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Pistole plans to install 1,300 additional AIT scanners at the cost of another two billion hard earned taxpayer dollars

The Naked Truth About TSA’s Full Body Scanners



In his end of year message to TSA employees, TSA administrator John Pistole patted himself on the back for his “wise financial stewardship.” He was referring to the one billion dollars that TSA has spent to install 500 Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) full body scanners at US airports. Pistole plans to install 1,300 additional AIT scanners at the cost of another two billion hard earned taxpayer dollars.

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In ramming these scanners down the throats of the American people, Pistole blithely ignores the warnings of a host of radiologists, cancer specialists and other medical professionals who have cried out that these devices pose serious health risks, especially for certain segments of the population such as pregnant women and the elderly. Yet John Pistole brushed these concerns aside when he told a Congressional Committee that the scanners are “well within safety standards.” To add insult to injury, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano has stated that the AIT full body scanners are not only safe and efficient, but that they also “protect passenger privacy.” You only need to observe the airport screening process for a few minutes to realize that she is lying. Men and women are sent through the same AIT scanner. The person observing the full body naked images of the men and women being scanned may be a man or a woman. The people being scanned have no way of knowing the gender of the TSA employee looking at their naked bodies. From photos that have appeared in public, it is apparent that some male TSA employees have taken pictures with their cell phones of the naked bodies of women they’ve observed being scanned, and then posted them on the Internet. Passengers are advised that they can choose to be patted down by a person of the same sex if they decide not to be full body scanned. However, the aggressive nature of the pat downs is designed to cow passengers into choosing to be scanned rather than be subjected to the humiliation of being invasively frisked like a captured criminal, and the fear of being manhandled is having the desired effect. Americans, like reluctant sheep, are letting themselves be full body scanned, and John Pistole has the gall to refer to this as “a tremendous outpouring of support from the public.” In deciding to install AIT full body scanners, Pistole did not conduct any cost-benefit studies; nor did he have the scanners independently reviewed to verify the manufacturer’s claims about their safety and effectiveness. In addition to the health risks the scanners pose, serious questions have been raised as to their usefulness. A recent GAO report questioned whether an AIT scan would have detected the explosives hidden in the underwear of Abdulmutallab. This view is echoed by a number of security experts who believe the machines are ineffective and a colossal waste of money. However, Pistole stubbornly refuses to consider the more cost effective alternatives that are being employed by the security agencies of a number of foreign governments, screening procedures that protect the security of the traveling public without robbing people of their dignity. Unfortunately, members of Congress who aren’t subjected to full body scans or pat downs couldn’t seem to care less about what the American people have to go through in order to fly. The only attempt at mass public protest against the use of full body scanners was the “opt-out” day before Thanksgiving, and that was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons, primarily because Americans wanted to get home for the holiday. A better suggestion would have been for all Americans to simply not fly one day a month. In other words, not ask the public to opt out, but rather ask Americans to rearrange their travel schedules so as not to fly at all on the first of every month. If the first day (or even better the first two days) of every month the airports were empty, the planes flew without any passengers, the body scanners were idle, and TSA employees twiddled their thumbs, maybe, just maybe, the airlines would start screaming, and members of Congress who don’t seem to care what the American people think, but do listen to the representatives of powerful lobbies like the airline industry, might put a stop to the use of scanners that endanger rather than enhance our safety, and do so while stripping us naked and publicly humiliating us in the process.


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Al Kaltman -- Bio and Archives

Al Kaltman is a political science professor who teaches a leadership studies course at George Washington University.  He is the author of Cigars, Whiskey and Winning: Leadership Lessons from General Ulysses S. Grant.


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