US airport debuts controversial X-ray scanner ("virtual strip search")

US authorities began testing a controversial new X-ray machine to screen air passengers for weapons in Phoenix yesterday, which critics likened to a "virtual strip search."

The US Transportation Security Administration rolled out an X-ray machine that uses so-called "backscatter" technology at one checkpoint at Phoenix Sky Harbour International Airport. The machine peers beneath passengers' clothes to search for hidden explosives and weapons. The TSA will test the machine in Phoenix for 60-90 days before deploying machines in Los Angeles and New York's John F Kennedy Airport for additional testing by the end of the year.

"Everyday the bad guys are working and improving their tools. We need to continue working to improve ours and introducing this technology is part of that work," TSA regional spokesman Nico Melendez told Reuters.

Privacy groups and the American Civil Liberties Union have labelled the new screening a "virtual strip search" that could be abused.

But TSA officials said Friday they had worked with industry specialists to blur any images of body parts generated by the scan, and likened the resulting picture to a "chalk outline" of a person.


http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/us-airport-debuts-controversial-xray-scanner/2007/02/24/1171734072712.html

Sure there would be SOME "pleasant" scenes, but last time I was at the airport, I sure didn't see any I'D want to hmmmm..... view that way.

night. People who are singled out for secondary searches will be given a choice - pat down or the virtual strip search. The results are very invasive. Genitalia in full view. I didn't see any blurred images. Just a particularly nasty intrusion into people's personal lives. Whatever shred of dignity you arrive at the airport with, the TSA goons are going to make sure is rudely taken away.

At least that is what the impression that I got from past articles.

Like I said before, how come they don't just use regular x-rays like on "Total Recall?" All it was were skeletons walking past a screen or some shit like that.

Blue

what the images look like. Doesn't look very blurry to me.

Because they think we can't handle the sight of genitalia.

these machines (or two sets of operators) and separate women from men, and let females view females and males view males. This will also solve the problem of having children going through the machine. Yes, there is always the problem of predatory males looking at male children, but background checks can be done to reduce the risk.

system and creating a "smart" system that evaluates risk factors instead of one that pulls people willy nilly out of line for useless, invasive searches?

At the airport in Seattle a couple of years ago I witnessed a very elderly woman, had to be 90, hunched over in a wheelchair - having her shoes yanked off while she was being hoisted out of the chair, patted down, and wanded. The poor woman looked terrified. Her daughter, who was being patted down nearby, started crying and pleading with TSA to "Leave my mother alone. She has alzheimers." It was a disgusting spectacle that made no one safer.

Sweetest, gentlest little lady in the world. Now she refuses to fly and who can blame her?

kind of crap right here on DU, too, about how they have to mistreat everyone so as not to be singling out any one group.

Idiocy and a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. Assuming that anyone and everyone is a potential terrorist is just plain stupid.

She is about as modest as they come.

and decided to "strike" the airlines for awhile, refusing to put up with this crap, not flying unless it was an absolute necessity for business or a personal emergency. Economic pressure is probably the only way to get the attention of the airlines and TSA.....otherwise expect more of these insane and increasingly invasive procedures. The way it's going, pretty soon passengers will have to submit to body cavity searches. Maybe that's what it will take for people to finally wake up and decide, "No more."

were everybody is a porn star!

tomorrow, high colonics for everyone!

faster, I'll take the X-Ray.

...and your humiliated husband dumps you to regain his pride

will it be worth it to save 4 seconds of patdown?

don't think so

not to mention if the additional exposure to backscatter radiation means you get breast cancer 10 years earlier than you would have

what cost in time is that 4 seconds you saved at security now?

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/12/04/knXRAY_narrowweb__300x415,0.jpg

this is a phoenix sky harbor employee, they don't care about her privacy, you think they care about yours?

not very modest.;-)

thanks for clarifying that

chill out.

You want to be flippant about living in a Police State, that's fine, but many of us don't feel that way and will express our opinion about it.

If it isn't what you meant, then try clarifying what you meant in a civil manner, instead of acting like an agitated ape.

I don't see Police State here. I see an efficient means of screening for dangerous items. Notice I refrained from calling you a name. You should consider this in your future comments. It does nothing to advance the discussion.:pals:

personal issues you have with another poster, but I'm just wondering if you are as concerned about "dangerous items" that the airlines make accessible to the passengers like wine bottles. It seems to me someone determined to create havoc on board an airplane could pass muster on the security screening and then in midair simply smash a wine bottle and create a potent weapon with jagged glass.

I think that pat downs, feel-ups, and x-rays are just a minor annoyance to a determined terrorist. And consider that very little of what goes into the cargo hold is screened at all - only 10-15% according at a Wall Street Journal article from last August:

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115560478822835773-aWjNQOd7w9xx3bIOSrE8Tg_p_hc_20060913.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top

The so-called "security" measures now in place are a joke, targeting everybody from small children to elderly alzheimer's patients as potential terrorists, while huge gaps in the system go unaddressed.

you do make valid points about other security concerns.

i could inject a remark about the pre aug 10 mentality but as you have already proven that you do not fly and neither does the other person in the discussion i am flabbergasted that you think have the right to sell my rights to the x-rays of my body

NO ONE, NO ONE except a medical technician or doctor w. proper training should be applying and recording this type of x-ray to my body

since you are "not modest" and also haven't flown in a long time (as revealed by the wine bottle gaffe, wine bottles are not allowed in carry-ons, only liquids less than 100 ml (tiny) that fit in a 1 quart ziplock bag are allowed) may we ask you to sit down and stop commenting?

i would respectfully ask that people who don't know what they are talking about STFU

ignorance is ugly

if you have a problem with me boarding a plane, i have no problem with a pat-down which has no medical effects and leaves no photograph to be splayed across the internet

even a strip search in person is better than this "virtual" strip search which will inevitably end up with my body or another woman traveler's body sprawled across the internet

you have no dog in the hunt since you don't fly and i'm a little offended that you try to tell people who do fly what risks they should tolerate

I know it isn't. But I also know wine bottles are on the beverage carts that the cabin attendants bring down the aisle in flight, and that there's nothing to stop a passenger from grabbing one when an attendant is turned the other way. I was only trying to make the point that a determined terrorist doesn't have to bring anything aboard a flight on his or her person in order to carry out a terrorist act.

Please reread my previous posts. I do occasionally fly and relayed a story about a very intrusive pat down search I was forced to undergo. I am completely opposed to the x-ray procedure as well, as you'll see if you take a look at my posts on this thread. I'm on your side. I have no idea why you're so upset with me.

you have missed the entire liquids carnival

no one gets onboard with a wine bottle, that's so totally 8/10

we are not even permitted WATER

this crap has got to end, but it won't, as long as people who don't fly interject their ignorance into the mix

people who don't fly shouldn't be allowed to comment or vote on issues that only affect flyers!

that the airlines themselves provide items that could be useful to a terrorist. A person could easily pass through every intrusive patdown, x-ray, etc. (all of which I think are nonsense), and still create havoc with a bottle right off an airline beverage cart - a wine bottle the airline placed there.

I do fly occasionally. I'm well aware of the restrictions. Please reread my posts on this thread. Thanks.

I think pitohui is just being an ass.

All I have to say is :wtf:

folks, if no one requests the alternative -- the patdown -- the ultimately all of us who fly through this airport will end up being exposed to unnecessary x-rays and some of us will find our "scans" all over the fabulous internets

the lady who worked on the project -- HER body was posted all over the internet, lopsided boobs and all

please please PLEASE request a pat down and explain you don't want to be exposed to unnecssary x-ray radiation

if i'm the only woman who ever does this, then all of us end up having to be exposed to this unnecessary breast cancer risk

there is a reason that breast cancer rates are so elevated, background radiation is not harmless and the longer you live the higher your risk, add in all the medical and dental x-rays -- and now this garbage

we need to dig in our heels on this one

it's at terminal four, DON'T go thru the device, INSIST on a physical search/patdown instead, being patted down does not increase your cancer risk

there is no such thing as a level of radiation that carries no risk, you should not be exposed to it other than unavoidable (background) or medical/dental reasons

and any way if you assume the other woman is the one who will get the cancer, keep it in mind that these scans WILL make their way to their internet...it's just too juicy, if you've seen the results, you know what i mean

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/12/04/knXRAY_narrowweb__300x415,0.jpg

this is a high level phoenix sky harbor employee, they don't protect her privacy, they sure as fuck don't care about yours

I'll soon be 64, I don't imagine that a virtually nude image of my body will excite anybody very much, but I do have another problem to consider. Due to neck surgery, I have a metal plate and 4 screws in my neck. I also have an implant which consists of a battery in my right hip, with wires leading up to electrodes in my shoulder and neck, to deal with chronic pain. This device is made by MEDCO, which I believe also manufactured one of the things Darth Cheney has implanted, but his is for his heart.

Are they going to use a scalpel to remove my metal plate, and screws, and battery, and leads? When will this country get a big grip? As it is, I can't have an MRI, I wonder what's going to happen should I try to fly? I have a card which I carry with me, with the name of the doctor who did the implant, and the registration number of the unit, but knowing how hysterical the low level employees are right now, I shudder to think of their reaction to all of my medical devices. God forbid they see the hand held thing, size and shape of a computer mouse, that I hold over my hip to active the thing.

"virtual strip search" image would immediately have you arrested and you'd be touted as a terror suspect on the 6 o'clock news. No one ever accused airport screeners of being the sharpest tools in the shed.

I have 18 small metal screws in my ankle from an old injury. Most times they don't even set off the metal detector. Unfortunately, one time in Seattle they did set off the machine and I was pulled aside. I lifted up my pant leg and showed them the nasty 6-inch scar and invited them to wand it, but that was of no interest to them. What they really wanted was to get their hands on my bra - which they did - total feel up in full view of everybody. Absolutely insane.

Give these goons a little power and watch them go batshit crazy with it.

Has the quality of medical care been so degraded in our country that surgery on an ankle has caused your breasts to sink that far? I'm just joking, but it's a kind of sick joke, because it's truly not funny. Seriously, if I ever had the necessity to fly, I would first get my doctor to write a letter explaining my medical condition, and take it to the airport in advance.

How sad is it in this country, that we should be reduced to this? My husband and I love old movies, and what is happening here today reminds me of all of the old B&W movies, about WWII, showing the Nazis, and demands to produce your papers, and everything else that went on then in Germany, and later, France, as well as other countries that had fallen to Nazi control.

A side note...my father served in WWII. He was on a troop carrier, bound for Japan, when the bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He ended up being in the Army of occupation in Nagasaki. He was plagued during his life with many health problems, which my brothers and I privately concluded might have been aggravated by his service there. He was 69 when he died.

Did my father, and uncles, and all of the other Americans, and Allies in that war go through the hell that they did, only to end up with their children, and grandchildren, living under a government such as the one we have now? I can safely say that if my dad were alive today, what is happening now in our names would kill him. I'm glad he didn't have to live to see what he believed in shredded by the likes of Bush and Cheney. I want better for my loved ones, just as Iraqi women want better for theirs.

in their acceptance of all these draconian, strip you of your rights and dignity measures.

I was relaying the bra feel-up at the airport story to a group of neighborhood women, and the general consensus was that I should be glad the screeners were so thorough. "How did they know you weren't a terrorist?" was all one woman had to say. I'm a plump 50ish homemaker from California for God's sake. And, as explained elsewhere on this thread, I also saw a 90-year-old alzheimer's patient in a wheelchair being abused by the TSA, also in Seattle.

I'm all for "smart" security, but unfortunately the TSA isn't capable of it, so we're stuck with idiotic, intrusive nonsense. Any system that treats a 90-year-old alzheimer's patient as a potential terrorist is broken and in need of serious rethinking.

The government let its guard down on 9/11 and now we apparently all have to pay for their mistake by having a bunch of criminals take away our rights. You're absolutely correct. What's happened to this country under this criminal cabal is tragic.

You think this is going to stay in the airports? Uh-uh. The increasingly invasive security theater we see at airports is Pavlovian conditioning - to get us to accept more and more invasive intrusions at the airport, because soon those same intrusions could be done out on the streets. It's designed to condition us to not object when they turn this entire country into a surveillance state. You'll be getting the digital strip search when you walk into work each day, when you go through checkpoints on the roads, when you do errands at the courthouse, when your kids go to school, etc.

But if they shove all that crap on us all at once, of course we're going to scream bloody murder. So they introduce a little at a time, at a few places at a time, turning up the heat a little bit, in a classic exercise in frog boiling.

objects, we witness outright election fraud and there's no big outcry, we see members of the U.S. military in sick, perverted Abu Gharib photos...and go about our business, we accept that the death of a drug-addled former nude model is worthy of media attention 24/7, we are lead to believe that anyone and everyone is a potential terrorist and thus our mail can be opened and we must go along with feel-ups and strip searches at airports......I'd say they are already quite far along in their efforts to condition us. What will it take for Americans to wake the hell up? I'm afraid "Step into the shower" isn't that far off.

I never was so humiliated in my life! Right in full view of EVERYONE! No I WON'T be flying again!

and a bunch of strangers. My daughter kept asking "Why are they doing that?" And I answered, quite loudly, "because they're idiots. Don't let anyone tell you you live a free country because it's a lie." The moron screener had no response.

many people carry those letters but they are of little value and if you stop and think about it, you will see why

anyone can print a nice official looking letter on their home computer/printer/home publishing system these days

screeners can't really put a lot of creedence in these letters, a terrorist able to get bomb material can certainly get a computer -- desktop and printers are just too damn cheap these days to be proof of anything

i don't care if my body no longer excites, i don't want it spread across the internets as an object of disgust and horror either

my medical condition is a private matter, not be inspected by any and all and recorded for possible posting on "rotten.com" at a later date


after 911, a former flight attendant flying from MIA-LAS said that she was at first refused service because she wouldn't remove her neck implant, she finally found a supervisor to explain to the idiot screener that implants cannot be removed

i'm told that normal screening is not supposed to "ping" for titanium implants or gold jewelry/teeth but i guess sometimes they get the setting wrong

also your lifetime exposure to background and x-ray radiation increases w. age, this is why your breast cancer risk increases w. age, why would a woman in her 60s want to expose herself to any additional radiation? especially from a device that is not being operated by trained medical personnel who know what they're doing!

I was being facetious. Because of my personal history, and experiences I've had in my life, I've developed an absolute indifference to some things. I think the machine is wrong, though, because of the exposure risks and discomfort it causes other people. I can only imagine the horror the woman with the neck implant must have felt, when the screener wanted her to remove it. Sadly, after 9-11, a great deal of the country went into absolute hysteria.

there are so many sheeple out there that i didn't realize you were being facetious

thanks for your patience in explaining

i'm so frustrated by this crap

where airport porno is a part of life...?

how old is nico melendez -- 8?

Idiots like "Ashley Houston" (is that a real name, anyway?) saying "I have nothing to hide" don't seem to realize that this is abusing a person's right to privacy. IMHO, this is just as much about Republican cronies making money off Homeland Security contracts as it is about creating a public that's used to giving up personal freedoms/rights. Both are disgusting and wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_and_seizure

The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution ensures citizens' right to "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures …" The amendment goes on to set forth the conditions under which a warrant may be issued: "upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The text of the amendment is brief, and most of the law determining what constitutes an unlawful search and seizure is found in court rulings. The general rule under the U.S. Constitution is that a valid warrant is required for a valid search. There are, however, several exceptions to this rule.

For instance, the owner of the property in question may consent to the search. The consent must be voluntary, but there is no clear test to determine voluntariness; rather, a court will consider the "totality of the circumstances" in assessing whether consent was voluntary. Police officers are not required to advise a suspect that he may refuse. There are also some circumstances in which a third party who has equal control, i.e. common authority, over the property may consent to a search.

When an individual does not possess a "reasonable expectation of privacy" that society is willing to acknowledge in a particular piece of property, any interference by the government with regard to that property is not considered a search for Fourth Amendment purposes, and a warrant is never required. For example, courts have found that a person does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy in information transfered to a third party, such as writing on the outside of an envelope sent through the mail or left for pick-up in an area where others might view it. While that does not mean that the person has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of that envelope, the Court has held that one does not possess a reasonable expectation of privacy that society is willing to acknowledge in the contents of garbage left outside the curtilage of a home. There is also a lowered expectation of privacy inside of a motor vehicles. A 'bright line' has been drawn at the doorstep of person's homes, however, so that whenever the government intrudes inside, their action is considered a search for Fourth Amendment purpose and must always be accompanied by a search warrant (absent exigent circumstances).

Courts have also established an "exigent circumstances" exception to the warrant requirement. "Exigent circumstances" simply means that the officers must act quickly. Typically, this is because police have a reasonable belief that evidence is in imminent danger of being removed or destroyed. Exigent circumstances may also exist where there is a continuing danger, or where officers have a reasonable belief that people in need of assistance are present.

Certain limited searches are also allowed during an investigatory stop or incident to an arrest. These searches are called Searches incident to a lawful arrest.

While the interpretations of the U.S. Supreme Court are binding on all state and federal courts interpreting the U.S. Constitution, there is some variance in the specifics from state to state, for two reasons. First, if an issue has not been decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, then a lower court makes a ruling of "first impression" on the issue, and sometimes two different lower courts will reach different interpretations. Second, virtually all state constitutions also contain provisions regarding search and seizure. Those provisions cannot reduce the protections offered by the U.S. Constitution, but they can provide additional protections such that a search deemed "reasonable" under the U.S. Constitution might nonetheless be unreasonable under the law of a particular state.

The primary remedy in illegal search cases is known as the "exclusionary rule". This means that any evidence obtained through an illegal search is excluded and cannot be used against the defendant at trial. There are some narrow exceptions to this rule. For instance, if police officers acted in good faith--perhaps pursuant to a warrant that turned out to be invalid, but that the officers had believed valid at the time of the search--evidence may be admitted.

Further, under the "fruit of the poisonous tree" doctrine, additional evidence discovered as a result of illegally obtained evidence is also excluded.

However, the average moron has no clue what his/her Constitutional rights are and so has no problem giving them up. I'm surprised no one has challenged the arbitrary pat downs and bra examinations as a fourth amendment violation already.

If it happened to me, I would.

fill in to document the abuse. The ACLU states that it is gathering information about the problem, but no indication that any action is planned. Seems to me patting people down and feeling them up at random without any indication that they're suspected of anything other than being airline passengers is a clear violation of the right to privacy.

Only worse.

After submitting to cavity searches, of course. They certainly can't conceal weapons that way. :sarcasm:

They always manage to find a good little sheep.

"If it's something that's going to improve safety, then I don't have any problem with it," said Ashley Houston, 32, as she waited for a plane to Albuquerque. "I have nothing to hide."

It sounds like this sheep also wouldn't mind these goons listening to her phone calls, emails, IMs, or whatever. Hey, you have nothing to hide.

"Everyday the bad guys are working and improving their tools.

Who are the bad guys again?

What an embarrassment we've become.

Malls, Ball Games, Fast Food, American Idol, and endless avenues of escapism to help us not deal with anything, not face anything, and generally coddle our need to keep the facade of how we desperately want to believe things are Just Fine In Pleasantville alive, and reality safely in check.

Many of us would rather live as slaves than risk having to face even the idea of a possibility of an uncomfortable or inconvenient truth.

Couple that with living in an environment where Paranoia and Fear of invisible bogeymen is the daily indoctrination served up by the Powers That Be, and you have a country that may be too far gone to save.

But at lease The Departed Won Best Picture.

We can place all the blame we want on the Mafioso running this country, but at some point we are going to have to own up to the fact that when this 240 year-old experiment finally goes into that good night, we will share much for the responsibility for it's fate because we allowed it to happen.

We are becoming a bigger enemy to ourselves than the bastards running the show.

Mother fuckers.

So tell me that children will also be run through these nuclear perv-o-mats. The hoards of right-wing child molesters will be trading them like baseball cards.

Can we please impeach these looney shit-baggers in charge. Fucking please, NOW? Huh?

Before they'll run MY KID THROUGH that Goddamn thing.

FUCK YOU, YOU GODDAMN NAZIS!

I'll do it, but only if the TSA guys stands in there with me, and for EVERY PASSENGER that Gets SEARCHED.

Why not, if it' so SAFE Mr Search MAN?

IRRADIATION NATION, cell phones, microwaves, cellular disruption booths.. time to make a movie.

Who here doesn't think we'll have an up and coming generation of Kids with BRAIN TUMORS? Watch for it.

Only problem would be the winter months, but it would make the summers more comfortable for me!

Can't say I'd enjoy the plastic seat coverings...

I imagine they'd have to install a new level of cleaning up after a flight, tho - yuk...

This was shown on the Today Show years ago. When we used to watch Today on Directv, on a satellite live feed from the NY NBC affiliate, we saw how this thing worked. As a demonstration segment a man was shown passing through it, fully dressed in a suit. As he paused to be scanned on the viewing screen of the instrument, you could clearly see the position of his penis and it's size in the instant before they quickly switched back to the studio.

There will be workarounds and hacks the TSA personnel will probably use to see and capture vivid images that violate privacy. and as I said, if they truly disable it somewhat, it will cause more unjustified strip searches than prevent them. What fucking mess they will make of this.