[Infowarrior] - TSA to expand use of body scanners

[Richard Forno]

TSA to expand use of body scanners
Updated 4h 54m ago |  Comments 74  |  Recommend 15

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/surveillance/2009-09-30-backscatter-body-scanners_N.htm

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Transportation Security Administration plans to  
install 150 security machines at airport checkpoints that enable  
screeners to see under passengers' clothes.
The installation will vastly expand the use of the controversial body  
scanners, which can reveal hidden bombs and knives. But the devices  
have been labeled as intrusive by some lawmakers. The House of  
Representatives in June overwhelmingly passed a measure that would  
restrict their use by the TSA to passengers flagged by other types of  
screening, such as metal detectors. The measure is pending in the  
Senate.


TULSA: Passengers try out body scan
TSA spokeswoman Kristin Lee said the machines are "critical" to  
stopping terrorists with homemade bombs that may elude metal  
detectors. The agency hasn't decided which airports will get the  
machines, Lee said.

The $100,000 scanners shoot low-intensity X-rays that penetrate  
clothing, bounce off a person's skin and create images that show solid  
objects as dark areas. The TSA machines have privacy additions to  
create images that look like etchings. Screeners view them on a  
monitor in a locked room near a checkpoint and delete them immediately  
after viewing.

"Body imaging is a total invasion of privacy," said Rep. Jason  
Chaffetz, R-Utah, who proposed the restriction. "You don't need this  
kind of scrutiny."

Although the machines use X-rays, a 2003 report by the National  
Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements, which Congress created  
to develop radiation guidelines, said people can safely be scanned by  
the machines up to 2,500 times a year.

"Imaging technology is safe," Lee said.

The TSA used $25 million from the federal stimulus package to buy the  
scanners from California-based Rapiscan Systems. The agency is using  
an additional $22 million to buy 500 upgraded machines that scan  
bottles for liquid explosives.

The TSA has been testing scanners since early 2007, mostly on  
passengers who set off a metal-detector alarm and are taken aside for  
additional screening. The new scanners will be installed beginning  
early next year and will be used in place of metal detectors at  
checkpoints.

Passengers may choose to avoid the scanners and be screened by a metal  
detector, but those who do will be pulled aside for a pat-down, Lee  
said.

American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Christopher Calabrese said using  
the scanners in place of metal detectors "is unquestionably a step in  
the direction of having these machines be mandatory."