TSA’s Iraqi Information Minister, Blogger Bob, addressed the new video “making its way around the interwebs” about why full body scanners actually make us less safe. His words were telling. Let’s go through them, one sentence at a time. I watched the video and it is a crude attempt to allegedly show how to circumvent […]
EU Bans Full Body Scanners While USA Embraces Them
The European Union banned a variant of full body scanners (used extensively in the U.S. by the Transportation Security Administration) this week at the airports of all 27 member states, “[I]n order not to risk jeopardizing citizens’ health and safety.” The TSA responded to the news with a non-sequitur: Since January 2010, advanced imaging technology […]
Germany Rejects Airport Full Body Scanners
When you are evaluating the acquisition of new technology how do you determine whether it will be a good fit? Do you just buy it without testing it, as the U.S. did in the case of airport full body scanners, or do you operationally test it, garner feedback, and carefully perform a cost-benefit analysis to […]
Analysis: TSA Diffuses Full Body Scanner Privacy Concerns
While I am no fan of the TSA, I will give them credit when credit is due. The announcement this week that the TSA will introduce new software on full body scanners that generates an image of a human outline rather than the nude images currently produced is a step in the right direction. Bowing […]
D.C. Circuit Rejects Claim that TSA Full Body Scanners Violate Fourth Amendment
In probing the Transportation Security Administration’s Advanced Imaging Technology program last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit squarely rejected the contention that the TSA’s use of AIT violates the Fourth Amendment. Distinguishing unlawful searches, the court labeled the use of AIT as a lawful “administrative search” because “the primary […]
Forced Through a Full Body Scanner!
I had a very nice time in Kiev, until my trip back this afternoon—read also about my baggage mishap. After years of vociferously protesting full body scanners as an unreasonable and unconstitutional intrusion on privacy, I quickly caved in this afternoon when I was asked to go through an L-3 Millimeter Wave Scanner at Boripsol […]
TSA Unveils Plan to Exempt Flight Crews from Full Body Scanners
Changes are coming to U.S airport security checkpoints: The Transportation Security Administration recently announced plans to begin testing an identity verification program to let airline crews bypass the controversial full-body scanners and extra-thorough pat-down searches at airports. The proposed program, TSA officials say, should — to a degree — speed up airport security lines for regular […]
Flawed Radiation Readings Force TSA to Reevaluate Full Body Scanners
I have flown through Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Washington Dulles, and San Francisco the last couple days and been (pleasantly) surprised that each time I have come across a full body scanner, it has not been in operation. In Chicago Friday afternoon they were roped off. Friday night in Boston they were not in use. Yesterday […]
Texas Lawmakers Attempt to Ban TSA Full Body Scanners
A posse of Lone State lawmakers has a message for the TSA: Don’t mess with Texas. Republican State Representative David Simpson has introduced two bills targetting the TSA. Here are the highlights: HB 1938 …(b) An airport operator may not allow body imaging scanning equipment to be installed or operated in any airport in this […]
See, I Told You So! TSA Full Body Scanner Fails to Detect Gun in Bra
Last March, the Government Accounting Office warned Congress that full body scanners have not been tested and may not be able to detect the very type of explosives material the machines were procured to detect. Few listened, as most members of Congress rolled over as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced plans to make full body […]
Mice to Replace TSA’s Full Body Scanners?
Could mice be the answer to our airport security woes in America? What if we could leave our shoes on, avoid pat-downs, and avoid virtual strip-searches, all while getting a more accurate assessment of who is concealing explosive devices on their person? According to Israeli scientists, that day is here. Israeli scientists have created a […]
Stephen Colbert Shows Us How to Trick the TSA Full Body Scanners
Nation, we have a solution to the TSA’s full body scanners: pancakes. Stephen Colbert tells us that "pancakes will allow law-abiding citizens to hide their private parts from the hungry eyes of those TSA perverts." For your viewing pleasure: The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c Scanner-Defying Pancakes www.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes […]
Senate Bill Targets TSA Full Body Scanners
The senior U.S. Senator from New York, Charles Schumer, has introduced a bill that would make it illegal for anyone to record or distribute images obtained from TSA full body scanners. While I prefer Ron Paul’s bill that would outlaw full body scanners, I realize that passage of such a bill is slim-to-none. Schumer’s bill, on […]
TSA Exempts Pilots from Intrusive Pat-Downs and Full Body Scanners
Hot off the press, The Transportation Security Administration agreed Friday to let uniformed airline pilots skip the body scans and aggressive pat-downs at the heart of a national uproar. The pilots must pass through a metal detector at airport checkpoints and present photo IDs that prove their identity. What was behind this TSA change of heart? Some are […]
My Solution to the Full Body Scanner Dilemma: TSA Explosives Detection Canine Team
Whenever I discuss the TSA’s obtrusive screening procedures, I can usually get people to sympathize with my point of view or at least understand where I am coming from. The inevitable response, however, is “Yes, I see this as a problem too, but can you offer a better or alternatively viable solution?” I think that’s […]
How to Get Anything Past a TSA Full-Body Scanner
For years I have been preaching about the lack of critical thinking and common sense that characterized the Transportation Security Administration’s choice to roll out full-body scanners at airports nationwide. I have pointed out that the machines were never tested prior to their acquisition and that a women smuggled a gun in her bra through […]
I Got “Felt Up” By The TSA After Body Scanner Detects Suspicious Package
True story. I recently had the oddest TSA security experience at Los Angeles International Airport that has left me wondering what possibly could have triggered the full body scanner to pinpoint my…package. TSA Body Scanner Flags My Suspicious Package I’ve been a TSA PreCheck member from the program’s inception and to its credit, being able […]
TSA Will Remove Some Nude Scanners
Chalk this up as a small victory in the war on common sense. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed today that it will remove some airport body scanners that produce a naked image of travelers by June. These are the large blue backscatter X-ray machines from Rapiscan that we have already seen disappearing of late (on the […]
Full Body Scanning from the Eyes of the TSA
While Gary does a tremendous job summing up my thoughts on the matter while offering pithy commentary, I too want to review a Mom vs. The World blog post, which claims to offer insight on the full body scanner controversy from the eyes of ex-TSA employee Melissa Hammett. Shall we begin? First, you need read no […]
More Backlash Over TSA’s Body Scanners
More pilots and now a group of university scientists are protesting a TSA security directive that will soon make full body scanners the primary method of passenger screening at airports across the United States. If my constant haranguing about civil liberties and the spurious science behind full body scanners hasn’t swayed you, maybe this warning from four […]
