TSA considers x-raying passengers

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.kfwb.com/news_national.asp?displayOption=&contentGUID={F1E52726-9
3D1-41D1-92C7-79F8B74062E4}&groupName=AP%20Top%20National%20Headlines&siteGU
ID={3B62BF55-4A93-48E6-A45D-6A495DC423AD}

 

    



 Thursday, June 26, 2003

    

    

    

    

    


Local News
National News
International News
Entertainment News
Lottery Numbers



    



    
Market Watch
Noon Business Hour



    
Sports News
Sports Links
Charity Golf Online
Dodger News



    
Current Earthquakes
Current Quake Map
Earthquake Preparedness
Earthquake Links



    



    
Other News Links:
KFWB Links News National Headlines Item


KFWB Exclusive Reports:
- Davis Puts All Budget Options on Table
- Ask the Dodgers: Building the 2003 Team
- Hahn Launches Anti-Gang Violence Effort
- Davis on Closing $21B Budget Gap
- LAUSD: Tale of Two Schools
- Gov. Davis: "Humbled by Re-election"
- Ask the Chief with William Bratton
- Hahn Gets Business, Monkeys in China
- "A Port in Peril"   -   (Full Transcripts)


Airport Screeners May Get X-Ray Vision

Government Is Considering Using X-Ray Technology At Airport Security
Checkpoints

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J. 6.25.03, 5:30p -

Susan Hallowell steps into a metal booth that bounces X-rays off her skin,
producing a black-and-white image that reveals enough to produce a
world-class blush.

To the eye, she is dressed in a skirt and blazer in dark, businesslike
colors.

On the monitor, the director of the Transportation Security Administration's
security laboratory is naked, except for a gun and a bomb that she hid under
her outfit.

The government is considering using the technology at airport security
checkpoints because the magnetometers now in use cannot detect plastic
weapons or substances used in explosives.

Hallowell is sacrificing her modesty to make a point: Air travelers are not
going to like being technologically undressed by security screeners.

"It does basically make you look fat and naked _ but you see all this
stuff," Hallowell said Wednesday during a demonstration of the technology.

The technology is called "backscatter" because it scatters X-rays. Doses of
rays deflected off dense materials such as metal or plastic produce a darker
image than those deflected off skin. The radiation dosage is about the same
as sunshine, Hallowell said.

Backscatter machines have been available on the market for years. They are
priced at between $100,000 and $200,000 and used in all sorts of security
situations, from screening families of convicts visiting prisons to South
African diamond miners going home for the day.

The agency is trying to find a way to modify the machines with an electronic
fig leaf _ programming that fuzzes out sensitive body parts or distorts the
body so it is unrecognizable.

Another option might mean stationing the screener in a booth so only he sees
the image, said Randal Null, the agency's chief technology officer.

Null hopes to conduct pilot programs with backscatter machines at several
airports this year. A pilot project at Orlando International Airport in
Florida using volunteers met with mixed results, he said.

Some volunteers were uncomfortable with it. For others, "It was a whole lot
nicer than having someone pat me down," he said.

David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center
in Washington, thinks most people will object to the backscatter technology.

"The public is willing to accept a certain amount of scrutiny at the
airport, but there are clearly limits to the degree of invasion that is
acceptable," Sobel said. "It's hard to understand why something this
invasive is necessary."

But Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure
subcommittee on aviation, thinks it is essential because of the strong
likelihood that a terrorist will try to bomb a plane.

"I predict it will happen," said Mica, R-Fla. "The chances of someone
bringing an explosive on an aircraft by walking through a metal detector or
in hand-carried luggage are very real."

Mica pointed out that Richard Reid, convicted of trying to blow up a
trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives in his shoes, walked through metal
detectors at Orly Airport in Paris several times before boarding the plane.

For now, Mica is trying to persuade colleagues to require that the
transportation agency focus its research on technology that identifies items
on people's bodies.

Null said the agency's major focus is already on detecting explosives and
weapons at airport checkpoints.

In the end, the biggest problem with the backscatter machines may be their
size, he said. One version, the BodySearch system made by Billerica,
Mass.-based American Science & Engineering is about 4-feet by 7-feet by
10-feet _ awfully big for an airport lobby, Null said.

Another system made by Hawthorne, Calif.-based OSI Systems is more compact.

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/