Gordon Brown: U.K. airports to get whole-body scanners next week
The U.K. prime minister said that beginning next week, whole-body scanners will be deployed at U.K. airports; in addition to backscatter X-rays and millimeter wave systems, Brown hinted that the government would seek to deploy terahertz technology
U.K. prime minister Gordon Brown the other day said body scanners will be introduced in U.K. airports next week (Brown’s speech is here). The PM did not say which airports or who will be scanned. The home secretary has suggested travelers will be selected for scanning by profiling techniques, prompting concerns from the human rights watchdog.
Chris Williams writes that a spokeswoman for the largest airport operator BAA maintained its line, held since soon after the failed Christmas day bombing, that it plans to introduce scanners at Heathrow but could not say when or discuss plans at other airports. A body scanner has been in trials at Manchester Airport since October.
The current generation of scanners — whether using backscatter X-rays or millimeter waves — typically produce a ghostly image of a subject’s naked body in an attempt to reveal concealed weapons or contraband. Doubts have been raised over whether they would have detected Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s device concealed in his underwear.
Brown also said the government is sponsoring “research on the most sophisticated devices capable of identifying potential explosives anywhere on the body,” an apparent reference to terahertz technology.
