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It May Be Time for Trains, Ships and Mass Transit to Use Body Scanners, Napolitano Says
Published November 25, 2010
| FoxNews.com
AP
Sept. 1: Transportation Security Administration employee Anthony Brock, left, demonstrates a new full-body scanner at San Diego's Lindbergh Field with TSA employee Andres Lozano in San Diego. Across the country, passengers must choose scans by full-body image detectors or probing pat-downs.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hinted this week that the body scanners and "enhanced" pat-downs that have caused a ruckus at airports across the country could be coming to a train station, port or subway near you.
In an interview on "Charlie Rose" that aired Monday, Napolitano said terrorists will continue to seek vulnerabilities in the nation's transportation systems.
"I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime," she said. "So what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?"
Napolitano's comments came as outrage grows over what some call intrusive X-ray scans and pat-downs that the Transportation Security Administration has used to screen airline passengers.
The full-body scanners show a person's contours on a computer in a private room removed from security checkpoints. But critics say they amount to virtual strip searches. Some have complained that the new enhanced pat-downs are humiliating and intrusive, too.
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TSA officials say the procedures are necessary to ward off terror attacks like the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane last Christmas, allegedly by a Nigerian man who stashed explosives in his underwear.
And the procedures may be on the rise. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, authored a bill in September that would allow testing of body scanners at certain federal buildings.
Despite attempts online to organize Thanksgiving travelers for a protest dubbed "National Opt-Out Day" on one of the busiest days of the year, very few passengers opted out of the full-body scans.
Napolitano has defended the screening procedures and criticized the protests.
"I really want to say, look, let's be realistic and use our common sense," she said last week, explaining that the screening technology has been in development since before the failed Christmas Day bombing attack last year.
"This is not about the government itself," she said. "We all have a role to play in security."
"And so I really regret some groups saying, 'Well, we don't want to be a part of that,'" she added. "I regret it because it's not what we're all about. What we're all about is shared responsibility."
It May Be Time for Trains, Ships and Mass Transit to Use Body Scanners, Napolitano Says
Published November 25, 2010
| FoxNews.com
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AP
Sept. 1: Transportation Security Administration employee Anthony Brock, left, demonstrates a new full-body scanner at San Diego's Lindbergh Field with TSA employee Andres Lozano in San Diego. Across the country, passengers must choose scans by full-body image detectors or probing pat-downs.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano hinted this week that the body scanners and "enhanced" pat-downs that have caused a ruckus at airports across the country could be coming to a train station, port or subway near you.
In an interview on "Charlie Rose" that aired Monday, Napolitano said terrorists will continue to seek vulnerabilities in the nation's transportation systems.
"I think the tighter we get on aviation, we have to also be thinking now about going on to mass transit or to trains or maritime," she said. "So what do we need to be doing to strengthen our protections there?"
Napolitano's comments came as outrage grows over what some call intrusive X-ray scans and pat-downs that the Transportation Security Administration has used to screen airline passengers.
The full-body scanners show a person's contours on a computer in a private room removed from security checkpoints. But critics say they amount to virtual strip searches. Some have complained that the new enhanced pat-downs are humiliating and intrusive, too.
YOU MIGHT ALSO BE INTERESTED IN Want to Cut Electric Bills? Beware the 'Phantom Loads' You Found Someone's Debit Card. Do You Pick it Up? Lawmakers Warn $1.2 Billion Payout to Black Farmers Rife With Fraud How a Supreme Court Ruling Killed Off Usury Laws for Credit Card Rates Military Pegs Hourly Air Force One Cost at $181G, as Obama Sets Travel Record
TSA officials say the procedures are necessary to ward off terror attacks like the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound plane last Christmas, allegedly by a Nigerian man who stashed explosives in his underwear.
And the procedures may be on the rise. Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, authored a bill in September that would allow testing of body scanners at certain federal buildings.
Despite attempts online to organize Thanksgiving travelers for a protest dubbed "National Opt-Out Day" on one of the busiest days of the year, very few passengers opted out of the full-body scans.
Napolitano has defended the screening procedures and criticized the protests.
"I really want to say, look, let's be realistic and use our common sense," she said last week, explaining that the screening technology has been in development since before the failed Christmas Day bombing attack last year.
"This is not about the government itself," she said. "We all have a role to play in security."
"And so I really regret some groups saying, 'Well, we don't want to be a part of that,'" she added. "I regret it because it's not what we're all about. What we're all about is shared responsibility."
