularly when it comes to thinking strategically about the threat from terrorists.
TSA Body Scans and Pat Downs Give Great Material to Cartoonists
Don’t believe me? GO HERE.
More Fun with the Airline Screening Playset: Body Imaging X-Ray Edition!
Daniel Solove’s post is a must see.
