They’re talking. Check out “Full-body scanners improve security, TSA says” at CNN; it’s chock full of bullshit.
“Full-body imaging machines that see through clothes have significantly improved security in airports where they are deployed, and have revealed more than 60 “artfully concealed” illegal or prohibited items in the past year, the Transportation Security Administration says.” This is dishonesty via implication; certainly people take things on planes TSA has prohibited. They do it because the TSA’s regulations are bullshit, and they do it with no plans for anything more nefarious than trimming their nails or cutting open boxes while they’re traveling. This supposed catch of 60 items doesn’t translate into 60 thwarted plots. It translates to zero thwarted plots. Improved compliance will bullshit rules just gets us more bullshit.
“As evidence of the machines’ capabilities, the security agency released five photos of drugs or suspected drugs that airport screeners found after scans revealed anomalies on the ghost-like images of people’s bodies. The agency said metal detectors would not have revealed the items.” This is completely irrelevant. The TSA’s job isn’t to search for contraband. The TSA’s job is (supposedly) to check for safety. They have no mandate to pat us down for drugs, and no business doing so.
At least the article points out an opposing view, from John Perry Barlow:
But some passengers say the machine’s capabilities are presenting new Fourth Amendment questions about the government’s searches, saying the machines — in detecting very small objects — are subjecting passengers to scrutiny beyond what is needed to safeguard the plane.
“I can’t imaging an explosive that is powerful enough in that [tea-bag size] quantity to endanger an aircraft,” said John Perry Barlow, a former Grateful Dead lyricist who once took the TSA to court after a search of his checked luggage revealed a small amount of drugs.
“Every time technology makes another leap forward, we have to reclaim the Fourth Amendment, and often we have to reclaim the entire Bill of Rights, because technology gives us powers that were not envisioned by the Founding Fathers,” Barlow said.
I recently encountered some of these no doubt very expensive machines in Kansas City. They’re a complete waste of time and money, and materially increase the amount of time and hassle required to get on an airplane. Somebody needs to put the kibosh on these things quick, but that won’t happen — I’m sure palms have been greased, explicitly or implicitly. The TSA gets to point at these machines and say “look what we’re doing!”, and most people will believe them. And the scanner makers laugh all the way to the goddamn bank while those of us just trying to travel pay the price.
It’s almost ten years later, and we’re still freaking out so much I can’t help but imagine Osama chuckling in his cave over all this. Jesus.