Italy: "We didn't get good results from body scanners during testing"
The Christian Science Monitor’s “Are TSA pat-downs and full-body scans unconstitutional?” discusses how TSA’s virtual strip searches and genital groping violate the 4th Amendment. It also questions the machines' effectiveness:
“It remains unclear whether the AIT [scanners] would have been able to detect the weapon Mr. Abdulmutallab used in his attempted attack,” says a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Italian security officials stopped using the scanners in September. “We didn’t get good results from body scanners during testing,” said Vito Riggio, the president of Italy’s aviation authority, describing the scans as slow and ineffective.
British scientists found that the scanners picked up shrapnel and heavy wax and metal, but missed plastic, chemicals and liquids, reported UK newspaper The Independent in January.
If the machines are violating our privacy and aren’t protecting us, what’s the point?
Posted by James on Wednesday, November 17, 2010