So now you can expect a full body scan at the airport? Not so fast!  

Hi Thea,

I have only seen quick snapshots of what they do with these on CNN. It looks like actually you get something resembling a human skeleton plus a few objects sticking out (revolver, bomb etc).

Obscene? Well maybe people think that private parts can be seen, and should not be. That appears to be the objection, and I suppose that some would claim that a pervert might be secretly working as an airport security guard so he can get a thrill when a desired object (however old or young) passes through one of these screening devices. Sounds like complete nonsense to me, but maybe I do not have the mindset necessary.

Regards intelligence and visas - the thinking appears to be that scanners will eliminate human error in that area. Worth remarking that though this Nigerian guy slipped the net, Richard Reid, for example, would not have been on any watch list. And if Al Qaida picked up some 18-year-old kid with no record, but a fervour to become an Islamic martyr overnight, then only the scanner would notice the bomb.

What they actually need really is a test for PETN that they can stick on a metal detector. That though needs research, as it is not metallic.

Finally on strip searches. Years ago, someone stuck his hands up my backside during a check - this was part of a routine to check for illicit drugs. He nearly got my fist in his mouth - and realise that I am not a violent person! It seemed completely unacceptable at the time, and it still does.

Well I read that no one has to put up with strip searches, you can demand that a lawyer is present and they have to prove on what grounds one is a suspicious looking smuggling type, I don't know if the law has now changed on that one as obviously we don't want people shoving bombs up there undetected, which is where the scanner may well come in handy.
Surely Reid was on a list known to associate at the mosque where he was brainwashed, I think any kind of link like that should be passed on and then proper searches done, because whatever is solved by a scanner will be left open again when some other new explosive device is discovered, so more bases than one need covering. And look at all those British born ones who ran of to the training camps in Afghanistan, surely after that there should be some sort of security on further travel. 'Reason for travelling' to join terrorist training camp but they had no colour TV so it was too boring to stay' kind of thing.

I think that the rules on strip searching may have changed, though listening to one guy on CNN this afternoon, it sounds like they are trying, in the US at least, to (re)reverse those procedures. If the guy has enemy combatant status, nearly everything seems to be allowed during a search, or that is the way it sounded.

Regarding Reid, maybe the lists were less extensive before September 11th. I recall though that he came out of seemingly nowhere, even though he was a criminal with a long record who had attended a mosque frequented by radicals.

It was the mosque headed by that lunatic who fought deportation or we didn't bother trying to deport, I can't remember but he certainly made good TV and even Jeremey had him on, wasn't he claiming housing benefit for all of his wives? I wish I could recall his name but he was an extreme radical and anyone who went near him should have been monitored.

Yes, the one in Finsbury Park run by the Egyptian guy with a hook on his arm and who was never off the front page of Murdoch's tabloids.

The problem we have is that we have forgotten just how much changed following events in 2001, and how much more information we now have on terrorists (lists thereof etc).

A lot more was taken for granted back then. Since that time, far more information is gathered, kept, but not efficiently disseminated.

Reid they noticed in the aftermath of his intended attack, so others who attended that mosque did get added to the list.

Further to my original topic, the leader of the FDP and current German Foreign Minister (Guido Westerwelle) came out against airport scanners today. The coalition government is already in the middle of a load of disputes, watch where this one goes!

Hi,

I agree. If you have to face the choice of facing a life-threatening risk, or giving up your privacy briefly, you will choose the former.

Thanks for your reply.

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Hi,

thanks for the reply.

Generally I would have expected people to adopt the same attitude as you.

At the same time, it is amazing what a political issue this is becoming. Common-sense often goes out of the window when this happens, unfortunately.