Free Talk Live

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Transportation Security Administration confirms that it is getting rid of airport body scanners that produce a naked image of travelers.

Right now the TSA uses two types of scanners. One makes a generic image showing where agents should look for an object on the traveler's body. Those scanners are staying.

TSA says the X-ray scanners will be gone by June. It says the company that makes them, Rapiscan, was not able to come up with a software fix to make the scanners comply with the Congressional mandate.

Two respected scientists say they have discovered a flaw in airport full body scanners that could potentially allow terrorists to outsmart the machines.

The Transportation Security Administration announced Friday that it would retest every full-body X-ray scanner that emits ionizing radiation — 247 machines at 38 airports — after maintenance records on some of the devices showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

All selected children will have to go through the new full-body 'naked' scanning machines being introduced at airports, the UK Government said today.
The Government said in its new code of practise: 'We will be requiring all children who are selected to be screened using the scanners. To do otherwise would risk undermining the effect of these new measures.

Saying that body scanners violate Islamic law, Muslim-American groups are supporting a "fatwa" — a religious ruling — that forbids Muslims from going through the scanners at airports.

The UK's full body scanners produce virtual naked images of passengers. So they can't be used on anyone under 18. Prepare for the rise of the child terrorist!

The TSA next week will begin installing the first of 150 full-body scanners approved last May as part of the federal stimulus plan. Boston Logan International Airport will get the first three scanners, followed by one machine slated for Terminal 1 at Chicago O'Hare. The remaining scanners should be in place by the spring, according to the TSA.

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate requiring all airports to use full-body scanners lacks sufficient privacy safeguards, says a prominent watchdog group.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center says the bill, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Bob Bennett (R-UT) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), "contains particularly weak privacy provision[s] that ignore many of the problems with the devices already uncovered."

The Transportation Security Administration is feeling public heat these days over its combination of whole-body-image scanners and heavy-handed pat-down searches, and deservedly so.

There’s no question that reform is needed to curtail TSA’s excesses. We especially applaud the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s efforts to increase public awareness about the body scanners. But will the heat now being generated produce the kind of light we really need?