If you plan on flying to Grandma’s house this Thanksgiving, the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA, is giving you an unsavory choice: let them see a naked image of your body or let them grope your chest and crotch.
Sound unreasonable? Well, it’s all in the name of safety and will be the reality of air travel out of LAX and virtually every other U.S. airport in the near future.
TSA’s Advanced Imaging Technology, better known as full-body scanners, are capable of producing a nude image for remote security screeners using special x-ray technology that focuses on the skin.
Those wishing to opt out of the scan will face an “enhanced pat down,” which includes officials using the palm-side of their hands on sensitive areas like the breasts and crotch, according to Christopher Ott, an American Civil Liberties Union spokesman in Massachusetts.
This was confirmed by a middle-aged couple flying into LAX from Norfolk, Va. Monday night. “They felt all over,” the woman said, running her hands over her body. When she said she didn’t her feel uncomfortable, her spouse blurted out, “But her husband did!” The couple preferred to remain anonymous.
While not all airports or all terminals have received the full-body scanners, technicians were installing a new scanner at LAX’s Terminal 1 Monday night.
Critics call the scanners a “virtual strip search,” conflicting with the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens protection from unreasonable searches that violate their dignity and personal privacy.
“This technology involves a striking and direct invasion of privacy,” an ACLU backgrounder states. The graphic images produced by the scanners “amounts to a significant assault on the essential dignity of passengers.”
Both the machines and the new pat downs have drawn fire from all sides.
Israeli security expert, Rafi Sela, president of AR Challenges that designs airport security systems has claimed that he could get past the scanners with enough explosives to bring down a 747. “AIT scanners are useless,” Sela said in an email. “The system is useless.”
Last March, even the Government Accountability Office reported doubts that the technology would have detected the bomber last Christmas.
American Muslims might represent the social group most antagonized by the new procedures. The Fiqh Council of North America issued a statement last February saying it was, “deeply concerned about the use of nude body scanners,” as Islamic teaching forbids men or women to be seen naked. The Council could not be reached for comment on the new pat downs.
Clearly, being forced to choose between a virtual strip search and a frisking that would be sexual assault in any other setting is outrageous. Without suspicion that passengers are breaking the law, these searches are unconstitutional.
You only have to imagine a man viewing your son or daughter naked or feeling your girlfriend up and down to grasp how flagrantly wrong this is.
Don’t be afraid to get angry. Tweet it, Facebook it, and talk about it. Let your elected representatives know. Speaking out is the only way to reverse a security policy as demeaning and unlawful as this one.
